In this investigation, the fracture strength of silicon has been measured as a function of die thickness, crystal orientation and die surface treatment using a four-point bend test method. The influence of minute surface flaws or divots generated from a die singulation process has also been quantified. The amount of silicon surface damage sustained in typical IC post-fabrication processes is then estimated using a simplified fracture mechanics approach. Results show that fracture strength does not depend on crystal orientation or thickness, but that it is highly dependent on the amount of surface damage present. In addition to the fracture strength measurements, finite element models have been employed to predict the amount of stress generated in a flip chip die for a given design. A parametric study has been performed to look at the influence of die thickness, substrate thickness and underfill properties (elastic modulus and coefficient of thermal expansion) on maximum die stress. Results show that the level of stress in die assembled to organic substrates is much greater than in die assembled to ceramic substrates. Stress levels determined from the finite element models are then compared to the silicon fracture strength for a given backside treatment in order to predict the likelihood of fracture.


Indoleamine dioxygenase (IDO), a rate limiting enzyme of the tryptophan catabolism through the kynurenine pathway (KP), has been related with a lower survival and a poor patient prognosis on several solid tumors, including gliomas. However, the use of IDO inhibitors as a therapeutic strategy for tumor treatment remains controversial in clinical trials and the role of other KP enzymes on tumor progression has remained poorly understood so far. Recently, different studies on different types of cancer have pointed out the importance of KP enzymes downstream IDO. Because of this, we conducted a bioinformatic analysis of the expression of different KP enzymes and their correlation with the gene expression of molecules related to the hallmarks of cancer in transcriptomic datasets from patients with different types of brain tumors including low grade gliomas, glioblastoma multiforme, neuroblastoma, and paraganglioma and pheochromocytoma. We found that KP enzymes that drive to NAD+ synthesis are overexpressed on different brain tumors compared to brain cortex data. Moreover, these enzymes presented positive correlations with the expression of genes related to immune response modulation, angiogenesis, Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (STAT) signaling, and Rho GTPase expression. These correlations suggest the relevance of the expression of the KP enzymes in brain tumor pathogenesis.


We present the first mid-infrared spectra of brown dwarfs, together with observations of a low-mass star. Our targets are the M3.5 dwarf GJ 1001A, the L8 dwarf DENIS-P J0255-4700, and the T1/T6 binary system ϵ Indi Ba/Bb. As expected, the mid-infrared spectral morphology of these objects changes rapidly with spectral class because of the changes in atmospheric chemistry resulting from their differing effective temperatures and atmospheric structures. By taking advantage of the unprecedented sensitivity of the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope, we have detected the 7.8 μm methane and 10 μm ammonia bands for the first time in brown dwarf spectra.


According to the characteristics of WSN with mass nodes, a DV-Hop localization method improved by the shuffled frog leaping algorithm (SFLA) for WSNs was proposed in this paper. Considering the shortages of the traditional DV-hop localization algorithm, the calculation of average hop distance is improved, and the average hop distance can be calculated by SFLA, which can reduce the error of distance estimation for average hop and improve the localization accuracy of the algorithm. In addition, the localization error of unknown nodes is further reduced by the optimization process of nodes swap. The simulation results indicate that the improved DV-Hop algorithm can reduce the localization error and the degree of dependency for beacon nodes and network connectivity effectively.


Individual tumors, including the aggressive and difficult to treat triple-negative (ER-/PR-/HER2-) breast cancers (TNBCs) are heterogeneous collections of cells with multiple subclonal populations each contributing to the tumor. While subclonal heterogeneity is likely responsible for the development of drug resistance, identification of how tumor cell populations change over time has been difficult, largely because of the challenges in resampling tumor tissue at close time points. Here we quantify tumor evolution in human patient-derived xenografts implanted into NSG mice, which we use to test subclonal heterogeneity as a function of location within a tumor, propagation time, and drug treatment. We used high-depth (∼400x) sequencing of a targeted panel of 358 genes to quantify somatic mutation allele frequencies from 6 spatially-separated and 8 temporally-propagated xenograft samples derived from the same TNBC patient tumors. Samples ranged in age from 2-4 months post-engraftment. Although we observed a few low frequency mutations distinguishing samples, overall we found that allele frequencies of somatic mutations were well-preserved on this time scale. We then generated replicate xenografts from the same patient tumor and treated them respectively with cisplatin, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, docetaxel, or vehicle control for 25 days. Although again somatic mutations showed few differences in allele frequency across samples, substantial variations were seen when data were analyzed for copy number alterations. To confirm these effects we repeated the treatments for xenografts derived from two additional TNBC patients. Again we observed strong changes in tumor heterogeneity at the copy number level. This effect was particularly, but not exclusively, apparent in tumors with the greatest response to therapy. We further verified these measurements through Sanger and digital PCR sequencing on the treated mice and other mice in the same cohorts. Using a multi-sample xenograft propagation, dissection, sequencing, and computational analysis protocol, we have shown that tumor subpopulation changes in response to treatment can be quantified and distinguished from spatial or temporal effects, even for treatment time courses as short as 1 month. In triple negative breast cancer these variations are most apparent at the level of copy number variation. Our study demonstrates how patient-derived xenografts can provide detailed resolution of tumor population evolution during the manifestation of resistance. Citation Format: Hyunsoo Kim, Pooja Kumar, Francesca Menghi, Joshy George, Guru Ananda, Susan Mockus, Chengsheng Zhang, Nicholas Larson, Henry C. Chen, Yan Yang, James Keck, R. Krishnamurthy Karuturi, Charles Lee, Carol Bult, Edison Liu, Jeffrey H. Chuang. Evolution during propagation and treatment of patient-derived triple negative breast cancer xenografts. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2411.


Several nonangiographic catheters commonly used in children were bent and kinked, radiographed, and perfused at different rates to identify appearances that corresponded to significant alterations in flow dynamics. Radiographic signs of catheter kinking (i.e., focal buckling) depended on the severity of bending and the angle of the radiographic beam relative to the plane of the bend. One or more straight lines appeared at the site of buckling; catheters that were not kinked did not demonstrate straight lines. Other signs were distortion of the round catheter lumen and bulging of the catheter material. Distortions short of sharp kinking did not compromise flow except in very small catheters.


Endometriosis results from the implantation of functional endometrial tissue, involving both glandular and stromal cells, outside the uterine cavity. Only rarely is endometriosis found at the site of an episiotomy, with the incidence rate of this form of the disease ranging from 0.01 to 0.06% of cases. The physiopathology of this form of endometriosis is believed to be related to the implantation of decidual cells secondary to postpartum lochia and is associated with obstetric surgical procedures. This case report provides a brief review of the literature and describes a clinical case involving a patient with a diagnosis of endometriosis in an episiotomy scar. A retrospective, observational study was conducted by analyzing the patient's medical records. The clinical manifestations of a nodule suggestive of endometriosis at the site of her episiotomy scar were confirmed as those typically found in endometriosis, with the best treatment option being resection of the lesion.


RATIONALE
Aerosol particle size influences the extent, distribution, and site of inhaled drug deposition within the airways.

OBJECTIVES
We hypothesized that targeting albuterol to regional airways by altering aerosol particle size could optimize inhaled bronchodilator delivery.

METHODS
In a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, 12 subjects with asthma (FEV1, 76.8 +/- 11.4% predicted) inhaled technetium-99m-labeled monodisperse albuterol aerosols (30-microg dose) of 1.5-, 3-, and 6-microm mass median aerodynamic diameter, at slow (30-60 L/min) and fast (> 60 L/min) inspiratory flows. Lung and extrathoracic radioaerosol deposition were quantified using planar gamma-scintigraphy. Pulmonary function and tolerability measurements were simultaneously assessed. Clinical efficacy was also compared with unlabeled monodisperse albuterol (15-microg dose) and 200 microg metered-dose inhaler (MDI) albuterol.

RESULTS
Smaller particles achieved greater total lung deposition (1.5 microm [56%], 3 microm [50%], and 6 microm [46%]), farther distal airways penetration (0.79, 0.60, and 0.36, respective penetration index), and more peripheral lung deposition (25, 17, and 10%, respectively). However, larger particles (30-microg dose) were more efficacious and achieved greater bronchodilation than 200 microg MDI albuterol (deltaFEV1 [ml]: 6 microm [551], 3 microm [457], 1.5 microm [347], MDI [494]). Small particles were exhaled more (1.5 microm [22%], 3 microm [8%], 6 microm [2%]), whereas greater oropharyngeal deposition occurred with large particles (15, 31, and 43%, respectively). Faster inspiratory flows decreased total lung deposition and increased oropharyngeal deposition for the larger particles, with less bronchodilation. A shift in aerosol distribution to the proximal airways was observed for all particles.

CONCLUSIONS
Regional targeting of inhaled beta2-agonist to the proximal airways is more important than distal alveolar deposition for bronchodilation. Altering intrapulmonary deposition through aerosol particle size can appreciably enhance inhaled drug therapy and may have implications for developing future inhaled treatments.


Abstract A model is constructed to describe the flow field and arbitrary deformation of a drop or vesicle that contains and is embedded in an electrolyte solution, where the flow and deformation are caused by an applied electric field. The applied field produces an electrokinetic flow, which is set up on the charge-up time scale $\tau _{*c}=\lambda _{*} a_{*}/D_{*}$, where $\lambda _{*}$ is the Debye screening length, $a_{*}$ is the inclusion length scale and $D_{*}$ is an ion diffusion constant. The model is based on the Poisson–Nernst–Planck and Stokes equations. These are reduced or simplified by forming the limit of strong electrolytes, for which dissolved salts are completely ionised in solution, together with the limit of thin Debye layers. Debye layers of opposite polarity form on either side of the drop interface or vesicle membrane, together forming an electrical double layer. Two formulations of the model are given. One utilises an integral equation for the velocity field on the interface or membrane surface together with a pair of integral equations for the electrostatic potential on the outer faces of the double layer. The other utilises a form of the stress-balance boundary condition that incorporates the double layer structure into relations between the dependent variables on the layers' outer faces. This constitutes an interfacial boundary condition that drives an otherwise unforced Stokes flow outside the double layer. For both formulations relations derived from the transport of ions in each Debye layer give additional boundary conditions for the potential and ion concentrations outside the double layer.


Noncompliance is a frequently reported challenging behavior for young children. However, many interventions that address noncompliance fail to consider crucial self-advocacy skills that may be jeopardized when compliance is taught in isolation. We examined the noncompliance literature in the context of ethical considerations for young children: (1) decision-making skills related to compliance, (2) teaching discrimination within contexts where compliance may or may not be appropriate, and (3) addressing support needs that may impact compliance. We found that many noncompliance assessments were not developmentally appropriate, related support needs were largely unaddressed, and ethical factors were infrequently considered when designing noncompliance interventions. Researchers and practitioners should consider assessments that identify ecological factors and support needs related to noncompliance. Young children should be taught discrimination of contexts where noncompliance is appropriate and where compliance is appropriate to promote volitional skills that are necessary for future independence.


A massive MIMO system, represented by a base station with hundreds of antennas, is capable of spatially multiplexing many devices and thus naturally suited to serve dense crowds of wireless devices in emerging applications, such as machine-type communications. Crowd scenarios pose new challenges in the pilot-based acquisition of channel state information and call for pilot access protocols that match the intermittent pattern of device activity. A joint pilot assignment and data transmission protocol based on random access is proposed in this paper for the uplink of a massive MIMO system. The protocol relies on the averaging across multiple transmission slots of the pilot collision events that result from the random access process. We derive new uplink sum rate expressions that take pilot collisions, intermittent device activity, and interference into account. Simplified bounds are obtained and used to optimize the device activation probability and pilot length. A performance analysis indicates how performance scales as a function of the number of antennas and the transmission slot duration.


Recent record lows of Arctic summer sea ice extent are found to be triggered by the Arctic atmospheric Dipole Anomaly (DA) pattern. This local, second–leading mode of sea–level pressure (SLP) anomaly in the Arctic produced a strong meridional wind anomaly that drove more sea ice out of the Arctic Ocean from the western to the eastern Arctic into the northern Atlantic during the summers of 1995, 1999, 2002, 2005, and 2007. In the 2007 summer, the DA also enhanced anomalous oceanic heat flux into the Arctic Ocean via Bering Strait, which accelerated bottom and lateral melting of sea ice and amplified the ice–albedo feedback. A coupled ice–ocean model was used to confirm the historical record lows of summer sea ice extent.


L12-type TM6RE8 clusters are distributed in enriched layers of LPSO (long period stacking ordered structure), and shrink in the [0001]Mg direction. The growth mechanism of LPSOs was investigated from the viewpoint of a local strain field. The strength of out-of plane normal strain of the enriched layer varied with the average radius of solute elements in the layer. The first principle calculation showed that there is a relationship between the average atomic radius of solute elements and the structural relaxation in the clusters. Zn conclusion, it is suggested that the difference of average atomic radius between Mg and solute elements controls the degree of the cluster shrinkage by the displacement of the solute elements, and that it is the dominant factor giving rise to the out-of plane normal strains of the enrichment layers. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.MH201404]


An epidemiological investigation was carried out on a local cluster of outbreak caused by imported cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in rural areas of Chengdu in December 2020, to find out the source of infection and the chain of transmission. According to Prevention and Control Protocol for COVID-19 (Version 7), field epidemiological investigation was adopted, combined with big data technology, video image investigation, gene sequencing and other methods to carry out investigation into COVID-19 cases and infections source tracing, analyze the epidemiological association, and map the chain of transmission. From December 7 to 17, 2020, 13 local COVID-19 confirmed cases and 1 asymptomatic case were diagnosed in Chengdu, of which 12 cases (85.71%) had a history of residence and activity in the village courtyard of Taiping (TP), Pidu (P) District, Chengdu. From November 8, 2020 to November 28, 2020, a group of inbound people form Nepal were transferred to the designated entry personnel quarantine hotel of P District which was adjacent to the TP village. During quarantine, there were 5 cases who tested positive for COVID-19. Through gene sequencing alignment, genes of local cases and Nepalese imported cases from the same period are homologous, all belong to the lineage of L2.2.3 (B.1.36 according to Pangolin lineage typing method). According to the results of field epidemiological investigation and gene sequencing analysis, the index case was most likely infected by contact with household waste of quarantine site. Under the situation of normalization prevention and control of COVID-19, sentinel monitoring of fever clinics in primary medical institutions is the key to early detection of the epidemic. The multi-department joint epidemiological investigation and the application of gene technology are the core links of the investigation and traceability of modern infectious diseases. The allocation of public health resources in rural areas needs to be strengthened. We need to improve the capacity for early surveillance and early warning of the epidemic in rural areas.


The holotype of Hemizyga (Hemizyga) elegans Girty, the genotype of Hemizyga, has a nearly complete protoconch which is not pseudozygopleurid in structure and does not belong to the family Pseudozygopleuridae. The genus Gamizyga n.gen. and the subgenus Gamizyga n.subgen. are here erected to contain those species formerly assigned to Hemizyga (Hemizyga) which have typical pseudozygopleurid protoconchs. The subgenera Hyphantozyga Knight and Plocezyga Knight are retained although the differences between the three subgenera are not as distinct as described by Knight (1930). Rare to abundant specimens of Gamizyga occur in the Pennsylvanian of the Appalachian Basin. Numerous new species and subspecies have been erected. In the subgenus Gamizyga these include G. nitida, G. expansa, G. girtyi, G. morningstarae, and G. attenuata. New species of the subgenus Hyphantozyga are H. knighti, H. perattenuata, H. pulchra, H. textilis, H. grandis, H. fusiforma, and H. fenestrata. New species and subspecies of the subgenus Plocezyga are P. subnodosa, P. intermedia, P. excellens, P. conica, P. cordiformis, P. lirata, P. delicata, P. ornatissima, P. lineata, P. acuminata, P. subquadrata, P. obscura, P. perminuta, P. regularia, P. markae, P. turbinata, and P. percostata subrotunda. Specimens of Gamizyga (Gamizyga) are too rare to determine stratigraphic restrictions in the Ap- palachian Basin. Species of G. (Hyphantozyga), G. (H.) markae, G. (H.) textilis, and G. (H.) grandis appear to be restricted to Conemaugh units, G. (H.) knighti, G. (H.) cf. (H.) gracilis, and G. (H.) pulchra to Allegheny units, and G. (H.)fusiforma to the Pottsville. Numerous species of G. (Plocezyga) appear to be restricted to the Conemaugh. G. (P.) excellens, G. (P.) lineata, and G. (P.) perminuta are restricted to the Allegheny and G. (P.) lirata has been found only in the Pottsville.


Evolving an efficient tax system is a major concern in any developing country, because the pace and viability of development programmes depends heavily on the tax system. An efficient tax system should satisfy tests on many counts. This paper analyses two aspects of Pakistan's tax structure, namely, its predictability and its flexibility. In Section I, the efficacy of the revenue estimating procedures in Pakistan is analysed. Section ~I contains a discussion on the flexibility ·)f the central tax revenues with respect to changes in the national output.


OBJECTIVE
To observe the therapeutic effect of digital acupoint pressure for treatment of the nerve root type of cervical spondylosis.

METHODS
Four hundred cases were randomly divided into a digital acupoint pressure group (DAP group) and a medicine group, 200 cases in each group. Acupoints of Quepen (ST 12), Jianjing (GB 21) and Tianzong (ST 11) etc. were used for digital pressing in the DAP group; and Chinese herb medicine of Gentongping was routinely taken in the medicine group. After three treatment courses, the symptoms of pain and numbness, the signs of pressure measurement by compression of head, brachial plexus drawer test and arm myodynamia, as well as the total cumulative scores of daily living capability, were compared.

RESULTS
After treatment, the total cumulative scores of numbness, pressure measurement by compression of head, brachial plexus drawer test, arm myodynamia and daily living capability in both groups were obviously better than those of before treatment (all P<0.01); but there was a significant difference on the total cumulative score of the symptoms and signs between the two groups. The cured rate of 78.0% and total effective rate of 99.0% in the DAP group were better than those of 61.0% and 87.0% in the medicine group, respectively (both P<0.01).

CONCLUSION
Digital acupoint pressure plays an active role in improving the symptoms and signs on patients with nerve root type of cervical spondylosis, which is better than Chinese herb medicine of Gentongping.


This paper calculates the power penalty incurred in the carrier recovery process due to the average linewidth of the laser source and local oscillator in a PSK heterodyne system. The numerical computation developed features two advantages not present in previous treatments: (1) the effects of the nonlinearity are treated exactly; (2) a probability distribution for the filtered output is obtained (within the assumption of a Markov process) without resorting to upper bounds.


A CMOS smart photosensor test chip has been fabricated with a 24 /spl times/ 24 smart photosensor array (SPA) to perform parallel postprocessing at the output plane of an optical correlator. The optical correlator comprises the first stage in a two-stage optoelectronic processor used to detect cancerous cells on cervical smear slides. The first stage of the processor uses the optoelectronic hit/miss transform (HMT) algorithm to rapidly scan the 2.5 GB of image data per slide for suspicious images. The output of this first stage consists of two time-sequential images coming from the optical correlator at rates up to 740 frames per second. To complete the first stage of processing a fast framing CCD camera must acquire the two images at a spatial resolution of 128/spl times/128 with 8 bits of grey scale per pixel. This produces an IO load of 97 Mbps which a digital framegrabber acquires in the controlling PC. The computer must then postprocess these two grey scale images in software or programmed DSP chips to complete the EIMT algorithm. The postprocessing consists of thresholding the two outputs of the correlator and then logically ANDing them to generate the finished HMT result, a binary image. The time required to serialize and process the correlator outputs in this fashion produces a IO bottleneck at the output of the first stage of the system. In contrast, a SPA at the same resolution and frame rate can reduce output bandwidth to 6 Mbps, 16 times less than the conventional CCD/DSP approach. In addition to reducing IO bandwidth, the SPA outputs the finished HMT result images thereby eliminating Image processing within the computer further freeing CPU time for other system control tasks.


In the wake of the public sector reform programme, performance of public sector units in terms of profitability has become a highly debated issue in India, where major arguments given for inefficiency of public enterprises are over employment and lack of managerial autonomy. However, there is not much academic work which formally establishes these assertions. This paper considers panel data relating to 59 state level public sector firms in Karnataka and uses a random effect model to examine the possible factors contributing either positively or negatively to the performance of public enterprises.


For efficient content-based image retrieval, diverse visual features such as color, texture, and shape have been widely used. In the case of leaf images, further improvement can be achieved based on the following observations. Most plants have unique shape of leaves that consist of one or more blades. Hence, blade-based matching can be more efficient than whole shape-based matching since the number and shape of blades are very effective to filtering out dissimilar leaves. Guaranteeing rotational invariance is critical for matching accuracy. In this paper, we propose a new shape representation, indexing and matching scheme for leaf image retrieval. For leaf shape representation, we generated a distance curve that is a sequence of distances between the leaf's center and all the contour points. For matching, we developed a blade-based matching algorithm called rotation invariant - partial dynamic time warping (RI-PDTW). To speed up the matching, we suggest two additional techniques: ⅰ) priority queue-based pruning of unnecessary blade sequences for rotational invariance, and ⅱ) lower bound-based pruning of unnecessary partial dynamic time warping (PDTW) calculations. We implemented a prototype system on the GEMINI framework [1][2]. Using experimental results, we showed that our scheme achieves excellent performance compared to competitive schemes.


Trimetazidine (TMZ), an anti-ischemic drug for improving cellular metabolism, is mostly administered to patients with poorly controlled ischemic heart disease (IHD). Since IHD is considered the most frequent causative factor of cardiac arrhythmias, and these often coexist with seizure disorders, we decided to investigate the effect of TMZ in the electroconvulsive threshold test (ECT) and its influence on the action of four first-generation antiepileptic drugs in the maximal electroshock test (MES) in mice. The TMZ (up to 120 mg/kg) did not affect the ECT, but applied at doses of 20–120 mg/kg it decreased the antielectroshock action of phenobarbital. The TMZ (50–120 mg/kg) reduced the effect of phenytoin, and, when administered at a dose of 120 mg/kg, it diminished the action of carbamazepine. All of these revealed interactions seem to be pharmacodynamic, since the TMZ did not affect the brain levels of antiepileptic drugs. Furthermore, the combination of TMZ with valproate (but not with other antiepileptic drugs) significantly impaired motor coordination, evaluated using the chimney test. Long-term memory, assessed with a passive-avoidance task, was not affected by either the TMZ or its combinations with antiepileptic drugs. The obtained results suggest that TMZ may not be beneficial as an add-on therapy in patients with IHD and epilepsy.


We present the detection of [3.6 μm] photometric variability in two young, L/T transition brown dwarfs, WISE J004701.06+680352.1 (W0047) and 2MASS J2244316+204343 (2M2244) using the Spitzer Space Telescope. We find a period of 16.4±0.2 hr and a peak-to-peak amplitude of 1.07±0.04% for W0047, and a period of 11 ± 2 hr and amplitude of 0.8 ± 0.2% for 2M2244. This period is significantly longer than that measured previously during a shorter observation. We additionally detect significant J-band variability in 2M2244 using the Wide-Field Camera on UKIRT. We determine the radial and rotational velocities of both objects using Keck NIRSPEC data. We find a radial velocity of −16.0 −0.9 km s−1 for 2M2244, and confirm it as a bona fide member of the AB Doradus moving group. We find rotational velocities of v sin i = 9.8 ± 0.3 km s−1and 14.3 −1.5 km s−1 for W0047 and 2M2244, respectively. With inclination angles of 85+5◦ −9 and 76 +14◦ −20 , W0047 and 2M2244 are viewed roughly equator-on. Their remarkably similar colours, spectra and inclinations are consistent with the possibility that viewing angle may influence atmospheric appearance. We additionally present Spitzer [4.5 μm] monitoring of the young, T5.5 object SDSS111010+011613 (SDSS1110) where we detect no variability. For periods < 18 hr, we place an upper limit of 1.25% on the peak-to-peak variability amplitude of SDSS1110.


The product design process operates over user needs to develop functional specifications which are further developed into physical forms. Manufacturing information fed into function-based design provides an effective tool for this function to form transformation. Multidisciplinary teams formed across the supply chain are charged with this process for large-scale product development. For small enterprises, however, integrating manufacturing information into the design process is more difficult. We propose a design by analogy approach based on design cases and associated manufacturing and life cycle information as an aid to product design. Reverse engineering of existing products over product generations is proposed as a source for the design cases. Potential metrics to differentiate good and bad cases are discussed. Ten different varieties of computer mice are used as a test case in this study.


One of the most important goals of biological investigation is to uncover gene functional relations. In this study we propose a framework for extraction and integration of gene functional relations from diverse biological data sources, including gene expression data, biological literature and genomic sequence information. We introduce a two-layered Bayesian network approach to integrate relations from multiple sources into a genome-wide functional network. An experimental study was conducted on a test-bed of Arabidopsis thaliana. Evaluation of the integrated network demonstrated that relation integration could improve the reliability of relations by combining evidence from different data sources. Domain expert judgments on the gene functional clusters in the network confirmed the validity of our approach for relation integration and network inference.


Ankle sprains may be followed by chronic pain and/or instability, which may induce substantial disability, most notably in athletes. Chronic ankle instability promotes the development of cartilage lesions in athletes. Therefore, accurate evaluation of the ankle ligaments is crucial to the optimal management of chronic ankle instability after a sprain. The objective of this study was to assess the performance of ultrasonography in assessing damage to the anterior talofibular ligament (ATFL) in athletes with chronic ankle instability after a sprain. Consecutive patients seen at the author's clinic for ankle instability more than 3 months after a sprain underwent ultrasonography and computed arthrotomography after a clinical anterior drawer stress test. Cohen's kappa was computed to evaluate agreement between the 2 imaging modalities. This study included 56 patients, 46 men and 10 women, aged 15 to 69 years (mean, 30.1 ± 10.6 years). Mean time from the sprain to imaging was 7.6 ± 4.02 months. ATFL damage was found by ultrasonography in 34 (61%) of 56 patients and by computed arthrotomography in 39 of 55 patients (71%; k = 0.76). Cartilage damage was visualized by computed arthrotomography in 14 (25%) patients, all of whom had ATFL damage. Agreement was substantial (k = 0.76) between ultrasonography and computed arthrotomography for assessing the ATFL. The data support the use of ultra-sonography as the second-line investigation after a standard radiographic assessment in athletes with chronic ankle instability after a sprain.


The oxide thickening at the gate edge during poly gate reoxidation is very sensitive to plasma damage resulting from the poly-Si gate etch. The gate oxide thickening over the drain-gate overlap region can be used as a measure of the plasma edge damage. This paper presents a new method-GIDL-induced localized charge injection-to investigate plasma edge damage in CMOS devices. The sensitivity of the method and correlation with device performance is demonstrated in a study of technological splits with different levels of plasma damage. The method does not require any special test structures other than the regular transistor.


Background. Evaluation of treatment effects on walking requires appropriate and responsive outcome measures. Objectives. To determine responsiveness of 5 walking measures and provide reference values for clinically meaningful improvements, according to disability level, in persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). Methods. Walking tests were measured pre- and postrehabilitation in 290 pwMS from 17 European centers. Combined anchor- and distribution-based methods determined responsiveness of objective short and long walking capacity tests (Timed 25-Foot Walk [T25FW] and 2- and 6-Minute Walk Tests [2MWT and 6MWT] and of the patient-reported Multiple Sclerosis Walking Scale–12 [MSWS-12]). A global rating of change scale, from patients' and therapists' perspective, was used as external criteria to determine the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), minimally important change (MIC), and smallest real change (SRC). Patients were stratified into disability subgroups (Expanded Disability Status Scale score ≤4 [n = 98], >4 [n = 186]). Results. MSWS-12, 2MWT, and 6MWT were more responsive (AUC 0.64-0.73) than T25FW (0.50-0.63), especially in moderate to severely disabled pwMS. Clinically meaningful changes (MICs) from patient and therapist perspective were −10.4 and −11.4 for MSWS-12 (P < .01), 9.6 m and 6.8 m for 2MWT (P < .05), and 21.6 m (P < .05) and 9.1 m (P = .3) for 6MWT. In subgroups, MIC was significant from patient perspective for 2MWT (10.8 m) and from therapist perspective for MSWS-12 (−10.7) in mildly disabled pwMS. In moderate to severely disabled pwMS, MIC was significant for MSWS-12 (−14.1 and −11.9). Conclusions. Long walking tests and patient-reported MSWS-12 were more appropriate than short walking tests in detecting clinically meaningful improvement after physical rehabilitation, particularly the MSWS-12 for moderate to severely disabled pwMS.


Recently, we identified four kinetically distinct voltage-gated K+ currents, IAf,IAs,IK, andISS, in rat superior cervical ganglion (SCG) neurons and demonstrated thatIAf and IAs are differentially expressed in type I (IAf,IK,ISS), type II (IAf,IAs,IK,ISS), and type III (IK,ISS) SCG cells. In addition, we reported that IAf is eliminated in most (∼70%) SCG cells expressing Kv4.2W362F, a Kv4 subfamily-specific dominant negative. The molecular correlate(s) of the residualIAf, as well as that ofIAs,IK, andISS, however, are unknown. The experiments here were undertaken to explore the role of Kv1 α-subunits in the generation of voltage-gated K+currents in SCG neurons. Using the Biolistics Gene Gun, cDNA constructs encoding a Kv1 subfamily-specific dominant negative, Kv1.5W461F, and enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) were introduced into SCG neurons. Whole-cell recordings from EGFP-positive Kv1.5W461F-expressing cells revealed a selective decrease in the percentage of type I cells and an increase in type III cells, indicating that IAf is gated by Kv1 α-subunits in a subset of type I SCG neurons.IAf is eliminated in all SCG cells expressing both Kv1.5W461F and Kv4.2W362F.IAf τdecay values in Kv1.5W461F-expressing and Kv4.2W362F-expressing type I cells are significantly different, revealing that Kv1 and Kv4 α-subunits encode kinetically distinct IAf channels. Expression of Kv1.5W461F increases excitability by decreasing action potential current thresholds and converts phasic cells to adapting or tonic firing. Interestingly, the molecular heterogeneity ofIAf channels has functional significance because Kv1- and Kv4-encoded IAf play distinct roles in the regulation of neuronal excitability.


This opinionated research article is about politeness and impoliteness in verbal interactions within Indonesian interpersonal context. Accounts on politeness, camaraderie, distant language, close language, code-switching, and code-mixing are elaborated to come to the concept of impoliteness, i.e. rude situations and awkward situations. The interpersonal context here partly elaborates the types of hearer in the aspects of power and solidarity in Brown and Gilman's theory (1968), the hearers of which are divided into superiors and close people in this article. Elements of both the Indonesian distant and close languages are presented, and how rude situations and awkward situations happen due to incompetence or ignorance of the two variants is illustrated. Illustrations of the Indonesian two variants and code-mixing of the two are given to highlight the rude and awkward situations. All this worldview on the teaching of Indonesian to non-native-speakers, i.e. pondering a global BIPA, should be regarded as efforts to develop as well as to market the Indonesian language to the global societies.              Keywords Politeness, camaraderie, impoliteness, distant language, close language, rude situation, awkward situation, incompetence, code-switching, code-mixing, BIPA


The aim of study was to evaluate the effect of commonly used lisinopril, rosuvastatin and their combined action on site-specific nephrotoxicity in rats using clusterin and microalbumin nephrotoxic biomarkers and other related parameters using oral gavage. Rosuvastatin at 2 different doses showed increase in urinary microalbumin levels whereas lisinopril and its combination with rosuvastatin at 2 different doses did not show urinary microalbumin excretion indicating beneficial effects of lisinopril in terms of reducing microalbumin. Urinary clusterin levels significantly increased in high-dose treated animals of lisinopril and rosuvastatin. The use of lisinopril plus rosuvastatin at low dose also led to worsened renal function by raising urinary clusterin levels (217±4.6 ng/ml) when compared with the control (143±3.3 ng/ml). Renal histopathology showed multifocal regeneration of tubules indicating proximal tubule damaged. These results indicate that lisinopril (50 mg/kg), rosuvastatin (100 mg/kg), lisinopril+rosuvastatin (20+40 mg/kg) and lisinopril+rosuvastatin (50+100 mg/kg) showed toxicity only on proximal tubules.


Tuberculosis is an important health problem requiring early diagnosis for timely initiation of therapy and control of disease transmission. Though, conventional techniques, such as detection of acid fast bacilli by Ziehl-Neelsen staining, are very economical, yet have a low sensitivity. Isolation of mycobacteria by culture on Lowenstein Jensen media, considered to be the gold standard, is not only time consuming but has a low sensitivity, especially in extrapulmonary tuberculosis. Recent advances in molecular techniques have revolutionized the diagnostic microbiology. Various new modalities in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, like LED microscopy, microscopically observed drug susceptibility testing (MODS), antigen detection tests along with various molecular methods, like loop mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP), multiplex PCR and Xpert MTB/RIF, are discussed in the present review.


We have previously isolated an asparaginyl endopeptidase, SPAE, from senescent leaves of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas cv. Tainong 57). Gene expression of SPAE was activated and enhanced in natural and induced senescent leaves (Chen et al., 2004). In this report the full-length SPAE cDNA was constructed in the T-DNA portion of recombinant pBI121 vector under the control of CaMV 35S promoter and transferred to Arabidopsis with Agrobacterium-mediated floral dip transformation. Three transgenic Arabidopsis plants were isolated and confirmed by kanamycin-resistance and genomic PCR amplification of SPAE. Protein gel blot also demonstrated sweet potato SPAE expression in these transgenic plants. Phenotypic analysis showed that transgenic plants exhibited earlier floral transition from vegetative growth and leaf senescence than control. Transgenic plants also contained fewer siliques and a higher percentage of incompletely-developed siliques per plant than control. Based on these results we conclude that sweet potato asparaginyl endopeptidase, SPAE, may function in association with the senescence process, and its expression enhances or promotes senescence in transgenic Arabidopsis plants. The altered phenotypic characteristics in transgenic plants with SPAE gene expression were also discussed.


We performed line transect surveys in two fishbone human settlements (defined as clearings cut through forests in a fishbone pattern, extending along secondary roads from a main road) in different vegetation types, as well as in one protected area. A total of 410 sightings of eight primate species were recorded in the three study areas. The mean total primate abundance was 3.28 groups/10 km walked, and there were significant differences between areas with different plant physiognomies. The abundance of the larger primate species Alouatta macconnelli and Ateles paniscus (Atelidae) was higher in the dense ombrophilous forests of the Entre Rios human settlement, whereas those of all the other species were higher in the forest mosaics of the Novo Paraiso human settlement and Virua National Park. The habitat generalist Sapajus apella presented the highest abundances in all the areas. No significant differences were detected in relative biomass between study areas. Additionally, no significant differences were detected in the overall abundances or relative biomasses of the hunted species ( Sapajus apella , Alouatta macconnelli , Ateles paniscus , and Chiropotes chiropotes ) between study areas. Human impact has been recognized as shaping primate assemblages. However, in this study, primates were not part of the dietary repertoire of the non-Amazonian immigrants inhabiting the fishbone human settlements. Thus, although the primate assemblages varied considerably at the regional and local level, they were shaped by habitat heterogeneity, which allowed the competing species to coexist through habitat segregation.


To date, B cell responses have retained less attention than T, natural killer or dendritic cell responses in the alloreactive conflict after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Here, we discuss recent clinical and experimental data supporting a role of allogeneic B cell responses in graft-host interactions after HCT. We report results in a murine model of reduced intensity conditioning transplantation (RICT) showing that host B cells can be involved in chronic graft-versus-host disease occurrence. We also describe the control of antidonor alloresponses by intravenous simultaneous infusion of apoptotic cells with allogeneic hematopoietic grafts.


Passenger queue congestion in the airport public transport system would cause poor travel experience and unexpected time cost. To solve this problem, we propose a hybrid congestion alleviation strategy based on transport capacity adjustment and passenger guidance in this paper. Firstly, we develop queueing models for three common ground access modes of airports, taxi, bus and subway. Then, we develop the method of successive weighted averages (MSWA) in the queueing system to optimize the passenger share rates among different airport ground access modes based on minimum queueing time. Finally, we present the complete hybrid passenger congestion alleviation strategy consists of adjusting the taxi arrival rate and bus service rate, and generating a guidance on passenger access mode choices, which can alleviate the passenger queue congestion in practical application based on obtained optimal passenger share rates. In the numerical experiments, we set two groups of parameters under the normal situation and the COVID-19 epidemic situation. The numerical results show that our strategy can alleviate the queue congestion and improve the evacuation efficiency effectively in both two backgrounds.


In today's world where it is an undisputed fact that one of the most important competitive sources for enterprises is qualified labor force and a valid performance evaluation system is needed to manage this power in enterprises. This research has been planned and conducted in order to develop a sector specific measurement tool for the housekeeping staff which works in the hospitality business sector. For this purpose, firstly a literature review has been made and a conceptual framework on performance evaluation and housekeeping has been tried. Then, development of expressions, structuring of the scale and data analysis were completed by applying the scale development steps. In this process, face-to-face interviews were conducted in order to determine the expressions. The data obtained from the research were analyzed with confirmatory and exploratory factor analyzes and structural equation model. As a result of the analyzes, it was concluded that a valid and reliable scale was developed to evaluate the performance of housekeeping staff. In addition, factors affecting individual performance were also investigated and statistically significant relationships were found between organizational commitment, perceived stress and freedom of decision and individual performance.


There is an apparent incongruence between businesses and researchers targeting insects for food and feed. With the Novel Foods Application looming, legislative hurdles to insects in animal feed and the uncertainty of Brexit, businesses and researchers find themselves questioning whether a collaborative partnership is worth pursuing. Discussion with experts on both sides highlighted the main tension points and possible paths to reconciliation. The key differences were established as views on end goals, access to resources, inherent personal risk and communication of findings. Ultimately, for the marriage of business and research to survive it must be recognised how similarities, however limited, work together rather than how differences divide.


Abstract We discuss the geometry of homogeneous Ricci solitons. After showing the nonexistence of compact homogeneous and non-compact steady homogeneous solitons, we concentrate on the study of left invariant Ricci solitons. We show that, in the unimodular case, the Ricci soliton equation does not admit solutions in the set of left invariant vector fields. We prove that a left invariant soliton of gradient type must be a Riemannian product with non-trivial Euclidean de Rham factor. As an application of our results we prove that any generalized metric Heisenberg Lie group is a non-gradient left invariant Ricci soliton of expanding type.


Microbial water quality is an essential aspect in the provision of potable water for domestic use. The provision of adequate amounts of safe water for domestic purposes has become difficult for most municipalities mandated to do so in Zimbabwe. Morton-Jaffray Treatment Plant supplies potable water to Harare City and areas surrounding Harare. This study investigated microbial water quality and the impact of microbial water quality related disasters in the area supplied by the Morton Jaffray Treatment Plant. Questionnaires were distributed to household owners in Harare who receive their water from the Municipality and those who use alternate water supplies. Candidates were randomly selected from their workplace. The raw water quality of Manyame River and its tributaries was assessed. Treated water in households was assessed for microbial quality using hydrogen sulphide test and heterotrophic bacteria plate count. Raw water sources were found to be contaminated by faecal matter. Household water sources tested negative for faecal contamination but positive for heterotrophic bacteria. CFU quantities ranged from 1 to 452 CFU/m\(\ell\) for all samples. The WHO guidelines for domestic water sources state that water used for domestic purposes should not   contain more than 100 CFU/m\(\ell\). Public perceptions of water quality ranged from 'unsafe' to 'highly contaminated'. A decrease in the level of aesthetic appeal resulted in residents resorting to alternative sources such as wells and rivers for their domestic water. The current state of treated water was suitable for domestic use. Pathogen monitoring of domestic water is recommended using the hydrogen sulphide test and R2A agar test.


Purpose
Photovoltaic (PV) systems are experiencing exponential growth due to environmental concerns, unlimited and ubiquitous solar energy, and starting-to-make-sense panel costs. Alongside designing more efficient solar panels, installing solar trackers and special circuitry for optimizing power delivery to the load according to a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm are other ways of increasing efficiency. However, it is critical for any efficiency increase to account for the power consumption of any amendments. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a novel tracker while using MPPT to boost the PV system's actual efficiency accounting for the involved costs.

Design/methodology/approach
The proposition is an experimental pneumatic dual-axis solar tracker using light-dependent resistor (LDR) sensors. Due to its embedded energy storage, the pneumatic tracker offers a low duty-cycle operation leading to tracking energy conservation, fewer maintenance needs and scalability potential. While MPPT assures maximum load power delivery, the solar PV's actual delivered power is calculated for the first time, accounting for the solar tracking and MPPT power costs.

Findings
The experiments' results show an increase of 37.6% in total and 35.3% in actual power production for the proposed solar tracking system compared to the fixed panel system, with an MPPT efficiency of 90%. Thus, the pneumatic tracking system offers low tracking-energy consumption and good actual power efficiency. Also, the newly proposed pneumatic stimulant can significantly simplify the tracking mechanism and benefit from several advantages that come along with it.

Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this work proposes, for the first time, a single-motor pneumatic dual-axis tracker with less implementation cost, less frequent operation switching and scalability potential, to be developed in future works. Also, the pneumatic proposal delivers high actual power efficiency for the first time to be addressed.


Banks and firms, two institutions on which health is interdependent. In the traditional form of financial intermediation, the bank functions on the basis of of the deposits collected and the credit distributed. For the companies, especially SMEs, the banking financing is considered as the most important source of financing of their investments. The banque-entreprise relation presents a double interest. The company seeks to guarantee the immediate and the future financing, whereas the bank seeks to be refunded in the future. The economic importance of the company like productive agent, on the one hand and the contribution of the credit institutions in the financing of the firms, on the other hand, return being studied of relation banks-entrprise, its determinants and its effects on the firms performance. The value of this book is that it allows, with the companies to well choice the number and the duration of their banking relation making it possible to maximize moreover their performance.It contributes for the good decision-making of financing the firms on behalf of the banks and this within the framework of a bank relationship.


Using New York's "Kendra's Law" as an illustrative vehicle, this article addresses the principal criticisms lodged by opponents of preventive outpatient commitment. The authors argue that preventive outpatient commitment is a useful adjunct to conditional release or placement in the least restrictive alternative that has neither produced revolutionary change in psychiatric commitment standards nor will be used inappropriately to assert governmental control over mentally ill citizens. The authors contend additionally that preventive outpatient commitment does not violate federal constitutional norms or represent bad policy making. The authors acknowledge, however, that the coercion inherent in outpatient commitment schemes may produce certain undesirable side effects. Thus, they explore an alternative approach currently in development in Australia that promotes community-based treatment for chronically mentally ill persons without judicial intervention.


Raindrop energy disintegrates soil aggregates and rearranges soil particles to form a structural crust on the upper soil layer. The structural crust affects the physical properties of the soil, which can be observed by significant colour changes on the soil surface. Spectral differences observed in the structural crust are caused by rearrangement of the soil surface texture, mainly an increase in the clay fraction. Previous studies conducted on crusted soils using reflectance spectroscopy were limited to a certain soil type or area and seemed to be strongly dependent on the small range of soil types. In the current study, the influence of raindrop energy on the NIR‐SWIR spectral reflectance (1200–2400 nm) of heterogeneous soils was evaluated and used in combination with partial least squares (PLS) regression to construct a model that correlates the infiltration rate (IR) with its reflectance. Four soils from Israel and three soils from the USA were studied to provide a single data set. A relatively small root mean square error of cross‐validation (RMSECV) of 15.2% was found. A ratio of prediction to deviation (RPD) value of 1.98 indicates a promising generic model. Additionally, PLS models were run on different combinations of soil types (RPD values ranging between 2.4 and 3.2). For all models, whether all soils were run in one cross‐validation data set, or run for different combinations of soils, the best assessment of IR was achieved when using reduced wavelength range (selected wavelengths based on Martens' significance test selection). These results allowed us to conclude that a generic approach aimed at assessing the structural crust for a variety of soils is feasible. A generic model using the suggested spectral approach has the potential to provide NIR‐SWIR spectral soil IR predictions with either a local or global data base of soils worldwide and may contribute to improved protection of crusted soils from erosion or water loss by runoff.


Introduction

Doxorubicin (DOX) is a powerful anthracycline antineoplastic drug, but the clinical application of DOX is seriously limited by its dose-dependent cardiotoxicity. Ononin is a natural isoflavone glycoside and plays a key role in modulating apoptosis related signaling pathways. The aim of this study was to assess the possible cardioprotective effects of Ononin in DOX-induced cardiotoxicity and the underlying molecular mechanisms.
Materials and methods

Wistar rats were treated with normal saline, DOX with or without Ononin. After the last administration, cardiac function was evaluated by echocardiography. Rats were then sacrificed for histological and TUNEL analyses, with immunological detection for β-actinin, Bax, Bcl-2, GRP78, CHOP and SIRT3. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was performed to assess the myocardial injury markers. H9C2 cells were treated with vehicle, DOX with or without Ononin. Then, 3-TYP was used to find out the relationship between ER stress and SIRT3.
Results

Ononin treatment ameliorated DOX-induced myocardial injury as demonstrated by echocardiography. Ononin partially restored DOX-induced cardiac dysfunction, both LVEF and LVFS were increased under the cotreatment of Ononin. Ononin also inhibited DOX-induced ER stress and apoptosis in rat cardiomyocytes and H9C2 cells. DOX group had a higher Bax/Bcl-2 ratio, GRP78 and CHOP expression then control group, but Ononin treatment improved these results. This effect was associated with SIRT3 activity, moreover, selective inhibition of SIRT3 blocked the protective effects of Ononin.
Conclusion

In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that Ononin may protect against DOX-induced cardiomyopathy through ER stress both in vitro and in vivo. Ononin is able to protect against DOX-induced cardiotoxicity by inhibiting ER stress and apoptosis, this effect may via stimulation of the SIRT3 pathway.


Purpose: Ankle sprains are among the most common injuries in sports and recreational activities. 10 to 40% of the acute ankle sprains lead to chronic ankle instability (CAI), which can be divided into its mechanical and its functional division. The clinical-orthopaedic diagnosis of mechanical ankle instability (MAI) has been well established, whereas the etiology of the functional ankle instability (FAI) is still not objectively allocatable. The aim of this study was to identify neuromuscular patterns in lower leg muscles to objectively describe the FAI. Method: 15 patients suffering from unilateral CAI (mean age, 35.5 years) since 2.4 years (1–9 years) were examined. The patients were evaluated etiologically and clinically (VAS pain score, AOFAS Ankle Score, calf circumference, and SF-36). Electromyographic (EMG) measurements of surface EMG with determination of mean EMG frequency and intensity by wavelet transformation were taken synchronously with dynamic stabilometry measurements. Four lower leg muscles were detected: tibialis anterior (TA), gastrocnemius medialis (GM), soleus (SO), and peroneus longus (PL) muscle. 15 healthy subjects were tested identically. Results: Patients showed higher stability indices, higher VAS score, and lower AOFAS Ankle Score. The mean EMG frequency was significantly lower for the PL (pathologic leg, 138.3 Hz; normal leg, 158.3 Hz, p Conclusion: Patients suffering CAI demonstrate weakened stability and impaired life quality. Neuromuscular patterns of the GM, PL and TA lead evidently to an objective etiology of the functional ankle instability. EMG patterns of four lower leg muscles indicate chronic changes in muscle morphology, such as degradation of type-II muscle fibres or modified velocity of motor unit action potentials. Accurate prevention and rehabilitation may compensate a MAI with a sufficient functional potential of lower leg muscles. This may also avoid operative treatment of MAI. The present study evidences the etiology of the FAI with objective parameters and indicates chronic changes in muscle morphology within CAI-Patients.


Self-consistent density functional calculations have been performed on a variety of planar conjugated Ni-centered macrocycles with a basic porphyrazine (tetraazaporphyrin) core and peripheral dithiolene groups (PZ) or fused-benzo groups (PC). Theoretical energy level diagrams, charge distributions, and densities of states have been obtained in order to understand the electronic structure modifications due to peripheral ligand substitution. The substituents role in altering electronic properties and charge distribution of the porphyrazine macrocycles has been used to interpret the observed variations in optical absorption profiles. In the Q-band (∼680 nm) region, a single peak is seen for high symmetry (D4h) macrocycles and a double peak for lower symmetry (D2h and C2v) systems. Calculated intensities and band splittings are compared in detail with qualitative molecular orbital models and experiment in the visible and UV regions. Predictions are made for the infrared absorption and semiconducting band gap.


In this study, (sodium alginate (NaAlg)/acrylamide (AAm)) interpenetrating polymer networks (IPN) have been prepared at three different compositions, where the sodium alginate composition varies 1, 2, and 3% (w/v) in 50% (w/v) acrylamide solutions. These solutions have been irradiated with a 60Co‐γ source at different doses. The percent conversion was determined gravimetrically and 100% gelation was achieved at the 10.0 kGy dose. The swelling results at pH 7.0 and 9.0 indicated that (NaAlg/AAm)3IPN hydrogel, containing 3% NaAlg showed maximum % swelling in water, with swelling increasing in the order of Ni2+>Cd2+>Pb2+. Diffusion in aqueous solutions of metal ions within (NaAlg/AAm)IPN hydrogels was found to be Fickian character. Diffusion coefficients of (NaAlg/AAm)IPN hydrogels in water and aqueous solutions of metal ions were calculated. The maximum weight loss temperature and half life temperature for NaAlg, PAAm, (NaAlg/AAm)IPN and (NaAlg/AAm)IPN‐metal ion systems were found from thermal analysis studies. In the adsorption experiments, the efficiency of (NaAlg/AAm)IPN hydrogels to adsorb nickel, cadmium and lead ions from water was studied. (NaAlg/AAm)IPN hydrogels showed different adsorption for different aqueous solution of metal ion at pH 7.0. Adsorption isotherms were constructed for the (NaAlg/AAm)IPN‐metal ion systems. S type adsorption in the Giles classification system was found.


OBJECTIVE
The phenomenon of reverse drug trafficking in the legal supply chain is an unlawful practice to serious risks to public health. The aims was to identify proactively pharmacies that carry out these illegal activities.

METHODS
An analysis was performed through the crossing billing data to SAS of 52 million packs of medicines for the 496 pharmacies in the province over a period of 29 months with the drug packaging data supplied by the distribution entities of the province with the implementation of specific indicator defined called 'percentage overbought' allows us to detect those pharmacies at high risk of being involved in this illicit trade.

RESULTS
It was tested in two pharmacies one rural and other urban a detour of 5.130 medicine containers and an illicit profit obtained from € 9,591.78 for the first and 9.982 packaging and € 26,885.11 for the second; they had gone unnoticed in previous inspections.

CONCLUSIONS
The methodology implemented to define a profile of infringing pharmacies high risk in these illicit practices, identify new ones that had not been sanctioned, weigh the drugs for illegal trade and to identify new drugs subject to diversion; also added as a challenge, it helps to adjust accurately and effectively calculate the illicit profit obtained.


Image-guided thermal ablation (IGTA) has been applied in the treatment of tumors, and the number of patients treated is increasing rapidly every year. The Ablation Expert Committee of the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology, the Society of Tumor Ablation Therapy of the Chinese Anti-Cancer Association,the Tumor Ablation Committee of the Chinese College of Interventionalists, and the Expert Group on Tumor Ablation Therapy of the Chinese Medical Doctors provided the platform for multidisciplinary experts to formulate the "Expert consensus on analgesia for image-guided tumor thermal ablation (2022 Edition)". The main contents of the"Expert consensus"include: (1) preparation of medicines and equipment; (2) Multimodal analgesia, local anesthesia, regional nerve block or spinal anesthesia combined with analgesic sedation, general anesthesia; (3) common adverse reactions and management of perioperative anesthesia.


The purpose of this investigation was to make a correlative study between spermatogenesis and testicular acid and alkaline phosphatase activities in mature prostatectomized animals at different post-operative periods. The results demonstrate that there was a significant augmentation in the activity of testicular acid and alkaline phosphatases subsequent to 14 and 21 days of prostatectomy. A parallel quantitative study of spermatogenesis at stage VII of the seminiferous cycle, namely, type A spermatogonia (ASg), preleptotene spermatocytes (pLSc), mid-pachytene spermatocytes (mPSc) and step 7 spermatids (7sd), revealed that there was a significant reduction in the number of step 7 spermatids after 14 and 21 days. No change was observed in the above testicular enzymes and spermatogenesis after 7 days of prostatectomy. Therefore, it is concluded that prostatectomy can alter the above testicular enzyme activities and spermatogenesis in chronic prostatectomized state.


Last years, the methods for prediction of probabilistic distributions of oil and gas reservoir development characteristics are actively researched. It is important for solving of risk management tasks. The key problem here is the need to perform the history matching for a large numbers of flow models. The Ensemble Smoothing method is the one of promising approaches to solving this issue. However, sometimes its results are not good enough for real practical cases. In this article the analysis of advantages and disadvantages of Ensemble Smoother method is made and the ways of method improvement are proposed.


The Lysekil wave energy converter (WEC), developed by the wave energy research group of Uppsala University, has evolved through a variety of mechanical designs since the first prototype was installed in 2006. The hundreds of engineering decisions made throughout the design processes have been based on a combination of theory, know-how from previous experiments, and educated guesses. One key parameter in the design of the WECs linear generator is the stroke length. A long stroke requires a taller WEC with associated economical and mechanical challenges, but a short stroke limits the power production. The 2-m stroke of the current WECs has been an educated guess for the Swedish wave climate, though the consequences of this choice on energy absorption have not been studied. When the WEC technology is considered for international waters, with larger waves and challenges of energy absorption and survivability, the subject of stroke length becomes even more relevant. This paper studies the impact of generator stroke length on energy absorption for three sites off the coasts of Sweden, Chile and Scotland. 2-m, 4-m, and unlimited stroke are considered. Power matrices for the studied WEC prototype are presented for each of the studied stroke lengths. Presented results quantify the losses incurred by a limited stroke. The results indicate that a 2-m stroke length is likely to be a good choice for Sweden, but 4-m is likely to be necessary in more energetic international waters.


Abstract This article analyses how digital media redefine the boundaries of the political public sphere. Against the mainstream assumption of a new emancipatory potential of the digital media, which strengthens the participatory and interactive elements of the public sphere, it is argued that digital media introduce a new representative order of political communication. In this sense, there is a need to conceptualise the digital public sphere in relation to political representation. Digital media do not straightforwardly unbound political communication in replacing the representativeness of the national public sphere. The performance of the Internet in promoting political communication remains rather limited and, by and large, continues to reproduce the national public sphere. At the same time, the digital media have multiplied the symbolism of representation, which is continuously in the making, by providing new offers for the identification of publicness through shared problems and solutions.


The importance of assessing financial stability in emerging Europe has increased rapidly since the recent financial crisis. Against this background, in the present paper we contribute to the existing literature in a twofold way: First, by using a broad range of indicators from money, bond, equity and foreign exchange markets, we develop a comprehensive financial instability index (FII) that gauges the level of financial market stress in some key Central, Eastern and Southeastern European (CESEE) countries. In a second step, we perform a panel estimation to investigate which macroprudential indicators that cover both internal and external imbalances explain the evolution of our FII over the past more than 15 years. Our analysis suggests that both the levels and changes of some indicators (such as credit growth and the level of private sector indebtedness) play an important role for financial stability. Moreover, we find that the impact of some key indicators on financial (in)stability is nonlinear and varies over time depending on market sentiment.


ABSTRACT Following the renewed effort at achieving a new green revolution for Africa, emphasis has been placed on modernizing smallholder agriculture through the deployment of improved inputs especially mechanized technologies. In Ghana, the government has in the last decade emphasized the provision of subsidized mechanized ploughing services to farmers alongside a rapidly growing private sector tractor service market. While mechanized technology adoption rates have increased rapidly, the deployment of these technologies has been without critical analysis of the impacts on production patterns and local agrarian systems. This paper examines the distributional impacts of agriculture mechanization on cropping patterns and farm sizes of smallholder farmers in northern Ghana using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques, and semi-structured interviews with smallholder farmers (n=60). Specifically, comparative analysis of the field sizes and cropping patterns of participant farmers prior to and after the adoption of mechanized technologies was conducted. In-depth interviews were used to contextualize the experiences of smallholder farmers toward understanding how mechanization may be impacting traditional agriculture. Our findings reveal a mechanization paradox in which farm sizes are expanding, while cropping patterns are shifting away from traditional staple crops (pearl millet and sorghum bicolor) to market-oriented crops (maize, rice and groundnuts). This transition we argue, has adverse implications on the cultural dimension of food security, the organization of social life, and climate change adaptation. We recommend a retooling of the current agricultural policy focus to ensure context sensitivity for a more robust battle against food insecurity.


Part One: Introduction to Film Analysis Chapter 1 Introduction Cinema: A Confluence of Artistry, Industry, and Technology How This Book is Organized Technical Tips Chapter 2 An approach to Film Analysis Understanding Audience Expectations The Orchestration of Detail Creating Meaning Through the World Beyond the Film The Goal of Film Analysis: Articulating Meaning The Importance of Developing Interpretive Claims Film Analysis: Reading Significant Details Historical References in Devil in a Blue Dress Chapter 3 Writing About Film Getting Started Four Types of Writing About Film The Scene Analysis Paper: The Big Heat The Film Analysis: Steamboat Bill Jr. The Research Paper: The Conversation and Enemy of the State The Popular Review: SinCity Part Two: Film Analysis Chapter 4 Narrative Form Defining Narrative Narrative Structure Techniques in Practice: Narrative Structure in Stagecoach Variations on Narrative Conventions: Beyond Structure Perspective and Meaning Techniques in Practice: Noticing Shifts in Perspective Film Analysis: Analyzing Narrative Structure The Narrative Complexity of Rashomon Chapter 5 Mise en Scene Setting Techniques in Practice: Same Film, Different Settings Techniques in Practice: Same Setting, Different Film The Human Figure Techniques in Practice: Figure Placement in Citizen Kane Techniques in Practice: Physicality in Raging Bull and Ali Lighting Composition Two Approaches to Mise en Scene Film Analysis: The Functions of Space Spatial Opposition in Thelma and Louise Chapter 6 Cinematography Camerawork: The Camera in Time and Space Techniques in Practice: Patterns of Camera Placement and Movement -- Do the Right Thing Lenses and Filters: The Frame in Depth Techniques in Practice: Lenses and the Creation of Space -- Paths of Glory and M*A*S*H Film Stock Special Visual Effects Digital Cinema: Post-production Digital Cinematography and Film Style Film Analysis: Cinematography in Documentary Films Cinematography in Two Documentaries: Triumph of the Will and Night and Fog Chapter 7 Editing The Attributes of Editing: Collage, Tempo and Timing Techniques in Practice: Using Contrasting Imagery and Timing to Romanticize the Outlaws in Bonnie and Clyde Story-Centered Editing and the Construction of Meaning Beyond Narrative: Creating Meaning Outside the Narrative Techniques in Practice: Soviet Montage Aesthetic in The Godfather Film Analysis: Classical Editing Editing in Notorious Chapter 8 Sound Film Sound: A Brief History Freeing Sound from Image The Relationship Between Sound and Image Three Components of Film Sound Techniques in Practice: Sound Effects and the Construction of Class in Days of Heaven Techniques in Practice: Bernard Herrmann's Score and Travis Bickle's Troubled Masculinity in Taxi Driver Film Analysis: Sound and Language Language, Nationality, and Class in The Grand Illusion Chapter 9 Alternatives to Narrative Fiction Film: Documentary and Avant-garde Films Three Modes of Filmmaking: A Comparison Documentary Film: "The Creative Treatment of Reality" Documentary Form Ethics and Ethnography Avant-garde Film Techniques in Practice: Interpreting Abstract Films Conducting Research on Documentary and Avant-garde Films: Locating Sources Film Analysis: Interpreting Avant-garde Films Editing in Meshes of the Afternoon Part Three: Cinema and Culture Chapter 10 Social Context and Film Style Hollywood's Industrial Context: The Studio System as Dream Factory International Art Cinema Italian Neorealism Third Cinema Chapter 11 Film and Ideology Ideology and Film Analysis Ideology and Film Spectatorship Anti-Communist Witch Hunts and Hollywood Cinema Racial Ideology and American Cinema Gender and Cinema Sexuality and Cinema Disability and Cinema Chapter 12 Film Stardom as a Cultural Phenomenon Stars and the Movie Industry The Dynamics of Performance The Star Persona Stardom and Ideology Stars and Subcultures Chapter 13 Genre What Makes a Genre? Major American Genres Genre, Film Production and Audiences Chapter 14 Film Authorship The Idea of the Auteur: From Cahiers du Cinema to the Sarris-Kael Debate Auteur as Marketing Strategy: Old and New Hollywood Studio-era Auteurs: Welles and Hitchcock Blockbuster Auteurs: Spielberg and Lucas Using the Auteur Approach to Interpret and Evaluate Films Readings in Auteur Criticism Ousmane Sembene Kathryn Bigelow Ang Lee Wong Kar Wai Jafar Panahi Chapter 15 Cinema as Industry: Economics and Technology The Changing Structure of the Film Industry Films as Products Film and the New Technology Glossary Bibliography Picture Credits Index


E-commerce has grown tremendously in the last few decades facilitating cross-border trade and commerce with a click of a mouse. This has given leverage to the multi-national enterprises to exponentially increase its revenue by shifting profits across jurisdictions. The disparity in tax treatment among the foreign players and their domestic counterparts has increased to a new high. The developing countries like India are losing their revenue which is eventually hindering the growth of digital industries in these countries. The old legal structures concerning international taxation are failing to keep a check on these digital transactions. Therefore, in order to stop this malpractice of profit shifting, India has enforced an equalization levy to tax the non-resident entities providing online specified services to the residents. UK and Australia also implemented the same in the nature of Diverted Profits Tax. This is in consonance with the Final Report 2015 of the BEPS Action Plans which formulated strategies to weed off the tax avoidance techniques adopted by the multinational enterprises.


The emergence of techniques for the isolation of cell walls of microorganisms (Dawson, 1949; Salton and Horne, 1951) has opened new approaches to immunological and physiological problems presented by the microbial surface. The recovery of clean cell walls of the group A hemolytic streptococci in good yield particularly enhances the study of such surface antigens as the group C polysaccharides and the type specific M proteins. Cell walls present a more advantageous starting material than the whole organisms for the purification and characterization of these substances. In this paper, the preparation of cell walls from type 14, group A hemolytic streptococci using the Mickle disintegrator, is described, and data of the chemical composition are presented. The extraction and purification of type 14 M protein from cell walls by the procedure of Lancefield and Perlmann (1952) is also detailed.


A simple on-chip integrated structure is proposed to generate optical orbital angular momentum (OAM) beams, where only silicon waveguides and couplers are involved. The operating principle is based on mode converting and proper controlling the phase shift of second-order propagating mode so that OAM modes with charge numbers of 1 or -1 can be selectively generated with mode purity > 90%. The proposed device is very compact with footprint of <; 120 μm × 50 μm and can be easily fabricated with CMOS technology. Thus, such OAM mode generator is a promising candidate for applications ranging from optical tweezers and optical spanners to optical communications.


The time-dependent quadratic minimization (TDQM) problem appears in many applications and research projects. It has been reported that the zeroing neural network (ZNN) models can effectively solve the TDQM problem. However, the convergent and robust performance of the existing ZNN models are restricted for lack of a joint-action mechanism of adaptive coefficient and integration enhanced term. Consequently, the residual-based adaption coefficient zeroing neural network (RACZNN) model with integration term is proposed in this paper for solving the TDQM problem. The adaptive coefficient is proposed to improve the performance of convergence and the integration term is embedded to ensure the RACZNN model can maintain reliable robustness while perturbed by variant measurement noises. Compared with the state-of-the-art models, the proposed RACZNN model owns faster convergence and more reliable robustness. Then, theorems are provided to prove the convergence of the RACZNN model. Finally, corresponding quantitative numerical experiments are designed and performed in this paper to verify the performance of the proposed RACZNN model.


A systematic numerical analysis is performed for the quasi-periodicity in the wake where a circular cylinder is rotationally oscillated in time. The main emphasis is placed on the identification of frequency selection subjected to the controlled perturbations in the vicinity of lock-on. The frequency responses are scrutinized by measuring the lift coefficient (CL). A direct numerical simulation is made to portray the unsteady dynamics of wake flows at Re = 110. It is found that, after the shedding frequency is bifurcated at the boundary of lock-on, one frequency follows the forcing frequency and the other gradually converges to the natural shedding frequency. The asymptotic convergence phenomena are observed by solving the Van der Pol equation and the circle map. A new frequency selection formula is proposed. The quasi-periodic states are interpreted in terms of the forcing frequency, shedding frequency and modulated frequencies by employing the torus concept and the CL(t) diagram. In the quasi-periodic state, the variation of magnitudes and relevant phase changes of CL with forcing phase are examined.


Germ cell tumours found in the brain (intracranial GCTs) are a very unusual class of tumour for two reasons. First, they include a very diverse range of histological subtypes classified together due to their proposed common cell of origin. Second, this proposed cell of origin, the germ cell progenitor, would not normally be found in the tissue where these tumours arise. This is in contrast to all other primary brain tumours, in which the cell of origin is believed to be a brain cell. Indeed, no other class of primary cancer arises from a cell from a distant organ. This theory for the origins of intracranial GCTs has been in place for many decades, but recent data arising from studies of induced pluripotency for regenerative medicine raise serious questions about this dogma. Here we review the cellular origins of intracranial GCTs in the light of these new data and reanalyse the existing data on the biology of this unusual class of tumours. Together, these considerations lead us to conclude that the evidence now falls in favour of a model in which these tumours arise from the transformation of endogenous brain cells. This theory should inform future studies of the aetiology of these tumours and so lead the way to animal models in which to study their development and potential biological therapeutics. Copyright © 2012 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


ABSTRACT This study is part of a dissertation which aims to explore and understand the role of play in the teaching-learning process at elementary level in a public school at Pernambuco, Brazil. We opted for a qualitative approach, using the interactive methodology, interviews by the technique of hermeneutic-dialectical circle, observations of science lessons and document analysis (lesson planning). Our sample consisted of five elementary teachers in the school. The results of the study showed that, in general, there was consistency between the didactic and practical teaching strategies used, with teachers placing value on the use of play as a tool to help the process of teaching and learning in science and enabling children to develop their knowledge and understanding of the world. Our observations noted the use of some interesting play strategies within the context of science lessons in the early years. However, some lesson plans proved somewhat insufficient due to lack of information about the play activities developed by our research subjects.


This paper presents performance analysis of an adaptive Volterra/Hybrid equalizer in a nonlinear magneto-optic data storage channel. In a data storage system, nonlinear intersymbol interference (ISI) is one of the limiting factors for high storage density. Volterra and Hybrid (combination of linear and Volterra) equalizers are proposed and developed for compensation of nonlinear ISI. The use of Volterra/Hybrid equalizers provided an extra 1.3-1.5 dB SNR gain over linear equalizers. Performance and complexity of these equalizers are compared. Convergence issues are also investigated by examining the eigenvalue spread of the covariance matrix. The techniques proposed here are applicable to other communication systems (e.g. wireless, optical) exhibiting nonlinear ISI characteristics.


The coarse sand barrier (CSB) is considered as a promising measure to prevent failure of embankments due to backward erosion piping. In this method, a trench consisting of coarse sand is placed below the blanket layer at the downstream side of the embankment, across the possible path of the pipe to prevent development of a pipe. A pipe can progress upstream until it encounters the CSB, which prevents further progression of the pipe unless a significantly higher head drop (compared to the case without CSB) is applied. This results in a much higher safety level for the levee. The increased strength is due to the barrier's higher resistance against erosion, and the relatively high hydraulic conductivity contrast between the barrier and the background material leading to a reduction of the hydraulic load in the barrier. The feasibility of this method has been investigated in a three-phase experimental programme at Deltares consisting of small-, mediumand large-scale experiments, confirming this method as a highly effective piping inhibiting measure. This contribution presents the results of one phase of this research, the medium-scale experiments, during which several laboratory experiments were conducted. In this paper, the piping process and observations on the pipe progression in presence of a CSB are presented and analyzed to get a better insight in the principle of pipe progression with respect to different barrier materials.


There is an absence of quantitative criteria and definitions for unusual or anomalous mortality events involving birds, often referred to as "wrecks". These events most commonly involve seabirds, although terrestrial bird wrecks have also been documented. Typically, the peer-reviewed literature investigating wreck events lacks the details necessary to further our understanding of the circumstances and potential causes of these events. This study reviewed the peer-reviewed literature for wrecks involving Ardenna seabirds (shearwaters), and included grey literature and data collected by citizen science (community) groups. Our results showed a significant time-lag between wreck events and when the data was published in the peer-reviewed literature, which did not occur in the grey literature. Both the grey and peer-reviewed literature were often skewed towards reporting larger wreck events, with only the citizen science dataset capturing smaller wrecks. We outline a proposed framework for reporting mortality events, including the use of quantitative categories to document the numbers of birds involved and taxon-specific thresholds. In doing so, we aim to establish a framework to aid in the quantitative reporting and analyses of future seabird wrecks.


Electroless NiFeP alloy deposition from an alkaline bath , containing sodium hypophosphite as reducer , boric acid as buffer agent and sodium cit rate as com2 plexing agent , was investigated. To increase the plating rate and to inprove the bath stability , the deposition parameters were optimized. The effects of process parameters (p H ,temperature and mole ratio of [ Fe + ]/ ( [ Ni + ] + [ Fe + ]) on the plating rate and deposit composition were examined and it was found that the presence of ferrous sulfate in the bath has an inhibitory effect on the alloy deposition. As a consequence , the percentage of iron in the electroless NiFeP alloys never reaches high values which is lower 20. 0 %. Using cyclic voltammetry the electrodeposition mechanism of NiFeP alloys was investigated. It was observed that the presence of ferrous sulfate in the bath de2 creases the deposition rate and the iron doesn′t catalyst on the oxidation of hypophos2 phite. However , the increase in temperature or p H leads to improving the deposition rate.


INTRODUCTION
Granulomatous inflammation has been associated with malignancies such as breast, testicular, renal cell, and lymphoma. The coexistence of granulomatous inflammation in mediastinal/hilar lymph node with primary lung malignancy has been described in case reports. Our goal was to examine the frequency of granulomatous reaction in mediastinal/hilar lymph node in the patients who had undergone surgical resection of lung cancer.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
We performed a retrospective analysis of 40 patients (1) aged ≥ 18 years and (2) who underwent lobectomy or pneumonectomy from August 1, 2012 to October 31, 2016 at Saint Louis University Hospital and (3) had pathology suggestive of cancer.

RESULTS
Of those 40 patients, 3 (7.5%) had granulomatous inflammation in the lymph nodes. None of these 3 individuals had evidence of metastasis in the particular lymph nodes with granulomatous inflammation.

CONCLUSION
Our small cohort revealed that the presence of granulomatous inflammation in a lymph node can be safely taken as an evidence of the absence of metastasis to the lymph node. This finding can obviate the need for further sampling for the particular lymph node with granulomatous inflammation and can decrease the sampling time.


Background: Storytelling is one of the effective educational method which can be used in clinical education programs .Storytelling as a creative teaching method, increase critical thinking , depth learning and promote students' clinical skills, is the best way for presenting whishes and as a common language transfer morality from one generation to another. Conclusion: Storytelling method has more effect than simple lecture method in promoting knowledge. Therefore it is recommended to apply this method for clinical students' education.


Glucose metabolism is a mechanism by which energy is produced in form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) by mitochondria and precursor metabolites are supplied to enable the ultimate enrichment of mature metabolites in the cell. Recently, glycolytic enzymes have been shown to have unconventional but important functions. Among these enzymes, pyruvate kinase M2 (PKM2) plays several roles including having conventional metabolic enzyme activity, and also being a transcriptional regulator and a protein kinase. Compared with the closely related PKM1, PKM2 is highly expressed in cancer cells and embryos, whereas PKM1 is dominant in mature, differentiated cells. Posttranslational modifications such as phosphorylation and acetylation of PKM2 change its cellular functions. In particular, PKM2 can translocate to the nucleus, where it regulates the transcription of many target genes. It is notable that PKM2 also acts as a protein kinase to phosphorylate several substrate proteins. Besides cancer cells and embryonic cells, astrocytes also highly express PKM2, which is crucial for lactate production via expression of lactate dehydrogenase A (LDHA), while mature neurons predominantly express PKM1. The lactate produced in cancer cells promotes tumor progress and that in astrocytes can be supplied to neurons and may act as a major source for neuronal ATP energy production. Thereby, we propose that PKM2 along with its different posttranslational modifications has specific purposes for a variety of cell types, performing unique functions.


Purpose Previous studies indicated conflicting results regarding the prognosis of gastric cancer with a family history (FHX). This study aimed to determine the clinicopathological features and survival of patients with gastric cancer with a FHX. Materials and Methods We reviewed 2,736 patients with gastric cancer who underwent surgery between 2003 and 2009. The prognostic value of a FHX was determined in the multivariate model after adjusting for variables in the Asian and internationally validated prognostic models. Results Of the patients, 413 (15.1%) had a FHX of gastric cancer. The patients with a FHX were younger (58.1 vs. 60.4 years; P<0.001) than the patients without a FHX. There were no significant differences in the histopathological characteristics between the 2 groups. A FHX was associated with a better overall survival (OS) rate only in the stage I group (5-year survival rate, 95% vs. 92%; P=0.006). However, the disease-specific survival (DSS) rate was not significantly different between the 2 groups in all stages. The multivariate model adjusted for the variables in the Asian and internationally validated prognostic models revealed that FHX has no significant prognostic value for OS and DSS. Conclusions The clinicopathological features and survival of the patients with gastric cancer with a FHX did not significantly differ from those of the patients without a FHX.


Kurzfassung: With the great evolution of technology, Speaker gender and age classification is one of the major problems for large range of applications in speech analysis and recognition. The identification of speakers has become crucial in the cases of criminal suspect, speech recognition, speech emotion, and computer-aided physiological. To improve the accuracy of speaker gender classification, we must generate robust features with a depth classifier. With the promising results giving by machine learning for classification problem, our approach has taken advantage of deep learning. In this paper, we propose to apply a speaker gender classification based on the Recurrent Neural Network (RNN) which is able to determine the long term dependencies of a sequential speech signal. The most popular RNN is Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model. However, it has a complex design which makes it difficult to implement. So, we refine the LSTM model to our proposed Simplified Gated Recurrent Units (SGRUs) by using an efficient architecture with only two multiplicative gates more suitable for speech classification. Our approach is decomposed into two essential steps. First, we generate the features from our model train based on SGRUs by removing of reset gates to limit redundancy and reduce the number of parameters without affect the system performance. Second, we use the Rectified Linear Units (ReLU) activations to learn long-term dependencies without slow down the training process. In Our architecture, we modify the level of dropout and increase the depth of the network. The architecture was tried on a public challenging database. Experiment results show that our approach presenting a high accuracy surpassing other recent methods of gender classification task.


ABSTRACT / "Done" occurs outside of the parti le paradigm in several varieties of English particularly those associated currently or historical y with the South. This feature is also found in Appalachian English. Grammatical classifications have been proposed, including that of quasi modal, pre-verbal form, and adverb. None of the labelling attempts successfully explains the non-participle "done" paradigm. Clearer understanding of non-participle "done" emerges in the light of its semantic and pragmatic characteristics. Scott treats the non-participle "done" in Black English as "a focus-marker, to emphasize the completion" of the accompanying verb phrase, and points out its semantic incompatibility with certain verb forms. An expansion of this approach can be supported for the "done" in Appalachian English. Data are presented to argue that: (1) the semantics of "done," as a marker of completion or perfective aspect, explains its co-occurrence restrictions with other verb forms; and (2) the functional aspects of its use detertine its general incompatibility with clause types other than assertions where it is used to add emphasis. It is argued that syntactic classification alone is not sufficient. The proposal made here is that "done" has the semantic content that indicates the perfective aspect, or completion, and that its pragmatid function is to add emphasis or to intensify an assertion. (Author/CLK)


This paper reports experimental results on a new class of single-chip multiple-frequency (up to 236 MHz) filters that are based on low motional resistance contour-mode aluminum nitride piezoelectric micromechanical resonators. For the first time, aluminum nitride rectangular plates and rings have been electrically cascaded to yield high performance, low insertion loss (as low as 4dB at 93 MHz) micromechanical band pass filters. This novel technology could revolutionize wireless communication systems by allowing the co-fabrication of multiple frequency filters (IF and RF) on the same chip, therefore reducing form factors and manufacturing costs. In addition, these filters require terminations on the order of k/spl Omega/, thereby making possible their direct interface with standard 50 /spl Omega/ systems.


Nondestructive depth profile analysis by changing the photoelectron escape depth was investigated at a soft X-ray beamline of the Photon Factory (KEK-PF). The escape depth was controlled by changing the energy of incident soft X-rays. The depth profile was determined from the observed photoelectron intensities based on the fact that the photoelectron intensity can be described by the Laplace transform of the depth profile. The oxidized silicon thin film on a silicon substrate was analyzed with this method, and depth profiles of SiO2 and Si were obtained. The depth resolution was 0.4 nm according to the 10-90% width of the transition region between the SiO2 and the Si. Improvement of depth resolution is discussed in terms of several simulations performed using a simple depth structure.


The present review summarizes the experimental and clinical evidence for the anti-ischemic action of the selective bradycardic agent ivabradine. Improvements in myocardial blood flow and contractile function during experimental myocardial ischemia and the clinical anti-anginal effect are largely mediated by heart rate reduction. However, a significant reduction in infarct size by ivabradine persists in the absence of heart rate reduction, and such protection can also be recruited when ivabradine is given only during early reperfusion. The mechanisms for such pleiotropic action of ivabradine remain to be resolved.


An integrated PC program for evaluation of Mossbauer spectra both from polycrystalline and from amorphous materials is proposed. The software structure and specifications, operating in a Microsoft Windows environment, are discussed. The program is applied to the Mossbauer analysis of a Fe - Cu alloy, using a version of the fitting procedure for disordered systems developed to include evaluation of the grain-size distribution function.


The Role of the Student Experience in Shaping Academic Writing Development in Higher Education, European Association of Teachers of Academic Writing (EATAW), 29th June – 1st July 2011 University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland