A biomaterial is any substance that has
been engineered to interact with biological systems for a medical purpose -
either a therapeutic (treat, augment, repair or replace a tissue function of
the body) or a diagnostic one. As a science, biomaterials is about fifty years
old. The study of biomaterials is called biomaterials science or biomaterials
engineering. It has experienced steady and strong growth over its history, with
many companies investing large amounts of money into the development of new
products. Biomaterials science encompasses elements of medicine, biology,
chemistry, tissue engineering and materials science.

 In the present book, fifteen typical
literatures about biomaterial published on international authoritative journals
were selected to introduce the worldwide newest progress, which contains
reviews or original researches on mesenchymal stem cells, antimicrobial property,
polymeric biomaterial, biomaterial mud, etc. We hope this book can demonstrate
advances in biomaterials as well as give references to the researchers,
students and other related people.


The main stages of revamping of the cumene production plant of Kazanorgsintez PJSC for the implementation of technology based on zeolite catalysts are described. The changes in the main technical and economic indicators of production process are described. Also, a brief description of existing cumene production technologies is presented.


In this work the authors characterized the radiation field produced by a kilovolt cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) unit integrated in the Elekta Synergy linear accelerator. The x-ray volume imaging (XVI) radiation unit was modeled in detail using the BEAMNRC Monte Carlo (MC) code system. The simulations of eight collimator cassettes and the neutral filter F0 were successfully carried out. MC calculations from the EGSNRC code DOSXYZNRC were benchmarked against measurements in water. A large set of depth dose and lateral profiles was acquired with the ionization chamber in water, with the x-ray tube in a stationary position, and with the beam energy set to 120 kV. Measurements for all the available collimator cassettes were compared with calculations, showing very good agreement (< 2% in most cases). Furthermore, half value layer measurements were carried out and used to validate the MC model of the XVI unit. In this case dose calculations were performed with the EGSNRC code cavity and these showed excellent agreement. In this manuscript the authors also report on the optimization work of the relevant parameters that influenced the development of the MC model. The dosimetric part of this work was very useful in characterizing the XVI radiation output for the energy of interest. The detailed simulation part of the work is the first step toward an accurate MC based assessment of the dose delivered to patients during routine CBCT scans for image and dose guided radiotherapy.


Of all climatic parameters, rainfall has the greatest variability in space as well as time. It also has the greatest influence on the breeding and behaviour of migrant pests, supplying the moisture needed both for their development and for the growth of vegetation to sustain a population. Soil moisture controls both processes directly but cannot be adequately surveyed even by remote sensing techniques, so we rely upon water balance models to interpret rainfall measurements and to forecast pest populations. Both terrain and rainfall are very inhomogeneous on the kilometric scale, a scale which is not matched by observations either from conventional raingauges or current meteorological satellites. Modelling the effects of rainfall must take account of these inhomogeneities, and the processes involved will be discussed. However, it is clear than more detailed studies of rainfall-habitat interaction are needed to derive soil moisture from rainfall estimates by using knowledge of the microtopography. Such relationships must be capable of being generalized so that future monitoring by satellites, essential to give complete and uniform coverage, can be realistically interpreted.


The authors have tried to demonstrate the influence of leather skate boots and plastic boots on the performance of Atome hockey players. Speed tests and joint flexibility tests by means of rotentgenograms showed that besides the speed tests where the leather boot appeared to perform a little better than the plastic boot, no significant difference could be found between both types of boots. It seems to be more a matter of individual choice and adaptation.


Electrode life in spot welding is governed by the nugget formability of welded material and the expandability of electrode face diameter. The authors studied the effects of coating layer and electrode face diameter on nugget formation in two-stack welding using zinc and iron-zinc coated sheets. Here minimum welding current is difined as the current where nugget diameter is 4•ãt of sheet thickness (t). In both coating types, minimum welding current increases as coating-layer zinc contentt increases. Therefore, the greater the coating layer, the higher the minimum welding current. This effect is apparent in 0-1.4 em coating but rapidly diminishes beyond. When coating thickness is constant, minimum welding current of zinc coated sheet is greater than that of iron-zinc coated sheet. The minimum welding current of iron-zinc coated sheet increases with zinc content in coating layer. This effect is weak up to 60% Zn but pronounced above 60%. Effects of coating thickness and type on minimum welding current increase with increase of electrode face diameter. The effect of coating type correlates with coating layer melting point. Analysis of faying surface conditions shows that the lower the melting point, the faster the softening and melting of coating layer, and that the true contact area rapidly increases from the initial power application to the start of nugget formation. In single-layer coating, coating layer melting point is considered to govern the increase in true contact area and affect minimum welding current, while increase in coating thickness and electrode face diameter enhances these effects. Similar assumption applies to multi-layer coating, though qualitatively, by combining the effects of melting point and thickness of each coating layer, without considering structural differences in the coating layer between single-and multi-layer coating.


Previous studies on the value relevance of accounting information adopt Ohlsons linear information dynamics which, if other information is ignored, leads to a theoretical valuation model solely involving earnings, book value, and net shareholder cash flows or (net dividends). The lack of analysis of other value-relevant data may defeat the effectiveness of the Ohlsons model since the current accounting data cannot fully account for future earnings. The potential implication of ignoring other information is that it could introduce bias into estimated coefficients (e.g. Ohlson, 1995; Hand and Landsman, 2005). This study examines the effect of introducing other information proxied by lagged valuation error on equity valuation, utilizing a sample of non-financial companies listed at the Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) over the period 2003 to 2009. Empirical results of this study reveal that our proxy for other information appears to capture valuation implications of information other than current variables in the linear information dynamic setting. Results also reveal that adding other information to the valuation model clearly reduces the coefficients on earnings and dividends, and increases the coefficient of book value; however, book value and earnings remain significantly associated with stock prices. As a consequence, current accounting variables appear to be capturing some, but not all, of other information when this variable is omitted. We conclude that other information is an important factor in determining the market value of firms and hence should not be omitted in studies examining the value relevance of accounting information.


The analysis of microstrip patch antennas is developed, in the Fourier domain, by using the Hertz vector potentials and Galerkin method. The microstrip patch antenna substrate is composed by several isotropic and anisotropic layers. The effect produced by anisotropic dielectric overlays is also investigated. Curves are shown for the input impedance as function of the geometry of the structure considered.


Ethnic minorities' spatial concentration and their predominance in deprived areas are two well-known patterns that characterize Britain's social landscape. However, little is known about ethnic minorities' opportunities for spatial integration, especially after individual, social origin and childhood neighborhood characteristics have been taken into consideration. Using a large-scale longitudinal dataset of England and Wales covering a forty-year period (1971-2011), in combination with aggregated Census data, the author examines ethnic inequalities in access to neighborhoods with varying levels of ethnic concentration and deprivation. The article reveals that ethnic minorities are less likely than white British individuals to reside in 'whiter' and less deprived neighborhoods. These effects, however, reduce, for most groups, among those with higher education and a higher social class, in line with one version of the place stratification/ethnic enclave model. Growing up in areas with high ethnic concentration and high deprivation has a particularly strong 'retention effect' among Asians: their probabilities of being found in 'whiter' and less deprived areas in adulthood are the lowest. Among Africans, growing up in a less deprived area brings no benefits for future neighborhood outcomes. Ethnic groups' unequal access to neighborhoods suggests that group-specific preferences and constrains play a role in neighborhood attainment.


In this study, the improvement of the Cu (II) ion sorption performance of
 nano-silica and nano-alumina particles was investigated by the impregnation
 of 1-ethyl-3-methyl imidazolium bis(trifluorosulfonyl)imide [Emim+Tf2N-]
 ionic liquid (IL). The immobilization process of IL was achieved via the
 ultrasound assisted physical impregnation method. The structural and
 morphological characterization of the adsorbents was investigated by a
 Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometer (FT-IR) and Scanning Electron
 Microscopy (SEM) analysis. The thermal stability of the ionic liquid
 impregnated nano-particles was also characterized by the Thermogravimetric
 Analysis (TGA). The effect of the loading ratio (LR) and the sonication time
 (tD) on the sorption performance of the modified nano particles were
 investigated. The efficient adsorption was obtained by using the particles
 containing IL at the loading ratio (mL-IL/g-part) of 0.5:1. And the optimum
 value for the sonication time was chosen as 15 min in ethanol media. The
 sorption performances of the nano-particles were enhanced by impregnation up
 to 92% in the aqueous media. The sorption equilibrium behaviour of the
 modified nano particles was also evaluated. The experimental data indicated
 that the equilibrium behaviour was in line with the Langmuir sorption
 isotherms.


BACKGROUND
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a leading cause of cancer-related death in Australia. Radiotherapy plays an important role in the curative and palliative settings.

OBJECTIVE
This article reviews recent technological advances that have expanded the radiotherapy treatment options available, and presents standard and emerging approaches to NSCLC.

DISCUSSION
General practitioners play an integral role in the care and education of patients during diagnosis, treatment and
follow-up of NSCLC. Stereotactic (ablative) body radiotherapy,
intensity-modulated radiotherapy, intracranial radiosurgery and hippocampal-avoidance whole-brain radiotherapy are discussed in this article.


Background/Aims: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a progressive, chronic, even disabling systemic autoimmune disease. Imbalance between pathogenic immune cells and immunosuppressive cells is associated with the pathogenesis and development of RA and other autoimmune diseases. As Foxp3 is also expressed on activated CD4+ cells in the presence of inflammation, the identification of Treg cells in patients with RA remains a challenge. Methods: Comprehensive analyses were carried out by Flow cytometry. Expression of Helios, CD226, T cell immunoreceptor with Ig and ITIM domains clinical samples and healthy controls. Results: We have systemically examined three potential markers, Helios, CD226 and TIGIT, that are possibly related to Treg identification, and found that Helios expression on CD4+Foxp3+ cells was decreased and negatively correlated with the disease activity of RA patients, while CD226 and TIGIT both showed elevated expression levels in CD4+Foxp3+ cells in RA patients and they were not associated with disease activity of RA patients. Conclusion: Taken together, our findings indicate that CD4+CD25hiCD127low/-Foxp3+Helios+ may represent the real Treg cell population in patients with RA.


We have used an electron beam to probe the active region of n‐channel GaAs junction field‐effect transistors. The injected charge leads to a rise in drain current (ΔiD), and static current gains (ΔiD / ΔiB) in excess of 107 are observed. These gains are ∼104 greater than expected from pair production given the incident beam energy (15 kV). It has been previously suggested that the injected charge modifies the surface potential, but we find the major effect to be an effective channel thickness increase. In addition, this channel opening and the current gain saturate at high beam current.


The crystal structure of a decameric HNA/RNA (HNA = 2',3'-dideoxy-1',5'-anhydro-d-arabinohexitol nucleic acid) hybrid with the RNA sequence 5'-GGCAUUACGG-3' is the first crystal structure of a hybrid duplex between a naturally occurring nucleic acid and a strand, which is fully modified to contain a six-membered ring instead of ribose. The presence of four duplex helices in the asymmetric unit allows for a detailed discussion of hydration, which revealed a tighter spinelike backbone hydration for the HNA- than for the RNA-strands. The reinforced backbone hydration is suggested to contribute significantly to the exceptional stability of HNA-containing duplexes and might be one of the causes for the evolutionary preference for ribose-derived nucleic acids.


Old Testament literature from the Northern Kingdom (Israel): The presence of northern traditions in the Old Testament The literature originating from the Northern Kingdom of Israel conveys an important message in terms of the theological themes in the Old Testament. Several of the earliest prophetic characters, such as Elijah, Elisha, Amos and Hosea, were all active in the Northern Kingdom. The political and religious situation of the Northern Kingdom created the context for these prophets, and other authors who shaped the thinking about God in old Israel. There writings can be found in the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy and the Deuteronomistic History, as well as in the books of Amos, Hosea and Deutero-Micha.


The purpose of this research project was to provide an evaluation of whether the V-22 Osprey is the best choice of aircraft to meet the Marine Corps' medium-lift assault support needs. The goal of this project was to base the evaluation on unbiased research using methods and techniques learned in the Naval Postgraduate School's MBA core curriculum. The evaluation is based on analysis of the V-22 Osprey and the EH-101 helicopter using net present value (NPV) of procurement cost, measures of overall effectiveness (MOE) for how each aircraft meets defined Marine Corps objectives, and a computer simulation to predict how each aircraft will perform given the same scenario. When considered together, the NPV, MOE, and computer simulation provide a comprehensive evaluation of whether the V-22 is truly the "best" aircraft to meet the Marine Corps' medium-lift needs.


Abstract The Dombrock blood group system consists of five distinct antigens: two antithetical antigens, Doa and Dob, and three high-frequency antigens: Gya, Hy, and Joa. Although the prevalence of Doa and Dob in different populations makes them useful as genetic markers, the scarcity of reliable antibodies to these antigens has prevented this potential from being realized. The gene (DO; ART4) encoding the Dombrock glycoprotein has been cloned and sequenced, and the molecular bases of the various Dombrock phenotypes have been determined. The purpose of this study was to perform DNA-based assays on the DO homolog in non-human primates to determine the degree of conservation in the DO gene. Murine MoAbs to Dombrock protein were developed by standard hybridoma technologies and used to test RBCs from non-human primates by hemagglutination. PCR-RFLP analysis for the six singlenucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that have been defined in human alleles were performed on DNA extracted from fresh or frozen blood samples from numerous non-human primates. Hemagglutination tests with six MoAbs to the Dombrock glycoprotein revealed distinct epitopes on RBCs from the non-human primates. The gorillas and orangutans had the same PCR-RFLP digestion pattern for the six SNPs studied as chimpanzees. Old world monkeys (macaques) were identical at nucleotides (nt) 323, 350, 624, and 793 with the chimpanzees, and at nt 898 the digestion pattern was the same as for the HY1 allele in humans. For the new world monkeys (tamarins and squirrel monkeys) the digestion pattern was conserved for nt 793 but different for nt 624; the other SNPs could not be determined because there was no amplification. The presence of epitopes recognized by the MoAbs and PCR-RFLP results among the non-human primates shows considerable conservation of the DO gene. The difficulties we encountered with the amplification of DNA from the non-human primates lower in the phylogenetic tree are probably due to divergence in sequence.


This paper, propose a Three-terminal Reduced DC Bus Capacitance Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) for
Low Voltage (LV) distribution Networks with High Photovoltaic (PV) penetrations. The device is shown capable of voltage regulating and correcting phase unbalance voltages that can be produced by high levels of distributed photovoltaic (PV) generation. The device is also capable of Power factor improvement (PFI) and correction, regulating the zero, positive and negative sequence voltage in LV distribution Networks and neutral or zero sequence current compensation. Instantaneous reactive power theory shows The power of DC Bus capacitor will fluctuate at twice mains frequency during unbalanced operation. The Real and Instantaneous power balance of Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) can be maintained by allowing the shunt input converter to draw a small negative and positive sequence current. The Instantaneous Power balance with negative sequence current allows a hundred-fold reduction in the value of DC bus capacitance which allows long life polypropylene or ceramic capacitors to replace of electrolytic capacitor in this application.


Deep learning currently provides the best representations of complex objects for a wide variety of tasks. However, learning these representations is an expensive process that requires very large training samples and significant computing resources. Thankfully, sharing these representations is a common practice, enabling to solve new tasks with relatively little training data and few computing resources; the transfer of representations is nowadays an essential ingredient in numerous real-world applications of deep learning. Transferring representations commonly relies on the parameterized form of the features making up the representation, as encoded by the computational graph of these features. In this paper, we propose to use a novel non-parametric metric between representations. It is based on a functional view of features, and takes into account certain invariances of representations, such as the permutation of their features, by relying on optimal transport. This distance is used as a regularization term promoting similarity between two representations. We show the relevance of this approach in two representation transfer settings, where the representation of a trained reference model is transferred to another one, for solving a new related task (inductive transfer learning), or for distilling knowledge to a simpler model (model compression).


The bronchial hyperreactivity characteristic of asthma may be related to enhanced parasympathetic nervous activity. We postulated that an abnormality in the autonomic control of airway caliber might be reflected by a parallel change in the reflex control of heart rate. We examined the heart-rate variations induced by deep breathing (respiratory sinus arrhythmia), the Valsalva maneuver, and standing up from the recumbent position in asthmatic subjects and nonasthmatic control subjects. The asthmatic patients had evidence of enhanced parasympathetic neural drive to the sinoatrial node, as manifested by a significantly greater magnitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia, than the controls (p less than 0.0005). We were unable to induce a similar change in normal subjects by resistance breathing. A statistical analysis suggested the presence of a relationship between the magnitude of respiratory sinus arrhythmia and the degree of bronchial hyperreactivity in a group of asthmatic patients. Our results support the hypothesis that enhanced parasympathetic activity is an important factor in the pathogenesis of bronchial asthma.


We aim to describe Japanese palliative care nurses' experience of loss and grief. Better understanding will guide the development of psychoeducational and supportive interventions. A qualitative study was undertaken with 13 Japanese nurses working in palliative care units in Japan. Face-to-face in-depth interviews lasted 55 to 90 minutes and were transcribed, and grounded theory was used to analyze data. Four major sources of loss were identified: anticipatory grief, loss of their relationships with patients, overlap with personal loss experiences, and loss of professional self-esteem. Cultural elements such as longer hospitalization and the use of primary nursing systems were contributory factors. Nurses seek to honor both life and death. Some found meaning in their caregiving as a sustaining source of resilience despite their experience of grief. Nurses' grief was both cumulative and disenfranchised, being unrecognized by society and sometimes themselves. Support systems are vital to avoid burnout.


Objective The aim of this study was to assess the plasma zinc (Zn)/serum copper (Cu) ratio as a biomarker in children with autism spectrum. Background Autism is a complex, behaviorally defined neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant impairments in social interaction, verbal and nonverbal communication, and restrictive, repetitive, and stereotypic patterns of behavior. The possible etiologies that precipitate autism symptoms remain controversial in many cases, but both genetic and environmental factors have been implicated. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) appear to be at risk for Zn deficiency, Cu toxicity, and often have low Zn/Cu ratio. Patients and methods The present study was designed to be of a case–control type. It enrolled 40 children. Twenty patients with autism diagnosed according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed., text revision and the Childhood Autism Rating Scales were included. The control group enrolled 20 apparently healthy children, matched to the patients' age and sex. All of them were subjected to biochemical analysis for assessment of plasma Zn level and serum Cu, followed by calculation of plasma Zn/serum Cu ratio. Results Plasma Zn was decreased in patients than in controls. Serum Cu was higher in patients than in controls. Lower Zn/Cu ratio was observed in cases in comparison with controls. intelligence quotient was lower in patients than in controls. There was a correlation between age and Zn/Cu ratio, but there was no correlation between Zn/Cu ratio and BMI. There was a negative correlation between Childhood Autism Rating Scales and Zn/Cu ratio. Zn/Cu correlated negatively with some selected symptom severity in autistic children and Zn/Cu ratio. According to receiver operating characteristic curve, the optimal cutoff value of serum levels of Zn/Cu was projected to be 0.81, with a sensitivity of 85% and a specificity of 85%, and the area under the curve was 0.93. Conclusion Our results suggested an association between blood levels of Zn and Cu with ASD among our patients, and the Zn/Cu ratio could be considered a biomarker of ASD.


Calcareous shale, which is often encountered in construction projects, has a variety of physical and chemical properties that influence disintegration behavior of the rock mass. The diverse behavior of calcareous minerals in shale adds to the complexity of geotechnical investigations. Abundance of calcareous minerals is known to improve shale rock strength, although, when exposed to seasonal wetting and drying cycles, disintegration is rapid. The intent of this study is to statistically evaluate the disintegration behavior of calcareous shales in relation to their physico-chemical properties. Shale samples from fresh rock cuts and talus were tested using a multi-cycle slake durability index (Id), X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) elemental analysis, bulk density, natural water content, and porosity. A relationship was found between the degree of disintegration and the abundance of calcareous minerals, especially calcite and gypsum. Higher porosity and elevated water content were observed in highly weathered shales. Additionally, the efficiency of the Id test as an indicator of the degree of disintegration was evaluated. Grain-size distribution (GSD) analysis of disintegrated talus was compared with fragmental material of two- and five-cycle Id (Id2 and Id5) tests. The Coefficient of Uniformity (Cu) and Coefficient of Curvature (Cc) of Id5 materials showed satisfactory correlation with Cu and Cc of talus material. It is demonstrated that when compared to the conventional Id2 test, multi-cycle Id tests more precisely predict the disintegration pattern of shale and can be used to evaluate shale in terms of degree of disintegration.


This study aims to examine whether deferred tax assets, ownership concentration and firm size affect on earnings management. Earnings management is an activity of manipulating earning information in the financial statements performed by corporate managers with the aim to protect the interests of the company and gain profits. Population in this study are companies that is consistently included in LQ45 and listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during the period 201 5-2017. Samples in this research are 87 companies, that were collected by using purposive sampling method based on certain criteria. The method of analysis used is multiple regression. The results show that deferred tax assets have significant positive effect to earnings management. These results prove that the higher company's accruals and deferred tax liabilities cause the greater possibility of the company's earnings management. On the other hand, ownership concentration and firm size have significant negative effects to earnings management. This indicates that the larger foreign ownership or firm size cause the possibility of companies in the earnings management can be minimized.


Major genomic deletions in independent eukaryotic lineages have led to repeated ancestral loss of biosynthesis pathways for nine of the twenty canonical amino acids1. While the evolutionary forces driving these polyphyletic deletion events are not well understood, the consequence is that extant metazoans are unable to produce nine essential amino acids (EAAs). Previous studies have highlighted that EAA biosynthesis tends to be more energetically costly2,3, raising the possibility that these pathways were lost from organisms with access to abundant EAAs in the environment4,5. It is unclear whether present-day metazoans can reaccept these pathways to resurrect biosynthetic capabilities that were lost long ago or whether evolution has rendered EAA pathways incompatible with metazoan metabolism. Here, we report progress on a large-scale synthetic genomics effort to reestablish EAA biosynthetic functionality in a mammalian cell. We designed codon-optimized biosynthesis pathways based on genes mined from Escherichia coli. These pathways were de novo synthesized in 3 kilobase chunks, assembled in yeasto and genomically integrated into a Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cell line. One synthetic pathway produced valine at a sufficient level for cell viability and proliferation, and thus represents a successful example of metazoan EAA biosynthesis restoration. This prototrophic CHO line grows in valine-free medium, and metabolomics using labeled precursors verified de novo biosynthesis of valine. RNA-seq profiling of the valine prototrophic CHO line showed that the synthetic pathway minimally disrupted the cellular transcriptome. Furthermore, valine prototrophic cells exhibited transcriptional signatures associated with rescue from nutritional starvation. This work demonstrates that mammalian metabolism is amenable to restoration of ancient core pathways, thus paving a path for genome-scale efforts to synthetically restore metabolic functions to the metazoan lineage.


In this paper, we address the issue of how to leverage Wi-Fi Direct (as an outband solution) to enable the Device-to-Device (D2D) communication that can offload massive data traffic from the LTE (Long Term Evolution)-based cellular network and support other applications. Particularly, we develop a clustering-based scheme that automatically finds the best candidates to remain connected to the LTE network while the rest of the devices can be disconnected directly from the LTE-based cellular network. By doing so, we can reduce the signal interference, increase the average throughput and spectral efficiency of the network, and also reduce unnecessary data traffic that can be transmitted locally by D2D communications instead of going through the LTE-based cellular network. Devices in established clusters can indirectly communicate with the LTE network via the cluster head, which can be dynamically selected and remains connected to the LTE network directly. Using the real-world cellular data collected from a public database related to the deployment of LTE networks, we show the effectiveness of our proposed scheme in traffic offloading in the cellular network. We also discuss how to use our developed techniques to support Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications such as smart grid communications.


1. Voltage‐gated Ca2+ currents (ICa) and Ca(2+)‐activated Cl‐ currents (ICl(Ca)) were recorded from cultured rat dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurones using the whole‐cell configuration of the patch clamp technique. Intracellular photorelease of Ca2+ by flash photolysis of DM‐nitrophen elicited transient inward currents only in those cells which possessed Ca(2+)‐activated Cl‐ tail currents following ICa. The reversal potential of the flash responses was hyperpolarized when extracellular Cl‐ was replaced by SCN‐. The flash responses and the Ca(2+)‐activated Cl‐ tail currents were inhibited by the Cl‐ channel blockers niflumic acid (10‐100 microM) and 5‐nitro‐2‐(3‐phenylpropylamino)benzoic acid (NPPB) (10 microM). 2. After activation by ICa, the Ca(2+)‐activated Cl‐ current could be reactivated during its decay by photorelease of caged Ca2+. Experiments carried out on neurones held at 0 mV demonstrated that ICl(Ca) could be chronically activated due to residual Ca2+ influx. These data directly demonstrated that the decay of ICl(Ca) is not due to inactivation but rather to deactivation as a result of removal of the Ca2+ load from the cell cytoplasm. 3. Photorelease of caged inositol 1,4,5‐trisphosphate (IP3) failed to activate any Ca(2+)‐dependent current responses in cultured DRG neurones, although application of caffeine elicited transient inward currents, and responses to photoreleased IP3 could be obtained from freshly dissociated smooth muscle cells. 4. Photorelease of Ca2+ provides a useful method for investigating the properties of ICl(Ca) independently from other physiological parameters. In addition, we have directly demonstrated that ICl(Ca) in DRG neurones does not inactivate, and so may continue to modulate membrane excitability as long as the intracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i) close to the cell membrane is elevated.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This paper proposes a new function for the Ad Hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) algorithm using the connectivity concept to decide between source and local repair when a link break occurs. Besides, we used a Computational Intelligence algorithm, called Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), which enables to find candidate solutions in all considered search space in order to reduce average data packet delivery delay sent over the network. The performance of the original AODV protocol, according to its Request for Comments (RFC), is compared with this new implemented approach, called here as AODVPSO. Three metrics were used to evaluate the performance of the algorithm: throughput (as data packet delivery fraction), routing overhead and average data packet delivery delay. We observed that the AODV-PSO outperformed the original AODV protocol in the scenarios studied in this paper.


The chemokine SDF-1alpha and its cognate receptor CXCR4 are expressed in several neuronal populations. This review focuses on our current knowledge about the actions of this chemokine on neuronal excitability, through CXCR4 or other yet unknown pathways. In various neuronal populations (CA1 neurons of the hippocampus, granular and Purkinje cells of the cerebellum, melanin-concentrating hormone neurons of the lateral hypothalamus, vasopressinergic neurons of the supraoptic and the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus, and dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra), SDF-1alpha can modulate the activity of neurons by multiple regulatory pathways including and often combining: (i) modulation of voltage-dependent channels (sodium, potassium, and calcium), (ii) activation of the G-protein-activated inward rectifier potassium current, and (iii) increase in neurotransmitter release (gamma-amino butyric acid (GABA), glutamate, and dopamine), often through Ca-dependent mechanisms. The possible mechanisms underlying these effects and their consequences in terms of modulation of neuroendocrine systems and physiopathology are discussed.


Systematic approach to the construction of a probabilistic simulation model for distribution of pressure in granular media. Pressure fields & compressive deformations from that model presented for a thrustless granular medium & homogeneous or stratified earth foundation. General solutions incorporating partial cases of thrustless & thrusting granular media.


The utilization of precision-cut liver slices in dynamic organ culture as an in vitro model was validated by comparing the induction of the biomarker responses following in vitro (rat liver slice) and in vivo exposure of rats to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). The biomarker responses investigated were cytochrome P450s 1A1 and 1A2 (CYP1A1 and CYP1A2) mRNA, protein, and activities. Precision-cut rat liver slices were incubated in dynamic organ culture for 24 hr with medium containing 0.001-10 nM TCDD or medium without TCDD (control). The resultant mean TCDD concentration in the slices ranged from 19 to 80,925 ppt (wet wt), respectively. A concentration-dependent induction of CYP1A1 mRNA, protein, and activities and a more modest induction of CYP1A2 mRNA was observed in liver slices at all medium concentrations of TCDD. The O-demethylation of 7-methoxyresorufin, a marker for CYP1A2 activity, was induced at TCDD medium levels of 0.01 nM and greater, whereas a detectable increase in CYP1A2 protein occurred only at the higher concentrations. Comparable liver concentrations of TCDD (8-64,698 ppt wet wt) were achieved at 24 hr following a single in vivo exposure of rats to TCDD at doses ranging from 0.002 to 5 microg/kg po. Concentration-effect and dose-response relationships for induction of CYP1A1 and CYP1A2 were similar following in vitro and in vivo exposure to TCDD, although the magnitude of induction was greater for in vivo exposure. The data support the use of liver slices in dynamic organ culture for assessing the relative in vivo potency of a compound to induce CYP1A1 and CYP1A2. Human tissue can also be readily utilized in this in vitro model to predict the biological and toxicological effects of a given in vivo exposure to TCDD.


In multi-target tracking (MTT), we are often interested not only in finding the position of the multiple objects, but also allowing individual objects to be uniquely identified with the passage of time, by placing a label on each track. While there are many MTT algorithms that produce uniquely identified tracks as output, most of them make use of certain heuristics and/or unrealistic assumptions that makes the global result suboptimal of Bayesian sense. An innovative way of performing MTT is the so-called joint multi-target tracking, where the raw output of the algorithm, rather than being already the collection of output tracks, is a multi-target density calculated by approximating the Bayesian recursion that considers the entire system to have a single multidimensional state. The raw output, i.e. the calculated multi-target density, is thereafter processed to obtain output tracks to be displayed to the operator. This elegant approach, at least in theory, would allow us to precisely represent multi-target statistics. However, most joint MTT methods in the literature handle the problem of track labelling in an ad-hoc, i.e. non-Bayesian manner. A number of methods, however, have suggested that the multi-target density, calculated using the Bayesian recursion, should contain information not only about the location of the individual objects but also their identities. This approach, that we refer as joint MTTL (joint multi-target tracking and labelling), looks intuitively advantageous. It would allow us, at least in theory, to obtain an output consisting of labelled tracks that is optimal in Bayesian sense. Moreover, it would allow us to have statistical information about the assigned labels; for instance, we would know what is the probability that track swap may have occurred after some approximation of targets (or, in simpler words, we would know how much we can believe that a target is what the display says that it is). However, the methods proposed in the still emerging joint MTTL literature do not address some problems that may considerably reduce the usefulness of the approach. These problems include: track coalescence after targets move closely to each other, gradual loss of ambiguity information when particle filters or multiple hypotheses approaches are used, and dealing with unknown/varying number of targets. As we are going to see, each of the previously proposed methods handles only a subset of these problems. Moreover, while obtaining a Bayes-optimal output of labelled tracks is one of the main motivations for joint MTTL, how such output should be obtained is a matter of debate. This work will tackle the joint MTTL problem together with a companion memorandum. In this work, we look at the problem from a theoretical perspective, i.e. we aim to provide an accurate and algorithm-independent picture of the aforementioned problems. An algorithm that actually handles these problems will be proposed in the companion memorandum. As one of the contributions of the memorandum, we clearly characterize the so-called "mixed labelling" phenomenon that leads to track coalescence and other problems, and we verify that, unlike implied in previous literature, it is a physical phenomenon inherent of the MTTL problem rather than specific to a particular approach. We also show how mixed labelling leads to nontrivial issues in practical implementations of joint MTTL. As another of the contributions of the memorandum, we propose a conceptual, algorithm-independent track extraction method for joint MTTL estimators, that gives an output with clear physical interpretation for the user.


This study aims to determine the typology, dynamics and potential disasters in the coastal area of Gunungkidul, Yogyakarta Special Province. The results showed that the typology formed in the coastal region is structurally shaped karst Gunungkidul coast, Wave Erotion Coast, marine deposition coast, coast erosion land, coast and sub-aerial deposition of man-made coastal typology. Coastal dynamics that occur in karst Gunungkidul coastal areas affected by dominant geodinamic processes, hydrodynamic and antropodinamic. There are several potential disaster in the karst Gunungkidul coastal region, namely tsunami, rip currents, abrasion, and waves reflection.


In the title compound, C20H18N3O+·Cl−, the orientation of the aromatic rings around the planar CN3 + unit produces steric hindrance. As a consequence of this particular orientation of the guanidinium cation, hydrogen bonding is restricted to N—H⋯Cl and intramolecular N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds within the discrete unit. The guanidinium and carbonyl groups are coplanar as a result of the six-membered ring formed by the N—H⋯O intramolecular hydrogen bond. The dihedral angles between the guanidinium plane and the two phenyl rings are 62.31 (8) and 64.24 (8)°.


Load control and data acquisition in this research designed to be accessible with web page interface. The working of data acquisition is reading analog data from voltage and current by using Adaptor and current sensor ACS712 which is then processed by Arduino and will show in web page with SBC Raspberry Pi, the web page will showing real time chart from voltage, current and apparent power, and the workings of the control system is direct control SBC Raspberry Pi pin with interface web which then will turn on relay which has connected with the electricity load. The system which researched using WiFi USB or LAN cable for connected to intranet network that cause address of web page can be access by other devices connected to the intranet network.


Pseudoexhaustive testing involves applying all possible input patterns to the individual output cones of a combinational circuit. Based on our new algebraic results, we have derived both generic (cone-independent) and circuit-specific (cone-dependent) bounds on the minimal length of a test required so that each cone in a circuit is exhaustively tested. For any circuit with five or fewer outputs, and where each output has k or fewer inputs, we show that the circuit can always be pseudoexhaustively tested with just 2/sup k/ patterns. We derive a tight upper bound on pseudoexhaustive test length for a given circuit by utilizing the knowledge of the structure of the circuit output cones. Since our circuit-specific bound is sensitive to the ordering of the circuit inputs, we show how the bound can be improved by permuting these inputs.


By utilizing the multiple-needle electrode system selected by CIGRE working group WG D1.14, the influences of long-term AC corona discharge and ozone on the surface and volume resistivities as well as on the dielectric response of well defined non-ceramic outdoor insulation material samples were experimentally investigated and compared. The polymeric specimens concerned were obtained from five various materials used as housings of composite insulators, namely liquid silicone rubber (LSR), high temperature vulcanized silicone rubber (HTV), ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM) rubber and ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA) rubber and hydrophobic cycloaliphatic epoxy (HCEP resin). External mechanical stress was applied as additional stress factor during corona-ozone exposure of the elastomeric materials. It was found as a result of the testing that, the 100-hour long corona-ozone exposure had obvious effects on both surface and volume resisitivities for all the materials investigated; surface resistivity was more sensitive than volume resistivity. The permittivity as well as the dissipation factor values, both being the electrical properties of the material bulk, did not exhibit a high susceptibility to the exposure.


: Project execution plays a decisive role in project success, but past research did not focus on the project manager's perspective of what needs to be accomplished to achieve success. In this study, the authors used qualitative techniques to look for reoccurring themes related to 44 project managers' responses to interview questions associated with successful project execution and failed project execution. The study found that despite the project management profession growth, professional associations' efforts, and their professional development endeavors, project management execution seems to be concerned with what has happened versus what is happening in a project. This study provides a conceptual framework for project execution success strategies that have implications for project management training and mentoring.


Abstract We are living in a time of huge competitiveness, where many institutions fight hard for their survival. Unemployment, exclusion, xenophobia, poverty and disrespect towards nature and our peers are causing unbearable impact to humanity. This situation is challenging us to retrieve and keep alive the true values, without any distinction of cultures, religions and ways of thinking. Only this way we can contribute to a fairer, inclusive and better society. A corporation can contribute to the employees' well-being, personal and professional fulfillment. The present study is focused in the employee turnover and how it is affected by the internal branding and the psychological contract, in a company of informatic services – in which we mainly considered its organization and human resources. So, we aimed to contribute to the understanding of: internal branding and psychological contract, and their interrelation; effects of internal branding and psychological contract in employees; the turnover (common in this company of informatics services). A questionnaire was developed to measure the internal branding and employees' psychological contract. We used several statistical techniques to analyze the data, namely, descriptive statistics analysis, factorial analysis in principal components, comparison of means and correlations among the resulting dimensions. Findings reveal low values for the internal branding and psychological contract, although, men feel slightly more satisfied with their situation than women. A positive association was found between the internal branding and the psychological contract, admitted as a possible cause of turnover. Anyway, results denote an insufficient concern of the company towards its human resources.


ABSTRACT Levels of the stabilized Criegee Intermediate (sCI), produced via the ozonolysis of unsaturated volatile organic compounds (VOCs), were estimated at two London urban sites (Marylebone Road and Eltham) and one rural site (Harwell) in the UK over the period of 1998–2012. The steady‐state approximation was applied to data obtained from the NETCEN (National Environmental Technology Centre) database, and the levels of annual average sCI were estimated to be in the range of 30–3000 molecules cm−3 for UK sites. A consistent diurnal cycle of sCI concentration is estimated for the UK sites with increasing levels during daylight hours, peaking just after midday. The seasonal pattern of sCI shows higher levels in spring with peaks around May due to the higher levels of O3. The ozone weekend effect resulted in higher sCI in UK urban areas during weekend. The sCI data were modeled using the information provided by the Air Quality Improvement Research Program (AQIRP) and found that the modeled production was five‐ to six‐fold higher than our estimated data, and therefore the estimated sCI concentrations in this study are thought to be lower estimates only. Compared with nighttime, 1.3‐ to 1.8‐fold higher sCI exists under daytime conditions. Using the levels of sCI estimated at Marylebone Road, globally the oxidation rates of NO2 + sCI (22.4 Gg/yr) and SO2 + sCI (37.6 Gg/yr) in urban areas can increase their effect in the troposphere and potentially further alter the oxidizing capacity of the troposphere. Further investigations of modeled sCI show that CH3CHOO (64%) and CH2OO (13%) are dominant among all contributing sCI at the UK sites.


1. Analysis of high-speed cine-films of Euglena viridis reveal that the organism traverses a complex three-dimensional path while helical waves are propagated from base to tip along the flagellum.

2. Theoretical analysis shows that the rapid forward velocity of the organism cannot be produced by the body movement alone. The propulsive force generated by the flagellum is sufficient to maintain the observed velocities.

3. Although the euglenoid flagellum bears mastigonemes the thrust produced by it is in the direction to be expected if the flagellum were smooth. Possible explanations of this observation are given.


ABSTRACT Blackland prairies are found in two regions of Mississippi and Alabama, the Black Belt and the Jackson Prairie Belt. As the vegetation of remnant prairies in these belts has received limited attention, we collected and identified the grasses and forbs from 19 sites in Mississippi and western Alabama over a year. A total of 196 species were collected, including 168 native species. When compared with prairie species lists for these regions from the early 20th century, our results suggest that 18 species present then may now be rare or absent. Habitat data for these species indicate that most favor more mesic or sandier soils. Their apparent absence implies that existing prairies are a subset of historic prairies that were not useful for agriculture because of drier and/or more clayey soils. To preserve the biodiversity of this ecosystem, conservation efforts should include more mesic or sandy sites, including prairie-forest ecotones.


Microbes present special opportunities for proteomic analysis that are not yet available for other types of organisms, due mainly to the relative abundance of information on their genomes, their low levels of functional redundancy and their experimental tractability. They are also being used to develop and validate powerful new experimental approaches that surmount some important current limitations in this field. The review surveys the different proteomic procedures that are available and considers the advantages and disadvantages of different experimental strategies. The ways in which microbiologists — and others — can exploit proteomic data are also discussed.


In many real-world scenarios, such as gene knockout experiments, targeted interventions are often accompanied by unknown interventions at off-target sites. Moreover, different units can get randomly exposed to different unknown interventions, thereby creating a mixture of interventions. Identifying different components of this mixture can be very valuable in some applications. Motivated by such situations, in this work, we study the problem of identifying all components present in a mixture of interventions on a given causal Bayesian Network. We construct an example to show that, in general, the components are not identifiable from the mixture distribution. Next, assuming that the given network satisfies a positivity condition, we show that, if the set of mixture components satisfy a mild exclusion assumption, then they can be uniquely identified. Our proof gives an efficient algorithm to recover these targets from the exponentially large search space of possible targets. In the more realistic scenario, where distributions are given via finitely many samples, we conduct a simulation study to analyze the performance of an algorithm derived from our identifiability proof.


Immature starfish oocytes are arrested at the prophase of meiosis I. Once released from this arrest, meiotic maturation proceeds to the completion of meiosis II in the absence of fertilization, resulting in a second arrest at the female pronucleus stage. This article discusses how Cdc2 kinase is activated in response to the hormone 1-methyladenine at the release from the meiotic prophase arrest, and how MAP kinase is involved in the arrest at the female pronucleus stage. The experimental findings reveal both generality and divergence in the initial Cdc2 kinase activation pathway and in the role of MAP kinase signaling.


We investigate the seasonal relationship of the sulphur-bearing anions methane sulphonate (MSA−) and non-sea-salt sulphate (nssSO42−) in sections of firn and ice cores from the Antarctic Peninsula and Weddell Sea region of Antarctica. In cores from Dolleman Island and Berkner Island, MSA− has clearly migrated from the summer snow layer, where it is initially deposited, to become concentrated in the winter layer. A similar behavior is evident in a core from the Dyer Plateau, though in deeper layers. Cores from Gomez Nunatak and Beethoven Peninsula show little evidence of relocation of MSA−, though migration at greater depth in the ice sheet cannot be ruled out. In contrast, in all these cores, non-sea-salt sulphate remains in the summer layer. From comparisons between the ice core characteristics and the migration behavior at these sites, we conclude that the movement of MSA− does not occur via percolation and refreezing of meltwater. Simple concentration-driven diffusion is also not a factor, as the MSA− peaks are sharp in the winter layer. The data presented indicate that the movement of MSA− in firn is likely to be linked to the concentration of other ionic species in the snowpack and to the snow accumulation rate. A possible mechanism for the migration of MSA− in the snowpack is via an initial diffusion in the liquid or vapor phase, which is halted by trapping in the winter layer when the MSA− forms a salt with a cation.


This chapter discusses the under-studied subject of honorary consuls, in particular their conduct of diplomatic activities to bring about specific commercial gains through promoting exports, attracting inward investment, preserving outward investment opportunities, encouraging the benefits of technological transfer and promoting tourism. It explains the globalization trends that compel states to extend their diplomatic networks with honorary consuls for increased consular coverage. The chapter offers an overview of why localities, regions and municipal hubs are increasingly more important than national capitals in terms of business and commerce and thus in need of at least an honorary consular presence; and demonstrates how selected nations are trying to use honorary consuls in order to develop their economies. Finally, the chapter concludes with open research questions concerning the honorary consul's value to trade and investment promotion. Keywords:globalization; honorary consuls; investment; tourism


This volume deals with the general theory of pleasure of Plato and his successors. The first part describes the two paradigms between which all theories of pleasure oscillate: Plato's definition of pleasure as the repletion of a lack, and Aristotle's view that pleasure is the perfect performance of an activity. After an excursus on Epicureans and Stoics, the book concentrates on Neoplatonism, opposing the "standard Neoplatonic view" of Plotinus and Proclus to the original viewpoint of Damascius' commentary on Plato's "Philebus". The volume sheds light on the discussion between hedonists and anti-hedonists, by concentrating on the "crucial point" at which any philosophical analysis of the good life (hedonistic or other) ought to argue that the life of the philosopher is the most desirable, and thus truly pleasurable, life.


The archaeology of the Arabian Peninsula is pivotal to understanding the timing and mode of dispersals of hominin populations from Africa, with growing evidence supporting a Southern Route across the Hanish Sill in the Southern Red Sea. Yet, despite recent key discoveries, our understanding of the hominin occupation of the peninsula remains patchy. This situation is particularly marked in coastal Southwestern Saudi Arabia, a region key in dispersal debates given its proximity to the proposed Southern Route. Identification of the routes and conditions of hominin dispersals from Africa has focussed on reconstructing broad-scale climatic and vegetation zones. Yet physical landscapes are also critical to palaeoenvironmental reconstruction at the local scale. They can moderate or amplify climatic influence, and modify the distribution of plant and animal resources. The DISPERSE project aims to develop systematic methods for reconstructing Palaeolithic landscapes at a variety of geographical scales, and their impact on patterns of human evolution and dispersal. This paper reports the preliminary results of archaeological and geomorphological survey carried out in February-March 2013 in the Jizan and Asir regions, Southwestern Saudi Arabia. Satellite imagery was used to identify areas of potential preservation and visibility of Palaeolithic sites, as well as key geomorphological features to inform landscape reconstruction. ESA, MSA and potentially later artefacts were recorded at a number of locations and geographical settings in the region. These sites are placed within the developing model of landscape evolution, and preliminary hypotheses of hominin landscape use and technological aspects are outlined. These hypotheses will be tested through future survey seasons, ultimately allowing assessment of the factors controlling human occupation and dispersal.


In 2010–2011 the East African region suffered a severe drought that affected millions of people. The drought was a consequence of the failure of both the seasonal "short rains," which typically run from October to December, and the following "long rains," which typically run from March to May. The failure of the short rains was predictable given a well-established connection with La Nina, but the failure of the long rains was not. In a new study, Lyon and DeWitt show that the most recent long rains failure is consistent with a recurrent large-scale precipitation pattern that began with an abrupt shift around 1999. The authors used observations and climate model simulations to show that the abrupt decline in the East African long rains was linked to similarly abrupt changes in sea surface temperatures, mainly in the tropical Pacific basin. (Geophysical Research Letters, doi:10.1029/2011GL050337, 2012) —EB


Semantic segmentation is challenging as it requires both object-level information and pixel-level accuracy. Recently, FCN-based systems gained great improvement in this area. Unlike classification networks, combining features of different layers plays an important role in these dense prediction models, as these features contains information of different levels. A number of models have been proposed to show how to use these features. However, what is the best architecture to make use of features of different layers is still a question. In this paper, we propose a module, called mixed context network, and show that our presented system outperforms most existing semantic segmentation systems by making use of this module.


The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the relative influences of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control on consumers' purchase intentions will be different when consumers possess different levels of product knowledge (subjective and objective) and attention to social comparison information (ATSCI). As proposed by the theory of planned behavior, consumers' purchase intentions are affected not only by their attitudes, but also by their group's influences and their own perceived control. The relative strength of effects of these three factors on consumers' purchase intentions is expected to vary across behaviors and situations. The results showed that the relative importance of attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control in the prediction of intention varies when consumers possess different levels of subjective product knowledge and ATSCI. Subjective knowledge is a moderating variable for the relationship between perceived behavioral control and purchase intention, while ATSCI was a moderating variable for the relationship between attitude and purchase intentions, and for the relationship between subjective norm and purchase intention. This research has strong implications for marketers. It can help them develop more effective marketing programs to affect consumers' purchase intentions. In addition, the study is one of a few studies that applies the theory of planned behavior in the marketing field.


Importance
Nonkeratinocyte skin cancers are an important cause of morbidity and mortality for immunosuppressed solid organ transplant recipients (SOTRs), but the spectrum of disease and risk factor characteristics are unknown.

Objective
To characterize the spectrum of disease and risk factors for common and rare nonkeratinocyte skin cancers in SOTRs.

Design, Setting, and Participants
This population-based cohort study included 444 497 SOTRs who underwent a transplant in the US between January 1, 1987, and December 31, 2017, using linked data from the national transplant registry and 32 cancer registries. Data analysis was conducted from April 1, 2021, to September 30, 2021.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were used to assess risk relative to the general population, and Poisson regression was used to evaluate risk factors.

Results
A total of 2380 nonkeratinocyte skin cancers were identified among 444 497 SOTRs (median age at transplant, 50 years; range, 0-96 years; 274 276 [61.7%] male; 272 241 [61.2%] non-Hispanic White). Melanoma was the most common cancer (1471 [61.8%]), followed by Merkel cell carcinoma (334 [14.0%]), Kaposi sarcoma (186 [7.8%]), sebaceous carcinoma (170 [7.1%]), and cutaneous lymphomas (108 [4.5%]). Risks were most strongly elevated for cancers associated with viruses, including Kaposi sarcoma (SIR, 20.5; 95% CI, 17.7-23.7), Merkel cell carcinoma (SIR, 16.2; 95% CI, 14.5-18.1), and extranodal natural killer/T-cell lymphoma (SIR, 44.3; 95% CI, 5.37-160). Risks were also significantly elevated for sebaceous carcinoma (SIR, 15.2; 95% CI, 13.0-17.7), anaplastic large cell lymphoma (SIR, 6.82; 95% CI, 4.53-9.85), and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (SIR, 5.17; 95% CI, 3.28-7.76). Several characteristics were independently associated with greater risk for multiple skin cancer types, including male sex, older age at transplant, factors associated with UV radiation exposure (non-Hispanic White race and ethnicity, living in an area with higher UV radiation exposure, and posttransplant diagnosis of keratinocyte carcinoma), and increasing time since transplantation. Treatment with mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors was associated with reduced melanoma incidence (incidence rate ratio, 0.75; 95% CI, 0.57-0.98). A total of 847 skin cancers (39.4%) occurred on the head and neck.

Conclusions and Relevance
The findings of this cohort study suggest that viruses, UV radiation exposure, and immunosuppression are associated with the development of skin cancer in SOTRs. Certain high-risk subgroups may benefit from increased skin surveillance, and treatment with mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitors could be effective for melanoma chemoprevention in the transplant population.


A confirmatory method has been developed to allow for the analysis of fourteen prohibited medicinal additives in pig and poultry compound feed. These compounds are prohibited for use as feed additives although some are still authorised for use in medicated feed. Feed samples are extracted by acetonitrile with addition of sodium sulphate. The extracts undergo a hexane wash to aid with sample purification. The extracts are then evaporated to dryness and reconstituted in initial mobile phase. The samples undergo an ultracentrifugation step prior to injection onto the LC-MS/MS system and are analysed in a run time of 26 minutes. The LC-MS/MS system is run in MRM mode with both positive and negative electrospray ionisation. The method was validated over three days and is capable of quantitatively analysing for metronidazole, dimetridazole, ronidazole, ipronidazole, chloramphenicol, sulfadiazine, sulfamethazine, dinitolimide, ethopabate, carbadox and clopidol. The method is also capable of qualitatively analysing for tylosin, virginiamycin and avilamycin. A level of 100 μg kg -1 was used for validation purposes and the method is capable of analysing to this level for all the compounds. Validation criteria of trueness, precision, repeatability and reproducibility along with measurement uncertainty are calculated for all analytes.


Multilingual speakers often switch between languages to express themselves on social communication platforms. Sometimes, the original script of the language is preserved, while using a common script for all the languages is quite popular as well due to convenience. On such occasions, multiple languages are being mixed with different rules of grammar, using the same script which makes it a challenging task for natural language processing even in case of accurate sentiment identification. In this paper, we report results of various experiments carried out on movie reviews dataset having this code-mixing property of two languages like English and Bengali, both typed in Roman script. We have tested various machine learning algorithms trained only on English features on our code-mixed data and have achieved a maximum accuracy of 59.00% using a Na\"ive Bayes (NB) model. We have also tested various models trained on code-mixed data, as well as English features and the highest accuracy of 72.50% was obtained using a Support Vector Machine (SVM) model. Finally, we have analyzed the misclassified snippets and have discussed the challenges needed to be resolved for better accuracy.


This paper provides taxonomy of common text mining tasks and approaches. We surveyed the market of modern text mining tools, compared their features and grouped them into information retrieval, standard or intelligent text mining categories in order to examine how theoretical promises materialized in modern technologies. The study is the first one in a series of studies trying to provide an understanding of impediments in the development of text mining products and users' expectations.


We study Voronoi cells in the statistical setting by considering preimages of the maximum likelihood estimator that tessellate an open probability simplex. In general, logarithmic Voronoi cells are convex sets. However, for certain algebraic models, namely finite models, models with ML degree 1, linear models, and log-linear (or toric) models, we show that logarithmic Voronoi cells are polytopes. As a corollary, the algebraic moment map has polytopes for both its fibres and its image, when restricted to the simplex. We also compute non-polytopal logarithmic Voronoi cells using numerical algebraic geometry. Finally, we determine logarithmic Voronoi polytopes for the finite model consisting of all empirical distributions of a fixed sample size. These polytopes are dual to the logarithmic root polytopes of Lie type A, and we characterize their faces.


Abstract : Previously, an external-frame backpack device (35 kg) was fabricated allowing for the placement of a 24.9-kg lead brick load in nine different positions. The purpose of this report was to determine the moment of inertia (MOI) of the backpack for the nine load positions relative to: the backpack's center of mass (COM); reference axes originating on the backpack frame; the COM for the human torso and backpack combined; and the COM for the human body and backpack combined. For the backpack about its COM, the lowest MOI values were found when the COM was located intermediate/central and intermediate/close relative to the load-carrier's trunk. For the backpack relative to the reference axes, the lowest MOI values were found when the COM was located low/central and low/close to the trunk. For the torso and backpack system and for the body and backpack system, the lowest MOI values were found when the COM relative to the trunk was in the intermediate/close or high/close position and the low/close or intermediate/close position, respectively. These data will be used in research examining the effects of manipulations of the COM and the MOI of backpack loads on load carriers' biomechanical and physiological responses.


Reliable estimation of abundance is a prerequisite for a species' conservation planning in human-dominated landscapes, especially if the species is elusive and involved in conflicts. As a means of population estimation, the importance of camera traps has been recognized globally, although estimating the abundance of unmarked, cryptic species has always been a challenge to conservation biologists. This study explores the use of the N-mixture model with three probability distributions, i.e., Poisson, negative binomial (NB) and zero-inflated Poisson (ZIP), to estimate the relative abundance of sloth bears (Melursus ursinus) based on a camera trapping exercise in Sanjay Tiger Reserve, Madhya Pradesh from December 2016 to April 2017. We used environmental and anthropogenic covariates to model the variation in the abundance of sloth bears. We also compared null model estimates (mean site abundance) obtained from the N-mixture model to those of the Royle-Nichols abundance-induced heterogeneity model (RN model) to assess the application of similar site-structured models. Models with Poisson distributions produced ecologically realistic and more precise estimates of mean site abundance (λ = 2.60 ± 0.64) compared with other distributions, despite the relatively high Akaike Information Criterion value. Area of mixed and sal forest, the photographic capture rate of humans and distance to the nearest village predicted a higher relative abundance of sloth bears. Mean site abundance estimates of sloth bears obtained from the N-mixture model (Poisson distribution) and the RN model were comparable, indicating the overall utility of these models in this field. However, density estimates of sloth bears based on spatially explicit methods are essential for evaluating the efficacy of the relatively more cost-effective N-mixture model. Compared to commonly used index/encounter-based methods, the N-mixture model equipped with knowledge on governing biotic and abiotic factors provides better relative abundance estimates for a species like the sloth bear. In the absence of absolute abundance estimates, the present study could be insightful for the long-term conservation and management of sloth bears.


This paper explores the challenges of writing and publishing faced by Indigenous women who work in the Australian higher education sector. It demonstrates that Indigenous women are under-represented in the academy and argues that Indigenous styles of writing are typically not valued for broader publication. The authors describe a writing mentoring and support program specifically developed for Indigenous academic women in Australia. The Tiddas Writin' Up Workshop provided a safe and culturally-appropriate space for women to learn about academic writing and develop their writing skills. The workshop led to the publication of a special issue of the Journal of Australian Indigenous Issues – known as the Tiddas Collection. The authors highlight the power and strength of well-developed support programs to address skills development, confidence, inequities and under-representation of Indigenous women within the higher education workforce.


Abstract MRI is an essential diagnostic imaging modality for many knee conditions; however, it is not indicated in the setting of advanced knee arthritis. Inappropriate MRI imaging adds to health care costs and may delay definitive management for many patients. The primary purpose of this study was to ascertain the frequency of inappropriate MRI scans performed at one Veterans' Administration Medical Center (VAMC). We performed a retrospective chart review of all knee MRIs ordered over a 6-month period. Inappropriate MRI was defined as MRI performed prior to radiographs (XRs), or in the presence of XRs demonstrating severe osteoarthritis, without leading to a nonarthroplasty procedure of the knee. Of the 304 cases reviewed, 36.8% (112) of the MRIs were deemed inappropriate, 33 were ordered by orthopedists, and 79 were ordered by other health care providers. Of the 33 ordered by orthopedists, 25 were ordered by retired/nonsurgical orthopedists. Obtaining an MRI delayed care by an average of 29.2 days. Of the 252 cases that had XR prior to MRI, none included all four views in the standard knee XR series and only four had weightbearing images. Over a third of knee MRIs performed at this VAMC were inappropriate and delayed care. Additionally, no XRs in our study contained all the necessary views to properly assess knee arthritis. These concerning findings signify a potential opportunity for education in diagnostic strategies, to better patient care and resource utilization in the VAMC.


Introduction: Previous reports of carefully selected patients presenting with stage IV breast cancer (BC) suggest that surgery on the primary tumor may result in improved survival, but this remains unproven. The MF07-01 trial is a phase III randomized controlled trial of BC women with distant metastases at presentation who receive loco-regional (LR) treatment for intact primary tumor compared with those who do not receive such treatment. Aim: The primary objective of the trial is to compare overall survival (OS) in women treated with or without initial LR resection prior to systemic therapy for de novo stage IV BC. Materials and Methods: At the discretion of the surgeon, LR treatments consisted of either mastectomy or breast conserving surgery with level I-II axillary clearance in clinically or sentinel lymph node positive patients. Radiation therapy to whole breast was required following breast conserving surgery. At the discretion of the medical oncologist standard systemic therapy of either endocrine treatment or chemotherapy (plus trastuzumab for HER2 +) was given to all patients either immediately after randomization (no surgery group) or after surgical resection of the intact primary tumor (surgery group). After consideration of previous retrospective studies, the assumed OS difference between the two groups was determined to be 18% (35% in LR treatment group versus 17% in no-LR treatment group). A 10% drop out rate including lost to follow up was assumed. By using a one sided log-rank test with a 95% confidence (α = 0.05) and a 90% power (β = 0.9), sample size calculation revealed that 271 patients were needed to be randomized. Results: There were 140 women in the surgery group and 138 in the no-surgery group. The mean follow up time was 21.1 ± 14.5 months. The mean age was 51.6 ± 13.2 years and the groups were comparable regarding age, BMI, ER/PR, Her 2, Triple negative, tumor type and size between the groups (all p>0.05). Metastatic patterns included bone only in 45.7%, organ except bone in 28.8%, and bone plus organ in 25.5%. There were a total of 86 (31%) deaths. At 54 months the survival rate was 35% in the surgery group and 31% in the no surgery group (p = 0.24). However, OS was statistically higher in bone only, ER/PR positive and patients younger than 50 years but was lower in the triple negative patients (p Conclusion: In early follow-up of this trial comparing surgery of the primary tumor with no surgery in stage IV BC at presentation OS was similar but there were important subgroup differences; in particular those with solitary bone metastasis have a significant survival benefit and patients with bone metastasis only have a trend toward improved survival with initial surgery. Further follow-up will expand on these important findings. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2013;73(24 Suppl): Abstract nr S2-03.


Adolescence is a transition period from childhood to adulthood and there are some physical changes that are fast matching with adults, but emotions do not necessarily follow physical development. Adolescence is a critical age. Biologically the reproductive organs of adolescents have reached maturity (have experienced wet dreams for men and menstruation for women). This means they are able to be sexually active. This period is a potential period but it is forbidden to actualize the sexual potential along with the early maturity of the reproductive organs (under fifteen years) and the increase in the average age of first marriage (over 20 years). They are required to control their sex drive during this period. Control like this is indeed very necessary. From the religious point of view, this control is interpreted as a form of piety in God. While from a reproductive health perspective, avoiding premarital sex is the best way to prevent the transmission of sexually transmitted infections and unwanted pregnancy.
Indonesia is in the fifth ranks among the countries with the highest levels of tobacco consumption in the world. WHO says 1 in 10 deaths in adults is caused by smoking. The smoking habit in students is caused due to misunderstanding of information, the influence of advertising and the influence of friends. Smoking behavior is related to knowledge, one's attitude towards cigarettes and education. The hope is that given information and health education about adolescent growth and development and the dangers of smoking to adolescents can increase knowledge before and after socialization. Pretest and posttest were carried out to find out the teenager's knowledge. The results obtained are an increase in adolescent vocational high school Baitussalam Pekalongan City after counseling about adolescent growth and development and the dangers of smoking in adolescents.


Recent works learn 3D representation explicitly under text-3D guidance. However, limited text-3D data restricts the vocabulary scale and text control of generations. Generators may easily fall into a stereotype concept for certain text prompts, thus losing open-vocabulary generation ability. To tackle this issue, we introduce a conditional 3D generative model, namely TextField3D. Specifically, rather than using the text prompts as input directly, we suggest to inject dynamic noise into the latent space of given text prompts, i.e., Noisy Text Fields (NTFs). In this way, limited 3D data can be mapped to the appropriate range of textual latent space that is expanded by NTFs. To this end, an NTFGen module is proposed to model general text latent code in noisy fields. Meanwhile, an NTFBind module is proposed to align view-invariant image latent code to noisy fields, further supporting image-conditional 3D generation. To guide the conditional generation in both geometry and texture, multi-modal discrimination is constructed with a text-3D discriminator and a text-2.5D discriminator. Compared to previous methods, TextField3D includes three merits: 1) large vocabulary, 2) text consistency, and 3) low latency. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our method achieves a potential open-vocabulary 3D generation capability.


At first, this paper briefly introduces a novel reconfigurable mobile robots system JL-1 and the serial and parallel mechanism using to perform the reconfiguration actions. Based on the kinematics equations of the serial and parallel mechanism, the static transformation equations of it are concluded according to the virtual work theory, which is useful in determining the drivable workspace of the reconfiguration mechanism. Then the valid workspace of the serial and parallel mechanism of JL-1 is concluded via the transformation matrix of the loads in world coordinates to those on the driving motors according to the real parameters of the motors in JL-1 and the weight of JL-1 robot. The degeneration phenomenon of the workspace is found due to the limited torque of the rotating motor, and a drivable workspace is acquired. At last, by choosing the valid joint path in the drivable workspace, a series of experiments are performed to demonstrate the validity of the theory concluded in this paper.


Background: There are currently few data on the outcome of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) after allogeneic HSCT. The aim of this study is to describe the outcome and its specific risk factors for children, AYAs and adults after a first allogeneic HSCT for AML. Methods: In this retrospective study, we compared the outcome of AML patients receiving a first allogeneic HSCT between 2005 and 2017 according to their age at transplantation's time: children (<15 years, n=564), AYAs (15-25 years, n=647) and adults (26-40 years; n= 1434). Results: With a median follow-up of 4.37 years (min-max 0.18 – 14.73 years), the probability of 2 year-overall survival (OS) was 71.4% in children, 61.1% in AYAs and 62.9% in adults (p=0.0009 for intergroup difference). Both relapse and non-relapse mortality (NRM) Cumulative Incidence (CI) estimated at 2 years were different between the age groups (30.8% for children, 35.2% for AYAs and 29.4% for adults - p=0.0254, and 7.0% for children, 10.6% for AYAs and 14.2% for adults, p<0.0001; respectively). Whilst there was no difference between the 3 groups for grade I to IV acute GVHD CI at 3 months, the chronic GVHD CI at 2 years was higher in AYAs and adults (31.4% and 36.4%, respectively) in comparison to the children (17.5%) (p<0.0001). In multivariable analysis, factors associated with death were AML cytogenetics (HR1.73 [1.29-2.32] for intermediate risk 1, HR 1.50 [1.13-2.01] for intermediate risk 2, HR 2.22 [1.70-2.89] for high cytogenetics risk compared to low risk), use of TBI ≥ 8 Grays (HR 1.33 [1.09-1.61]), disease status at transplant (HR 1.40 [1.10-1.78] for second Complete Remission (CR), HR 2.26 [1.02-4.98] for third CR and HR 3.07 [2.44-3.85] for active disease, compared to first CR), graft source (HR 1.26 [1.05-1.50] for Peripheral Blood Stem Cells compared to Bone Marrow) and donor age (HR 1.01 (1-1.02] by increase of one year). Conclusion: Age is an independent risk factor for NRM and extensive chronic GVHD. This study suggests that AYAs AML patients should be treated with chemotherapy-based MAC regimen and bone marrow as stem cells source.


INTRODUCTION
The risk of exposure of either the patient or the surgeon to pathogens when the surgical glove is perforated is significant. This is particularly so in jaw fractures when intermaxillary fixation is done with the stainless-steel wire as many perforations also result in percutaneous injury.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
This study was carried out in two tertiary Hospitals in Abuja, Nigeria. Adult patients for intermaxillary fixation as a result of jaw fractures were consecutively recruited into the study. Similarly, surgeons and their trainees (assistants) were also recruited. Factors investigated included the method of gloving used by surgeons and trainees (single versus double gloving), glove perforations and percutaneous injury rates, years of operator's experience, among others. During surgical operations, percutaneous injuries were recorded and obviously perforated or torn gloves were labelled and changed. At the end of every surgical procedure, gloves used were investigated for perforation.

RESULTS
A total of 564 gloves were investigated (Surgeons-337; Trainees-227) after use for wire intermaxillary fixation procedures. The frequency of glove perforations for the surgeons was 72 (21.4%). Forefinger perforations were most frequent; 40 (55.6%) cases. Assistants, had 35 (15.4%) cases of glove perforations. Percutaneous injury occurred in 9.7% (7/72) and 5.7% (2/35 cases) of cases for surgeons and assistants, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The study revealed high risk for wire-based IMF procedures. Single gloving was more frequently associated with percutaneous injuries although double gloving was more associated with perforations with higher surgeon infection risk. Double gloving reduces the risk of percutaneous injuries and, therefore, the likelihood of exposure to blood-borne pathogens.


We show that there exists an optimal number of nodes to be assigned to jobs for execution in grid systems, which depends on the distributions of computation and communication service times. We also show that the analytical models proposed for parallel computers are not accurate for grid systems. We therefore extend to grid environment the definitions of speedup, efficiency and efficacy that are usually given for parallel systems. We also adopt a queueing network model with three different types of workload to prove that in every case an optimal number of nodes exists and that the mean value of CPU and communication service times is just a scale factor for this optimum.


Abstract The paper presents the results of experimental research aimed at determining the possibilities of strengthening structural adhesive joints. Techniques to improve the strength of adhesive joints was to make holes in the front part of the adherends in order to make the joint locally more flexible in the area of stress concentration at the joint edges. The tests were carried out for the lap joints of EN AW-2024-T3 aluminum alloy sheets, which were bonded with Loctite EA3430 epoxy adhesive. Static tests were carried out on the basis of the tensile/shear test. It has been shown that the applied structural modifications allow for an increase in the strength of the joint, in the best variant, an increase in strength of 14.5% was obtained. In addition, it has been shown that making holes in the adherends allows to reduce the spread of strength results.


Purpose
This paper aims at examining the factors affecting entrepreneurial intention (EI) among the rural adult population in India using the social cognitive theory (SCT).

Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on the Adult Population Survey of the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor of 2017, covering 1,397 rural respondents from India. The data has been analysed using simple techniques such as Chi-square statistics, correlation and logistics regression.

Findings
About 16% of the rural adults have reported EI in India. A significant relationship emerged between the demographics of rural adults with and without intention towards entrepreneurship. Finally, the regression model representing two components of the SCT, that is, confidence towards entrepreneurship and outcome expectations from entrepreneurship, showed a significant impact on EI among the rural population when controlled by family size and working status.

Practical implications
This paper provides insights on factors affecting EI among rural adults, which can help in developing a policy framework for promoting new ventures among rural entrepreneurs. The result of the analysis indicates that the rural population need to be imparted the necessary skills to gain confidence in entrepreneurship, which should be aligned with the outcome expectations of the entrepreneurs.

Originality/value
This piece of research can be valuable for different stakeholders in adopting inclusive entrepreneurial initiatives. Moreover, entrepreneurship in rural areas has not gained much attention among scholars, and this study is intended to provide future research motivation.


Multi-phase thermoelectric materials are widely investigated due to their high potential for thermoelectric efficiency enhancement as a result of lattice thermal conductivity reduction by phonon scattering from the involved interfaces. Yet, the electronic mutual influence of the involved phases on the thermoelectric efficiency has to date usually been neglected in designing novel multi-phase thermoelectric materials. In the current research, the influence of distribution and morphology alignment on the electronic thermoelectric properties of three-phase composite materials was analyzed. Such an analysis, based on defining interaction volumes of the relevant thermoelectric properties, for any distribution and relative amount of any three phases with known individual properties, can be utilized for thermoelectric efficiency enhancement by intentional alignment of the phases along the preferred thermoelectric direction. For the p-type Gex(SnyPb1−y)1−xTe thermoelectric alloys, following a phase separation rea...


Today the organisations are increasingly adopting analytics for breakthrough business results. There are enough talks about potentials of business analytics, software solutions on analytics and data visualisations. However, very few success stories are published and easily available in public domain. The focus is required to translate potentials of analytics into the breakthrough business results. This paper proposes discover-innovate-predict-perform-sustain (DIPPS) model for the business excellence through analytics. It also presents success stories of big data analytics and industrial internet of the things (IIoT) from the multiple fields for the breakthrough business results. The hypothesis testing indicates that the organisations deploying the DIPPS model have higher success rate and the probability of achieving their analytics goals.


The neuroendoscope, with its higher magnification, better observation, and additional illumination, can provide us information that may not be available with the microscope in aneurysm surgery. Furthermore, recent advancement of the holding systems for the endoscope allows surgeons to perform microsurgical manipulation using both hands under the simultaneous endoscopic and microscopic monitoring. With this procedure, surgeons can inspect hidden structures, dissect perforators at the back of the aneurysm, identify important vessel segments without retraction of the aneurysm or arteries, and check for completion of clipping. In addition, we have recently applied endoscopic indocyanine green video angiography to aneurysm surgery. This newly developed technique can offer real-time assessment of the blood flow of vasculatures in the dead angles of the microscope, and will reduce operative morbidity related to vascular occlusion, improve the durability of aneurysm surgery by reducing incomplete clipping, and thus promote the outcome of aneurysm surgery.


Writing about empirical tests of stock market efficiency, Fama et al. [2, p. 1] noted that "… the usual procedure has been to infer market efficiency from the observed independence of successive price changes. There has been very little actual testing of the speed of adjustment of prices to specific kinds of new information."


S. Rešković, I. Jandrlić, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Metallurgy, Sisak, Croatia, F. Vodopivec Institute of Metals and Technology, Ljubljana, Slovenia Using thermal imaging camera during tensile testing of low carbon and Nb microalloyed steel influence of testing rate on start of plastic deformation was investigated. The results showed that the onset of plastic flow is significantly different in Nb steel. When testing Nb steel, above the yield point (Reh), Lüders bands formed and no change of temperature was recorded by increase of sample stretching force. Strain rate affects the propagation velocity of Lüders bands through the deformation zone.


Enrollment is a necessary session in speaker verification. Automatic verification of collected training utterances, so called automatic enrollment, is critical to the performance of any speaker verification system. In this paper, we propose one solution including two separate approaches for automatic enrollment. First, at the utterance level, we propose to use an N-best algorithm to perform spoken content verification for training utterance selection. Second, at the word level, we employ an accurate utterance verification algorithm to conduct word verification for training data selection. Finally, we combine the two techniques together and propose a solution for automatic enrollment. Our experiments show that the N-best approach and the utterance verification approach can provide very low error rates. Based on the experimental results, we expect that the combined solution is close to error free and is feasible for real-world applications.


Data selection methods, such as active learning and core-set selection, are useful tools for improving the data efficiency of deep learning models on large-scale datasets. However, recent deep learning models have moved forward from independent and identically distributed data to graph-structured data, such as social networks, e-commerce user-item graphs, and knowledge graphs. This evolution has led to the emergence of Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) that go beyond the models existing data selection methods are designed for. Therefore, we present GRAIN, an efficient framework that opens up a new perspective through connecting data selection in GNNs with
 social influence maximization.
 By exploiting the common patterns of GNNs, GRAIN introduces a novel feature propagation concept, a diversified influence maximization objective with novel influence and diversity functions, and a greedy algorithm with an approximation guarantee into a unified framework. Empirical studies on public datasets demonstrate that GRAIN significantly improves both the performance and efficiency of data selection (including active learning and core-set selection) for GNNs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to bridge two largely parallel threads of research, data selection, and social influence maximization, in the setting of GNNs, paving new ways for improving data efficiency.


The Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) has been reconfigured as an ultra low emittance damping ring for use as a test accelerator (CesrTA) for International Linear Collider (ILC) damping ring R&D [1]. One of the primary goals of the CesrTA program is to investigate the interaction of the electron cloud with low emittance positron beam to explore methods to suppress the electron cloud, develop suitable advanced instrumentation required for these experimental studies and benchmark predictions by simulation codes. This paper reports the simulation of the electron-cloud formation in the wiggler and quadrupole magnets using the 3D code CLOUDLAND. We found that electrons can be trapped with long lifetime in a quadrupole magnet due to the mirror field trapping mechanism and photoelectrons produced in the wiggler zero field zone have long lifetime due to their complicated trajectory.


Recently it has been reported that biased range-measurements among neighboring agents in the gradient distance-based formation control can lead to predictable collective motion. In this paper we take advantage of this effect and by introducing distributed parameters to the prescribed inter-distances we are able to manipulate the steady-state motion of the formation. This manipulation is in the form of inducing simultaneously the combination of constant translational and angular velocities and a controlled scaling of the rigid formation. While the computation of the distributed parameters for the translational and angular velocities is based on the well-known graph rigidity theory, the parameters responsible for the scaling are based on some recent findings in bearing rigidity theory. We carry out the stability analysis of the modified gradient system and simulations in order to validate the main result.


Objectives Approximately 10% of homeless adults in the US are veterans and that number is increasing. Veterans who experience homelessness tend to do so for longer periods compared to non-veterans; and homelessness is associated with more chronic disease complications. We compared the prevalence of five chronic, ambulatory-care sensitive conditions in homeless and domiciled individuals who received primary care at an urban VA hospital. Methods Data were obtained from the Veteran's Hospital Administration clinical data warehouse. Differences in disease prevalence were compared between the two groups using chi-square analyses and then adjusted for age, gender, race/ethnicity, BMI, and other risk factors where appropriate, using logistic regression. All analyses were conducted using SAS version 9.4. Results Homeless individuals were 46% more likely to have asthma (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.16–1.84) and 40% more likely to have COPD (OR 1.40, 95% CI 1.14–1.73) after adjustment for age, gender, race/ethnicity, BMI, and tobacco use status. After adjustment for covariates, there was no difference between homeless and domiciled veterans in the prevalence of diabetes, hypertension, or congestive heart failure. Discussion Future quality improvement projects should identify social-environmental risk factors like employment characteristics, and housing quality that can impact chronic respiratory illness prevalence and associated complications.


It is suggested that Beckett's imagination functioned outside history. Here, reading Mercier and Camier in political context, I want to query the usefulness of such a claim, especially if it is applied in an unreflective way to Beckett's entire oeuvre. By reading Mercier and Camier's actions against the violent events surrounding the birth of the Irish Free State, a period figured in the text by the fate of Noel Lemass, I want to suggest that Beckett's work is, in fact, working within historical structures, albeit in a manner that is deliberately obscured.


The primary aim of the present paper is (1) to review the tectonomagmatic evolution of the North Atlantic, and (2) constrain evolutionary models with new lithosphere strength estimates and interpretation of potential field data north of Iceland. Our interpretations suggest that the breakup along the entire eastern Jan Mayen Ridge occurred at c. 55 Ma. Calculations of lithospheric yield strength indicate that the continental rifting in East Greenland, which led to oceanic crustal formation west of the Jan Mayen Ridge at c. 25 Ma, could have started at c. 42.5 Ma. Symmetrical V-shaped gravimetric ridges, which can be traced back to c. 48 Ma, document large-scale asthenospheric flow both north and south of Iceland. Such flow is predicted by geodynamic models of mantle plumes, but has yet to be predicted by other mechanisms. The results from the compartments north of Iceland, viewed in a regional context, strengthen the hypothesis attributing the anomalous magmatism in the North Atlantic area from c. 70 Ma to the present to the Icelandic plume.