In this paper, we identify patterns of distributive environmental justice in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA) in terms of spatial proximity of urban waters, as a potential provider of a diverse set of environmental goods and well-being. Our focus is on the question how equally these benefits are distributed in HMA? To answer this we apply a GIS-based clustering analysis with spatial statistics to map the good and deprived access of different socio-economic and demographic groups to urban blue. We use income, education, language and age as factors to delineate residential areas and found not only differences in how various population groups are located in the four different municipalities of the HMA, but also differences in group distances to the nearest water areas. Results show that high income and high educational background, Swedish language and high age are factors more frequently related to living closer to water areas. At the same time, children, foreigners, and people having lower economic status tend to live further away from urban blue. This is important knowledge to be integrated into urban planning. The recognition of lacking opportunities suggests more consideration towards these aforementioned population groups to reduce inequality and to ensure just distribution of accessible and usable urban nature in the HMA.


Advancement in micro/nano-technology has improved the development of bio-syncretic micro-manipulators. But there are still some challenges including the efficiency, precision and flexibility that constrain the application of micro-manipulators. In this work, a bio-tweezer system is proposed that could flexibly manipulate micro objects in three dimensions with opto-induced bio-actuation by high-density microorganisms. Based on the Langevin equation, a mathematical model considering the hydrodynamics and similar Brownian motion principle was proposed to analyze the performance of manipulation, and, was verified by implementing the experiments to move micro particles in the two-dimension plane and to rotate asymmetrical objects around one axis. This work is helpful for quantitative understanding of micro/nano-manipulation actuated by microorganisms.


Keywords: Contrast enhancement Breast MRI Breast cancer screening Kalman filter Linear spectral mixture model Tissue classification a b s t r a c t Much attention is currently focused on one of the newest breast examination techniques, breast MRI. Contrast-enhanced breast MRIs acquired by contrast injection have been shown to be very sensitive in the detection of breast cancer, but are also time-consuming and cause waste of medical resources. This paper therefore proposes the use of spectral signature detection technology, the Kalman filter-based linear mixing method (KFLM), which can successfully present the results as high-contrast images and classify breast MRIs into major tissues from four bands of breast MRIs. A series of experiments using phantom and real MRIs was conducted and the results compared with those of the commonly used c-means (CM) method and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) breast MRIs for performance evaluation. After comparison with the CM algorithm and DCE breast MRIs, the experimental results showed that the high-contrast images generated by the spectral signature detection technology, the KFLM, were of superior quality.


The Extensible Markup Language (XML) Configuration Access Protocol (XCAP) draft-ietf-simple-xcap-06 Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is subject to all provisions of section 3 of RFC 3667. By submitting this Internet-Draft, each author represents that any applicable patent or other IPR claims of which he or she is aware have been or will be disclosed, and any of which he or she become aware will be disclosed, in accordance with RFC 3668. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." Abstract This specification defines the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Configuration Access Protocol (XCAP). XCAP allows a client to read, write and modify application configuration data, stored in XML format on a server. XCAP maps XML document sub-trees and element attributes to HTTP URIs, so that these components can be directly accessed by HTTP.


Purpose

This research is an effort to conceptualize the relationship between total quality management (TQM) and knowledge management in a new way. While some researchers considered knowledge management as a facilitator of TQM other scholars concerned TQM as an antecedent for knowledge management. The purpose of this paper is to propose a reciprocal causation between TQM and knowledge management.

Design/methodology/approach

The main focus of literature review is focusing on common practices of TQM and knowledge management. In the next step, joint variance analysis method is used to reanalyze the results of the empirical studies linking TQM to knowledge management. This approach aims to divide the multiple correlation squared and demonstrate what portion is distinctly connected to predictor variables and what portion is on account of common variance among predictors.

Findings

The result indicates that nearly half of all explained variances in empirical studies that considered the relationship between TQM and knowledge management disregarding the criteria are accounted for the joint variance of TQM and knowledge management processes. Therefore a reciprocal causation between TQM and knowledge management can be formulated.

Originality/value

This research is one of the first studies which explores the diverse results of the relationship between TQM and knowledge management from a methodological perspective.


Access to education has been recognized as a basic human right to bring competence leading to higher productivity, empowerment of the people and national development. India had been trying to extend the reach of education to larger sections of its society through a multi approach strategy. The Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system at school levels is considered as one of the ways to provide educational opportunities to everybody.
The National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) is an autonomous organization under the Department of Education, Govt. of India. Established to provide school educational opportunities to all who cannot and do not go to school, it is the largest Open school in the world. Although, enrolment of girls in secondary classes per 1000 boys increased from 16 to 70 since 1950-1951, the gender gap in traditional school system remains a matter of concern. One of the key objectives of NIOS has been overcoming this gap.
This paper highlights the gender profile of learners who enrol in NIOS from the different states of India and examines gender equality with respect to enrolment at the secondary level. Since one of the unique features in NIOS is the provision for 'choice of subjects', the paper also highlights the distribution of females in different major subjects. An examination of these gender distribution trends in NIOS centers across the country leads towards answering questions of NIOS effectiveness in addressing this issue.The analysis would assist in determining future course of action so as to increase access to school education.


concerning the problems and actual changes of text of the Revised Standard Version, the book gives a real appreciation of the task involved and also a feeling that it has been well done. One sees the parallel between the need that brought forth the Authorized Version and the similar need here being met in our day. There is renewed appreciation of the debt the Englishspeaking world, as well as Bible lovers, owe Will iam Tynda l e . Meticulous comparisons of numerous passages of this present version with the Authorized and other versions are given. At the end is a list of many of the words whose meanings have changed, also an index to all Scripture texts commented upon. The able chairman of the revision committee writes humbly but with a sincere and timely appeal that this revision be given a fair trial, not alone in study but also in public worship. Thought and worship both demand the very best and should speak an identical language, at this point. Here then is the story of our Revised Standard Version in its historic setting, by the one most closely associated with the task. While perhaps too compact for easy reading it is none the less essential reading for informed Bible students, both ministers and laymen.


Generation of functional organs from patients' own cells is one of the ultimate goals of regenerative medicine. As a novel approach to creation of organs from pluripotent stem cells (PSCs), we employed blastocyst complementation in organogenesis-disabled animals and successfully generated PSC-derived pancreas and kidneys. Blastocyst complementation, which exploits the capacity of PSCs to participate in forming chimeras, does not, however, exclude contribution of PSCs to the development of tissues-including neural cells or germ cells-other than those specifically targeted by disabling of organogenesis. This fact provokes ethical controversy if human PSCs are to be used. In this study, we demonstrated that forced expression of Mix-like protein 1 (encoded by Mixl1) can be used to guide contribution of mouse embryonic stem cells to endodermal organs after blastocyst injection. We then succeeded in applying this method to generate functional pancreas in pancreatogenesis-disabled Pdx1 knockout mice using a newly developed tetraploid-based organ-complementation method. These findings hold promise for targeted organ generation from patients' own PSCs in livestock animals.


We consider the Laplace transforms (LT) of functions in , , with a slowly varying weight. We prove that if the weight satisfies certain conditions, then each LT of this class has tangential boundary values almost everywhere on the imaginary axis, and the structure of the corresponding neighbourhoods depends on the weight only. This result is applied to distinguish a wide class of weighted spaces on the half-line such that the Szasz condition is not necessary for the completeness of the system in these spaces.


Extensive evidence has demonstrated that bilinguals non-selectively activate lexicons of both languages when reading or hearing words in one language. Here, we further investigated the electrophysiological roles of cross-linguistic orthography and phonology in the processing of L2 spoken words in unbalanced Chinese (L1)–English (L2) bilinguals in a cross-modal situation. Relative to unrelated control, the recognition of auditory L2 words showed behavioral interference effects when paired with orthographic or phonological neighbors of the correct translations of L2 words. Moreover, the lexical effects were also exhibited in the electrophysiological data, as reflected by marginally less positive late positive component (500–800 ms) amplitudes in the frontal region. Importantly, the orthographic rather than phonological translation neighbor condition elicited less negative N400 (300–500 ms) amplitudes in the parietal–occipital regions, suggesting that this orthographic translation neighbor condition facilitated the co-activation of spoken L2 words. Taken together, these findings indicate that cross-linguistic orthographic and phonological activation have different temporal dynamics with both bottom-up parallel cross-linguistic activation and the top-down inhibitory control mechanism governing the two-language lexical organization in L2 spoken word recognition.


BACKGROUND
The insertion of a urinary catheter may cause some discomfort or pain. This study was done in order to compare patient-perceived discomfort with two commonly used coated urinary catheters for in-out catheterisation.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A total of 196 women were randomised to be catheterised with one of two coated, hydrophilic catheters, either a Lofric or a SpeediCath catheter. Degree of discomfort was recorded on a 10 cm visual analogue scale.

RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION
There was no difference in patient-perceived discomfort between the two catheters. The degree of discomfort was small with both catheters, with a median score of only 0.75 cm on the scale.


INTRODUCTION
Myofascial pain syndrome (MPS) is one of the most common chronic musculoskeletal pain disorders. However, MPS is often under-diagnosed. The purpose of this study was to characterize practicing clinicians' perspectives of the current diagnostic criteria for MPS.

METHODS
A cross-sectional study design was used with a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire evaluated clinicians' perspective of the current diagnostic criteria for MPS. The sample population (n= 119) consisted of 40% family physicians, 31% physical medicine (PM) and rehabilitation specialists, 11% rheumatologists, 10% emergency room (ER) physicians, and 8% anesthesiologists specializing in chronic pain.

RESULTS
Our findings demonstrated that participating clinicians agree that ``point tenderness'' and ``pain reproduction'' are criteria for MPS. In contrast, the clinicians do not consider ``autonomic symptoms'' as an important criterion for MPS. The anesthesiologists view ``restricted range of motion'' as a criterion for MPS more than the other groups, and they tend to consider ``referred pain'' and ``pain reproduction'' as criteria. Physical medicine and rehabilitation specialists and anesthesiologists tend to view ``local twitch response'' more as a criterion for MPS compared with the other groups. Most groups of clinicians consider ``weakness without atrophy'' as an important MPS criterion except for family physicians. It is important to note that ``poor sleep'', ``daytime fatigue'' and ``cognitive symptoms'', which are not considered as MPS symptoms, are often mistaken for MPS among practicing clinicians.

CONCLUSION
Our findings suggest that the diagnostic criteria are not well known, highlighting the need for an expert consensus to determine the importance of each criterion for MPS diagnosis.


Rationale The human heart loses millions of cardiomyocytes after an ischemic injury, but is unable to regenerate the lost tissue. Instead, the injured human heart is repaired by pro-fibrotic fibroblasts that form a large permanent scar. In contrast, the injured zebrafish heart regenerates efficiently without the formation of a permanent scar. While fibroblasts have been shown to be indispensable for zebrafish heart regeneration, very little is known about the mechanisms balancing the fibrotic and regenerative response. A better understanding of these mechanisms could lead to the discovery of novel therapeutic strategies to reduce fibrosis and promote heart regeneration. Objective To identify novel mechanisms that regulate the balance between cardiac fibrosis and scar-free regeneration. Methods and Results Using a genetic approach, we first show that zebrafish prrx1b loss-of-function mutants display reduced cardiomyocyte proliferation and impaired heart regeneration. Using a lineage tracing approach, we show that Prrx1b is expressed in tcf21+ epicardial-derived cells localizing around and inside the injured area. Next, we used a single cell RNA-sequencing approach on sorted tcf21+ cells isolated from injured prrx1b-/- and wild-type hearts and identified two distinct fibroblast populations. With combined bioinformatic and histological analysis we found that prrx1b-/- hearts contain an excess of pro-fibrotic fibroblasts that produce TGF-β ligands and collagens, while fewer pro-regenerative Nrg1-expressing fibroblasts are formed. Furthermore, by injecting recombinant NRG1 in prrx1b-/- fish we were able to rescue their cardiomyocyte proliferation defect. Finally, using cultured human fetal epicardial cells and siRNA mediated knock-down of PRRX1 we found that PRRX1 is required for NRG1 induction in human epicardial-derived cells. Conclusions Prrx1b in the injured heart restricts fibrosis and stimulates regeneration by directing epicardial-derived cells towards a pro-regenerative Nrg1-producing fibroblast state.


Introduction . Desmoid fibroma is a rare mesenchymal tumour developing from differentiated fibroblasts and excessive amounts of collagen fibres. This paper presents a clinical case of removal of an anterior abdominal wall neoplasm — a rectus abdominis muscle desmoid tumour, with the following mesh implant reinforcement of the musculoaponeurotic layer. Materials and methods . A 35 year old female patient Ch. was referred to the surgery department of "V nadezhnykh rukakh" hospital in November 2019, with complaints of a neoplasm in the anterior abdominal wall that was causing pain when touched, and dysuria. The patient's clinical diagnosis was recorded as a neoplasm of the anterior abdominal wall. Results and discussion . The patient underwent further examination and scheduled surgery. The neoplasm was removed completely leaving the surrounding healthy tissues, the anterior abdominal wall was reinforced with a mesh implant. The pathology results matched a rectus abdominis muscle desmoid tumour. Literature offers very little information on anterior abdominal wall neoplasms or procedures for their removal with simultaneous plastic mesh implantation. Cases such as this require further study. Conclusion . A desmoid tumour of the rectus abdominis muscle can be radically removed; the procedure can be combined with the anterior abdominal wall plastic surgery with a mesh implant, making it possible to achieve a pronounced cosmetic effect regardless of the extensive surgical injury.


The purpose of this study was to measure the effects of music, progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), and guided imagery (GI) on the adrenal corticosteroids, or "stress hormones." Hypotheses were designed to evaluate the effect of a taped induction of music/PMR/GI on the mean level (1), circadian amplitude (2), and circadian re-entrainment with body temperature (3) of urinary corticosteroids. Urine collections and body temperature were recorded in shift-working nurses during three 4-5 day intervals over a 1-month period. The nurses listened to the tape on a daily basis, commencing after the first recording period. Results indicated that circadian amplitude decreased significantly (p = .007), and corticosteroid and temperature rhythms were significantly (p less than .01) more entrained during the tape conditions. The mean corticosteroid level also declined during tape listening, but nonsignificantly (p = .15). Because of the close relationship between corticosteroids and the immune system, these data suggest a relationship between music/relaxation techniques and physical health.


We present fabrication and characterization of tungsten (W) heaters for thermo-optic tuning on silicon-on-insulator (SOI). The wafer-scale fabrication of these thermal tuners was done using standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) back-end fabrication materials and processes. Static and transient characterizations of heaters are presented.


Image registration is one of the crucial steps in the fusion processing of image. Image registration, especially for remote sensing image, requires intensive computational efforts while the registration precision is not satisfying generally. This paper introduces a novel image registration method based on the wavelet with excellent performance. The method reduces the data to search via decomposing the image to several effectual subimages by the wavelet, then reduces the searching space through multi-resolution analysis, and refine the solution using an iterative refinement algorithm finally. Experimental results of remote sensing and optical images show that the proposed algorithm outperforms conventional approaches in terms of both computational effort and precision.


The effects of corticosteroids (hydrocortisone, methylprednisolone) on the recovery time from the vecuronium induced neuromuscular block were studied using evoked potential measurements by stimulating ulnar nerve. Plasma concentrations of vecuronium were examined after the administration of hydrocortisone and methylprednisolone using high performance liquid chromatography in 78 surgical patients. Recovery time from the block induced by vecuronium was prolonged by corticosteroids. In case of hydrocortisone, this prolongation effect was significant (P less than 0.01). In the study of plasma concentration, blood samples were taken 40 minutes after administration of vecuronium, plasma concentration of vecuronium is significantly higher in patients given hydrocortisone (124 +/- 8.32 ng.ml-1) (mean +/- SE) than control patients (68.2 +/- 4.71 ng.ml-1) (P less than 0.001). It is speculated that corticosteroids lower the clearance of vecuronium. Prolongation of recovery time from vecuronium induced block after the administration of corticosteroids may be explained not only by the direct effect of hydrocortisone on the neuromuscular junction but also by the effect of hydrocortisone to prolong the elimination of vecuronium from plasma.


The National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators Guide and Resources for Archives Strategic Preservation Planning (NAGARA GRASP), funded by an NHPRC grant, will be the first publication geared for archivists' use in developing comprehensive preservation programs in their own repositories and within cooperative communities. The development, design, and field tests of this preservation planning system are described.


We test for the relative importance of guanxi ('connections') as a catalyst for entrepreneurship in urban China using survey data from five cities for the period 1996–2001. We find that guanxi with the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) is negatively correlated with the likelihood of being either a sole proprietor or an entrepreneur with employees. Family guanxi has no effect for sole proprietors, but is positively correlated with the probability of being an entrepreneur with employees. These findings add to the literature on entrepreneurship in China by differentiating the effects of various types of guanxi on various forms of entrepreneurship.


Conformal prediction is a distribution-free technique for establishing valid prediction intervals. Although conventionally people conduct conformal prediction in the output space, this is not the only possibility. In this paper, we propose feature conformal prediction, which extends the scope of conformal prediction to semantic feature spaces by leveraging the inductive bias of deep representation learning. From a theoretical perspective, we demonstrate that feature conformal prediction provably outperforms regular conformal prediction under mild assumptions. Our approach could be combined with not only vanilla conformal prediction, but also other adaptive conformal prediction methods. Apart from experiments on existing predictive inference benchmarks, we also demonstrate the state-of-the-art performance of the proposed methods on large-scale tasks such as ImageNet classification and Cityscapes image segmentation.The code is available at \url{https://github.com/AlvinWen428/FeatureCP}.


The Euterpe genus (mainly Euterpe oleracea Martius, Euterpe precatoria Martius, and Euterpe edulis Martius) has recently gained commercial and scientific notoriety due to the high nutritional value of its fruits, which are rich in polyphenols (phenolic acids and anthocyanins) and have potent antioxidant activity. These characteristics have contributed to the increased number of neuropharmacological evaluations of the three species over the last 10 years, especially açaí of the species Euterpe oleracea Martius. The fruits of the three species exert neuroprotective effects through the modulation of inflammatory and oxidative pathways and other mechanisms, including the inhibition of the mTOR pathway and protection of the blood–brain barrier, all of them intimately involved in several neuropathologies. Thus, a better understanding of the neuropharmacological properties of these three species may open new paths for the development of therapeutic tools aimed at preventing and treating a variety of neurological conditions.


Objectives: Several studies have previously indicated that children with autism often have abnormalities in methylation, glutathione redox, and mitochondrial function. A common feature of these abnormalities is that they are affected directly or indirectly by levels of ribose, reduced Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide (NADH), reduced Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide Phosphate (NADPH), and Adenosine-5′-triphosphate (ATP). The objective of this study was to investigate the possible biochemical effect of ribose therapy and NADH therapy on children with autism. Design: In a pilot study, ribose was administered orally to eight children with autism for two weeks, and NADH was administered orally to another group of eight children with autism for two weeks. Children were ages 3–9 years with clinical symptoms of low energy and/or low muscle tone. Eighteen biomarkers related to methylation (including S-adenosylmethionine (SAM)), glutathione (including the reduced form, GSH, and the oxidized form GSSG), adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and folic acid and were measured at the beginning and end of the therapy. Results: The NADH group had significant improvements in levels of ribose-5-phosphate, GSH, NADH, NADPH, and SAM. The Ribose group had significant improvements in ribose-5-phosphate, NADH, ATP, and folic acid. There was no significant change in GSSG in either group after two weeks. Conclusions: This small study suggests that both NADH and Ribose therapy results in some improvements in biochemistry, and may be beneficial for treating children with those abnormalities. Larger studies are recommended.


This review briefly characterizes the major Australian seaweed groups that elaborate gelling non-fibrillar wall components; it surveys the research, mostly conducted in the past decade, into the structure and potential applications of their polysaccharides. Recent emphasis has been placed on the chemistry of red-algal galactans, which has provided a chemotaxonomic data set against which hypotheses of algal taxonomy and phylogeny derived from classical morphology can be tested. Although there are ongoing environmental and economic impediments to the establishment of seaweed-based industries in Australia, the phycocolloids from Australian-endemic algae show a chemical diversity and potentially exploitable properties unmatched by species from other world regions. Novel gelling polysaccharides are leading to the exploration of structure–property relationships that will in time promote the development of whole new classes of commercial applications. Future advances in the technologies of commercial processing are likely to result from a deeper understanding of the phycocolloid biosynthesis pathways displayed by Australia's rich genetic store of native seaweeds.


Invited Papers.- An Overview of Fuzzy Relational Calculus and Its Applications.- Golden Quadruplet: Optimization - Inequality - Identity - Operator.- Algorithms for String Pattern Discovery.- Voting in the Medieval Papacy and Religious Orders.- Decision Making.- Static and Dynamic Coalition Formation in Group-Choice Decision Making.- A Multicriteria Fuzzy System Using Residuated Implication Operators and Fuzzy Arithmetic.- A Behavioral Analysis in Decision Making Using Weather Information with the Fuzzy Target Based Decision Model.- Group Decision Making: From Consistency to Consensus.- Weighting Individual Opinions in Group Decision Making.- An Active Learning Method Based on Most Possible Misclassification Sampling Using Committee.- Research on Next Generation Grids Using a Fuzzy Assessment Method.- Combining Prioritized Decisions in Classification.- An Aggregation of Agents, Roles and Coalition Formation to Support Collaborative and Dynamic Organizations.- Non Additive Measures and Concept Lattices.- Multidimensional Fuzzy Integrals.- Lindig's Algorithm for Concept Lattices over Graded Attributes.- A Version of Lebesgue Decomposition Theorem for Non-additive Measure.- Trees in Concept Lattices.- An Axiomatization of Shapley Values of Games on Set Systems.- Clustering and Rough Sets.- Formulation of Fuzzy c-Means Clustering Using Calculus of Variations.- CWC: A Clustering-Based Feature Weighting Approach for Text Classification.- A Novel Spatial Clustering Algorithm with Sampling.- Algorithms for Sequential Extraction of Clusters by Possibilistic Clustering.- Fuzzy c-Means for Data with Tolerance Defined as Hyper-Rectangle.- Kernel Functions Based on Fuzzy Neighborhoods and Agglomerative Clustering.- c-Means Clustering on the Multinomial Manifold.- On a Rough Sets Based Tool for Generating Rules from Data with Categorical and Numerical Values.- Applying Rough Sets to Information Tables Containing Probabilistic Values.- Soft Computing.- Fuzzy Extension of Estimations with Randomness: The Perception-Based Approach.- Boltzmann Machine Incorporated Hybrid Neural Fuzzy System for Hardware/Software Partitioning in Embedded System Design.- Artificial Bee Colony (ABC) Optimization Algorithm for Training Feed-Forward Neural Networks.- A Multi-supplier and Return-Policy Newsboy Model with Limited Budget and Minimum Service Level by Using GA.- Performance Enhancement of RBF Networks in Classification by Removing Outliers in the Training Phase.- An Evolutionary Algorithm with Diversified Crossover Operator for the Heterogeneous Probabilistic TSP.- Applications.- Ordered Data Set Vectorization for Linear Regression on Data Privacy.- A Public-Key Protocol for Social Networks with Private Relationships.- An Incentive-Based System for Information Providers over Peer-to-Peer Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks.- Classification of Normal and Tumor Tissues Using Geometric Representation of Gene Expression Microarray Data.- A Seed-Based Method for Predicting Common Secondary Structures in Unaligned RNA Sequences.- Automatic Segmentation of Neoplastic Hepatic Disease Symptoms in CT Images.- A Robust Localization Method for Mobile Robots Based on Ceiling Landmarks.- Robust Parameter Decision-Making Based on Multidisciplinary Knowledge Model.- Resolution of Singularities and Stochastic Complexity of Complete Bipartite Graph-Type Spin Model in Bayesian Estimation.- A Study of Emotion Recognition and Its Applications.- Error Detection and Correction Based on Chinese Phonemic Alphabet in Chinese Text.- Mining Frequent Diamond Episodes from Event Sequences.- Modeling Decisions for the Time-Dependent Optimal Lane Configuration Policy with Queueing Theory and Mathematical Programming.


We have investigated the role of two selected amino acids, glycine and arginine, on damage induced to a short chain of single stranded DNA, the tetramer GCAT, during 1 eV electron exposure. At this energy, DNA has a high cross section for DNA damage via exclusively dissociative electron attachment. Surprisingly, at low ratios of glycine:GCAT, an increase in the total fragmentation yield is observed, whilst at higher ratios, glycine and arginine appear to protect DNA from the direct action of electrons. In addition, binding energies were calculated by molecular modelling of the interactions between these amino acids and either nucleobases or nucleotides. These binding energies appear to be related to the ability of amino acids to protect DNA against low energy electron damage.


Lignocellulose prepared from sawdust was investigated for its potential application in obtaining a raw decaffeinated tea polyphenol fraction from tea extract. Tea polyphenols having gallate residues, namely, (-)epigallocatechin gallate (EGCg) and (-)epicatechin gallate (ECg), were adsorbed on the lignocellulose column, while caffeine was passed through it. Adsorbed polyphenols were eluted with 60% ethanol, and the elute was found to consist mainly of EGCg and ECg. The caffeine/EGCg ratio was 0.696 before lignocellulose column treatment, but it became 0.004 after the column treatment. These results suggest that the lignocellulose column provides a useful and convenient process of purification of tea polyphenol fraction accompanied by decaffeination.


Introduction & hypothesis This is an experimental pre-clinical study testing for the applicability of autologous skeletal muscle derived cells as a seeded sling for the treatment of SUI in the canine model Methods 10 Mongrel dogs: In 4, skeletal muscle biopsy was harvested from Biceps Femoris. 1 month later, incontinence was induced in 8 dogs through surgical disruption of the pubourethral ligaments. Muscle biopsy was incubated in DMEM medium and after expansion for 8 weeks, MDCs were collected. PGA scaffold was immersed in culture medium, coated with matrigel and cells were seeded. The sling was placed suburethrally in 8 dogs; 2 of which were cell-seeded and 4 had the scaffold only. Urethral pressure (UP) measurement was done at baseline and 2 weeks alter insertion of the sling. The urethra with its surrounding was harvested 4 weeks after sling insertion for histopathology. 2 dogs were considered as control, in which no urethrolysis or insertion of slings were carried out Results UP show increase of maximum urethral pressure during static measurement in all dogs with a scaffold inserted. The increase ranged from 5-40 cmH20 (Median 23 cmH20) Histopathology shows significant periurethral proliferation of skeletal muscles in 4 dogs with cell-seeded scaffold, as demonstrated by Desmin. This was maximum in dogs # 1& 2. This was not the case in the 4 dogs that had PGA sling only. Conclusion The use of skeletal muscle –seeded PGA scaffold is a practical technique with preserved integrity of histological differentiation in canine model at short term. Brief Summary Autologous Skeletal muscle-derived cells could be propagated in vitro and seeded to PGS scaffolds and used as slings


As repositories into which different types of data without pre-processing and modelling can be added, Data Lakes have attracted much interest. They speed up the delivery of data to users and preserve its highest granularity level. That same flexibility can be dangerous. If not managed, it is easy to lose control of the repository because of the volume it holds and its growth. As Data Lakes do not carry the semantics of a regular database, understanding its contents can be cumbersome, which undermines its widespread use within a company, dampening the perception that it has helped data science efforts. This work uses knowledge management models as a basis to solve these issues by enriching the data in a Data Lake with information that enhances its usability. Concomitantly, with the use of a data portal platform and suggested metadata, we propose a portal that provides easy access to the Data Lake.


Perovskite photovoltaic (PV) cells have demonstrated power conversion efficiencies (PCE) that are close to those of monocrystalline silicon cells; however, in contrast to silicon PV, perovskites are not limited by Auger recombination under 1‐sun illumination. Nevertheless, compared to GaAs and monocrystalline silicon PV, perovskite cells have significantly lower fill factors due to a combination of resistive and non‐radiative recombination losses. This necessitates a deeper understanding of the underlying loss mechanisms and in particular the ideality factor of the cell. By measuring the intensity dependence of the external open‐circuit voltage and the internal quasi‐Fermi level splitting (QFLS), the transport resistance‐free efficiency of the complete cell as well as the efficiency potential of any neat perovskite film with or without attached transport layers are quantified. Moreover, intensity‐dependent QFLS measurements on different perovskite compositions allows for disentangling of the impact of the interfaces and the perovskite surface on the non‐radiative fill factor and open‐circuit voltage loss. It is found that potassium‐passivated triple cation perovskite films stand out by their exceptionally high implied PCEs > 28%, which could be achieved with ideal transport layers. Finally, strategies are presented to reduce both the ideality factor and transport losses to push the efficiency to the thermodynamic limit.


Over the past decade, the roles of nicotinamide N-methyltransferase and its product 1-methyl nicotinamide have emerged from playing merely minor roles in phase 2 xenobiotic metabolism as actors in some of the most important scenes of human life. In this review, the structures of the gene, messenger RNA, and protein are discussed, together with the role of the enzyme in many of the common cancers that afflict people today.


This study considers the consensus tracking problem of singular multi-agent systems by using an iterative learning control approach. Here, the communication among the followers is described by a directed graph, and only a portion of the followers can receive the leader's information. For such singular multi-agent systems, a unified iterative learning algorithm is proposed in both continuous-time domain and discrete-time domain. Furthermore, the convergence condition of the algorithm is presented and analysed. In this study, the main contribution is to extend the iterative learning control theory from multi-agent systems to singular multi-agent systems. It is shown that the algorithm can guarantee the outputs of the followers converge to the leader's trajectory on a finite time interval along the iteration axis. Finally, the provided examples illustrate the effectiveness of the theoretical results.


The electronic structures of Lindqvist type functionalized polyoxometalates (POM) ([Mo6O18R]n- R=O, NO, NAr, NNAr, NNAr2; n=2, 3) have been investigated using density functional methods. We discuss the role of the replacement of terminal oxo ligands by pi-donor/acceptor multiple-bonded nitrogenous ligands on the basis of geometrical parameters, charge analyses, reactivity indexes, and vibrational spectra. The calculated reactivity indexes (chemical potential, electronegativity, hardness, and electrophilicity) indicate that the most reactive functionalized POMs are those substituted by pi-acceptor ligands. These pi-acceptor ligands induce a decrease in the hardness and an increase in the chemical potential and electrophilicity, thus increasing the reactivity. Our calculations are in reasonable agreement with reported experimental data.


In parallel to developing technology, demand for more energy makes us seek new energy sources. The most important application field of this search is renewable energy resources. Wind and solar energy have been popular ones owing to abundant, ease of availability and convertibility to the electric energy. Matlab based hybrid model of solar and wind is developed. In this model two different power systems i.e., Solar and Wind are combined to supply a single phase load. Initially the elements of solar and wind turbine is studied and the main component of both systems is identified. After that, a hybrid system which consists of the two systems is determined. The data that is used for this simulation is solar irradiance, wind speed and temperature. After the entire element has been determined, the hybrid system is modelled using MATLAB/Simulink. Furthermore, the power output using the data is analysed. With increasing power demand and shortage of fossil fuel, non-conventional energy sources will be more popular in near future.


In this work, electromagnetic radiation problems involving electrically large radiators and reflectors are to be solved using the fast multipole method (FMM). Structures that are intentional radiators, such as antennas, have to be designed to optimize the required radiation characteristics, such as the field pattern, directivity, impedance, and bandwidth. On the other hand, unintentional radiators, such as electronic systems, have to be designed to supress the radiation mechanisms. Computational simulation of both types of radiators can be used to improve the design in a shorter time spending less resources. However, some interesting real-life radiation problems are electrically very large and thus cannot be solved using traditional solution algorithms due to the limitations on the computational resources. The FMM [l-31 enables the solution of larger problems with existing computational resources by reducing the computational complexity and the memory requirement of the solution without sacrificing the accuracy. This is achieved by replacing the matrix-vector multiplications of O ( N 2 ) complexity by a faster equivalent of O(N1.5) complexity in each iteration of an iterative scheme. Some versions of the FMM have complexities that are even lower than O(N1.5) per iteration. In contrast, a direct solution would require O ( N 3 ) operations. 3D radiation problems involving complicated geometries will be modelled using arbitrary surface triangulations. Piecewise linear basis functions defined on triangular domains due to Rao, Wilton, and Glisson [4] and referred to as RWG basis functions will be used to approximate the induced currents.


How have sociologists engaged the late philosopher Charles Mills' landmark The Racial Contract (1997) in the twenty-five years since its publication? I first synthesize and periodize the corpus of sociological research citing The Racial Contract into two chronological and epistemological waves. The first wave (1997-2009) is distinguished by the scholarship of a vanguard who drew on the text, and direct engagement with Mills himself, in a paradigmatic shift away from the sociological study of race relations to the study of racism. The second wave (2010-present) is characterized by a fivefold increase in the text's citation, tied to a resurgence of Du Boisian sociology and the early-career projects of a new generation of sociologists, as the text diffused from the sociology of race into other subfields of the discipline. I then go on to describe the influence of The Racial Contract on theory, data, and method in my own scholarship on racialization, first during my graduate studies in the United States, and later, as Sociology faculty in Canada at the University of Toronto, Mills' alma mater. I end the essay with proposals for how a third wave of sociological engagement with The Racial Contract can more rigorously engage the text's originating relationship to feminist political theory, as well as more actively be in dialogue with a new generation of critical philosophers who are already speaking back to us by centrally drawing on the work of sociologists.


Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a poor survival rate, partly due to delayed diagnosis. Identifying high-risk individuals could lead to early detection and improve survival. A number of risk factors such as alcohol consumption and metabolic syndrome are associated with fatty infiltration of the pancreas. Experimental models show that a fatty pancreas promotes tissue inflammation and fibrosis, which could promote PDAC. Methods: We conducted a case-control study in a single-university tertiary hospital. Sixty-eight PDAC cases with recent non-contrast computed tomography (CT) and 235 controls were studied. The controls had no history of malignancy and underwent CT colonography for cancer screening in the same period. Pancreatic fat was estimated by calculating pancreatic (P) attenuation, corrected to splenic (S) attenuation, measured in three 1.0-cm2 regions of the pancreas. The P.S100 value calculated was used to estimate fatty infiltration of the pancreas (FIP), with a lower P.S100 representing a higher FIP. Results: The PDAC patients had a lower BMI and a higher rate of type 2 diabetes mellitus. The P.S100 was lower in cases than in controls (86.452 vs. 92.414, p = 4.016e-06), suggesting that FIP is higher with PDAC. The risk of developing PDAC steadily increased significantly for the quartiles with a higher FIP compared to the low FIP quartile. No correlation between BMI and FIP (r = –0.1031179; 95% confidence interval [CI] –0.22267106 to 0.01949092) was found. Adjusting for confounders (age, sex, BMI, and DM), the risk of developing PDAC according to the FIP was estimated to be 3.75 (95% CI 1.9234408–7.993337; p = 0.000171). FIP was stable before and after the diagnosis of PDAC in 9 cases with prior CT scans when no pancreatic tumor was identifiable. Conclusion: Fatty pancreas is associated with an increased risk of pancreatic cancer. Once confirmed in larger-scale studies, these findings could help to identify at-risk individuals, particularly in high-risk groups such as chronic alcohol consumers


There are many limitations for conducting liver disease research in human beings due to the high cost and potential ethical issues. For this reason, conducting a study that is difficult to perform in humans using appropriate animal models, can be beneficial in ascertaining the pathological physiology, and in developing new treatment modalities. However, it is difficult to determine the appropriate animal model which is suitable for research purposes, since every patient has different and diverse clinical symptoms, adverse reactions, and complications due to the pathological physiology. Also, it is not easy to reproduce identically various clinical situations in animal models. Recently, the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals has tightened up the regulations, and therefore it is advisable to select the appropriate animals and decide upon the appropriate quantities through scientific and systemic considerations before conducting animal testing. Therefore, in this review article the authors examined various white rat animal testing models and determined the appropriate usable rat model, and the pros and cons of its application in liver disease research. The authors believe that this review will be beneficial in selecting proper laboratory animals for research purposes.


NO3 radicals accumulate during the night, thereby being the most critical night oxidant. Owing to the low concentration and dramatic variation, the detection of atmospheric NO3 radicals is still challenging. In this paper, an LED-based Long Path Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (LPDOAS) instrument is developed for measuring the atmospheric NO3 radicals. This instrument is composed of a Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope, a combined emitting and receiving fiber, and a red LED equipped with a thermostat, and has a center wavelength of 660 nm, covering the NO3 strongest absorption peak (662 nm). The influence of LED temperature fluctuations is discussed. The temperature of the LED lamp with a home-made thermostat is tested, showing a stability of ±0.1 °C. The principle and fitting analyses of LED-LPDOAS are presented. A retrieval example and a time series of NO3 radical concentrations with good continuity for one night are shown. The detection limit of NO3 for 2.6-km optical path is about 10 ppt.


A review of the state of the Internet in terms of traffic and services trends covering both the Research and Education and the Commercial Internet will first be given. The problematic behind the IPv4 to IPv6 migration will be explained shortly, a short review of the ongoing efforts to re-design the Internet in a clean-slate approach will then be made.


The present study sheds light on species delimitation in what has been previously described as Rhinolophus arcuatus, a morphologically conservative bat species complex nominally distributed throughout archipelagic South‐East Asia from New Guinea to Sumatra. Given that rhinolophids tend to be relatively weak fliers, hence have low vagility, we hypothesized that some specimens attributed to R. arcuatus, but originating from geographically disjunct populations, may in fact represent distinct species. To test this hypothesis, we examined specimens attributed to R. arcuatus as well as to other species in the Rhinolophus euryotis species group using both morphological techniques and mitochondrial cytochrome b and control region sequences. Careful morphological analysis reveals heretofore cryptic but nevertheless distinct, species‐level morphological differences among specimens derived from geographically isolated locations. Furthermore, molecular data illuminate the existence of several species‐level sequence divergences among specimens heretofore attributed to R. arcuatus. These analyses similarly suggest the existence of additional species in other South‐East Asian Rhinolophus taxa previously considered monotypic. We suggest at least one description to be undertaken of a previously unrecognized species as well as the elevation of several others from sub‐specific to specific status.


Background— Several microRNAs (miRs) have been shown to regulate gene expression in the heart, and dysregulation of their expression has been linked to cardiac disease. miR-378 is strongly expressed in the mammalian heart but so far has been studied predominantly in cancer, in which it regulates cell survival and tumor growth. Methods and Results— Here, we report tight control of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy through miR-378. In isolated primary cardiomyocytes, miR-378 was found to be both necessary and sufficient to repress cardiomyocyte hypertrophy. Bioinformatic prediction suggested that factors of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway are enriched among miR-378 targets. Using mRNA and protein expression analysis along with luciferase assays, we validated 4 key components of the MAPK pathway as targets of miR-378: MAPK1 itself, insulin-like growth factor receptor 1, growth factor receptor-bound protein 2, and kinase suppressor of ras 1. RNA interference with these targets prevented the prohypertrophic effect of antimiR-378, suggesting their functional relation with miR-378. Because miR-378 significantly decreases in cardiac disease, we sought to compensate for its loss through adeno-associated virus–mediated, cardiomyocyte-targeted expression of miR-378 in an in vivo model of cardiac hypertrophy (pressure overload by thoracic aortic constriction). Restoration of miR-378 levels significantly attenuated thoracic aortic constriction–induced cardiac hypertrophy and improved cardiac function. Conclusions— Our data identify miR-378 as a regulator of cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, which exerts its activity by suppressing the MAPK signaling pathway on several distinct levels. Restoration of disease-associated loss of miR-378 through cardiomyocyte-targeted adeno-associated virus–miR-378 may prove to be an effective therapeutic strategy in myocardial disease.


The 36th Annual David W Smith Workshop on Malformations and Morphogenesis was held on August 14–19, 2015 at the Harbourtowne Conference Center in St. Michaels Maryland. The Workshop, which honors the legacy of David W Smith, brought together over 120 clinicians and researchers interested in congenital malformations and their underlying mechanisms of morphogenesis. As is the tradition of the meeting, the Workshop highlighted five themes besides mechanisms of morphogenesis: Rasopathies, Eye Malformations, Therapeutics, Prenatal Diagnosis, and Disorders of Sex Development. This Conference Report includes the abstracts presented at the 2015 Workshop. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


FDA has issued a Safety Announcement warning that serious allergic reactions have been reported with the use of the antipsychotic medication asenapine maleate (Saphris).


Artificial Intelligence is great when it comes to routine activities and vast amounts of data are analyzed. This can be done more quickly and efficiently than men. In the world of digital marketing, Artificial Intelligence is quickly coming into play. With Artificial Intelligence joining the digital marketing environment, predicting user behavior, search cycles, and much more will be easier. This can support websites that are highly user-friendly for organizations. Moreover, with the aid of Artificial Intelligence, content creation has become a faster and easier task for brands. Practically, a company's degree of enterprise marketing can have an effect on its overall business efficiency. Entrepreneurial marketing is driven by entrepreneurial opportunities which involves the proactive identification and exploitation of opportunities for acquiring and retaining profitable customers through Digital approaches to risk management, resource leveraging and value creation. This research was done by collecting data using semi structure questionnaire distributed to 169 start up owners in Klang Valley area. Using two-layer 6-3-1 with hyperbolic tangent-purelin configurations neural network model, it was found that proactiveness, risk taking, resource leveraging, opportunity focus, intensity and value add are the significant factors towards digital marketing respectively. It is expected that the findings would give some inputs to the Malaysian entrepreneurs on innovative digital marketing in their businesses, regardless the sizes.


While a definitive Alzheimer's disease (AD) diagnosis remains a post-mortem exercise, the ATN Research Framework proposed by the National Institute on Aging and the Alzheimer's Association utilizes a score representing the presence of amyloid deposits (A), tau deposits (T) and neuronal degeneration markers (N), with A+T+ necessary for a positive diagnosis. Current detection of tau pathology lags amyloid detection by years and by the time both markers are detected the disease is fairly advanced. We describe the development of a new generation of molecular imaging probes for in vivo detection of cells undergoing abnormal phosphorylation representing the initial stages of pTau pathology, potentially enabling a very early stage diagnosis of AD. We describe a novel nanoparticle formulation that binds such abnormally phosphorylating cells in a mouse model of tau pathology, enabling in vivo visualization of the hyperphosphorylative state by magnetic resonance imaging. Our results demonstrate the potential of this novel platform to identify a correlative marker signifying the development of future tau pathology, and has implications for early-stage diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease.


The dismantling robot with highly accurate positioning was developed and the robot must cut the plasterboard that is fixed to light gauge steel with the screw bolt under the plasterboard, so the sensor with magnets to detect and trace the light gauge steel was designed [1]. The developed sensing method has detecting mode and tracing mode to keep high position accuracy and high scanning speed. It is installed to the dismantling robot and tested for detecting and tracing the light gauge steel. The test showed that the sensing system and design method is practically useful.


Urban slums are proliferating in the developing countries. A corollary of this structural transformation is the increasing recognition of an urban penalty wherein slum populations exhibit notable inequalities in health relative to non-slum urban residents and even rural populations. The built urban environment, in turn, is a crucial context within which the social production of disproportionate morbidity and mortality is enacted. The authors develop this assertion and use bivariate and partial correlation analysis to highlight the association of urban slum prevalence, or proportion of the total population living in urban slum conditions, with indicators of mortality and gender parity, measured at the national level. Data for 99 developing countries show that greater urban slum prevalence is strongly correlated with higher levels of infant, child, and maternal mortality. Further, urban slum prevalence exhibits strong, deleterious correlations with gender parity (measured by the gender development index) and fertility rate, factors that have a crucial direct impact in shaping variant mortality levels. Future research is warranted on the social inequalities in health and illness derived from the expansion of urban slum conditions in the developing countries.


A simple, one-step novel solution process was developed for the synthesis of carbon-doped CuO (C-CuO) nanoribbons without the use of a catalyst, template, substrate, or costly instrumentation at room temperature. The precursor materials used were converted into C-CuO nanoribbons in ethanol (95%) at high concentrations (4.37 mg mL−1) as a colloidal solution with very high dispersion stability. The simplicity, reaction time, production cost, production yield, and environmental friendliness of this process make it suitable for the large-scale industrial production of C-CuO nanoribbons. The prepared nanoribbon is also separable and redispersible in other organic solvents. The dispersibility in multiple solvents highlights its versatility as a platform for depositing other nanomaterials on its surface in organic media to improve its additional properties as a candidate for other applications. Its three-dimensional surface morphology was characterized, which suggested that the prepared C-CuO nanoribbon was highly porous. Free-standing C-CuO nanoribbon films were also prepared using a simple process. The prepared film of porous C-CuO nanoribbon exhibited excellent light absorption ability in the range from visible to near-IR light with higher intensity. The superior light absorption properties of the C-CuO nanoribbons were utilized in a photocatalyst to decompose an organic dye in visible light. The degradation of the organic dye (96.64%), recycling performance (93.94%), number of cycles (24), and degradation time (120 min) highlight its potential as a very good photocatalyst.


Present available studies suggest that heparin prevents early vessel thrombosis in the immediate postoperative (POP) period after lower extremity bypass. Long-term anticoagulation with warfarin has also been used in these patients, based on its beneficial effect in preventing long-term graft failure. To compare the effectiveness between unfractionated heparin (UH) and low-molecular-weight heparin (enoxaparin) when used as transitional therapeutic POP anticoagulant therapy, a prospective study was performed. Seventy consecutive patients undergoing lower extremity bypass were studied. The initial 35 patients were started on a drip of UH 6 hours POP. The next 35 consecutive patients were treated with enoxaparin, the first dose starting 6 hours POP. All patients underwent subsequent anticoagulation with oral warfarin. There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups with regard to demographics, percentage of above/below the knee bypasses, type of conduit used, emergency operations, and overall complications. There was a significant difference in the length of stay (p = 0.05) in favor of the enoxaparin group, which also reflected a decreased overall cost in this group. In conclusion, POP anticoagulation with enoxaparin is as safe end effective as UH in patients undergoing lower extremity revascularization. Enoxaparin was associated with a decreased overall length of stay and hospital costs.


Synthesis and secretion of atrial natriuretic peptides (ANPs) are not confined to the atrium, but are also present in other tissues. Recently, we have found synthesis of ANP in the eggs of several vertebrate animals. The present study was undertaken to determine whether immunoreactive ANP (irANP) is present in the egg of an invertebrate, the silkworm (Bombyx mori L.). The serial dilution curve of egg extracts of silkworm was parallel to the standard curve of atriopeptin III. Analysis of ANP immunoreactivity by gel filtration chromatography and reverse-phase HPLC showed that the major immunoreactivity corresponded to rat proANP. The semipurified irANP of egg extracts produced a dose-dependent relaxation on rat aortic strips, which was blocked by preincubation with anti-ANP antiserum. Therefore, we suggest that ANP is synthesized in the silkworm egg.


Trichomoniasis is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections worldwide. In women, Trichomonas vaginalis infection may present with vaginitis, cervicitis, or pelvic inflammatory disease, while in men it is mainly asymptomatic or causes mild and transient symptoms of urethritis, epididymitis, or prostatitis. In the past, little importance had been given to the impact of T. vaginalis infection on men's health, since it was believed to be a self-limited condition without sequelae. However, there is growing evidence it is associated with more serious disorders in both men and women and efforts to diagnose and treat this parasitic infection have increased. Recent advances in testing for sexually transmitted diseases using multiplex molecular assays have increased diagnostic opportunities for T. vaginalis infection, especially in men, as detection of the parasite by traditional methods is much more challenging. We describe an unusual case of male urethritis caused by T. vaginalis observed in our consultation of Sexually Transmitted Infections.


We previously examined the cortical processing in response to somatosensory, auditory and noxious stimuli, using magnetoencephalography in humans. Here, we performed a similar analysis of the processing in the human visual cortex for comparative purposes. After flash stimuli applied to the right eye, activations were found in eight cortical areas: the left medial occipital area around the calcarine fissure (primary visual cortex, V1), the left dorsomedial area around the parietooccipital sulcus (DM), the ventral (MOv) and dorsal (MOd) parts of the middle occipital area of bilateral hemispheres, the left temporo-occipito-parietal cortex corresponding to human MT/V5 (hMT), and the ventral surface of the medial occipital area (VO) of the bilateral hemispheres. The mean onset latencies of each cortical activity were (in ms): 27.5 (V1), 31.8 (DM), 32.8 (left MOv), 32.2 (right MOv), 33.4 (left MOd), 32.3 (right MOv), 37.8 (hMT), 46.9 (left VO), and 46.4 (right VO). Therefore the cortico-cortical connection time of visual processing at the early stage was 4-6 ms, which is very similar to the time delay between sequential activations in somatosensory and auditory processing. In addition, the activities in V1, MOd, DM, and hMT showed a similar biphasic waveform with a reversal of polarity after 10 ms, which is a common activation profile of the cortical activity for somatosensory, auditory, and pain-evoked responses. These results suggest similar mechanisms of the serial cortico-cortical processing of sensory information among all sensory areas of the cortex.


This book offers an intercultural and interdis ciplinary view on new dramaturgy, exploring dramaturgical trends in different cultures (e.g. Australia, New Zealand, Israel), and in relation to various aspects such as dance, text, neuroscience, and spectatorship. Its international and multiperspectival scope constitutes an intervention into the growing body of work on the evolution of dramaturgy that has focused fundamentally on European and British theatre traditions. Katalin Trencsényi and Bernadette Cochrane's foreword provides an overview of the emerging vocabulary (e.g. visual dramaturgy, mediaturgy), highlighting the need for a new terminology to identify contemporary dramaturgical theory and practices. They draw on Marianne Van Kerk hoven and others' notion of 'new dramaturgy' that, while not excluding traditional dramaturgy, emerged in response to the developing of 'para digms other than the traditional'. The editors identify multiple and sometimes contradictory discussions about new dramaturgy through three features: postmimetic, process-conscious, and intercultural. The five sections explore new dramaturgy in relation to different aspects: theory, text, devising, dance, and spectatorship. The first presents a theoretical discussion providing the reader with two viewpoints: Joseph Danan, Peter Eckersall et al. explore new dramaturgy – a concept whose epistemological necessity they do not question – in relation to postdramatic theatre and contem porary social context, whereas Alan Lawrence defines the need for 'new branches of dramaturgy' to discuss contemporary performance. The following sections investigate various aspects of dramaturgical practices and the chang ing role of the dramaturg. Duška Radosavljevi presents a stimulating discussion on the shift of the dramaturg's role from the 'guardian of the written word' to an active facilitator between audience and stage, while the dialogue betwen Lou Cope (dramaturg) and Koen Augustijnen (choreographer) identifies the dramaturg as 'an artist, a practitioner, a collaborator'. The thoughtprovoking debates around text, presented in the interviews by Yolanda Ferrato, Gad Kaynar, and Ana Pais, examine the post-mimetic treatments of text in performance by illustrating innovative storytelling strategies through 'non-dramatic texts'. The intercultural spectrum, including Ruth Kanner's practice in Israel and Rachel Swain's analysis of Australian 'intercultural-indigenous performance', renders this book an idiosyncratic addition to the current research that explores Western theatre. Also remarkable is the insight ful section on the spectator and new dramaturgy. Cathy Turner's and Peter Boenisch's analyses of the spectator as effective participants through the 'porous drama turgy' of site-specific performance and 'relational dramaturgy' explore an under-examined aspect of contemporary dramaturgy. This closing dis cussion opens up new vistas for further inves tigation, particularly concerning the modes of spectatorship in mediatized performances. The broad range of perspectives on new dramaturgy presented in this book provides fertile ground for new thinking and will be a useful resource for scholars, dramaturgs, practi tioners, and students alike. seda itler


In this study, Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) were generated from ASTER stereo images for a study area enclosing the city of Ankara and covering an area of 3600 km/sup 2/. Majority of the area was covered by large scale orthophotos, which were used as the main source to collect the Ground Control Points (GCPs). For those areas that were not covered by the orthophotos the GCPs were collected through a differential GPS. The bundle adjustment process and the generation of DEMs were carried out using PCI Geomatica image analysis software. In order to find the best GCP combination, DEMs were generated using different number of GCPs (8, 16, 24 and 32). DEM accuracies were assessed based on different parameters including the check points, slopes and land cover types. The accuracies of the resulting DEMs revealed that 16 GCPs were good compromise to produce the most accurate DEM. It was found that the post processing and blunder removal were crucial stages that affect the overall DEM accuracy up to 38%. There was a strong linear relationship between the accuracy of DEMs and the terrain slopes. For urban and forested areas, the accuracy in elevation was found to be 8.03 m and 12.69 m, respectively. The overall accuracy computed for 2,171,664 points produced 10.92 m elevation accuracy.


The quality of level 1 evidence in reports on deep hypothermic circulatory arrest was assessed, and the confounding factors in surgical management and study design that can prevent meta-analysis formulation were determined. A systematic search of the literature was conducted using categorized nomenclature for randomized controlled trials in adult patients undergoing deep hypothermic circulatory arrest in the last 40 years. Twelve randomized controlled trials (2.3%) were found among 504 publications on deep hypothermic circulatory arrest listed on Medline from 1960; only 4 of them related to adults. One adequately powered study demonstrated reduced blood loss in deep hypothermic circulatory arrest using aprotinin. Three studies comparing retrograde and antegrade perfusion were underpowered. The median CONSORT score was 14 (range, 13–15). There were no consistent measures of similar outcomes (neuropsychometric, neurocognitive). No explanation was provided for the difference in reported ranges of neurological deficits in nonrandomized (5%–70%) and randomized (3%–9%) studies. Existing studies of deep hypothermic circulatory arrest are insufficient and inconsistent in the outcome measured, which explains the lack of a meta-analysis. Neurological injury remains high, and an appropriately powered study of interventions that can optimize cerebral perfusion is necessary.


Abstract. As many as 30% of COVID-19 patients have comorbid diabetes mellitus. Diabetes is suspected to cause worsening of symptoms and a prolonged duration of symptoms known as long COVID-19. The high number of COVID-19 cases in Indonesia will probably be directly proportional to the long incidence of COVID-19, in Indonesia there are as many as 63.5% of COVID-19 patients experiencing symptoms of long COVID-19. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationship between comorbid diabetes mellitus and symptoms of long COVID-19. The method used in this research is case control analysis. The research subjects were 91 COVID-19 patients who had been hospitalized at SMC Tasikmalaya Hospital and Cideres Majalengka Hospital and had been declared cured, selected by purposive sampling technique. Processing data using fisher's exact test. The results showed that 50 subjects were male and 41 subjects were female. 51 subjects had a history of comorbid diabetes mellitus. There were 46 subjects experiencing symptoms of long COVID-19 with the most age range experiencing symptoms of long COVID-19 at the age of 41-60 years as many as 53 subjects and the least at age >60 years as many as 18 subjects. There was no significant relationship between co-morbid diabetes mellitus and symptoms of long COVID-19 with a p-value of 0.240 (>0.05). It was concluded that comorbid diabetes mellitus in COVID-19 patients is not a risk factor for the appearance of long-term symptoms of COVID-19.
Keywords: COVID-19, diabetes mellitus, long COVID-19


Abstract This article identifies the current explosion of conservation policies in the Pyrenees as the most recent wave of a long-standing tradition of state-driven territorial policies. The very existence of these policies cannot be understood without taking into account the consequences of two hundred years of territorial rationalization, land expropriation and natural resource control. Depopulation, agricultural involution and forest recovery are partial consequences, not necessarily intended, of the expansion of the modern Spanish state. In addition to identifying a similar ideological background for the four phases of the model presented here (municipalization, disentailment, expropriation and parks implementation), I also argue that the territorial composition of the current protected areas would be impossible without the synergistic effects of the preceding state actions. This article establishes a deep historical political genealogy of territorial appropriation that has consequences at all levels of the local landscape. Introduction For natural resource managers, environmentalists and other individuals situated in the thick of controversies over conservation and the management of landscapes, a state-centered historical perspective is last on their list of concerns. The conservation discourse is one in which the recent past is often conceived singularly as a period of unmitigated natural loss, and the orientation is fixed toward future possibilities for reclamation and redemption. Nevertheless, a historical perspective is often an overlooked means of understanding the broader picture of the relationship between state and landscape. The comprehension of this historical relationship dismantles the divide between the natural and the social. It explains landscapes as the result of the interaction between biophysical reality, human inhabitation, productive practices, and policies. Particularly, but not solely in the European context, an analysis of conservation policies within a much larger, state-centered historical and political process helps to explain how land tenure regimes came to be, and gives insight into the current management of the landscape. By locating ownership, we locate decision-making capability. By recording land uses and ecological status, we develop an understanding of practical, everyday life in the territory (Cronon 1983). Phenomena such as enclosure, imposition of strict land use regulations, forced evictions, extinction of local land use rights, sudden changes in ownership or uses and environmental shifts serve as windows into governmental technologies and their consequences (Darby 2000). The Pyrenees lie within the northern strip of Catalonia along the French border. At the northern end of the Barcelona province, nestled within a thicket of protected areas, we find the mountainous district of Bergueda. The two municipalities where most of the land at the end of the upper watershed of the Llobregat River is concentrated-Ia Pobla de Lillet and Castellar de n'Hug-have 70 percent of their territory under the jurisdiction of some sort of environmental policy designed to protect environmental values. As in most of the Pyrenees, this region is characterized by rural depopulation, economic decline, a high proportion of public and common land, relatively undisturbed ecosystems and a disproportionate presence of conservation policies compared to elsewhere in Spain. Why is it that landscapes in the hinterlands of many industrialized societies are currendy dominated by diose few key elements: depopulation, a conflictive transition from primary to tertiary sector uses, a disproportionate amount of public land and the marked presence of conservation areas? In order to explain this familiar situation and the connection between state-making and landscape formation, I focus on modern Spanish policies and the historical data-rich upper Llobregat region of Catalonia, Spain. My research on these topics focuses on three surviving villages in the Valley of Lillet: Ia Pobla de Lillet, Castellar de n'Hug and Sant Julia de Cerdanyola (Figure 1). …


Previous studies have shown contradictory results regarding magnesium-mediated neuroprotection in animal models of perinatal asphyxia. The aim of this study is to investigate the e fects of MgSO4 postasphyxial treatment on hypoxia-ischemia (HI)—induced brain injury in neonatal rats and the possibility that this e fect is related to the severity of brain damage. Seven-day-old rats underwent unilateral carotid artery ligation followed by 1 or 2 hours of hypoxia (8% O2) and MgSO4 administration. Adenosine triphosphate/phosphocreatine and glutamate/glutamine measurements and neuropathological evaluation of the hippocampus were used to assess the e fects of HI and MgSO4. HI caused time-dependent changes in energy stores, amino acid concentrations, and brain damage. Administration of MgSO4 after 1 hour but not after 2 hours of hypoxia resulted in significant prevention of HI-induced brain injury. MgSO4 administration results in a significant protection against moderate HI-induced brain damage, whereas it fails to offer a similar effect against severe brain damage.


ABSTRACT Archaeologists have been using luminescence to date pottery in South America since the late 1970s, inspired by early success in northern Chile. However, luminescence dates have not been rigorously compared to independent dating methods, which this paper's goal. First, we present a compilation of 94 paired 14C and luminescence dates from the southern Andes, which reveals discrepancies across a range of contexts and ages. Second, we compare two Bayesian models of sets of 14C and thermoluminescence (TL) dates from three ceramic styles in the Azapa Valley, Chile, and the Inca occupation of Mendoza, Argentina. We find that only the 14C models produce results that agree with expectations based on independent data. Third, we present results from a pilot study in Mendoza that dated 6 sherds with 3 luminescence methods each and closely associated 14C dates. The reasons for disagreement between methods remain unclear, but Andean sediments with low and unstable luminescence sensitivity seem to be an important factor. Even though some luminescence ages are accurate, the clear trend of inconsistent results leads us to recommend that archaeologists use 14C rather than luminescence dates to build cultural chronologies.


Abstract Biological systems exhibit unique phenotypes as the result of the expression of a genomic program. The regulation of this program is a complex phenomenon, wherein different regulatory mechanisms are involved. The deregulation of this program is at the centre of the emergence of diseases such as breast cancer. In particular, it has been observed that coregulation patterns between physically distant genes are lost in breast cancer. In this work, we present a systematic study of chromosome-wide gene coregulation patterns in breast cancer as inferred by information theoretical measures over large (whole-genome expression in several hundred transcriptomes) experimental data corpora. We analyzed the chromosomal distance decay of correlations and found it to be with fat-tail distribution in breast cancer while being fundamentally constant in nontumour samples. After model discrimination analyses, we concluded that the behaviour of the breast cancer distributions belongs to an intermediate regime between power law and Weibull distributions, with distinctive contributions corresponding to different chromosomes. This behaviour may have biological implications in terms of the organization of the gene regulatory program, and the changes found in this program between health and disease.


Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has been applied successfully to many robotic applications. However, the large number of trials needed for training is a key issue. Most of existing techniques developed to improve training efficiency (e.g. imitation) target on general tasks rather than being tailored for robot applications, which have their specific context to benefit from. We propose a novel framework, Assisted Reinforcement Learning, where a classical controller (e.g. a PID controller) is used as an alternative, switchable policy to speed up training of DRL for local planning and navigation problems. The core idea is that the simple control law allows the robot to rapidly learn sensible primitives, like driving in a straight line, instead of random exploration. As the actor network becomes more advanced, it can then take over to perform more complex actions, like obstacle avoidance. Eventually, the simple controller can be discarded entirely. We show that not only does this technique train faster, it also is less sensitive to the structure of the DRL network and consistently outperforms a standard Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient network. We demonstrate the results in both simulation and real-world experiments.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Background. The folate pathway is active in several cancers including malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM). Membrane receptors folate receptor alpha (FRα), reduced folate carrier 1 (RFC1), proton coupled folate transporter (PCFT) and the enzyme thymidylate synthase (TS) regulate intra-cellular uptake of folate molecules and antifolate drugs. Due to the documented overexpression of folate markers in MPM they arise as potential targets for novel specific therapies with humanized monoclonal anti-FRα antibody and also to antifolate chemotherapy with pemetrexed.

Material and Methods. We studied 79 surgically resected MPM (43 epithelioid, 28 biphasic and 13 sarcomatoid histology types). Protein expression of FRα, RFC1, PCFT and TS was examined by immunohistochemistry (IHC) in FFPE tissues placed in tissue microarray platform and results correlated to clinical-pathologic characteristics. Gene expression and DNA copy number changes of the FRα gene (FOLR1) were examined in 53 mesothelioma tumors using Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0 microarray's and Illumina HumanOmni1-Quad v1.0 chips, respectively. The expression microarray data was analyzed in the GeneSpring GX 11 software (Agilent technologies Inc.) while DNA copy number changes were detected using the Nexus 5.0 software (BioDiscovery Inc.).

Results. MPM frequently showed protein over-expression of FRα, RFC1 and PCFT. Nuclear TS expression positively correlated (P 0) had a lower hazard ratio than those who did not (HR=0.309; 95%CI 0.159, 0.601; P=0.0005). Patients with any level (score >0) of cytoplasmic PCFT had lower hazard ratio than those with absence of the marker (HR=0.539; 95%CI 0.306, 0.952; P=0.0332). Our gene expression data analysis on 53 mesothelioma tumors showed greater than 2-fold increase in the FOLR1 and 3-fold increase in the TYMS messenger RNA levels compared to paired normal tissue. Additionally, at least 7 of these tumors show increased gene copy number at the FOLR1 locus (Ch11q 13.4).

Conclusions. Folate membrane transporters (FRα, RFC1, PCFT) and the enzyme TS are frequently over expressed in MPM tumor tissues, and PCFT and TS are associated with tumors' clinico-pathological features. The high level of expression of FRα in MPM supports the rational use of potential utilization of humanized monoclonal anti-FRα antibody and also standard antifolate chemotherapy in this disease. Supported by grant US DoD W81XWH-07-1-0306, ASCO CDA.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4121. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-4121


In this work, in order to reveal protein surface patterns in a systems biology framework, we analyze the similarity among the surface cavities by investigating the features of the pocket similarity network such as the community structure, the small-world property, the scale-free characteristic, and the hubs.


Abstract Fraud has existed throughout history. Yet, it is estimated that today's occurrence has a huge impact on global revenues, highlighting the importance of fraud examination and forensic accounting. Although the roles of the two disciplines appear to be similar (e.g. litigation support), they differ significantly in their objectives, with the goal of fraud auditing being to determine whether fraud has occurred and, if so, who is responsible. Forensic accounting has the additional objective of assessing the financial consequences and determining whether the allegations have a factual basis by analyzing the financial evidence.


This research report focuses on wholly foreign owned enterprises or WFOE in China as part of China's overall policy of economic reform referred to as Kai Fang. The contention is made that WFOE were an integral part of China's economic reform following the conclusion of the Cultural Revolution and the death of Mao Tsetung. As such, the assertion is that this successful inclusion of the WFOE into China's economic reform framework can be applied to Saudi Arabia and its own economic reform initiatives away from petroleum dependence. This research report first describes the Mao era in China and its ill-advised economic policies. The discussion this shifts to Kai Fang and its economic policies that were devised to diversify China's economic apparatus from a centralized, state-owned infrastructure to a distributed, privatized system of ownership. Consequently, these lessons are then grafted onto Saudi Arabia's own economic policies as a means to identify areas in which it can utilize WFOE more successfully. One of the key areas in which this analysis takes place is in the retail sector of China's economy where it has experienced the most success. Much of this success in China as well as for Saudi Arabia is observed to be in the still emergent online retailing sector. The conclusions are such that Saudi Arabia can benefit immensely from WFOEs just as China did but especially within the retail sector where online retailing and its upstream components can rapidly diversify an economy


The synthesis and characterization of RNA mimetics, uniformly modified oligoribonucleotide N3'-->P5' phosphoramidates containing all four natural bases (uracil, cytosine, adenine and guanine) as well as thymidine and 2,6-diaminopurine, are described. These RNA analogs contain N3'-->P5' phosphoramidate internucleotide linkages which replaced natural RNA O3'-->P5' phosphodiester groups. These oligonucleo-tides were constructed from novel monomeric units (2'- t -butyldimethylsilyl)-3'-(monomethoxyltrityl)-amino-nucleoside-5'- phos phoramidites, the preparation of which is also presented. Several mixed base 9-13mer oligoribonucleotide phosphoramidates were synthesized with step-wise coupling yields of 96-98%. Thermal denaturation experiments demonstrated that ribo-N3'-->P5' phosphoramidates form stable duplexes with a complementary RNA strand. Thus, the melting temperature ( T (m)) of a duplex formed by a 13mer ribo-N3'-->P5' phosphoramidate (84 degrees C) was higher than that observed for the isosequential natural RNA oligomer (64.0 degrees C), or for the 2'-deoxy-N3'-->P5' phosphoramidate counterpart (71.7 degrees C). Moreover, substitution of adenine by 2, 6-diaminopurine in an oligoribophosphoramidate pentamer resulted in a very significant increase in the duplex melting temperature ( approximately 7 degrees C per base substitution). The RNA phosphoramidates also showed similar rates of hydrolysis by both RNase A and RNase T(1)as compared to natural RNA oligomers. The data presented indicate that this class of RNA analogs may be used as structural and functional RNA mimetics.


We studied the effect of meal size on specific dynamic action (SDA) in the South American rattlesnake Crotalus durissus, by measuring oxygen consumption rates (VO2) prior to and after the ingestion of meals ranging from 10-50% of snake's body mass. Regardless of meal size, variation in V02 with time during digestion demonstrated the same general pattern. Oxygen con- sumption rates peaked between 15 and 33 h post-feeding, at values 3.7-7.3 times those prior to feeding. Snakes, while digesting meals of 30% and 50% of their body mass, experienced V02 that exceeded rates measured during forced activity. Following peaks in V02, rates returned to pre- feeding values within 62-170 h post-feeding. Post-prandial peak in V02 and the duration of the metabolic response to feeding increased with meal size. Digestion is an energetically demanding activity for C. durissus, with an estimated cost equaling 12-18% of the ingested assimilated energy.


Abstract Four undescribed sulfoxide-containing derivatives, sinkiangenoxides A and B, (2Z, 4E)-sinkiangenoxide C, and (2E, 4E)-sinkiangenoxide C (1 – 4), and one known compound, 1-(methylthio)propyl (E)-1-propenyl disulfide (5), were isolated from the resin of Ferula sinkiangensis. Their structures were determined based on spectroscopic methods, including IR, UV, HRESIMS, NMR, and CD analysis. Compounds 2 – 4 showed moderate cytotoxic activities against four human cancer cell lines with IC50 values ranging from 15.0 to 40.3 µM. Sinkiangenoxide B (2) was shown to induce apoptosis in HepG2 cells. In addition, compound 5 effectively attenuated lipopolysaccharide-induced nitric oxide release and TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IL-10 expression.


The $\mathcal{VU}$-algorithm is a superlinearly convergent method for minimizing nonsmooth, convex functions. At each iteration, the algorithm works with a certain $\mathcal{V}$-space and its orthogonal $\U$-space, such that the nonsmoothness of the objective function is concentrated on its projection onto the $\mathcal{V}$-space, and on the $\mathcal{U}$-space the projection is smooth. This structure allows for an alternation between a Newton-like step where the function is smooth, and a proximal-point step that is used to find iterates with promising $\mathcal{VU}$-decompositions. We establish a derivative-free variant of the $\mathcal{VU}$-algorithm for convex finite-max objective functions. We show global convergence and provide numerical results from a proof-of-concept implementation, which demonstrates the feasibility and practical value of the approach. We also carry out some tests using nonconvex functions and discuss the results.


BACKGROUND
Workers engaged in dairy farming are exposed to awkward and poor postures that may result in work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs).

OBJECTIVE
This study carried out ergonomic interventions in order to eliminate and reduce awkward postures in dairy farming.

METHODS
This quasi-experimental study applied rapid entire body assessments (REBA) to evaluate the risks associated with each posture while performing the assigned tasks on a dairy farm in Iran to identify high and very high-risk tasks. A participatory ergonomics model was used that incorporated suggestions by dairy workers to design the used interventions.

RESULTS
In the first intervention, by using an automatic transmission system for pouring milk, one high and one very high-risk task- pouring milk into a bucket and pouring milk from a bucket into a tank, respectively- were eliminated. In the second intervention, two high-risk tasks- filling corn containers and pouring corn into the milling machine- were eliminated by using a material conveying vacuum pump to transfer corn from the ground to the opening of the milling machine. In the third intervention, a simple and cheap holding device for the bag was designed to reduce the posture risk score from very high to medium. The fourth intervention involved the use of a shovel with a handle appropriate to the anthropometric characteristics of the workers that reduced the posture risk from very high to medium.

CONCLUSIONS
The results indicated that applying participatory ergonomic principles along with low cost and simple designs with high performance resulted in significant reductions in postural risks pertaining to of musculoskeletal disorders on Iran dairy farms.


It was found that in sowing machine operators their work was class II hard (permissible conditions) and class III strenuous (grade I hazard). By air dust contamination their work corresponded to grade III hazard, by noise--to grade I hazard. The operators showed signs of functional overstrain of the central nervous and cardiovascular systems, the severity of which depended on the type of sowing machine and tractor.


Abstract Background Clostridium difficile assays are unable to differentiate between active infection and asymptomatic carriage. Failure to account for noninfectious causes of diarrhea in hospitalized patients may contribute to overdiagnosis of CDI, leading to unnecessary treatment and increased cost of care. This study assessed if a best practice alert (BPA) could improve ordering practices. Methods A BPA was instituted in a tertiary academic medical center in the electronic ordering system on July 17, 2017 alerting providers ordering C. difficile testing if their patient had received laxatives, oral contrast, or initiation of tube feeds within the preceding 48 hours. Reevaluation of diarrhea was recommended 48 hours after discontinuation of laxatives or initiation of new tube feeds in stable patients. BPA override was available for the following scenarios: high clinical suspicion, concern for severe disease and diagnosis cannot be delayed, ileus, worsened diarrhea on chronic tube feeds, worsened diarrhea on chronic laxatives. The rate of test positivity was compared before and after BPA implementation by χ2 test. Results Between July 17, 2017 and December 31, 2017, the BPA triggered in 1,284 unique clusters (all BPAs firing within 48 hours of another BPA were considered a single cluster). Chart review showed cancellation of CDI testing in 416 (32.4%) cases and delayed tests for at least 24 hours in 163 (12.7%) cases. Of 868 tests where the BPA was initially or ultimately overridden after 24 hours, 186 (21%) were positive. The most common reasons for BPA override were: 512 (39.9%) high clinical suspicion and 177 (13.8%) worsened diarrhea on tube feeds. The rate of inpatient CDI testing declined from 191.6/10,000 patient-days in the January–June 2017 period to 165.9/10,000 patient-days in July–December 2017 (P < 0.001). The proportion of positive tests increased from 8.4% to 10.6% (P = 0.006) over the same time periods. Two cases of delayed diagnosis were identified; no treatment complications were noted on chart review. Conclusion An electronic BPA may be an effective tool to identify alternative etiologies of diarrhea in hospitalized patients and reduce inappropriate/enrich appropriate CDI testing. No adverse outcomes were noted in patients with delayed CDI diagnosis. Disclosures All authors: No reported disclosures.


The viscosity of a fluid can be measured by observing the motion of a probe sphere (or ball) in a centrifuge tube filled with this fluid. The hydrodynamic behavior of the probe ball moving in the centrifuge tube has been solved theoretically. We have got the universal relationship (for balls of a given material and size in a given tube) between the terminal ball velocity, the fluid viscosity and the centrifuge acceleration using the only adjustable parameter - the rotational friction coefficient between the ball and the tube. The rotation of the centrifuge tube in the horizontal plane induces an inertia force which is counterbalanced by the friction force acting on the ball. As a result, the ball moves along the tube with some characteristic speed, which is a measure of the viscosity of the fluid. This speed was calculated in the lubrication approximation. The gravitational acceleration causes the ball to move very close to the bottom of the centrifuge tube. In this situation, the gravity is balanced by a levitation force introduced and calculated in the present paper. The origin of this force is the formation of the bubble behind and below the moving ball. The theoretical development on the terminal velocity for the ball moving very near the bottom of the horizontal centrifuge tube is tested by using a specially designed centrifuge for two types of balls and a wide set of viscosity standards. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment suggests that we have developed a new approach to measure high viscosities of fluids at low shear rates which might be especially useful for the investigation of polymer melts.


Every office is an open system, and the products of office work are the result of decentralized negotiations. Changing patterns of task organization and alliance inevitably give rise to inconsistent knowledge bases and procedures. This implies that there are no globally correct answers to problems addressed by OISs. Rather, systems must deal with multiple competing, possibly irreconcilable, solutions. Articulating alternative solutions is the problem of due process. This problem and its consequences are illustrated by a case study of a rate-setting group in a large health insurance firm.
There is no formal solution to the problem of due process. But it must be solved in practice if distributed intelligent OISs are to be developed. We propose an alternative approach based on the work of social scientists concerned with analyzing analogous problems in human organization. Solution of the due process problem hinges on developing local closures to the problem faced by an organization. This means analyzing (a) local, tacit knowledge and its transfer ability; (b) articulation work, that is, reconciling incommensurate assumptions and procedures.


Cases of seven different types of surgically resected pituitary adenoma are described. Included are tumours secreting prolactin or growth hormone or both, and nonfunctioning tumours--undifferentiated and oncocytic tumours, and one tumour with cells of the adrenocorticotropin-melanocyte-stimulating hormone type. The final interpretation of a case of pituitary adenoma should include an assessment of thorough morphologic studies, using not only routine staining and light microscopy but also immunostaining and electron microscopy, to complement the biochemical, radiologic and clinical evaluation.


We rederive the Area Theorem for propagation of short optical pulses. We show how to take pulse chirping and homogeneous damping into account to obtain new results for pulse phase.


Background Clinical trials should be part of routine health care. There is a common perception that enrolling patients into clinical trials results in additional costs. We conducted a retrospective cost analysis to compare medical costs attributable to participation in cancer treatment trials versus standard of care in a single Spanish institution. Methods Patients recruited into cancer clinical trials between 2014 and 2016 were selected. Each research protocol was reviewed to identify trial-associated medical procedures and costs, as well as the equivalent care had the patient not been entered in the trial. Treatment cost difference was the difference between the cost of the clinical trial and that of the standard of care. Results A total of 68 adult patients were treated in 20 different clinical trials. The overall cost treatment of the patients included in the trials was 79% lower in comparison to the standard of care. However, the load of medical procedures was 32% higher. The average treatment cost per patient and protocol ranged from an excess of €8193 to a saving of €59,770. Conclusions There is a wide range of difference in treatment costs for cancer clinical trial participants versus standard of care. Commercial trial protocols were associated with larger savings compared with the noncommercial ones, even though these may involve excess treatment costs. Overall, clinical trials provide not only the best context for progress of clinical research and health care but also creates opportunities for reducing cancer care costs.


We propose generalised stochastic volatility models with Markov regime changing state equations (SVMRS) to investigate the important properties of volatility in stock returns, specifically high persistence and smoothness. The model suggests that volatility is far less persistent and smooth than the conventional GARCH or stochastic volatility. Persistent short regimes are more likely to occur when volatility is low, while far less persistence is likely to be observed in high volatility regimes. Comparison with different classes of volatility supports the SVMRS as an appropriate proxy volatility measure. Our results indicate that volatility could be far more difficult to estimate and forecast than is generally believed.