817 Diseases of the Colon & ReCtum Volume 58: 8 (2015) obstructed defecation is a common syndrome, frequently affecting middle-aged women. it is associated with the abnormal function of muscles involved in defecation as a result of anatomical alterations. uncoordinated contraction and relaxation of pelvic floor muscles may occur often with intussusception of the rectal wall and/or rectocele. the introduction of stapled transanal rectal resection (staRR) contributed to the increased interest in the underlying anatomical lesions associated with obstructed defecation syndrome. several surgical techniques have been described to address those lesions with variable outcome and reported complications. stapled transanal rectal resection is recognized as an effective treatment of obstructed defecation syndrome associated with intussusception of the rectal wall and/or rectocele. the staRR, as previously described by longo, is based on the application of the PPh-01 or Contour 30 stapler. the use of 2 PPh-01 circular staplers has been shown as a safe and effective midterm treatment strategy for obstructed defecation syndrome. however, circular staplers have recently been associated with infrequent but serious complications, such as rectal diverticulum, rectovaginal fistula, total rectal obliteration, rectal wall hematoma, and perforation. such early complications of staRR seem to be reduced by using a parachute suture, rather than a pursestring suture, to thoroughly control the selected prolapsing tissue. Despite these technical adjustments, the optimal and standardized use of PPh-01 still remains a much debated topic. one reported drawback of PPh-01 is that it is a "single fire stapler," closed and fired blindly, so that surgeons may experience difficulties in checking the correct rectal wall position in the case. the surgeon's experience and learning curve are mandatory to overcome such issues, but the risks of complications related to PPh-01 kit design might explain the slow spread of staRR worldwide. such drawbacks could be avoided by using a curved stapler device that warrants multifire applications under better visibility and a complete removal of rectal prolapse without leaving any lateral flap remnants. although the volume of tissue resected by using the Contour transtar is almost double that obtained by PPh-01-staRR, the semicircular stapler was initially reported to be as safe and effective as PPh-01-staRR in a recent multicenter european study. in this european trial, technical difficulties in attaining a sufficient longitudinal opening of the prolapse were also described with a risk of causing a spiral of the suture line by applying variable traction on the parachute stitches during Contour transtar firing. moreover, the semicircular stapler was reported to increase the surgeon's view of the operative field and to warrant safer and larger resection of tissue in comparison with double PPh-01. other authors argued that the functional results were comparable between the 2 techniques, but whether a greater resection obtained by Contour may result in improved functions remains a matter of debate. in summary, the Contour transtar device appears to better facilitate a more tailored surgery, including a real Technical Aspect of Stapled Transanal Rectal Resection. From PPH-01 to Contour to Both: An Optional Combined Approach to Treat Obstructed Defecation?


How can we understand the adaptations of literary classics made for French television? We simultaneously analyzed the works and the context in which they were produced in order to relate the moral configurations that emerge in the stories to activities carried out by identifiable members of the production team, in specific, empirically observable circumstances. This empirical approach to the constitution of the moral panorama in which characters evolve rejects the idea of the pure autonomy of ideological contents, suggesting instead a study of the way normative demands and professional ethics are combined in practice, thus combining a sociology of characters and a sociology of professionals and showing how professional priorities influence production choices. This detaches the moral question from the philosophical horizon it is associated with in order to make it an object of empirial study. Adopting this perspective produces unexpected findings. Observation shows that the moral landscape in which characters are located is neither stable, autonomous, transparent, or consensual. It is instead caught up in material logics, constrained by temporal dynamics, and dependent on professional coordination. It is traversed by tensions between professional logics, and logics of regulation.


The social integration of minority groups is a major policy challenge for many countries. This paper addresses this issue in the context of an early childhood program conducted in Turkey aimed at preparing 5-year-old native and Syrian refugee children for elementary school. We randomly assign children to groups with varying ethnic composition and examine whether random exposure to non-coethnic children over a period of 2 months affects interethnic friendship formation and language acquisition. We find that exposure to children of the other ethnicity leads to an increase in the formation of interethnic friendships, especially for Turkish children, while the Turkish language skills of Syrian children are better developed in classes with a larger presence of Turkish children. To explain the empirical patterns, we develop a model of friendship formation with two key mechanisms: preference bias for forming coethnic links, and congestion in the friendship formation process. Structural estimation of the model suggests that interethnic contact: (i) reduces the share of own-ethnicity friends, and (ii) has a non-monotonic effect on the bias toward forming own-ethnicity friendships beyond what would be expected given the size of the group (inbreeding homophily). The latter finding implies that increased exposure of minority children to non-coethnic children can lead to more in-group bias in friendship formation, relative to when the two ethnic shares are more balanced. Finally, counterfactual analysis indicates that improvement in the language skills of Syrian children can offset more than half of the effect that ethnic bias has on friendship formation patterns.


Parallel systems provide a robust approach for high performance computing. Lately the use of parallel computing has become more available as new parallel environments have evolved. Low cost and high performance of off-the-shelf PC processors have made PC-based multiprocessor systems popular. These systems typically contain two or four processors. Standardized POSIX-threads have formed an environment for the effective utilization of several processors. Moreover, distributed computing using networks of workstations has increased. The motivation for this work is to apply these techniques in computer vision. The Hough Transform (HT) is a well-known method for detecting global features in digital images. However, in practice, the sequential HT is a slow method with large images. We study the behavior of line detecting HT with both message passing workstation networks and shared-memory, multiprocessor systems. Parallel approaches suggested in this paper seem to decrease the computation time of HT significantly. Thus, the methods are useful for real-world applications.


Developments in communications during 1984 are reviewed. These include the AT&T divestiture; further advances in fiber optics, both in the field and in the laboratory; and progress toward a complete definition of universal digital-communications standards for local area networks. In addition, cellular mobile radio went into commercial operation in nearly two dozen cities in the US.


This paper describes a new hybrid approach set-based hybrid approach (SHA) for magnetic resonance (MR) image segmentation by integrating two existing techniques, region-grow and threshold level set. To evaluate the proposed approach in performing real world image segmentation task, instead of using well-taken MR-images, we use real-life images collected in a hospital. Comparison of the performance between the two individual techniques and the new hybrid technique demonstrates the effectiveness of the latter


In this paper, we investigate whether banks of the Eurozone countries use loan loss provisions in order to manage their earnings and how information quality affects the use of these provisions. Our final sample included 74 banks for the period 2002-20015 and the countries we examined were Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia and Finland. The data were collected from the Datastream database and the World Bank.
 In order to examine the relationship between loan loss provisions and earnings management, we used a two-way fixed effect (cross sectional and time series) Least Square (LS) regression. The results showed a negative and statistically significant relationship between loan loss provisions (LLP) and earnings before taxes and provisions (EBTP / T.A.) indicating that there is no earnings management over the period which we examine. Furthermore, significant and negative is the relationship between loan loss provisions and the quality of the institutional framework that we used as an indicator for the quality of information. Positive and statistically significant is the coefficient of the change in expected earnings to total assets (ΔEBTPt+1/T.A.) which indicates the use of loan loss provisions by the banks' management to communicate with investors. Finally, as expected, the non-discretionary use of loan loss provisions coefficient is positive and statistically significant.


As part of the design verification of the ITER magnet system and in preparation of the commissioning activities, the heat deposition on the ITER cold structures has been computed in order to generate input loads for subsequent thermo-hydraulic analyses, which are essential for the assessment of the temperature margins of the superconducting cables. The Finite Element model of a 40 degree sector of the ITER magnet system presented in previous works (F. Cau et al., 2016) has been updated, including Poloidal Field (PF) coils clamps and Correction Coils (CC) supports. A new inductive plasma scenario (DINA-2017) as well as the Toroidal Field (TF) coils fast discharge have been simulated with the electromagnetic code CARIDDI. The results are in line with the old computations. In addition to these events, the effects of the voltage ripple generated on the TF coils by the power supply have been analyzed and the induced eddy currents assessed.


Abstract In this paper, we propose a method for indexing and retrieval of images based on shapes of objects. The concept of connectivity is introduced. 3D models are used to represent 2D images. 2D images are decomposed a priori using connectivity which is followed by 3D model construction. 3D model descriptors are obtained for 3D models and used to represent the underlying 2D shapes. We have used spherical harmonics descriptors as the 3D model descriptors. Difference between two images is computed as the Euclidean distance between their descriptors. Experiments are performed to test the effectiveness of spherical harmonics for retrieval of 2D images. The proposed method is compared with methods based on principal components analysis (PCA) and generic Fourier descriptors (GFD). It is found that the proposed method is effective. Item S8 within the MPEG-7 still images content set is used for performing experiments.


ECho is an event delivery middleware system developed at Georgia Tech. Super cially, the semantics and organization of structures in ECho are similar to the Event Channels described by the CORBA Event Services speci cation[COSEvents]. Like most event systems, what ECho implements can be viewed as an anonymous group communication mechanism. In contrast with more familiar one-to-one send-receive communication models, data senders in anonymous group communication are unaware of the number or identity of data receivers. Instead, message sends are delivered to receivers according to the rules of the communication mechanism. In this case, event channels provide the mechanism for matching senders and receivers. Messages (or events) are sent via sources into channels which may have zero or more subscribers (or sinks). The locations of the sinks, which may be on the same machine or process as the sender, or anywhere else in the network, are immaterial to the sender. A program or system may create or use multiple event channels, and each subscriber receives only the messages sent to the channel to which it is subscribed. The network tra c for multiple channels is multiplexed over shared communications links, and channels themselves impose relatively low overhead. Instead of doing explicit read() operations, sink subscribers specify a subroutine (or handler) to be run whenever a message arrives. In this sense, event delivery is asynchronous and passive for the application.


Purpose. Determine if a "nondieting" intervention focused on intensive training in eliciting the relaxation response enhances health outcomes compared with nondieting interventions without such training. Design. Randomized trial with follow-up at 10 weeks, 4 months, and 12 months. Setting. General community. Subjects. Total of 225 overweight and obese women with at least one other cardiovascular risk factor. Interventions. Three 10-week nondieting interventions: a group program (P1) focused on intensive training in techniques for eliciting the relaxation response (n = 60), a group program (P2) focused on healthy eating and physical activity (n = 61), and a self-guided, mail-delivered version of P2 (P3; n = 101). Measures. The Revised Symptom Checklist measured psychological distress, the Medical Symptoms Checklist measured the experience of medical symptoms, and the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile measured a range of lifestyle behaviors. Self-efficacy for low-fat eating, intuitive eating, and body mass index were also assessed. Analysis. An intention-to-treat analysis was used. Results. At 12 months, P1 produced statistically greater improvements in stress management behaviors and medical symptom discomfort and was the only program to significantly improve self-efficacy for low-fat eating. In P1, the effect sizes for reductions in depression (0.75) and interpersonal sensitivity (0.85) were large. At 12 months, mean weight was unchanged. Conclusion. Inclusion of intensive relaxation response training in a nondieting program for overweight women enhanced stress management and medical symptoms outcomes but not weight outcomes.


Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease, which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that was identified in December 2019 in Wuhan, China [1], [2]. It is a pandemic that causes respiratory disorder and is transmitted through sneezing droplets of infected individuals. These droplets can fall on the objects around the effected and enter a healthy individual through contact. Major symptoms of this disease include lethargy, dry cough, followed by fever [3]. The number of cases is surging dramatically, raping developed and undeveloped countries together [3]. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 weekly epidemiological Update for 29th of December there are 79 million infected cases and 1.7 million deaths globally. This pandemic not only affects our health but also affects our livelihood. In the absence of specific treatment or a vaccine, non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPI) form the backbone of the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These NPI includes physical distancing, regular hand washing, and wearing a face mask. This study aims to help with the monitoring of these NPIs specifically wearing face masks using deep learning. This study implements face mask detection and recognition system that automatically detects and recognizes if a person is wearing a Medically approved face mask, Non-Medically approved face mask, or not wearing a mask at all. This study has determined that MobileNetV1 model has shown the best performance regarding classification (79%) and processing speed up to 3.25 fps.


The corresponding author, Dr Akio Kawakami, reported to the editors that the authors of this manuscript have raised concerns related to the accuracy of the data presented in this article. In the process of following up the findings reported in this study, they were unable to reproduce some experiments due to Dr Akio Kawakami's negligence in keeping proper original records. This information was reported to the editors by Dr Kawakami directly. The authors apologize to the readers of Circulation for any inconvenience caused by this retraction.


Abstract The aim of this article is to provide a programmatic statement for a research agenda in the comparative political thought of the Cold War. As an innovative methodology for the study of political ideas, the author contends that comparative political theory connects up very well with the ways in which Cold War historians have come to frame their questions: systematically applying its principles therefore offers an interesting opportunity to take the recent scholarship forward. The first section reviews the treatment of ideas across phases of the Cold War historiography, and proposes that an approach styled on comparative political theory potentially brings out two general qualities of Cold War ideas, which are often missed: what the author calls their granularity and embeddedness. At the same time some prospects are raised for reconciling the political and cultural histories of the Cold War. The second section focuses on the aspect of comparison, and situates the research programme in the context of the recent trend towards the study of international history. The third section is the most constructive. An indicative series of projects is offered which such a programme might pursue. The concept of the Cold War 'thought-practice' is proposed as the most promising unit of analysis by which the figure of the political theorist might contribute to the interpretation of Cold War history.


Teacher assessment skills include knowledge of assessment methods and techniques, the ability to interpret assessment results, and the ability to use assessment to tailor teaching strategies to student needs. The present study examines non-native Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) pre-service teachers' awareness of students' assessment. The study also investigates whether studying a course in assessment significantly impacts pre-service teachers' assessment literacy. To answer the research questions, an online test was administered to 52 pre-service teachers who are seniors at Majmaah University. The collected data were analyzed descriptively and inferentially with the aid of IBM SPSS version 22. The results revealed that non-native pre-service TEFL teachers have a low level of assessment literacy. Despite the overall weak performance in the test, the participants showed strength in some of the standards for teachers' competence. They revealed a high capability of choosing and developing appropriate assessment methods. On the other hand, pre-service teachers possessed little awareness about their ability to implement students' test results to adjust the curriculum or make better instructional decisions. Based on the study results, institutions may consider adding more assessment courses to the TEFL study plan or adopting some of the existing curricula and extending it to include all the assessment skills needed for creating qualified teachers. Designing a careful professional development training program for EFL faculty members is another important recommendation of the present study. Finally, future research in the field is needed for planning and implementing training programs to improve teachers' assessment skills.


Objective. To explore and evaluate open-ended feedback provided by preceptors on Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) to students on the first practice experience. Methods. Upon successful completion of the first professional year, student pharmacists complete a two-calendar month practice experience in community or health-system pharmacy. Preceptors evaluate student performance using a validated EPA framework. A retrospective review of the qualitative data collected from preceptor evaluations of student pharmacists was completed. A codebook was developed around the EPA framework and sub-coding accounted for positive, negative, or neutral assessment within each EPA. After several rounds of coding consensus was reached for all coding by two investigators. A dependability audit was implemented to ensure trustworthiness. Results. Preceptor evaluations of 153 student pharmacists were utilized with 80 students (52.3%) completing a community experience and 73 (47.7%) completing a health-system experience between May and August 2018. Preceptors from both settings provided overwhelmingly positive feedback on all EPAs. Optimization opportunities for preceptorprovided feedback were identified. Feedback provided by preceptors in health-system and community practice settings focused on knowledge and behavior, respectively, with both emphasizing skill-based performance. Conclusion. Results from this study suggest that preceptor-provided feedback may provide valuable insight into the opportunities to provide training and support intended to enhance the provision of optimal written feedback on EPAs. Deeper analysis employing focus groups or structured interviews are suggested to further explore the collective implementation experiences of preceptors regarding EPA assessment in real-world practice settings.


Summary To evaluate the effect of roasting soy-beans and corn on performance of young dairy calves, newborn Holstein calves (n= 132) were blocked by sex and birth date and randomly assigned to one of six isonitrogenous calf starters. The starters were formulated using soybean meal or soybeans roasted at 280 or 295 °F. Each of these protein sources was used with either raw corn or corn roasted at 280°F. Diets were offered ad libitum from .5 to 8 wk of age. Calves were fed milk at 4% of birth weight twice daily and weaned when they consumed 1.5 lb of starter per day for 3 consecutive days. Soybeans roasted at 295 °F resulted in improved overall calf performance. Roasted corn enhanced performance of calves fed soybean meal but did not alter performance of those fed soybeans roasted at 280 °F and depressed performance of calves fed soybeans roasted at 295 °F. These effects were more pronounced during the postweaning period (6 to 8 wk). These results demonstrate the importance of nutrient interactions in young dairy calves, especially when processed grains are fed.


Abstract The crisis of information which we are facing today is a problem that has been caused by computers, and at the same time, can only be solved by computers. We have already reached the point of no return. At the first look the brave new Data World promises a lot to the scientist searching for information about Latin American History but on the other hand, it is easy to get "lost in cyberspace". The following article serves as constructive introduction in order to provide the cognitive tools and digital instruments to find individual ways to explore the net and to use the information ressources of the Web more efficiently. Not as a substitute but as a complementary instrument to traditional methods of the historian, the internet offers new perspectives to deal with information about Latin American History within the world wide scientific community.


The tricho–rhino–phalangeal syndrome 1 gene (TRPS1), which was initially found to be associated with tricho–rhino–phalangeal syndrome, is critical for the development and differentiation of bone, hair follicles and kidney. However, its role in cancer progression is largely unknown. In this study, we demonstrated that down‐regulation of TRPS1 correlated with distant metastasis, tumour recurrence and poor survival rate in cancer patients. TRPS1 was frequently down‐regulated in high‐metastatic cancer cell lines from the breast, colon and nasopharynx. Silencing of TRPS1 stimulated epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), migration and invasion in vitro and metastasis in vivo, while TRPS1 over‐expression exhibited the opposite effects. Using quantitative proteomics, FOXA1, a negative regulator of epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT), was shown to be down‐regulated by TRPS1 knockdown. Ectopic expression of FOXA1 blocked the enhancement of EMT, migration and invasion induced by TRPS1 silencing. Mechanistically, TRPS1, acting as a transcription activator, directly induced FOXA1 transcription by binding to the FOXA1 promoter. We further showed that down‐regulation of TRPS1 was induced by miR‐373 binding to the 3′ UTR of TRPS1. Over‐expression of TRPS1, but not TRPS1 3′ UTR, blocked the enhancement of migration and invasion induced by miR‐373. Taken together, we consider that down‐regulation of TRPS1 by miR‐373, acting as a transcriptional activator, promotes EMT and metastasis by repressing FOXA1 transcription, expanding upon its previously reported role as a transcription repressor. Copyright © 2016 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A new probe has been designed to measure the electron and ion energy distributions in a tokamak edge plasma; it may be operated in both the retarding field analyser and E*B modes. In this type of probe aperture design is important and must include detailed consideration of Debye length, selective transmission, heat flux and space charge effects. Results obtained in the retarding analyser ion mode show that the ion parallel velocity distribution function as measured by the probe is a displaced Maxwellian in accordance with theoretical prediction. The electron parallel velocity distribution on the other hand is seen to be cut off by the wall sheath. Ion temperatures obtained under similar conditions in the E*B mode are in agreement with values obtained by fitting theoretical distributions to retarding field ion mode characteristics. The results which are presented were obtained in the edge region of discharges with line average densities of 1019 m-3. In this particular case approximately equal ion and electron temperatures of order 15 eV were measured. There is experimental evidence that at the current levels used space charge effects are negligible.


An analysis of the near ultra-violet bands of SO2, proposed recently has shown, that the energies of excitation are almost equal in SO and SO2 and that the frequency of the symmetric valence vibration of SO2 is about equal to the vibrational frequency of SO not only in the ground states of the two molecules, but also in their respective excited states. These results seem to be of considerable interest, particularly with regard to the theory of valency, since they indicate that the S=O bond is almost identical in both molecules. It seemed necessary, therefore, to investigate the spectra of SeO and SeO2 in order to see whether such results are fortuitous or whether they are confirmed by the analysis of similar molecules. Such an investigation appeared desirable also, from the point of view that the method of analysis of the spectra of polyatomic molecules has not made so much progress as could be wished for and the bands of formaldehyde and sulphur dioxide are indeed the only ones, for which a complete vibrational analysis has been offered at the present moment. An extension to polyatomic molecules of the clearer insight into the constitution of diatomic molecules, afforded by band spectroscopy, seems to us essential in the present state of knowledge. Emission Spectrum of SeO Experimental —The spectrum of SeO has not been described in literature. Various methods of producing bands of SeO, however, suggest themselves. In analogy with SO the best method probably would be one of a discharge through a vacuum tube in running vapour of SeO2 or with high pressure SeO2 vapour. SeO2 being a solid with rather a high melting point (340° C), such a method could not be adopted because of the want of a suitable quartz discharge tube and a suitable furnace. A glass discharge tube, with a quartz window for observation, containing SeO2 was heated locally by a Bunsen burner, but the spectrum obtained showed only bands due to Se2. An arc on 110 volts D. C., with a current of 2·5 amps, between carbon or metal electrodes filled with SeO2, produced again the bands of Se2 or the lines of Se as did also the arc on 220 volts D. C. with a current of 2 to 5 amps. The substance was then introduced in a solid state and in aqueous solution into the Bunsen flame. The flame of the solid substance gave only Se2 bands, but the spectrum of the flame of the solution showed an unmistakable progression of bands, different from those of Se2 between 4500 and 3200 A. In the hope of exciting more vibrational levels of the emitter of these bands and thus extending the system, the oxy-coalgas flame giving a higher temperature was used. Under this condition the spectrum showed a further set of bands towards the ultra-violet until about 2400 A. The bands are all degraded towards longer waves; they are diffuse and in some cases a close double head can be distinguished. The intensity of the bands is not at all high; and increased exposure only resulted in a more pronounced overlap of the bands with the strong continuum of the flame itself. The best plates were obtained, in the blue and near ultra-violet regions, with an exposure of 45 minutes, and in the ultra-violet region, of about two hours, using a Hilger medium quartz spectrograph as the resolving instrument.


As the links between security and development have been increasingly recognized, Security Sector Reform (SSR) has become a central part of development policy. Following a traditional Weberian conception of the state, these programmes are almost exclusively focused on the public security sector, neglecting the extent to which people in developing countries have come to rely on private security providers for their day-to-day security needs. While the reform of public security institutions is undoubtedly important, this article argues that a strict public/private distinction is a poor guide to security sector reform. Focusing on Sierra Leone and Kenya, the article argues that 'bringing the private in' is crucial to a comprehensive understanding of the security situation in most countries and that any attempt to ensure better security for all must take account of private actors. Private security companies and their integration into SSR matter not simply in terms of the maintenance of law and order, but also in terms of who has access to security, and ultimately, for the legitimacy of social and political orders.


A detailed appraisal of the collisionless sheath single cylindrical Langmuir probe technique applied to the study of electron densities and temperatures in afterglow plasmas is described. It is shown that for positive probe potentials (V) no significant disturbance (`pseudodepletion') of the plasma occurs until the electron current to the probe (ie) approaches the natural diffusive positive ion current flowing to the reference electrodes. This is indicated by departures from linearity of ie2-V plots obtained in the orbital-limited current régime. Departures from linearity have also been observed due to probe sheath expansion resulting in departures from cylindrical geometry above a critical value of V. It is shown that, for values of V below those critical values signifying the onset of pseudodepletion and sheath expansion, meaningful probe characteristics can be obtained in afterglows from which accurate electron densities can be obtained. Also described are the effects which arise from temporal changes of electron temperature, and the resulting changes in floating potential Vf. The latter has been measured as a function of the electron temperature (obtained from plots of the electron retarding region) and is shown to substantiate the original Langmuir theoretical expression for Vf.


Treatment of Gnaphalium vira-vira plants with UV-B radiation caused changes in plant growth and in plant chemistry. The leaf surface contained two O-methylated flavones, araneol and 7-O-methylaraneol. HPLC analysis showed that 20 days of UV-B radiation increased the synthesis of 7-O-methylaraneol at the expense of araneol. Spectrophotometric analysis of the photosynthetic pigments showed that UV-B radiation also increases the pigment content in treated plants. Another U V alteration is epidermal hair damage, as observed in SEM pictures of treated leaves. This combination of physiological and phytochemical effects may be interpreted as a plant response to UV-B stress


Forty-two children, all over one year of age, were given vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and sequentially timed cisplatin and VM-26 (OPEC) or OPEC and doxorubicin (OPEC-D) as initial treatment for newly diagnosed stage III or IV neuroblastoma. Good partial response was achieved in 31 patients (74%) overall and in 28 (78%) of 36 patients whose treatment adhered to the chemotherapy protocol, compared with a 65% response rate achieved in a previous series of children treated with pulsed cyclophosphamide and vincristine with or without doxorubicin. Only six patients, including two of the six children whose treatment did not adhere to protocol, failed to respond, but there were five early deaths from treatment-related complications. Tumor response to OPEC, which was the less toxic of the two regimens, was at least as good as tumor response to OPEC-D. Cisplatin-induced morbidity was clinically significant in only one patient and was avoided in others by careful monitoring of glomerular filtration rate and hearing. Other centers should test the efficacy of OPEC or equivalent regimens in the treatment of advanced neuroblastoma.


The goal of relation classification (RC) is to extract the semantic relations between/among entities in the text. As a fundamental task in natural language processing, it is crucial to ensure the robustness of RC models. Despite the high accuracy current deep neural models have achieved in RC tasks, they are easily affected by spurious correlations. One solution to this problem is to train the model with counterfactually augmented data (CAD) such that it can learn the causation rather than the confounding. However, no attempt has been made on generating counterfactuals for RC tasks. In this paper, we formulate the problem of automatically generating CAD for RC tasks from an entity-centric viewpoint, and develop a novel approach to derive contextual counterfactuals for entities. Specifically, we exploit two elementary topological properties, i.e., the centrality and the shortest path, in syntactic and semantic dependency graphs, to first identify and then intervene on the contextual causal features for entities. We conduct a comprehensive evaluation on four RC datasets by combining our proposed approach with a variety of backbone RC models. The results demonstrate that our approach not only improves the performance of the backbones, but also makes them more robust in the out-of-domain test.


Cardiovascular diseases are the most frequent cause of death in the industrialized world, with the main contributor being myocardial infarction. Given the high morbidity and mortality rates associated with congestive heart failure, the shortage of donor hearts for transplantation, complications resulting from immunosuppression, and long-term failure of transplanted organs, regeneration of the diseased myocardium by cell transplantation is an attractive therapeutic modality. Because of their remarkable capacity for expansion and unquestioned cardiac potential, pluripotent human embryonic stem cells (hESC) represent an attractive candidate cell source for obtaining cardiomyocytes. Moreover, a number of recent reports have shown that hESC-derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CM) survive after transplantation into infarcted rodent hearts, form stable cardiac implants, and result in preserved contractile function. Although the latter successes give good reason for optimism, considerable challenges remain in the successful application of hESC-CM to cardiac repair. Because it is desired that the transplanted cells fully integrate within the diseased myocardium, contribute to its contractile performance, and respond appropriately to various physiological stimuli, it is of crucial importance to be familiar with their functional properties. Therefore, this review describes the characteristics of hESC-CM, including their transcriptional profile, structural and electrophysiological properties, ion channel expression, excitation-contraction coupling, and neurohumoral responsiveness.


The Field of Carbon nano tube (CNT) is an promising area of research theoretically as well as experimentally [1],[2]. In fact the band structure of CNT determines its conductivity and in carbon nano tubes the structural pattern affects the conductivity type i.e the conductivity of CNT depends upon how graphene sheet is rolled up. So, CNT can be made to behave as conductor as well as semiconductor [2] It is well established that the samples of single wall carbon nano tubes with an arm chair wrapping have been produced and exhibit metallic behavior with an intrinsic resistivity which increases approximately linearly with temperature over a wide temperature range (see for instance ref.[4]. In this paper the quantized value of electric conductivity [1],[2] is used in an attempt to show theoretically that the quantum state of the electron of the carbon nano tube is directly related to temperature of the CNT as resistivity of CNT depends on quantum state and also found to depend on temperature. Finally, an effort has been made to find an approximatenbsp expression for the temperature co-efficient of resistance of the CNT.


This study aims to overcome the speaking challenges of the students in an English preparatory class of 2020-2021 spring semester at a private university in Istanbul. Qualitative classroom action research design was operated to conduct the study. In the beginning weeks of spring semester, speaking skills challenge among the students was detected and observed. Accordingly an action plan was developed by using Ur (2009)'s advices. Developed action plan was implemented for 8 weeks. The study included 4 female and 2 male students as participants. Participants were chosen by homogenous sampling method that is one of the purposive sampling methods. To collect data, active participant observer technique and e-mail interview technique were employed. Data were analyzed by content analysis technique. As a result, 2 themes called affective improvements and practical improvements and in each theme 3 sub-themes were discovered. Sub-themes are reduced anxiety, increased motivation, improved self-efficacy, increased participation level, gradual ease in speaking, and examination. To conclude, the study shows that students benefited from the action plan which was prepared mostly by Ur (2009)'s advices.


Current size structure of mussel Crenomytilus grayanus in the coastal waters at Primorye (Japan Sea) is considered on results of diving surveys conducted in 2003–2018. In total, 3635 mussel specimens were weighed and measured. Size structure of the mussel settlements is determined for each surveyed area using the data on shell length. The following parameters are evaluated: i) index of settling — ratio of mollusks number with shell 50 mm (adults); ii) index of maturation — ratio of mollusks number with shell 35–50 mm (pre-reproductive) and > 50 mm (adult); iii) index of commercial recruitment — ratio of mollusks number with shell 90–100 mm (recruits) and >100 mm (commercial stock). The portion of mussels with non-commercial size exceeds 50 % in most settlements that indicates their active natural reproduction. The index of settling varied from 0.03 to 1.80, by areas; the index of maturation — from 0.04 to 0.58; the index of commercial recruitment — from 0.03 to 0.53.The indices variations are not proportional and depend on presence of the pelagic larvae in plankton and on survival of the juveniles. Low settling of spat in some years could be leveled by its good survival in favorable environments. Potential annual recruitment to commercial stock of C. grayanus in the coastal waters of Primorye is estimated as 5 . 103 t. State of the C. grayanus settlements beyond the areas of anthropogenic impact and active fishing is evaluated as stable.


Potential source of nutrients and also a strong antioxidant, grape pomace is currently in the focus of the animal scientists. This 3 months trial used 14 Romanian Spotted fattening steers, with an average initial weight of 256 kg, assigned uniformly to two groups. The groups differed by the absence or presence of dry grape pomace in the compound feed, next to the bulk forage, alfalfa haylage. Feed intake of the two groups was similar both as concerns the bulk feed and as concerns the compound feed. The weight gain was also similar, 1306 g/steer/day in the control group (no dry grape pomace in the compound feed) and 1301 g/steer/day in the experimental group (20% dry grape pomace which replaced most of the barley used for the control group). The replacement of barley by dry grape pomace in the compound fed for fattening steers didn't have a significant influence on feed conversion ratio and feeding efficiency; no health problems were noticed either, as shown by the plasma profile of the experimental animals.


A constant-gm input stage featuring both constant small signal and large signal behaviors over the entire input common-mode range is proposed in this brief. A novel static feedback loop is employed to minimize the N and P transconductance mismatch due to process and temperature variations. The output currents of the N and P differential pairs are dynamically steered to keep a constant gm  and a constant slew rate. The overall technique is independent of the operation regions of input transistors, and does not rely on the quadratic characteristics of input MOS transistors. A prototype chip was designed for a 0.35-mum CMOS technology with 3-V power supply. The experimental results demonstrate that a constant-gm (plusmn3% variations) and a constant slew rate over the entire input common-mode range have been achieved


The purpose of this conceptual paper is to examine Confucianism's influence on Chinese families in the United States, specifically in educational practice and family relationships. The authors describe how Confucianism is embedded in Chinese culture and places value on education at societal, familial, and individual level. Additionally, the meaning of educational success and the efforts involved in the educational process associated with Confucianism are discussed. The authors also examine the hierarchical relationship in Chinese educational system and within the family's educational practices. Educational implications are provided to inform professional practices.


Light emitting diodes and semiconductor lasers belong to almost any curriculum in the field of physics, optics or photonics programs at universities. The physics concepts are usually introduced in Bachelor programs, but a real deep understanding which is also based on laboratory experiments is seldomly acquired before studying in Master programs. Here we present some laboratory experiments for students of a photonics Master program at our University of Applied Sciences. Students are required to study the transitions from LEDs to semiconductor lasers in a four step investigation. First they record the diode characteristic of output power versus current. This helps to identify the pure LED regime, the transition region and the pure laser regime of the devices. Second they study the spatial characteristics of the commercial LED / laser devices with or without additional lenses. Third, laser dimensions are measured with microscopy and fourth the changes of the emissions spectra while increasing the injection current from LED to laser are measured with high accuracy using a Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometer. Here we present and discuss exemplary results of the first two steps and briefly mention the subsequent ones.


Atlantic and shortnose sturgeons are highly valued for their eggs (caviar) and flesh, but stocks of both species are depleted. The shortnose sturgeon is listed as an endangered species, and a long-term (multidecade) moratorium on fishing for Atlantic sturgeon is specified in the recently updated fishery management plan of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. Thus, identification, protection, and enhancement of essential habitats are priority issues for management agencies. As anadromous (Atlantic) and nearly anadromous (shortnose) species, these sturgeons use a wide variety of habitats; variations occur latitudinally, seasonally, and among different life stages. Spawning habitats have been identified in two southeastern rivers for shortnose sturgeon, but to date no spawning sites have been verified for Atlantic sturgeon. Some life stages of both species (including young juveniles) concentrate in or are restricted to small portions of estuaries during summer. Deterioration of water quality (especially dissolved oxygen) appears to be degrading the nursery function of these summer refugia, creating a recruitment bottleneck. Protection of essential habitats, especially nursery/summer habitats, from human-caused dissolved-oxygen reductions and other impacts is critical. By-catch, primarily in riverine/estuarine gillnet and estuarine/marine trawl fisheries, appears to be the second major source of mortality for southern sturgeons. Reserves, or no-fishing zones, could protect populations by reducing or eliminating by-catch mortality. This protection would be especially valuable in high salinity foraging areas (used primarily during cool months) and during spawning migrations. Proposed management strategies aimed at conservation and restoration of sturgeon populations therefore focus on two areas: protection of essential habitats and establishment of reserves to provide protection from fishing gears that generate substantial sturgeon by-catch. Specific management recommendations were developed on a system-by-system basis.


In contrast to many other aspects of numerical weather prediction, quantitative precipitation forecasts did not gain much from a continuously improved physics over the past decades. A gap of knowledge remains as to how different processes contributing to the uncertainty in precipitation forecasts compare to each other. This research aims at gaining further insight into how two aspects influencing moist processes interrelate in atmospheric models. For this, high‐resolution (3000 m) integrations with the non‐hydrostatic Advanced Regional Prediction System were performed for two cases of extreme convection in Belgium, one driven by strong buoyancy and no vertical wind shear and the other driven by strong vertical wind shear and moderate buoyancy. Sensitivity experiments consisted of three integrations with different soil moisture initialization and three experiments with different size distribution assumptions in the microphysical parametrization scheme. The gain of spatially distributed soil moisture information was small in our simulations, but it was found important to have at least the mean soil moisture content right for the realistic simulation of cold‐pool intensity. A mechanism, based on cold‐pool and buoyancy interaction was proposed to explain the inverse relation between surface precipitation and soil moisture content. Changing the size distribution assumptions of the precipitating hydrometeors in the microphysics parametrization had a larger impact on the hydrometeor distribution than on surface precipitation. Weighting the size distribution assumptions of large hail to small graupel led to a poor representation of the general storm structure but did not affect the surface precipitation as much as was found in previous idealized studies. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society


a Department of Urology, The Netherlands Cancer Institute, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Hospital, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; b Department of Surgical and Perioperative Sciences, Urology and Andrology, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden; c Department of Urology, University Hospitals of the KULeuven. Leuven, Belgium; d The Royal Free NHS Trust and Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, London, UK E U R O P E A N U R O L O G Y X X X ( 2 0 1 6 ) X X X – X X X


To date, diseases are very common due to environmental contamination; genetic disorders, microorganisms and drug addiction, which are cured by different drugs. Drug addiction gives rise to many dangerous diseases because it causes many abnormal behaviors in the body. The abnormal behavior depends on where the drug is accumulated in the body. It is well understood that long time consumption of any drug (especially in case of drug addiction) in any biological sample may be very harmful. Besides, it also disturbs the normal behavior of the brain because of which abnormality appears. Hence, the analysis of drugs and their metabolites in urine, plasma, serum, oral liquid, and other numerous materials have great importance in this advanced era. The analysis of drugs in numerous matters helps us in understanding the reason of abnormal behavior caused by drugs and their metabolites. In drug analysis, many chromatographic techniques have great importance. In all chromatographic techniques, gas chromatography has a unique position. The present paper reviews the role of gas chromatography for drug analysis in the different biological samples. Besides, the attempts have also been made to discuss the future challenges and perspectives of the drug analysis in the biological samples by gas chromatography.


Since 1965 the dual-frequency method has been used for measuring densities of plasmas near planets and in interplanetary space. Signals at two frequencies are sent from an antenna on the earth to a spacecraft, or vice versa. The speed of the higher-frequency signal is less affected by plasma than that of the lower-frequency signal. The difference of delays provides a measure of the integrated effect of plasma along the radio path. In essence, the higher-frequency signal serves as a benchmark against which the lower-frequency effect is measured. Two markedly different sets of equipment have thus far been used to perform dual-frequency observations; their strengths and weaknesses are reviewed, and it shown that many of the weaknesses could be overcome by using separate sites on the earth from which to transmit the low and high frequencies. A survey of the expected error in measurements using separated sites suggests that the critical element is time synchronization between them. The best available device for performing this function is the cesium beam clock; six such clocks were tested under conditions that accurately simulate an operational system. The test results are related to errors that would arise in plasma densities derived by this method. While the feasibility of site separation is dependent upon the specific mission to be accomplished, it appears practicable at the present state of the art for many planetary, solar wind, and comet applications.


The B7 family of costimulatory molecules provides the second signal necessary for activation of T cells. In the absence of the second signal, responding T cells become anergic. Although predominantly expressed on professional APCs, recent evidence shows that the B7 molecules are also expressed on T cells. To study the functions of B7 molecules on T cells, we transfected murine B7.1 (CD80) and B7.2 (CD86) cDNAs into the EL4 T cell thymoma cell line and examined the transfectants for their ability to costimulate T cell proliferation in vitro and to induce antitumor immunity in vivo. Here we show that although EL4-B7.1 cells costimulate T cells and induce tumor regression, EL4-B7.2 transfectants failed to costimulate T cell proliferation or induce tumor regression. To understand the cellular basis for this difference, we examined the binding of EL4-B7.1 and EL4-B7.2 to CTLA4 and CD28. Whereas EL4-B7.1 cells bound both CTLA4-Ig and CD28-Ig, EL4-B7.2 transfectants preferentially bound CTLA4-Ig, but not CD28-Ig. Similar binding data were obtained with freshly isolated murine T cells, which have been shown to constitutively express B7.2. Our data suggest, therefore, that B7.2 expressed on T cells may not costimulate but instead inhibit the T cell response by preferential binding to CTLA4.


ABSTRACT. Muniz Neta E. de S., Sampaio D.C., Galvao G. da S. & Munhoz A.D. [Comparison between the modified Ziehl-Neelsen technique and the phase contrast for detection of oocysts of the genus Cryptosporidium Tyzzer, 1907 (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae) in assintomatic cattle.] Comparacao das tecnicas de Ziehl-Neelsen modificada e contraste de fase na deteccao de oocistos do genero Cryptosporidium Tyzzer, 1907 (Apicomplexa: Cryptosporidiidae) em bovinos assintoma- ticos. Revista Brasileira de Medicina Veterinaria, 32(4):201-204,2010. Laboratorio de Analises Clinicas Veterinarias, Departamento de Ciencias Agrarias e Ambientais, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Rodovia Ilheus-Itabuna, Km 16, Salobrinho, Ilheus, BA 45650-000, Brasil. E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com The aim of this study was to compare the modified Ziehl-Neelsen Technique (ZNM) and the centrifugal-flotation with phase contrast (CF) for detection of oocysts of Cryptosporidium in asymptomatic cattle. One hundred fifty-six fecal samples of asymptomatic cattle (64 calves and 92 adults) were collected and selected using not random method. For the ZNM technique was prepared three slides of each sample. To the statistical analysis was used the Cohen's Kappa statistics for comparison of the techniques and the chi-square test with Yates correction to evaluate the use of more than one slide in the ZNM technique. It was observed a poor agreement (k: 0.08) between the CF, with either one or three slides in the ZNM, in which results showed that the first comparison of the simultaneous need of techniques to increase the detection of positive animals and second comparison that the sensitivity of the three slides was superior to the CF. This can be verified when just one slide was examined, showing that 41(26.3%) of all animals would not be diagnosed with Cryptosporidium, accounting for 46.06% of positive (p<0.001), underestimating the occurrence of this coccidian. Thus the reading of three blades became more sensitive diagnosis of Cryptosporidium and should be recommended mainly in asymptomatic animal studies of which could minimize the number of false negatives.


Cloth is difficult to simulate because it forms small, complex folds. These folds make cloth configuration difficult to measure. Particular problems include fast motion (ruling out laser ranging methods), the necessity for high resolution measurement, the fact that no viewing direction can see into the folds, and the fact that many points are visible with either small baseline or in only one view. We describe a method that can recover high resolution measurements of the shape of real cloth. Our method uses multiple cameras, a special pattern printed on the cloth, and high shutter speeds to capture fast motions. Cameras are calibrated directly from the cloth pattern. Folds result in local occlusion effects that can make identifying feature correspondences very difficult. We build correspondences between image features and material coordinates using novel techniques that apply approximate inference to exploit both local neighborhood information and global strain information. These correspondences yield an initial reconstruction that is polished using a combination of bundle adjustment with a strain minimization to get very good 3D reconstructions of points seen in multiple views. Finally, we use a combination of volume occupance cues derived from silhouettes and strain cues to get very good 3D reconstructions of points seen in just one view. Our observations provide both a 3D mesh and a parameterization of that mesh in material (or, equivalently, texture) coordinates. We demonstrate that our method can capture fast cloth motions and complicated configurations using a variety of natural cloth configurations, including: a view of a bent arm with extensive, complex folds at the elbow; a pair of pants moving very fast as the wearer jumps; and cloth shuddering when it is hit by dropped coins.


Silver oxide cluster cations (AgnOm+) can readily be produced by a number of methods including atmospheric-pressure spark ablation of pure silver electrodes when trace amounts of oxygen are present in the carrier gas. Here we determine the equilibrium geometries of AgnOm+ clusters (n = 1-4; m = 1-5) using accurate coupled cluster with singles and doubles (CCSD) method, while the stabilization energies are calculated with additional perturbative triples correction (CCSD(T)). Although a number of stable states have been identified, our results show that the AgnOm+ clusters with m = 1 are more stable than those with m ≥ 2 due to the absence of the terminally attached O2 molecule, corroborating recent observations by mass spectrometry. Using the computed structures, we calculate the electrical mobilities of the AgnOm+ clusters and label the values on a respective experimentally determined spectrum in an attempt to better interpret the occurrence of the peaks and troughs in the measurements.


This study was designed to determine the maximum tolerated dose and toxicity profile of belotecan in combination with oral etoposide in patients with platinum-resistant or heavily treated ovarian cancer, fallopian tubal cancer, and primary peritoneal cancer. Belotecan (0.5 mg/m2/day) was administered daily (days 1–5) followed by etoposide (50, 75 mg/day) for up to 5 days (days 6–10) every 3 weeks. Dose-limiting toxicities (DLT) were defined as follows: grade 4 neutropenia less than 1 week; either neutropenic fever less than 24 h or sepsis; grade 4 thrombocytopenia; and grade of at least 3 nonhematologic toxicity except alopecia. At the first dose level (50 mg) of etoposide, none of the three patients developed DLT, whereas DLT was observed in two of three patients at the next dose level. Thus, the dose level was reduced to 50 mg, and another three patients were enrolled. DLT was found in one of six patients who received etoposide at the dose level of 50 mg/m2. Thus, the maximum tolerated dose was reached (50 mg of oral etoposide) and the trial was terminated. The response was evaluable in nine patients and an objective response was observed in four patients (44%) including two complete responses. The combined regimen of belotecan followed by oral etoposide showed promising activity in platinum-resistant or heavily pretreated ovarian cancer patients at the dose level of 50 mg of oral etoposide.


We studied the mechanism of the chain-growth polymerization of 2-bromo-5-chloromagnesio-3-hexylthiophene (1) with Ni(dppp)Cl2 [dppp = 1,3-bis(diphenylphosphino)propane], in which head-to-tail poly(3-hexylthiophene) (HT-P3HT) with a low polydispersity is obtained and the M(n) is controlled by the feed ratio of the monomer to the Ni catalyst. Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectra showed that the HT-P3HT uniformly had a hydrogen atom at one end of each molecule and a bromine atom at the other. The reaction of the polymer with aryl Grignard reagent gave HT-P3HT with aryl groups at both ends, which indicates that the H-end was derived from the propagating Ni complex. The degree of polymerization and the absolute molecular weight of the polymer could be evaluated from the 1H NMR spectra of the Ar/Ar-ended HT-P3HT, and it was found that one Ni catalyst molecule forms one polymer chain. Furthermore, by reaction of 1 with 50 mol % Ni(dppp)Cl2, the chain initiator was found to be a bithiophene-Ni complex, formed by a coupling reaction of 1 followed by insertion of the Ni(0) catalyst into the C-Br bond of the dimer. On the basis of these results, we propose that this chain-growth polymerization involves the coupling reaction of 1 with the polymer via the Ni catalyst, which is transferred intramolecularly to the terminal C-Br bond of the elongated molecule. We call this mechanism "catalyst-transfer polycondensation".


Background: In the skin, under influence of ultraviolet radiation, 7-dehydrocholesterol is photoconverted to previtaminD3, which is converted to Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). In the serum, bound to a Vitamin D binding protein (VDBP), Vitamin D3 is transported to the liver, where it is hydroxylated to 25(OH)D3. In the kidneys, 25(OH)D3 is further metabolized to 1α,25dihydroxyvitaminD3 [1,25(OH)D3], the biologically active form of Vitamin D . Vitamin D (Cholecalciferol) is known to contribute to muscular function. In the past decade, various cases of both young and elderly adults have been described, in whom prolonged vitamin D deficiency was associated with severe muscle weakness, often leading to marked disability that improved within several weeks of vitamin D supplementation. However, few studies have been conducted in which muscle strength was objectively quantified in relation to vitamin D status in elderly people. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the supplementation of vitamin D is associated with grip strength recovery in Post-Menopausal Women after a Distal End Radius fracture treated with Closed Reduction and Percutaneous K-wire fixation. Material and Methods: In this comparative study, Two groups were formed, First group as a case in which vitamin D was supplemented and second group as control in which Vitamin D was not supplemented, both the group had 25 number of postmenopausal women who had Vitamin D level between sufficient range (30-100ng/ml) and were treated with same mode of treatment (closed reduction and Percutaneous K-wire fixation) for Distal end radius fracture. Grip strength recovery (in %) was compared in both the group after a period of 6 months. Results: Final grip strength recovery of all patients came out to be 67%, out of which, in supplemented group it came out to be 73% while in non-supplemented group came out to be 60% with p value of statistically significance proving major difference in grip strength recovery in % at 6 months in both the groups Conclusion :We concluded with our series that vitamin D supplementation significantly helps in improving the grip strength recovery in Post-menopausal women after a Distal End Radius fracture treated with Closed Reduction and Percutaneous K-wire fixation. Access this article online Quick Response Code: Website: www.innovativepublication.com


We analyze the growth of dataset sizes used in machine learning for natural language processing and computer vision, and extrapolate these using two methods; using the historical growth rate and estimating the compute-optimal dataset size for future predicted compute budgets. We investigate the growth in data usage by estimating the total stock of unlabeled data available on the internet over the coming decades. Our analysis indicates that the stock of high-quality language data will be exhausted soon; likely before 2026. By contrast, the stock of low-quality language data and image data will be exhausted only much later; between 2030 and 2050 (for low-quality language) and between 2030 and 2060 (for images). Our work suggests that the current trend of ever-growing ML models that rely on enormous datasets might slow down if data efficiency is not drastically improved or new sources of data become available.


SIRS , We are grateful for the interest in our paper shown by Hull and Robins. We agree that the incidence of peristomal sepsis in our study may be a little higher than that reported in some other series, but this does not invalidate our conclusions that antibiotic prophylaxis reduces both peristomal and systemic sepsis in patients with non-malignant disease undergoing PEG insertion. We agree that the use of scoring systems to diagnosis peristomal sepsis is prone to observer bias. However, the presence of pus as a diagnostic criterion for peristomal sepsis was not prone to observer bias in our study. There were 12 patients who had sepsis diagnosed by this criterion alone, i.e. with a total 'peristomal sepsis score' otherwise below the threshold level of 8 for diagnosing sepsis. Of these 12 patients (nine from placebo and three from the antibiotic group), 11 had positive microbiological cultures from their PEG site swabs, so this was clearly genuine pus rather than refluxed PEG feed. The correspondents' second paragraph is difficult to follow, but it is nevertheless a little difficult to accept their implication that nasal MRSA colonization, being the only identified risk factor for surgical infections in a cohort of orthopaedic patients in another study, is of direct relevance to the conclusions of our study. As shown in our Table 4, the subjects who developed MRSA peristomal sepsis in our study actually constituted the minority of those with positive cultures from PEG site infections. We agree with the correspondents that policies for antibiotic prophylaxis might be best guided by local microbial prevalence patterns, and screening for nasal MRSA colonization prior to PEG insertion would certainly constitute good practice. However, their final comment is ambiguous in failing to define a 'significant' PEG site infection and in failing to cite the incidence of MRSA infections in their series. It could be argued that in our own study there were no 'significant' PEG site infections even in the placebo group, as no patient required PEG removal for this reason. However, one of the goals in improving outcome after PEG insertion must be to minimize the incidence of systemic sepsis, and our study has shown that this is achieved with intravenous antibiotic prophylaxis. It seems unlikely that this would be achieved with topical prophylaxis only, although this point may deserve further study. REFERENCES


Installing halogens onto natural products can generate compounds with novel or improved properties. Notably, enzymatic halogenation is now possible as a result of the discovery of several classes of halogenases; however, applications are limited because of the narrow substrate specificity of these enzymes. Here we demonstrate that the flavin-dependent halogenase RebH can be engineered to install chlorine preferentially onto tryptamine rather than the native substrate tryptophan. Tryptamine is a direct precursor to many alkaloid natural products, including approximately 3000 monoterpene indole alkaloids. To validate the function of this engineered enzyme in vivo, we transformed the tryptamine-specific RebH mutant (Y455W) into the alkaloid-producing plant Madagascar periwinkle ( Catharanthus roseus ) and observed the de novo production of the halogenated alkaloid 12-chloro-19,20-dihydroakuammicine. While wild-type (WT) RebH has been integrated into periwinkle metabolism previously, the resulting tissue cultures accumulated substantial levels of 7-chlorotryptophan. Tryptophan decarboxylase, the enzyme that converts tryptophan to tryptamine, accepts 7-chlorotryptophan at only 3% of the efficiency of the native substrate tryptophan, thereby creating a bottleneck. The RebH Y455W mutant circumvents this bottleneck by installing chlorine onto tryptamine, a downstream substrate. In comparison with cultures harboring RebH and WT RebF, tissue cultures containing mutant RebH Y455W and RebF also accumulate microgram per gram fresh-weight quantities of 12-chloro-19,20-dihydroakuammicine but, in contrast, do not accumulate 7-chlorotryptophan, demonstrating the selectivity and potential utility of this mutant in metabolic engineering applications.


Optical emission spectroscopy and Langmuir Probe diagnostics were incorporated into the experiment, in which dust particles were formed in-situ by using reactive mixture gases (SiH4/C2H4/Ar) in a radio-frequency (RF) discharge plasma. The excitation temperature was first calculated by combining several optical emission spectra of argon lines and using a Boltzmann distribution to fit the experimental data, then the excitation temperature as functions of both gas pressure and RF power in SiH4/C2H4/Ar discharges for different discharge conditions were obtained. Correspondingly, based on the measurement of the electron temperature by a Langmuir probe, the excitation temperature was compared with the electron temperature, and some discussions were presented. Finally the emission intensities of spectral lines of Si 390.6 nm, Si2+ 380.6 nm and C+ 426.7 nm were measured and presented as functions of pressure, RF power and flow rate of SiH4/C2H4.


Background Osteoporosis and hypertension are two major age-related disorders. The underlying molecular mechanism for these two conditions is not known. Some studies showed that the renin-angiotensin system, which pays a central role in the control of blood pressure also accelerate bone resorbtion. Objectives The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between hypertension and bone mineral density (BMD) among postmenopausal women. Methods One hundred postmenopausal women attending in the Rheumatology Clinic, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, for osteoporosis evaluation were included in this study. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. Women treated with anti osteoporotic medication, secondary causes of osteoporosis and medication known to interfere with bone metabolism were excluded. The characteristics studied included age, body weight, height, body mass index (BMI), presence of hypertension, age of menarche, age of menopause, age since menopause and BMD. BMD was assessed by dual-energy X ray absorptiometry (DXA) at lumbar spine (L2-L4) and proximal femur (given as g/cm2 and as T-score values). Hypertension was defined by blood pressure data and/or use of antihypertensive medication. Results Women were placed into two groups according to the presence of hypertension. According to WHO criteria for BMD patients were divided into three groups: with normal BMD, osteopenia and osteoporosis. The mean age of patients was 67.56±0,76 years, 73% had hypertension. Hypertensive women were older (68.18±68 vs. 64.65±72, p=0.06), had higher values of BMI (33.08±83 vs. 26.19±21, p=0.009), higher menopausal age (48.44±13.02 vs. 46.76±31.23, p=0.08) and longer postmenopausal age (21.46±10.1 vs. 19.51±25, p=0.55) then women without hypertension. BMD at spine (-1.25±3.37 vs. -2.22±1.95, p=0.01), trochanter (-0.98±1.44 vs. -1.5±1.77, p=0.04) and femoral neck (-1.51±0.98 vs. -1.8±1.34, p=0.2) was higher in women with hypertension. Hypertension was found in 17 (54.84%) patients in the osteoporosis group, 33 (80.49%) in the osteopenia group and respectively 23 (82.14%) in normal BMD group (p=0,05). In our study the presence of hypertension was higher in non-osteoporotic patients (osteopenia and normal BMD). The multivariate analysis identified higher age, weight and longer postmenopausal age as independent factors associated with both hypertension and lower BMD. Conclusions BMD was higher in non-hypertensive patients. The majority of the patients were non osteoporotic. Higher age, weight and longer postmenopausal age were identified as independent factors associated with hypertension and lower BMD. References Ilić K, Obradović N, Vujasinović-Stupar N. The relationship among hypertension, antihypertensive medications, and osteoporosis: a narrative review. Calcif Tissue Int. 2013 Mar;92(3):217-27. Yazici Selma, Yazici M, Korkmaz M, Erkan M, Baki Z, Erden I. Relationship between blood pressure levels and bone mineral density in postmenopausal Turkish women. Arch Med Sci. 2011 April; 7(2): 264–270. Disclosure of Interest None declared DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.5234


Many kinds of mechanical systems can be modeled as spatial rigid multibody systems (SR-MBS), which consist of a set of rigid bodies interconnected by joints, springs and dampers. Vibration calculation of SR-MBS is conventionally conducted by approximately linearizing the nonlinear equations of motion and constraint, which is very complicated and inconvenient for sensitivity analysis. A new algorithm based on constraint-topology transformation is presented to derive the oscillatory differential equations in three steps, that is, vibration equations for free SR-MBS are derived using Lagrangian method at first; then, an open-loop constraint matrix is derived to obtain the vibration equations for open-loop SR-MBS via quadric transformation; finally, a cut-joint constraint matrix is derived to obtain the vibration equations for closed-loop SR-MBS via quadric transformation. Through mentioned above, the vibration calculation can be significantly simplified and the sensitivity analysis can be conducted conveniently. The correctness of the proposed method has been verified by numerical experiments in comparison with the traditional approaches.


A fragmentation scheme based upon the molecular fractionation with conjugated caps (MFCC) method and derived previously [J. Chem. Phys., 2009, 130, 144104] within the remit of density functional theory (DFT) based on local and semi-local functionals, enables one to perform order-N high-quality DFT calculations on extended systems (e.g. collections of organic molecules) via considering its smaller fragments. Here we discuss in detail a considerably improved method which broadens its applicability to a wider class of extended systems: (i) when each individual fragment is considered, the surrounding part of the entire system is not ignored anymore; instead, it is represented by point charges; (ii) the method is generalised to a system of any complexity enabling studying periodic and porous systems in real space; (iii) an appropriate Coulomb correction term is derived where clear distinction is made between charge densities of the same cap regions appearing in different fragments. Consequently, our correction term turns out to differ substantially from that derived e.g. by Li et al. [J. Chem. Phys. A, 2007, 111(11), 2193]. We also discuss a possibility for the point charges surrounding each fragment to update self-consistently following the calculations of every individual fragment. We examine here a new implementation of our method and its application to a metal-organic framework system. Specifically, we consider the structure of MOF-16 and adsorption of Hydrogen molecules in its pores. Possible ways of improving precision and to further widen up applicability of the method are also discussed.


Thromboembolic complications are known in cancer patients after i.v. administration of Corynebacterium parvum. We examined the ability of this organism to induce production of procoagulant activity by human blood mononuclear leukocytes in vitro. After 4 hours incubation Corynebacterium parvum was an effective stimulant for mononuclear leukocytes, behaving in the same way as the typical gram‐negative bacterium Escherichia coli, whereas mononuclear cells incubated with Staphylococcus aureus were not affected. Corynebacterium parvum used was found devoid of endotoxin by the Limulus assay and was not affected by Polymyxin B, which, on the contrary, inhibited Escherichia coli‐induced production of procoagulant activity. Intact Corynebacterium parvum may be required for the production of procoagulant activity and, although this specific aspect of the research will require further study, from the exposed data it is concluded that such a production could be a factor contributing to the pathogenesis of the coagulopathy following Corynebacterium parvum therapy.


Traditional wafer lot output time prediction methods are based on the historical data of the fab. However, the influence of the future release plan has been neglected. In addition, a lot that will be released in the future might appear in front of another lot that currently exists in the fab. For these reasons, to further improve the accuracy of wafer lot output time prediction, the future release plan of the fab has to be considered (look-ahead), and a look-ahead hybrid ANN (SOM+FBPN) is proposed for the same purpose in this study. Production simulation is also applied to generate test examples. According to experimental results, the prediction accuracy of the proposed methodology was significantly better than those of four approaches, FBPN, case-based reasoning (CBR), evolving fuzzy rules (EFR), and the hybrid ANN without look-ahead by achieving a 20%~49% (and an average of 35%) reduction in the root-mean-squared-error (RMSE) over the comparison basis – the FBPN. Key-Words: Output time prediction; Future release plan; Fuzzy back propagation network; Self-organization map; Wafer fab


In the studies on symbol emergence and emergent communication in a population of agents, a computational model was employed in which agents participate in various language games. Among these, the Metropolis-Hastings naming game (MHNG) possesses a notable mathematical property: symbol emergence through MHNG is proven to be a decentralized Bayesian inference of representations shared by the agents. However, the previously proposed MHNG is limited to a two-agent scenario. This paper extends MHNG to an N-agent scenario. The main contributions of this paper are twofold: (1) we propose the recursive Metropolis-Hastings naming game (RMHNG) as an N-agent version of MHNG and demonstrate that RMHNG is an approximate Bayesian inference method for the posterior distribution over a latent variable shared by agents, similar to MHNG; and (2) we empirically evaluate the performance of RMHNG on synthetic and real image data, i.e., YCB object dataset, enabling multiple agents to develop and share a symbol system. Furthermore, we introduce two types of approximations—one-sample and limited-length—to reduce computational complexity while maintaining the ability to explain communication in a population of agents. The experimental findings showcased the efficacy of RMHNG as a decentralized Bayesian inference for approximating the posterior distribution concerning latent variables, which are jointly shared among agents, akin to MHNG, although the improvement in ARI and κ coefficient is smaller in the real image dataset condition. Moreover, the utilization of RMHNG elucidated the agents' capacity to exchange symbols. Furthermore, the study discovered that even the computationally simplified version of RMHNG could enable symbols to emerge among the agents.


Background: Oral budesonide has been found to be comparable to systemic corticosteroids in mild to moderately active Crohn's disease (CD). Remission rates in pediatric studies to date have been suboptimal (47%–55%), even though patients with colonic involvement were excluded in some studies. In addition, the optimal pediatric dosing regimen has never been evaluated before. Methods: This was a randomized, controlled, double‐blind study in 70 children with mild or moderately active CD randomized to 1 of 2 groups: Group 1: Standard dose budesonide (9 mg/day) for 7 weeks followed by 6 mg budesonide daily for an additional 3 weeks. Group 2: Induction with 12 mg/day for the first month followed by the same regimen as Group 1. Outcome measures included a decrease in Pediatric Crohn's Disease Activity Index and remission rates. Patients with colonic disease were not excluded. Results: At week 7 a clinical response was obtained in 51.4% in Group 1 versus 74.3% in Group 2. A significant decrease in C‐reactive protein was seen only in Group 2. At the end of treatment, remission was obtained in 42.9% in Group 1 versus 65.7% in Group 2 (P = 0.054). There was no significant difference in adverse events or serum cortisol. Conclusions: Use of an induction dose of budesonide followed by a budesonide taper resulted in a trend to higher rates of clinical remission and a decrease in inflammation, without an increase in steroid‐associated side effects. Budesonide was also useful for patients with ileocolonic disease.


&NA; This report represents a pilot investigation of the role of chest muscle electromyographic (EMG) activity in developing panic episodes. Chest EMG activity was obtained as part of a larger study examining ventilatory differences between panic sufferers and normal controls. Frontalis EMG, heart rate, and minute ventilation (breathing rate and tidal volume) were also obtained during the study. The ventilatory procedure involved exposing the subjects to three periods of carbon dioxide gas inhalations (1%, 3%, 5%; balance oxygen). Subjective measures of frightening cognitions and body sensations were obtained across the inhalation phases as well. The panic disorder subjects were divided, on the basis of subjective anxiety ratings obtained throughout the study, into high anxious (HA) and low anxious (LA) panic disorder groups. The HA panic disorder patients exhibited significantly higher chest EMG activity than the LA panic disorder patients and controls across all phases of the experiment. In addition, the chest EMG predicted, better than the other physiologic measures, the number of frightening cognitions and sensations reported by the subjects during the baseline and 5% CO2 inhalation phases. Overall, the results were supportive of the further study of chest wall EMG activity in the pathogenesis of panic attacks.


&NA; We examined the relation between menstrual irregularity and breast cancer mortality in the American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention Study I. In 1959, 428,653 women age 30 years and older completed a questionnaire on possible cancer risk factors, including their recollection of their menstrual pattern at age 20 years. We used proportional hazards analysis to estimate rate ratios, based on 2,226 breast cancer deaths over 13 years of follow‐up. Women who reported having irregular menstruation at age 20 years were at reduced risk for breast cancer mortality (rate ratio = 0.84; 95% confidence interval = 0.74‐0.96). The relation was neither confounded nor modified by other breast cancer risk factors.


We recently demonstrated with magnetoencephalographic recordings in human observers that the focus of attention in visual search has a spatial profile consisting of a center enhancement surrounded by a narrow zone of sensory attenuation. Here, we report new data from 2 experiments providing insights into the cortical processes that cause the surround attenuation. We show that surround suppression appears in search tasks that require spatial scrutiny, that is the precise binding of search-relevant features at the target's location but not in tasks that permit target discrimination without precise localization. Furthermore, we demonstrate that surround attenuation is linked with a stronger recurrent activity modulation in early visual cortex. Finally, we show that surround suppression appears with a delay (more than 175 ms) that is beyond the time course of the initial feedforward sweep of processing in the visual system. These observations together indicate that the suppressive surround is associated with recurrent processing and binding in the visual cortex.


ABSTRACT: Restoration practitioners balance the desire to use locally adapted plant materials with the uncertainty of what constitutes "local." Provisional seed transfer zones are intended to guide managers on how far plant materials can be moved during revegetation with the assumption that all populations within a zone will show similarly adapted traits. There are multiple approaches to developing provisional transfer zones, including limiting transfer to specific populations, within ecoregions, within climatic zones, or within climatic zones within ecoregion; there is little information about which of these approaches is best or whether the best approach could vary by region. We used Pseudoroegneria spicata as a test species to assess (1) whether EPA Level III Ecoregion or population explained more variation in traits, and (2) which of four common provisional seed transfer zones (Ecoregion-only, Climate-only, USFS seed transfer zone, and Climate in Ecoregion) best explains trait variation. Plants from 14 populations and three ecoregions were grown in a common garden for two years; growth traits, final biomass, seed set, and mortality were measured. Ecoregion explained more variation than population for most growth traits and mortality; population explained more variation only for seed set. Only one of the three ecoregions showed strong trait differentiation. Out of the four provisional seed transfer zone models compared, we found the most support for models containing climate (Climate-only and Climate in Ecoregion). Findings suggest that Level III Ecoregions may be too broad for seed transfer and that managers should consider climate within ecoregion when making seed transfer decisions.


We introduce iterative noise whitening for belief-propagation-based channel detectors over intersymbol interference channels with correlated additive noise. In particular, we consider longitudinal magnetic recording systems. The proposed "noise predictive belief propagation" (NPBP) detector iteratively whitens the noise samples by modifying the edge probability computation. NPBP detectors based on finite impulse response and infinite impulse response prediction filters are developed. In addition, we introduce a novel prediction filter optimization method leading to a better noise whitening performance. Simulation results for both coded and uncoded systems show that significant improvements can be obtained.


High bandwidth short distance communications standards are being developed based on parallel optical interconnect fiber arrays to meet the needs of increasing data rates of inter-chip communication in modern computer architecture. To ensure that this standard becomes an attractive option for computer systems, low cost components must be implemented on both the transmitting and receiving end of the fibers. To meet this low cost requirement silicon based receiver circuits are the most viable option, however, manufacturing high speed, high efficiency silicon photodetectors presents a technical challenge. Resonant cavity enhanced (RCE) Si photodetectors have been shown to provide the required bandwidth-efficiency product and we have recently developed a method to reproduce them through commercially available fabrication techniques. In this work, commercially reproducible silicon wafers with a 90% reflectance buried distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) are used to create Si-RCE photodetector arrays for optical interconnects. The Si-RCE photodetectors have 40% quantum efficiency at 860 nm, a FWHM of 25 ps, and a 3dB bandwidth in excess of 10 GHz. We also demonstrate Si-RCE 12×1 photodetector arrays that have been fabricated and packaged with silicon based amplifiers to demonstrate the feasibility of a low cost monolithic silicon photoreceiver array.


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

We developed a novel application to conduct pseudopodia proteomics. Pseudopodia are ventral actin-rich protrusions and play functional roles in cell migrations. Identification of pseudopodia proteins leads further understanding of malignant phenotypes of tumor cells and novel therapeutic strategies. In our application, tumor cells were placed on a fibronectin-coated porous membrane to form pseudopodia. According to the motile potentials of the cells, the cells formed pseudopodial microprocesses in the pores. An excimer laser, which was used for ophthalmic refractive surgeries, horizontally ablated cells at the membrane surface to remove the cell body. The microscopic observations and the protein expression studies suggested that the laser treatment caused no apparent damages to pseudopodia. Proteins in whole cells and pseudopodia fractions were individually solubilized, labeled with a highly sensitive fluorescent dye, and separated using two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis. Among 2508 protein spots observed, 211 had different intensity between whole cells and pseudopodia fractions (more than 4-fold differences and p value less than 0.05). The protein enrichment depended on the pore size. Mass spectrometric protein identification revealed 46 pseudopodia-localizing proteins. The localization of novel pseudopodia-localizing proteins such as RAB1A, HSP90B, TDRD7, and vimentin was confirmed using immunohistochemical examinations. The previous studies demonstrated that these four proteins may function in the cell migration process. In addition, RAB1A was indicated to play an important role in forming and extending pseudopodial microprocesses in human breast cancer cells by overexpression and knockdown experiments. This method will provide insights into the molecular details of pseudopodia and further understanding of malignant phenotypes of tumor cells and novel therapeutic strategies.

Citation Format: Takahiro Mimae, Akihiko Ito, Man Hagiyama, Tadashi Kondo, Morihito Okada. Novel application for pseudopodial proteomics using excimer laserablation and two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2490. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2490


Purpose Although recent studies have highlighted the link of TIPE2 and asthma airway inflammation, its roles and molecular mechanisms in different asthma inflammatory phenotypes remain largely unknown. We evaluated sputum TIPE2 expression level and its correlation with different asthma phenotypes. Additionally, we explored the roles and mechanism of TIPE2 in M1 polarization of macrophages. Methods A total of 102 asthma patients who underwent sputum induction were enrolled to evaluate the expression level of TIPE2 and its association with different asthma phenotypes. To explore the roles and mechanism of TIPE2 in M1 polarization of macrophages, THP-1 monocytes stimulated with phorbol-12-myristate-13-acetate, were used as a model of undifferentiated (M0) macrophages, and M0 macrophages were treated with lipopolysaccharide to induce M1 macrophages. Results The sputum TIPE2 level was significantly lower in patients with neutrophilic asthma (NA) and higher in patients with eosinophilic asthma (EA) compared with patients with paucigranulocytic asthma. The levels of IL-1β, TNF-α and IL-6 were highest in NA compared with other groups. TIPE2 levels in sputum negatively correlated with IL-1β and TNF-α levels but positively correlated with IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and IL-10 levels (P < 0.05). In vitro, TIPE2 enhanced Nrf2/HO-1 pathway activation in macrophages and inhibited LPS-induced M1 macrophage differentiation and related cytokine release. Further analysis showed that the Nrf2 inhibitor ML385 weakened TIPE2-induced activation of the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway, as well as TIPE2-induced suppression in M1 polarization of macrophage and inflammatory cytokines secretion. Conclusions TIPE2 expression level was highly down-regulated in NA and was negatively correlated with inflammatory factors (IL-1β and TNF-α). Aberrant expression of TIPE2 may target the Nrf2/HO-1 pathway to inhibit M1 macrophage–related neutrophilic inflammation in asthma.


This report summarizes the results of sampling five groundwater monitoring wells in the vicinity of the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory in 2001. Information on general sampling practices, quality assurance practices, parameter concentrations, representativeness of sampling results, and cumulative cancer risk are presented. The information is provided to support a conditional No Longer Contained-In Determination for the Snake River Plain Aquifer in the vicinity of the Idaho Nuclear Technology and Engineering Center.


In September 1470, a man called Laurencius Rawaldi from Linköping in Sweden was struck by a severe condition in his eyes. The illness left him blind for three years, during which he—according to his own testimony—was useless for both himself and others. Following the advice of the abbot of Alvastra Abbey, he made a vow with his wife and children to Catherine of Vadstena, promising that if the saint cured his blindness, he would travel to her shrine and bring two wax eyes. When the vow was done, 'jugs of water' streamed from his eyes and he regained his vision. Afterwards he travelled to Vadstena with his family without anyone guiding him. The testimony Laurencius gave of his miraculous cure in the 1470's is only one example of the thousands of similar testimonies included in later medieval canonisation hearings. Beginning in the early thirteenth century, the popes wanted to take more control on the veneration of saints, which had earlier been in the hands of local bishops. As a result a procedure known as the canonisation process developed. It always started with a local cult, and if the Pope considered it worth investigating, he sent a commission to interview people about the life, merits and miracles of the putative saint. During these interrogations, priests, monks, nuns and also a large number of laymen and laywomen testified under oath about the miracles they had experienced or witnessed, and the sources can be compared with other juridical sources of the era. The witness accounts are strongly influenced by the practicalities and legal aspects of the canonisation hearing, by the preferences of the commissioners, by the typicalities of the said cult, and by the widely accepted and internalised views about the miraculous. Moreover, the witnesses often gave their testimonies years, even decades after the actual event, and thus time as well as communal discussions and opinions undoubtedly distorted the retellings. It was, however, important that the witnesses' replies were recorded accurately and the testimonies were read to them so that possible mistakes could be corrected. Thus it


Providing a computer architecture and programming model of the high-speed processing for the broadband network. The architecture uses the same modular structure, and a utility computing module unified software unit. Utility computing module comprises a control processor, a plurality of processing units, the processing unit from its local memory a plurality of processing programs, a direct memory access controller and a shared main memory. Also provided / synchronization system and method for coordinating the processing unit from / to the shared main memory for reading and writing of data. Providing hardware sandbox structure for ensuring data between the program processing unit being processed will not be destroyed.


The potential of two interventions, alone or in combination, to restore chronic spinal cord transection-induced changes in skeletal muscles of adult Sprague-Dawley rats was studied. Hind limb skeletal muscles were examined in the following groups of animals: rats with a complete spinal cord transection (Tx) for 8 weeks; Tx with a 4-week delay before initiation of a 4-week motor-assisted cycling exercise (Ex) program; Tx with a 4-week delay before transplantation (Tp) of fetal spinal cord tissue into the lesion cavity; Tx with a 4-week delay before Tp and Ex; and uninjured control animals. Muscle mass, muscle to body mass ratios, and mean myofiber cross-sectional areas were significantly reduced 8 weeks after transection. Whereas transplantation of fetal spinal cord tissue did not reverse this atrophy and exercise alone had only a modest effect in restoring lost muscle mass, the combination of exercise and transplantation significantly increased muscle mass, muscle to body mass ratios, and mean myofiber cross-sectional areas in both soleus and plantaris muscles. Spinal cord injury (SCI) also caused changes in myosin heavy chain (MyHC) expression toward faster isoforms in both soleus and plantaris and increased soleus myofiber succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity. Combined exercise and transplantation led to a change in the expression of the fastest MyHC isoform in soleus but had no effect in the plantaris. Exercise alone and in combination with transplantation reduced SDH activity to control levels in the soleus. These results suggest a synergistic action of exercise and transplantation of fetal spinal cord tissue on skeletal muscle properties following SCI, even after an extended post-injury period before intervention.


Over the past two decades, multi-sensor data fusion method has attracted increasing attention to structural health monitoring due to its inherent capabilities in extracting information from different sources and integrating them into a consistent, accurate and intelligible data set. Meanwhile, since the probabilistic neural network (PNN) describes measurement data in a Bayesian probabilistic approach, it has been successfully applied to structural damage detection (Jiang et al. 2004; Klenke et al. 1996; Ko et al. 1999; Ni et al. 2001). In order to make full use of multi-sensor data (or information) from multi-resource and to improve the diagnosis accuracy of the health conditions for complex structures, it is advisable to combine these methods and exploit their individual advantages. In this paper, a 5-phase complex structural damage detection method by integrating data fusion and PNN is developed and implemented. The proposed method is then applied to damage detection and identification of two simulation examples. The result shows that the proposed method is feasible and effective for damage identification.


Continuous exposure to formaldehyde may cause injury to the central nervous, respiratory, blood, and immunological systems. Tapered U-shape plastic optical fiber (POF) coated with zinc oxide nanorods was evaluated at wavelength of 645 nm for formaldehyde vapor sensing within a concentration range from 5% to 20%. The tapered POF with 500 $\mu \text{m}$ waist diameter was prepared using chemical etching technique. Zinc oxide nanorods were synthesized using hydrothermal method and growth for 12 hours on the tapered POF. The proposed sensor exhibited a good response to formaldehyde concentration ranging from 5% to 20% with sensitivity and linearity measured to be 0.00543V/% and 98.58%, respectively. Excellent measurement stability was observed when the concentrations from 5% and above are maintain over a 600 second period. Highest difference voltage was produced by 0.0958V due to the more scattering effect of ZnO nanorods at 20% of formaldehyde concentration. This proposed sensor might be also used to detect air pollution produced not just by formaldehyde vapor, but also by other dangerous or poisonous vapors or gases.