Streptococcus pyogenes is an important human pathogen frequently colonizing the throat and skin of humans. To facilitate colonization and spread and to avoid the host immune defence, streptococci are endowed with a variety of virulence factors, two of which are investigated in this thesis namely streptolysin O (SLO) and M protein. SLO is a secreted cytolysin that forms pores in eukaryotic membranes by binding to cholesterol. This thesis shows that SLO, via calcium and p38 MAPK, stimulates polymorphonuclear neutrophilic granulocytes (PMNs) to release the pro-inflammatory mediators heparin binding protein (HBP), LL-37, ?-defensin, and elastase. This will lead to an exaggerated immune response that may be beneficial to streptococci and could explain some of the symptoms of severe streptococcal infections. M proteins form a family of membrane anchored surface proteins that project from the streptococcal surface and have been linked to the characteristic feature of S. pyogenes to escape phagocytosis. The exact mechanisms underlying this phagocytosis resistance remain unknown. In one of the papers included in this thesis, we investigated the contribution of the binding of complement regulatory proteins factor H (FH) and factor H like protein-1 (FHL-1) to M5 protein. Surprisingly, FH/FHL-1 binding affects neither complement deposition nor phagocytosis resistance. In another paper, we investigated the binding between M and M-like proteins of the M1 serotype and ?2-glycoprotein I (?2-GPI). Fragments of ?2-GPI were shown to be antibacterial, and we found that the interaction of M1 protein and protein H with full-length ?2-GPI inhibited the cleavage into potentially harmful fragments of the plasma protein. In addition, M1 protein and protein H were able to neutralize the effect of the ?2-GPI antibacterial fragments in vitro. In immune donors, streptococci are opsonized by specific antibodies and subsequently killed. Our results show that these neutralizing antibodies are directed to the N-terminal of the M protein and that they mediated killing by complement activation. We also found that surface deposited C3b binds to complement receptor 3 (CR3) on PMNs which leads to activation of Cdc 42 and Rac 2 that starts the phagocytosis process and triggers the induction of oxidative burst. (Less)


A one-dimensional slab model of the plasma sheath in the stationary plasma thruster (SPT) chamber is developed in this study. It is considered that secondary electrons emitted from ceramic walls are partially trapped by the bulk plasma in the SPT chamber; some secondary electrons drift across the sheath where they are generated and the bulk and move towards the opposite sheath. Thus both the secondary electron emission (SEE) from one sheath and the partially trapped secondary electrons from the opposite sheath contribute to this sheath. The results indicate that both the SEE coefficient and trapping coefficient have a significant impact not only on the distributions of both electrons and ions of the SPT sheath but also on the energy flux loss to the SPT wall. When the trapping coefficient increases, the energy flux of electrons deposited to the walls will increase whereas that of ions will decrease. Besides, the critical electron temperature will decrease greatly with the increase of the trapping coefficient.


The aim of this study was to assess whether resting radionuclide angiography could detect isolated regional left ventricular filling abnormalities due to chronic ischemia. The authors studied global and regional (10 segments) variations of LV volume using an original computerised system in 29 patients with single vessel coronary artery disease and normal systolic function without any other known pathology which could have altered left ventricular filling. Purely diastolic regional wall abnormalities were detected in presumed ischemic territories in over 60% of patients. They were then observed mostly in early rather than late diastole and affected the chronological indices (time to 1/3 LV filling, or to peak early diastolic filling rate) more than those of velocity (peak E or A velocities) or volume (filling fraction at 1/3 and half-diastole or that due to atrial contraction). They suggested delayed relaxation in these regions. These segmental changes are associated with a significant increase in asynchronous filling as judged by the variation in the intervals to peak early diastolic filling (tE) (p less than 0.001) and to one third filling (T 1/3R) (p less than 0.02), in the absence of increased physiological asynchronous contraction. An inversed relationship was observed (p less than 0.01) between the global value of peak early diastolic velocity and the indices of early diastolic asynchronous filling tE (r = -0.48) and T1/3R (r = -0.54). As previously reported, these regional abnormalities are, however, generally too small to cause changes in global diastolic function.


Hot electrons, far above the lattice temperature of a material, present opportunities for enhanced solar energy harvesting or performance of otherwise unfavorable chemistry. The spectroscopic signatures and dynamics of hot carrier absorption and emission have been extensively studied in bulk and nanoscopic semiconductors, but the effects on intraband transitions are largely unexplored. Here, the effect of hot electrons on the properties of colloidal quantum wells made of cadmium selenide is examined using ultrafast spectroscopy. Similar to expitaxial quantum wells, these atomically precise materials support intersubband transitions (a class of intraband transitions in 1D and 2D materials) in the near-infrared spectral window. Using energy-dependent photoexcitation, it is shown that electrons reach effective temperatures of 2000 K or greater. This results in a substantial transient shift in the oscillator strength of the instersubband transition to lower energies on a sub-picosecond time-scale. Similar heating of electrons is achieved under mid-infrared re-excitation, which permits ultrafast transmittance modulation throughout the near-infrared.


Rice has been one of the staple foods that contribute significantly to human food supplies. Numerous rice varieties have been cultivated, imported, and exported worldwide. Different rice varieties could be mixed during rice production and trading. Rice impurities could damage the trust between rice importers and exporters, calling for the need to develop a rice variety inspection system. In this work, we develop a non-destructive rice variety classification system that benefits from the synergy between hyperspectral imaging and deep convolutional neural network (CNN). The proposed method uses a hyperspectral imaging system to simultaneously acquire complementary spatial and spectral information of rice seeds. The rice varieties are then determined from the acquired spatio-spectral data using a deep CNN. As opposed to several existing rice variety classification methods that require hand-engineered features, the proposed method automatically extracts features from the raw sensor data. As demonstrated using two types of rice datasets, the proposed method achieved up to 8% relative improvement in the classification accuracy compared to the commonly used classification methods based on support vector machines.


The change of urban cultural space layout is a multi-variable, multi-objective, and restricted research process. The optimization of urban cultural space construction and layout is a multi-objective decision-making problem that needs to be solved urgently. Based on the forward three-layer neural network theory, this paper constructs an optimization model for the construction and layout of urban cultural space evaluation of the layout of cultural space. This paper first analyzes the feasibility of combining the forward three-layer neural network model with the optimization and adjustment of cultural space layout structure. Taking the three-layer feedforward network as an example, the structure optimization model based on the forward three-layer neural network is selected, and the established model is used to reflect the internal environment of the objective world. Structure and perform dynamic simulation. In the process of simulation modeling, from the aspects of system description, model structure, logical analysis, reasoning, and interpretation, two effective computer dynamic simulation methods, namely, forward three-layer neural network model and system dynamics SD model, were carried out for theoretical comparison and identification. The experimental results show that the feasibility and calculation error of the application of the optimization model are relatively good, reaching 0.897 and 6.21%, respectively. The number of newly added cultural spaces and the expansion speed show an increasing trend, expanding at an average annual speed of about 35 km2, effectively increasing the quality of regional planning and construction layout.


We examine hemispheric asymmetry of the annual and semiannual variation of the ratio of O and N2 concentrations (O/N2) using observations by the Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) instrument onboard the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics satellite and compare them with Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere‐ionosphere eXtension (WACCM‐X) model simulations. We found that in the equatorial region, the "equinox peaks" of the observed O/N2 are near the end of March and October, and the two annual lows are near the beginning of July and January. Compared to the equatorial region, in the northern hemisphere (NH) low latitudes, the first "equinox peak" clearly shifts toward the December solstice, whereas in the southern hemisphere (SH) low latitudes, the "equinox peaks" shift toward the June solstice (JS), forming the hemispheric asymmetry characteristics of the annual and semiannual variation. Seasonal variation of O/N2 shows no apparent phase variation with altitude, and the annual and semiannual pattern is consistent from year to year. WACCM‐X reproduces the observed annual and semiannual pattern in NH but in SH, it simulates an annual variation instead of the observed annual and semiannual variation. The largest discrepancy occurs near JS in the lower and middle thermosphere: the simulated O density has an annual high near JS in SH; the simulated N2 density has an annual high near JS in NH but a predominant annual low near JS in SH. These are not in the GUVI data. A weaker thermospheric meridional circulation in the winter hemisphere, or a reduced summer‐to‐winter latitudinal gradient of neutral temperature in WACCM‐X simulations would make model‐data comparisons more consistent.


Peri-oral tactile stimulation has been used to enhance nutritive sucking in premature infants who have survived life-threatening illnesses in neonatal intensive care settings. Objective data for evaluation of such programs is scant. In 31 pts (x g.a.=32 wks, x post-natal age=34d) sucking patterns were recorded for Vol., Rate, and max. Pressure during 3 different 4 min feedings of formula. Recordings were made without stimulation (0), after stimulation (A) and during stimulation (D). Stimulation consisted of light-touch pressure over the buccinator and oribucularis oris muscles at a rate of 1/sec. for 3 min before feeding (Group A) or continuously during feeding (Group D). Each pt. acted as his own control. There were no differences in Vol, Rate, or Pressures in Group 0 vs. A, but significant differences were present in Group 0 vs. D.Peri-oral tactile stimulation during feeding enhances nutritive sucking in premature infants.


CONTEXT
Iron is essential for brain development and functioning. Emerging evidence suggests that iron deficiency in early life leads to long-lasting neural and behavioral deficits in infants and children. Adopting a life course perspective, we examined the effects of early iron deficiency on the risk of schizophrenia in adulthood.

OBJECTIVE
To determine whether maternal iron deficiency, assessed by maternal hemoglobin concentration during pregnancy, increases the susceptibility to schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs) among offspring.

DESIGN
Data were drawn from a population-based cohort born from 1959 through 1967 and followed up for development of SSD from 1981 through 1997.

PARTICIPANTS
Of 6872 offspring for whom maternal hemoglobin concentration was available, 57 had SSDs (0.8%) and 6815 did not (99.2%).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Prospectively assayed, the mean value of maternal hemoglobin concentration was the primary exposure. Hemoglobin concentration was analyzed as a continuous and a categorical variable.

RESULTS
A mean maternal hemoglobin concentration of 10.0 g/dL or less was associated with a nearly 4-fold statistically significant increased rate of SSDs (adjusted rate ratio, 3.73; 95% confidence interval, 1.41-9.81; P = .008) compared with a mean maternal hemoglobin concentration of 12.0 g/dL or higher, adjusting for maternal education and ethnicity. For every 1-g/dL increase in mean maternal hemoglobin concentration, a 27% decrease in the rate of SSDs was observed (95% confidence interval, 0.55-0.96; P = .02).

CONCLUSIONS
The findings suggest that maternal iron deficiency may be a risk factor for SSDs among offspring. Given that this hypothesis offers the potential for reducing the risk for SSDs, further investigation in independent samples is warranted.


A heterogeneous network (HetNet) of a macrocell base station equipped with a large-scale massive multi-in multi-out (MIMO) antenna array overlaying a number of small cell base stations (small cells) can provide high quality of service (QoS) to multiple users under low transmit power budget. However, the circuit power for operating such a network, which is proportional to the number of transmit antennas, poses a problem in terms of its energy efficiency (EE). This paper addresses the beamforming design at the base stations to optimize the network EE under the QoS constraints and a transmit power budget. Beamforming tailored for weak, strong, and medium cross-tier interference HetNets is proposed. In contrast to the conventional transmit strategy for power efficiency in meeting the users' QoS requirements, which suggest the use of a few hundred antennas, it is found out that the overall network EE quickly drops if this number exceeds 50. It is found that, for a given number of antennas, HetNet is more energy efficient than massive MIMO when considering the overall energy consumption.


Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain showed the presence of hypoplastic corpus callosum confirming the diagnosis of Aicardi syndrome. Aicardi syndrome, an X-linked dominant condition presents with the triad of agenesis of corpus callosum, chorioretinal lacunae (which are pathognomonic even in the absence of dysgenesis of the corpus callosum) and infantile spasms. Polymicrogyria and grey matter heterotopias are the major features. The seizures may be difficult to control even with multiple anti-epileptic medications. Survival is variable with mean and median age of death of 8.3 and 18.5 years, respectively. References


1-O-Hexadecyl-2-acetyl-sn-glycerol, the immediate precursor of platelet- activating factor (PAF) in its de novo formation, was detected in the protozoon Tetrahymena pyriformis. It was purified from the total lipid extract by TLC, after successive developments in two different solvent systems. Characterization was assessed by (a) gas-liquid chromatography with electron capture detection, and (b) gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry in selected ion monitoring mode, after derivatization with heptafluorobutyric acid anhydride and tert-butyldimethylchlorosilane/imidazole, respectively. Its quantity was found to be 0.1 nmol/10(7) cells from the GC-MS, using authentic alkylacetylglycerol as external standard. Cell fractionation revealed that alkylacetylglycerol is located exclusively in the microsomal fraction of the protozoon. Previously, we have reported the occurrence of PAF in the microsomal fraction, as well as a dithiothreitol-insensitive CDP-choline: cholinephosphotransferase activity that utilizes exogenous alkylacetylglycerol as substrate in the mitochondrial and microsomal fractions. The above findings indicate that PAF can be formed in the cell by the de novo pathway.


Project-based learning is a student-centered method of organizing learning in projects in which the students drive their learning and the teacher plays as facilitator in a project designed. This research aimed to explore the implementation steps of the Project-Based Learning (PjBL) approach employed by a teacher in an EFL classroom. It used a descriptive qualitative method. For the description of PjBL steps, the researchers administered classroom observation and in-depth interviews taking an English teacher as the informant at Al Ihsan Islamic boarding School, Polewali Mandar, West Sulawesi. The findings revealed that the teacher implemented three major steps of PjBL in English language teaching, that is (1) planning and preparation, (2) the project work, and (3) report and presentation. Planning and preparation steps showed the best sample of previous project work referring to a real-life example of language usage and building the project activities' framework; the project work step guided the project's implementation and monitored the progress of the students' project; and report and presentation step bridged the discussion and encouraged peer assessment among the students' work. Based on these three steps, it is concluded that the implementation of PjBL had a positive impact not only on English language learning as a whole but also on other areas of learning, that is critical thinking, collaboration and communication skills of the students as well.


Acoustic signals produced by males are often subject to sexual selection. The mechanism of song production in crickets is well documented. Cricket songs are said to be characterised by almost pure tones of constant frequency. However, contrary to previous work, we show that cricket songs exhibit frequency modulation to varying degrees, dependent on the degree of asymmetry in the sound resonators or harps. Recent studies of sexually selected traits suggest that size and symmetry may reflect male quality. The harps of crickets exhibit directional asymmetry to a degree that is directly related to the degree of fluctuating asymmetry in a measure of body size. We show that females prefer pure tones of low carrier frequency, characteristic of large symmetrical harps. Directional asymmetry may thus convey reliable information regarding male quality encoded in the male's song.


The problem of unity within the Christian and interreligious rapprochement is in its essence complex and multifaceted. The attempt to look at this issue through the experience of the alienation complex wishes to cast some light on the factors that in principle exclude the possibility of reconciliation. The phenomenon of alienation in interdenominational relations is very often overlooked, and its consequences are hastily hushed up. However, a proper assessment of the situation of alienation in mutual relations between churches or religions should be a simple gesture of courage and willingness to make a change. Yet, this is not simple, all the more so when done at someone else's request. It is still a long way to catharsis and a sense of fellowship with others, but this is what the Catholic Church and the entire Christianity needs. A genuine attitude of openness, ecumenical openness included, is what the Christian community is called to in order to perform its specific missions in the contemporary world.


Spectral clustering is a leading and popular technique in unsupervised data analysis. Two of its major limitations are scalability and generalization of the spectral embedding (i.e., out-of-sample-extension). In this paper we introduce a deep learning approach to spectral clustering that overcomes the above shortcomings. Our network, which we call SpectralNet, learns a map that embeds input data points into the eigenspace of their associated graph Laplacian matrix and subsequently clusters them. We train SpectralNet using a procedure that involves constrained stochastic optimization. Stochastic optimization allows it to scale to large datasets, while the constraints, which are implemented using a special-purpose output layer, allow us to keep the network output orthogonal. Moreover, the map learned by SpectralNet naturally generalizes the spectral embedding to unseen data points. To further improve the quality of the clustering, we replace the standard pairwise Gaussian affinities with affinities leaned from unlabeled data using a Siamese network. Additional improvement can be achieved by applying the network to code representations produced, e.g., by standard autoencoders. Our end-to-end learning procedure is fully unsupervised. In addition, we apply VC dimension theory to derive a lower bound on the size of SpectralNet. State-of-the-art clustering results are reported on the Reuters dataset. Our implementation is publicly available at this https URL .


Summary We show that it is practical to invert entire airborne electromagnetic (AEM) surveys to 3D conductivity models with hundreds of thousands of cells within a day on a workstation. We have exploited the fact that the area of the footprint of an AEM system is significantly smaller than the area of an AEM survey to develop a robust 3D inversion method which uses a moving footprint. Our implementation is based on the 3D integral equation method for computing AEM data and sensitivities, and the re-weighted regularized conjugate gradient method is used to minimize the objective functional. Even for terranes which are arguably as close to 1D as geologically possible, we demonstrate that results from our 3D inversion are a significant improvement over those models obtained from layered earth inversion. We demonstrate this with 3D inversion of RESOLVE frequency-domain AEM data acquired for salinity mapping over the Bookpurnong Irrigation District in South Australia.


Few studies have been conducted on individuals' knowledge of sport-related concussions (SRCs) in South Korea. The purpose of this study was to examine South Korean athletes' knowledge and recognition of SRC. A cross-sectional survey assessing (a) the recognition of specific signs and symptoms associated with SRC; (b) history of SRC; and (c) knowledge of the return-to-play decision (RTP) process after SRC was distributed to 410 high school and collegiate student-athletes from a variety of sports. No participants correctly identified all 9 items on the checklist of SRC signs and symptoms. While 8.9% reported a history of SRC, approximately 50% of those never reported their postconcussion signs and symptoms. Furthermore, 63.9% of the athletes who reported SRC made RTP decisions on their own. These results reflect the lack of knowledge in South Korean athletics of common signs, symptoms, and appropriate RTP decisions following concussion. Language: en


A significant change in the Earth's climate, "Climate Change" refers to the broader set of changes that go along with warmer temperatures, including changes in weather patterns, the oceans, ice and snow, and ecosystems around the world. -U.S.EPA Archives Databases and print sources for articles on your subject.


Examining the multiple ways in which migration relates to social change is a daunting task. It requires, first of all, defining what social change is and, secondarily, delimiting the scope of analysis to certain types of migration and not others. The greatest dangers that I envision in this enterprise are, first, getting lost in generalities of the 'social change is ubiquitous' kind and, second, attempting to cover so much terrain as to lose sight of analytic priorities and of major, as opposed to secondary, causal linkages. I seek to avoid these dangers by first discussing the concept of social change, second identifying the types of migration to be considered, and third examining the major factors that link one to another. I conclude the paper with four theoretical and methodological considerations that may guide future work in this field.


These two specimens both show new growths of the renal pelvis; the patients presented themselves with attacks of pyrexia as the main clinical feature. There was no urinary infection to account for it, and although in each case there was bronchitis, the pyrexial attacks ceased after nephrectomy. Decomposition of blood-clot was a possible cause in Case I, but not in Case II. In reply to a question Mr. Riches said he did not make a routine practice of removing the ureter in pelvic new growths ; although vesical implants did sometimes occur he did not think they were sufficiently common to justify this step, and it was not always possible to tell whether the neoplasm was pelvic until the kidney had been sectioned. He referred to a case of carcinoma of the ureter shown to the Section five years previously in which, although the whole ureter had been removed there had been repeated implantation growths in the bladder which had been kept in check by cysto-diathermy.


In 17 patients with cardiopulmonary insufficiency the authors found a significant positive inotropic heart effect and a moderate improvement of ventilation after one injection of 400 mg Spirolacton. 2. The positive inotropic effect is experimentally confirmed in 8 dwarf pigs. 3. In 13 patients with severe cardiac and cardiopulmonary insufficiency a tendency to normalization of arterial blood gases, of actual bicarbonate and of vital capacity was found. There may be an indirect effect on the respiratory center by alteration of acid-base-status and by diuresis causing diminuation of pulmonary compliance. Spironolacton seems to be a valuable therpeutical completion in cardiac and cardiopulmonary insufficency in its intravenous quick application and its oral time application.


We present the first results of an ALMA spectral survey of strong absorption lines for common interstellar species in the z = 0.89 molecular absorber toward the lensed blazar PKS 1830-211. The dataset brings essential information on the structure and composition of the absorbing gas in the foreground galaxy. In particular, we find absorption over large velocity intervals (greater than or similar to 100 km s(-1)) toward both lensed images of the blazar. This suggests either that the galaxy inclination is intermediate and that we sample velocity gradients or streaming motions in the disk plane, that the molecular gas has a large vertical distribution or extraplanar components, or that the absorber is not a simple spiral galaxy but might be a merger system. The number of detected species is now reaching a total of 42 different species plus 14 different rare isotopologues toward the SW image, and 14 species toward the NE line-of-sight. The abundances of CH, H2O, HCO+, HCN, and NH3 relative to H-2 are found to be comparable to those in the Galactic diffuse medium. Of all the lines detected so far toward PKS 1830-211, the ground-state line of ortho-water has the deepest absorption. We argue that ground-state lines of water have the best potential for detecting diffuse molecular gas in absorption at high redshift.


The globular cluster M15 is unique in its display of star-to-star variations in the neutron-capture elements. Comprehensive abundance surveys have been previously conducted for handfuls of M15 red giant branch (RGB) and red horizontal branch (RHB) stars. No attempt has been made to perform a single, self-consistent analysis of these stars, which exhibit a wide range in atmospheric parameters. In the current effort, a new comparative abundance derivation is presented for three RGB and six RHB members of the cluster. The analysis employs an updated version of the line transfer code MOOG, which now appropriately treats coherent, isotropic scattering. The apparent discrepancy in the previously reported values for the metallicity of M15 RGB and RHB stars is addressed and a resolute disparity of Δ(RHB − RGB) ≈ 0.1 dex in the iron abundance was found. The anti-correlative behavior of the light neutron-capture elements (Sr, Y, Zr) is clearly demonstrated with both Ba and Eu, standard markers of the s- and r-process, respectively. No conclusive detection of Pb was made in the RGB targets. Consequently for the M15 cluster, this suggests that the main component of the s-process has made a negligible contribution to those elements normally dominated by this process in solar system material. Additionally for the M15 sample, a large Eu abundance spread is confirmed, which is comparable to that of the halo field at the same metallicity. These abundance results are considered in the discussion of the chemical inhomogeneity and nucleosynthetic history of M15.


The interaction of H2 with metal surfaces gives rise to elastic and inelastic back-scattering, physisorption, dissociative and possibly associative chemisorption. Theoretically, the interaction is the simplest example that displays this complete range of properties. Experimental study is greatly aided by the availability of the isotopes H2, D2 and HD with their well separated masses and well-spaced rotational spectra. H2-metal systems are therefore particularly worthy of study and it would seem feasible through judicious interplay of theory and experiment to understand the interaction in detail. This note constitutes a summary of current theoretical ideas and their relation to experiment.


Author(s): Rungratsameetaweemana, Nuttida | Advisor(s): Serences, John T | Abstract: Our visual world is full of ambiguous sensory signals, from which we have to extract relevant and meaningful information in order to guide optimal actions. To maximize the efficiency of this process, our visual system relies on foreknowledge to prioritize the processing of relevant or expected features. Knowledge of statistical regularities in the environment can lead to faster detection and recognition of objects when they are encountered in an expected context (e.g., a bird in a backyard) than when they are encountered in unlikely context (e.g., a bird in a washing machine). In addition, knowledge about the current task goals can also support faster and more accurate processing of relevant over irrelevant items--a mechanism referred to as selective attention. In what manner do these "top down" modulatory factors individually and jointly affect visual sensory processing, decision making, and behavior? In three studies, we examined how perceptual decision making is modulated by prior expectation about stimulus probabilities alone and in the context where knowledge about the current behavioral goals were available. We examined these effects both neurally via electroencephalography (EEG) and behaviorally through psychophysics and also in amnesic patients in relation to age-matched controls. To this end, we first devised an experimental paradigm where prior expectation and selective attention could be individually manipulated. The behavioral readouts from this paradigm were continuous which made it possible for the temporal evolution of the effects of expectation and attention on decision process to be probed both behaviorally and in relation to the continuous neural (EEG) measures. We first demonstrated that prior expectation improves decision processes by primarily affecting post-perceptual operations such as initiation and execution of motor responses, instead of directly improving the efficiency of early sensory processing. This finding confirms an idea that has been put forth by traditional theoretical framework that prior expectation affects decision making by preferentially modulating motor responses that correspond to sensory inputs with high probability of occurring. Further, we showed that while both expectation and attention improved behavior, the underlying neural mechanisms that give rise to these effects differed: while attention operates on the early processing of sensory inputs, expectation affects the late stage of decision making by biasing motor responses towards the most likely decision choice. These differential temporal dynamics of expectation and attention were observed bot h behaviorally and neurally. Finally, we demonstrated that an ability to utilize knowledge about current task goals and to form expectation based on statistical regularities of the sensory environment can be independent of a declarative memory system.


The recent proliferation of multimedia contents led to the need to more effective and efficient content representation techniques to speed up their retrieval. MPEG-7 is a new standard that aims at describing the low-level (syntactic) and high-level (semantic) multimedia content. In MPEG-7, the relationships between moving regions (i.e. objects) in videos are represented by the directional, spatial and temporal relationships. In this paper, we propose to extend the description scheme (DS) of moving objects to include rich sets of visual-spatio-temporal (VST) relationships that support semantical descriptions of the relationships between objects. Also, we propose an XML based DSs of the VST relationships and then present the bit format representations for the VST relationships. The VST relationships are more intuitive to users, thus simplifying the formulation of user queries.


: Supplemental damping devices, including passive, semiactive, and active systems, can be employed to reduce vibrations caused by various hazards. This paper examined tuned liquid column dampers (TLCDs), a specialized type of tuned mass damper typically used to reduce the response of the structure around a specific frequency. Avariation of the tuned liquid damper previously studied by the authors is a tuned liquid wall damper (TLWD), in which multiple liquid columns are embedded within a RC shear wall. The TLWD eliminates the space requirement of a conventional tuned liquid damper by distributing the liquid mass vertically into multiple columns throughout the structural shear wall system, and enables reaching a higher frequency range through the design of the TLWD geometries. This study investigated the optimal design of TLWD systems to mitigate multiple hazards, in particular nonsimultaneous wind and seismic hazards, based on a life-cycle cost (LCC) objective function. This was done using a probabilistic life-cycle analysis procedure that leveraged Bayesian optimization (BO) to search for the most promising permutation of tuning parameters that minimize the LCC under the design loads, with Monte Carlo simulations used to propagate the record-to-record variability of wind and seismic hazards. The proposed procedure was demonstrated on a 20- and a 42-story building subjected to nonsimultaneous wind and seismic excitations. The vertically distributed TLWDs were subjected to geometric constraints provided by the wall systems, and tuned to multiple frequencies enabling multimode mitigation. Afterward, the optimal tuning parameters were identified using the LCC-BO algorithm. Results showed that the multimode TLWD tuned with optimal tuning parameters effectively mitigated both wind and seismic hazards, leading to 32.8% and 43% total LCC reduction for the 20- and 42-story buildings, respectively, compared with the buildings without dampers, excluding the cost of the mitigation system. A performance comparison with a traditional tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) installed at the top of the buildings demonstrated that the multimode TLWD system outperformed the TLCD with an approximate 9% reduction in LCC for both the 20- and 42-story buildings. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)ST.1943-541X.0003282. © 2021 American Society of Civil Engineers.


Level of Patients' Satisfaction from Emergency Medical Services in Markazi Province; a Cross sectional Study

Ali Jadidi1, Mahdi Safarabadi1, Behrooz Irannejhad 3, Mahdi Harorani1
1. School of Nursing and Midwifery, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak ,Iran.
2. School of Paramedical Sciences, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak ,Iran.
3. Emergency Medical Services & Crisis Management of Markazi Province, Arak University of Medical Sciences, Arak, Iran.
Abstract
Introduction: One way of evaluating medical services is through assessment of patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction is a concept that has become so important in medical care nowadays and is even more important in pre-hospital emergency. Therefore, the present study was carried out aiming to evaluate patient satisfaction from pre-hospital emergency services in cities under supervision of Arak University of Medical Sciences.
Methods: In this cross-sectional study to evaluate patient satisfaction, a valid and reliable questionnaire of satisfaction scale from pre-hospital emergency care was used. The questionnaire consisted of 33 questions, 9 of which evaluated demographic data and the rest assessed satisfaction in various fields including condition of the ambulance, behavior, expertise and performance of the technicians, efficiency of care, and one question regarding the overall satisfaction with pre-hospital emergency care. Finally, gathered data were analyzed using SPSS and descriptive statistics and proper tests.
Results: During the study period, 12564 missions were accomplished. The highest frequency belonged to Arak city (65%) and lowest frequency belonged to Ashtian city (9%). 366 patients participated in this study, most of which were male (59%) and had an education level less than high school diploma. In addition, most (52%) had no history of hospitalization and the number of those who were married was higher than singles (71%). The overall satisfaction score correlated with sex (p = ), marital status (p = ), education level (p = ), place of living (p = ), and history of using emergency services. Based on the results, women, those who were married, less educated people and those who had used emergency services before had reported a higher satisfaction rate. Mean satisfaction score from emergency service of Arak University of Medical Sciences was 0.7 ± 14.5 regarding condition of the ambulance, 83.7 ± 15.5 for technician behavior, 83.4 ± 15 for their expertise, 82.7 ± 14 for performance of the technicians, 89.7 ± 4 for efficiency of care, and the overall satisfaction score was 82.5 ± 14. The overall satisfaction score in cities under supervision of Arak University of Medical Sciences varied significantly (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: The results of the present study showed that patient satisfaction rate from pre-hospital emergency service, was desirable. This rate was higher in women, married people, less educated people, trauma patients and in city bases compared to others. The highest satisfaction rate belonged to the professional performance and the lowest belonged to efficiency of technicians.

Key words: Patient satisfaction; emergency medical services; emergency medical technicians; emergencies


Integer overflow bugs in C and C++ programs are difficult to track down and may lead to fatal errors or exploitable vulnerabilities. Although a number of tools for finding these bugs exist, the situation is complicated because not all overflows are bugs. Better tools need to be constructed - but a thorough understanding of the issues behind these errors does not yet exist. We developed IOC, a dynamic checking tool for integer overflows, and used it to conduct the first detailed empirical study of the prevalence and patterns of occurrence of integer overflows in C and C++ code. Our results show that intentional uses of wraparound behaviors are more common than is widely believed; for example, there are over 200 distinct locations in the SPEC CINT2000 benchmarks where overflow occurs. Although many overflows are intentional, a large number of accidental overflows also occur. Orthogonal to programmers' intent, overflows are found in both well-defined and undefined flavors. Applications executing undefined operations can be, and have been, broken by improvements in compiler optimizations. Looking beyond SPEC, we found and reported undefined integer overflows in SQLite, PostgreSQL, SafeInt, GNU MPC and GMP, Firefox, GCC, LLVM, Python, BIND, and OpenSSL; many of these have since been fixed. Our results show that integer overflow issues in C and C++ are subtle and complex, that they are common even in mature, widely used programs, and that they are widely misunderstood by developers.


Considering a future scenario in which a driverless Electric Vehicle (EV) needs an automatic charging system without human intervention. In this regard, there is a requirement for a fully automatable, fast, safe, cost-effective, and reliable charging infrastructure that provides a profitable business model and fast adoption in the electrified transportation systems. These qualities can be comprehended through wireless charging systems. Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) is a futuristic technology with the advantage of flexibility, convenience, safety, and the capability of becoming fully automated. In WPT methods resonant inductive wireless charging has to gain more attention compared to other wireless power transfer methods due to high efficiency and easy maintenance. This literature presents a review of the status of Resonant Inductive Wireless Power Transfer Charging technology also highlighting the present status and its future of the wireless EV market. First, the paper delivers a brief history throw lights on wireless charging methods, highlighting the pros and cons. Then, the paper aids a comparative review of different type's inductive pads, rails, and compensations technologies done so far. The static and dynamic charging techniques and their characteristics are also illustrated. The role and importance of power electronics and converter types used in various applications are discussed. The batteries and their management systems as well as various problems involved in WPT are also addressed. Different trades like cyber security economic effects, health and safety, foreign object detection, and the effect and impact on the distribution grid are explored. Prospects and challenges involved in wireless charging systems are also highlighting in this work. We believe that this work could help further the research and development of WPT systems.


Objective: To determine the true prevalence of anaemia in Pakistani mothers from all four provinces and compare the haematological parameters. Location: Multicentre study at PNS Shifa Karachi (Sind), CMH Kharian (Punjab), CMH Mardan (KPK), CMH Quetta (Balochistan). Duration: Apr-Sep 2021 for 6 months. Study design: prospective observational study. Methods: Four centres were established to collect data on a representative sample of each province. Along with haematological measures, sociodemographic data were obtained and placed into a predefined online proforma. SPSS v 20 was used to analyse the data. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for categorical variables, whereas means and standard deviations were used to represent scales. Results of all four provinces were analysed and compared for similarities and differences. Results: A total of 2060 female patients fulfilling our inclusion criteria from all four provinces were Obstet Gynecol Res 2022; 5 (1): 034-040 DOI: 10.26502/ogr076 Obstetrics and Gynecology Research Vol. 5 No. 1– March 2022. 35 included in the study. Four hundred and sixty (22%) of the total population were in the first trimester, 785 (38%) were in the second, and 815 (40%) were in the third trimester of pregnancy. The study population's mean age was 28 ± 5.033 years. The mean haemoglobin concentration was 10.78 ± 1.49 g/dl. The mean MCV was in the lower limits of normal, 79.73 ± 7.95 3FL. At a cut off haemoglobin concentration of 10.8 g/dl, 50% of the population had Haemoglobin concentrations lower than this value. In terms of mean Haemoglobin levels across Pakistan's provinces, the lowest haemoglobin level was recorded in Sind, at 10.34 ± 1.469 g/dl. It was followed by Punjab, with a mean Haemoglobin concentration of 10.8 g/dl + 1.89. However, the mean Haemoglobin concentration in KPK was significantly high with mean Hb of 11.01 ± 1.330 g/dl. Additionally, comparable Haemoglobin levels were seen in Baloch people, with a mean Hb of 10.95 ± 1.048 g/dl. So according to international standard anaemia was less prevalent in KPK and Balochistan. Conclusion: Anaemia during pregnancy is very common in Pakistani mothers, according to worldwide standards. However, Severe anaemia Hb<8g/dl, on the other hand, is uncommon. Interprovincial variation in haematological parameters is also notable in Pakistan. We may need to formulate local guidelines for diagnosing and managing anaemia.


The article shares poems written by 13 to 14 years old Year 9 UK geography students to communicate a sense of place. Poetry writing forms part of an exploratory investigation into ways of engaging a geography class with the study of a place. The students glean their contextual understanding from research and a day's multisensory fieldwork. Poetry writing through its careful choice of words supports the students to represent the individual ways in which they connect with a place's past, present, and in some instances consider its future. The activity encourages the students to express their affective and cognitive place understanding. The students use different modes to support the representation of their poems. The process of creatively representing their poems reinforces the students' ability to communicate their unique place messages. Poetry writing allows the students to engage with a place and informs their conceptual understanding of its diverse elements.


Movements of populations from countries where polio has not been eradicated is a concern in the Islamic Republic of Iran. A cross-sectional, community-based study was implemented in 2010 in 2 districts in Sistan-va-Baluchestan Province near the south-east border. The aim was to determine the seroprevalence of antibodies in children aged 20 (± 2) months who had received at least 5 doses of trivalent oral polio vaccine. Using cluster sampling, 365 children were enrolled for serological testing. Antibody titres ≥ 1:10 were considered positive. Seropositive rates for antibody against poliovirus serotypes 1, 2 and 3 were 94.1%, 96.7% and 78.3% respectively. The lowest seropositive rate was for antibody against polio serotype 3 (PV3) among boys (58.3%). Exclusive breastfeeding showed a direct relationship with antibody response to PV3 (OR = 2.0; 95% CI: 1.1-3.6). Improving community protection against PV3 is an urgent programme priority.


The present invention relates to a method for mobile advertisement using a mobile terminal and a mobile terminal for mobile advertisement and a mobile advertisement system. Provided is a mobile advertisement method by making use of a mobile terminal including an advertisement output unit outputting a mobile advertisement made of one or more among media consisted of a taste, a smell, a sound, an image or the combinations of them to the outside, and a population number measuring unit measuring the population number existing within a specified range of the surroundings; and an advertisement relay server which collects the mobile advertisement from an advertiser's terminal to manage with a member information, the mobile advertisement method comprising: an advertisement setting step of transmitting the mobile advertisement to the mobile terminal and managing a transmission list by the advertisement relay server, and deciding an output condition of the transmitted mobile advertisement; an advertisement execution step of outputting the mobile advertisements to the outside through the advertisement output unit by the mobile terminal, when the output condition is satisfied; a population number measuring step of measuring the population number of the surroundings of a mobile terminal by using the population number measuring unit when the mobile advertisement is outputted to the outside; and an advertisement result managing step of computing and managing an advertisement result classified by members who performed the advertisements execution step, after the advertisement relay server receives the measured population number, and changes it into a weight.


Generative models have enabled the creation of contents that are indistinguishable from those taken from nature. Open-source development of such models raised concerns about the risks of their misuse for malicious purposes. One potential risk mitigation strategy is to attribute generative models via fingerprinting. Current fingerprinting methods exhibit a significant tradeoff between robust attribution accuracy and generation quality while lacking design principles to improve this tradeoff. This paper investigates the use of latent semantic dimensions as fingerprints, from where we can analyze the effects of design variables, including the choice of fingerprinting dimensions, strength, and capacity, on the accuracy-quality tradeoff. Compared with previous SOTA, our method requires minimum computation and is more applicable to large-scale models. We use StyleGAN2 and the latent diffusion model to demonstrate the efficacy of our method.


The number of students of higher education rose significantly in Hungary in the nineties. Many people forecast the decrease of the income benefit of the higher qualification and the decline of the rates of return for investment in higher education. We analyse the time course of the difference between earnings of the graduates and the secondary school graduates between 1990 and 2008, we show that the value of the diploma decreased only slightly despite of the expansion of higher education.


Numerous legal theorists argue that corrective justice is distinct both conceptually and normatively from distributive justice. In particular, they contend that it is an error to view corrective justice as ancillary to distributive justice, necessary only to maintain or restore a preferred allocation of benefits and burdens. The specific arguments of these legal theorists are addressed and shown to be inconclusive in relation to what I term the Dependence Thesis. The Dependence Thesis holds that a normative account of the occasions of corrective justice is dependent on a larger theory of distributive justice. The nature of this dependence relation varies from theory to theory. The role of tort compensation schemes within libertarian, liberal egalitarian, and utilitarian theories of distributive justice is discussed. It is argued that such theories provide comprehensive and critical perspectives on historical corrective practices, neither simply endorsing nor invalidating them. An alternative normative account of the occasions of corrective justice, offered by legal theorists who support the autonomy of corrective justice from distributive justice, is also discussed.


SUMMARY: Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) have been found to accumulate in the amyloid deposits, skin and plasma of haemodialysis patients (HD), implicating the possible involvement of AGE‐modified protein in pathogenesis in dialysis‐related amyloidosis. Pentosidine, an AGE cross‐link, is a specific marker for AGEs. Plasma pentosidine levels in HD patients were increased dramatically. In the present study, plasma pentosidine, fructoselysine, advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) and glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx) levels were measured to elucidate the role of oxidative stress in pentosidine formation in nondiabetic HD patients. Plasma pentosidine did not correlate with fructoselysine; plasma AOPP levels were significantly higher than those in normal subjects (201.45 ± 57.93 vs. 55.91 ± 6.57 μmol/L, P<0.001) and correlated positively with plasma pentosidine in HD patients (r=0.52, P<0.005); plasma GSHPx levels were significantly lower than those in normal subjects (168.40 ± 65.08 vs. 348.87 ± 86.10 U/I, P<0.001) and correlated negatively with plasma pentosidine (r=0.54, P<0.001) in HD patients. Decreased GSHPx levels may lead to the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide. These findings implicate the involvement of oxidative stress in the accelerated formation of pentosidine in uraemia and suggest that pentosidine could be considered as an oxidative stress biomarker to estimate the degree of oxidative‐stress‐mediated protein damage.


Guidelines on the conduct of clinical trials of antibacterial agents produced by the US Food and Drug Administration, the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and a European Working Party have been reviewed. Although very informative, these guidelines provide limited practical guidance on the design and statistical aspects of phase III studies of antimicrobial agents. This paper describes the differences between antibacterial trials and clinical studies in other therapeutic areas with regard to subjective endpoints, dual clinical and bacteriological endpoints, frequent protocol violations and difficulty of using placebo controls. The importance of a detailed protocol and planned analysis strategy is emphasized. The choice of comparator agents, practical issues with the blinding of trial materials and the documentation of patients excluded from study entry are discussed. The use of different patient groups and different endpoints in analyses are described. The principles of equivalence and their application to trials of antibacterial agents are discussed, together with an approach to calculating sample size. A variety of statistical analyses of results are compared for different situations indicating some of the problems that can arise. Different methods of presentation of study data are included with emphasis on regulatory submissions rather than scientific publications. Some graphical presentations are recommended and issues regarding data across different studies are discussed.


This paper introduces a new stability test and controller design methodology for Takagi-Sugeno-Kang (TSK) fuzzy systems. Unlike methods based on a common Lyapunov function, our stability results can be applied to systems with unstable consequents and our controllers can be designed for systems with unstabilizable consequents. Sufficient stability conditions are derived using the comparison principle and the Dini derivative. The stability results are used to design continuous-time fuzzy proportional controllers and fuzzy PI controllers. We provide examples to demonstrate our controller design. We show that our results compare favorably with results available in the literature and provide controllers where earlier approaches fail.


This thesis examines the development of Aboriginal land policy in the Northern Territory of Australia, and uses a policy dynamics approach to analyse the policy decision making in this area over long time periods. This approach is useful in helping to uncover key areas of continuity, and gradual change, in Aboriginal land policy, since the early colonial era, and it draws attention to the ways in which policies framed around Aboriginal land rights in the current era have retained links to the earliest policies framed during invasion and settlement. The thesis argues that path dependency has been a very significant feature of Aboriginal land policy, and the Howard Coalition government's recent amendments to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 in 2006 and 2007 are better understood as a part of a much longer policy trajectory. The thesis identifies five distinct (though overlapping) temporal sequences: (a) the early colonial era, marked by fear, brutality and misunderstanding between settlers and Indigenous people; (b) the humanitarian era, shaped by the Buxton committee report of 1837 which called for the creation of Aboriginal reserves as both compensation and a form of protection; (c) the later protection era which saw early humanitarian impulses turn to a greater focus on segregation and control; (d) the assimilation era, where reserves were closed in the southern parts of Australia, with the expectation that Aboriginal people join white society, while extensive reserves were retained in the north where Aboriginal people were understood to retain traditional customs and lifestyles; and (e) the land rights era, where activist campaigns in response to prominent conflicts over non-Indigenous use of Aboriginal land for pastoral and mining resulted in governments converting reserves into Aboriginal-owned land, under inalienable communal title. Two critical junctures, in the form of government reviews, are pinpointed as moments where substantial policy change has been rendered possible: the Buxton committee in 1837 and the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission led by Justice Edward Woodward in 1973-4. Outside these critical junctures, policy development has been incremental. The thesis explores the shifting frames used by policy makers around Indigenous land from the colonial era to the present day with respect to four themes: the purpose of allocating sections of land for Aboriginal use or recognition of ownership, access to Indigenous land, difference in terms of Indigenous expectations of ownership and relationship with land, and the governance or power to make decisions with respect to Indigenous land. It traces these themes from the initial formulations of Aboriginal rights to land in terms of humanitarian protection, social justice and economic development in the early colonial era, through to the rise of the land rights movement in the 1960s and the current focus on marketisation, economic development and the push to use Indigenous land to alleviate disadvantage. Careful tracing of each of these themes over time illuminates the path dependency which dominates in this policy area, and isolates the two critical junctures where substantial leaps in problem definition are discernible. The thesis considers Aboriginal land rights policy in the Northern Territory in the light of the current dominant debate around policy failure in Indigenous affairs, and reflects on the Howard government's strategic use of the frame of policy failure to explain the need for the government to "wind back" land rights. The thesis uses contemporary theory concerning the politics of evaluation (including emphasis on short term contingency and political strategy) and the political use of evidence and expertise in policy making to explain the development of policy on Aboriginal land through each identified temporal sequence, up to and including the most recent sequence spanning the Howard government's 2006 amendments and the implementation of the Northern Territory Intervention in 2007. The thesis observes the erratic and selective use of expert knowledge of Aboriginal people and their economic, social, spiritual and political relationship with the land, and the persistent triumph of settler ideology over Aboriginal interests in land policy.


Almost all end-of-life possibilities-upgrade, re-use, recycling of materials-require some form of disassembly. Despite the high standard of automation for the assembly of electric and electronic equipment, the standard of automation for disassembling is still very low and therefore dismantling is often done manually. The approach to automate disassembling processes of electr(on)ic equipment with disassembly cells and the development of a flexible semi automatic disassembly cell for printed circuit boards (PCB) is described and discussed.


When the Chinese have achieved a lot in outer space exploration with manned space craft "Shenzhou No.7" and Chang'e Project for Lunar exploration,we still have to face such a fact:we know only very few about the interior of the Earth which is the only homeland for the human being,with the largest direct drilling depth of 12 km on the very shallow skin of the Earth.This is to say that going down into the deep interior of the Earth is much more difficult than going up to the outer space.The Earth is the only place for human being to live,and provides human being food,water,energy and mineral resources which are necessary for life.Meanwhile,the Earth also brings geo-hazards like volcanic eruption,earthquake and Tsunami.To know the components,structures and dynamic processes in the deep interior of the Earth through deep drilling and geochemical and geophysical explorations,is not only the pursuit of human being on knowledge of natural secrets,but also the basic requirement of human being on resources and security.The Chinese geologists recognized that,it is very necessary to do wide and thorough exploration of the deep interior beneath the Chinese continent,to solve the key problems on resources and environment.The recently started National Scientific Program of China titled as "Deep Exploration Technology and Experimentation"(ab.as SinoProbe),indicates the beginning of the Chinese deep exploration era.The purpose of the Sinoprobe(2008~2012)is to facilitate the integration of new exploration technologies and the latest experimental techniques in the area of deep-crustal exploration,to explore the composition,structure and evolution of the crust and mantle lithosphere beneath continental China,to better understand the physical processes controlling the formation and distribution of large-scale mineralization,and to gain deeper insights into the mechanisms causing earthquakes and volcanism.Sinoprobe is also to provide scientific data and information needed to discover new sources of energy and metals,to predict geological disasters,and to mitigate the damage associated with those catastrophic events.This program promotes international cooperation while using the latest detection equipment,devices,and technology,and while educating world-class young scientists to ensure the continuous and sustainable implementation and execution of the planned long-term deep exploration program in China.


Abstract — The information contained in a system is normally stored into log files. Most of the time, these files store the information in plain text with many not formatted information. It is then necessary to extract parts of this information to be able to understand what is going on such system. Currently, such information can be extracted using programs that make use of extended regular expressions. The use of regular expressions allows the search of patterns but it can be also used to extract data from the searched pattern. Most of the programs that implement regular expressions are based on finite automatas, such as non-deterministic (NFA) or deterministic (DFA). We aim to explore the use of finite automatas to extract data from log files using a Graphic Processor Unit (GPU) device to speedup the process. Moreover, we will also explore data parallelism over the lines present on the log file. Currently, the work done in GPU with regular expressions is limited to matching tasks only, without any capture feature. We present a solution that solves this lack of pattern capture in current implementations. Our development uses as base the implementation of TNFA and converts it to a TDFA before running the GPU task. We explore the new CUDA feature named unified memory, supported since CUDA 6, together with streams to achieve the best possible performance in our GPU implementation. Using real log files and regular expressions made to extract specific data, our evaluation shows that it can be up to 9× faster than the sequential implementation. The information contained in a system is normally stored into log files. Most of the time, these files store the information in plain text with many not formatted information. It is then necessary to extract parts of this information to be able to understand what is going on such system. Currently, such information can be extracted using programs that make use of extended regular expressions. The use of regular expressions allows the search of patterns but it can be also used to extract data from the searched pattern. Most of the programs that implement regular expressions are based on finite automatas, such as non-deterministic (NFA) or deterministic (DFA). We aim to explore the use of finite automatas to extract data from log files using a Graphic Processor Unit (GPU) device to speedup the process. Moreover, we will also explore data parallelism over the lines present on the log file. Currently, the work done in GPU with regular expressions is limited to matching tasks only, without any capture feature. We present a solution that solves this lack of pattern capture in current implementations. Our development uses as base the implementation of TNFA and converts it to a TDFA before running the GPU task. We explore the new CUDA feature named unified memory, supported since CUDA 6, together with streams to achieve the best possible performance in our GPU implementation. Using real log files and regular expressions made to extract specific data, our evaluation shows that it can be up to 9× faster than the sequential implementation.


The study of experimental conditions of low blood-pressure has been limited for the most part to conditions of shock due to traumatism, thermic influences, or exposure, and aside from pharmacological investigations of the mode of action of certain substances such as arsenic, but few attempts to study, experimentally, low blood-pressure due to toxic agents have been made. The study of the latter should, therefore, be of interest not only to the internist, in that it may offer an explanation of conditions of collapse or shock occurring in medical as controlled with surgical practice, but also of general importance, in that it supplements the experimental work of Crile 1 and others on surgical shock. Such a study was suggested by the observation of Biedl and Kraus, 2 which we 3 have confirmed, that anaphylactic shock in the dog is characterized by a low blood-pressure resembling in many ways that of


The effect of low frequency (20 kHz) ultrasonic irradiation on the removal of sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate (SDBS), phenol, 2-chlorophenol and 2,3dichlorophenol from synthetic aqueous effluents has been investigated. Sonolytic degradation of SDBS (at an initial concentration of 1 g/L) results in the formation of lower molecular weight compounds and is accompanied by low total oxidation rates. In parallel, water sonolysis results in the formation of hydrogen peroxide, Several heterogeneous catalysts (three noble metals and a metal oxide) were tested with respect to their effect on SDBS sonolysis. Of these, a CuO.ZnO supported on alumina catalyst appears to enhance both SDBS fragmentation and total oxidation rates as well as hydrogen peroxide formation. Phenolic compounds (at an initial concentration of 0.1 g/L) are only partially removed by ultrasound irradiation with 2-chlorophenol being more susceptible to degradation than phenol and 2,3-dichlorophenol. However, the presence of Fe2+ ions at concentrations as low as about 0.2 10-3 g/L generally substantially increases the rate of the uncatalysed sonolytic degradation. This is attributed to iron being capable of readily decomposing hydrogen peroxide (generated by water sonolysis) in a Fenton-like process to form reactive hydroxyl radicals as well as being an effective oxidation catalyst. All phenols are readily removed by the Fenton reagent without ultrasonic irradiation. However, at the conditions employed in this study, a combination of ultrasound and Fenton reagent has a detrimental effect on the efficiency of Fenton oxidation.


Background: Oral cancer is a major problem globally. The strong causal association with tobacco, prevalentin Pakistan makes it imperative to know the role of molecular events in oral oncogenesis. We aim to evaluatehigh risk HPV 16/18 and p16 in oral premalignant lesions (OPL) and oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC).We further analyze the association between high risk human papilloma virus (HR-HPV16/18) and p16 in OPLand OSCC.Methods: A total of 100 OSCC and 50 OPL cases were included. Demographic data along with habitualexposure to smoked and chewable tobacco, betel and gutka etc., was noted. We evaluated p16 in OPLand OSCC by immunohistochemistry, HPV was detected by polymerase chain reaction. Data was enteredand analyzed using SPSS 21. Chi square and Fisher exact were applied to determine the association of HPVand p16 with different variables.Results: Out of 50 OPL, 14% were positive and 86% were negative for p16 whereas out of 100 OSCC, 18% werepositive and 82% were negative. Out of 50 OPL, HPV was detected in 6% whereas out of 100 OSCC, 15% werepositive. Highly significant co expression of HPV with p16 was observed in all 15 (100%) HPV positive OSCCcases (p = 0.001). However, 3 out of 18 cases, which showed p16 expression, did not show HPV infection.Conclusion: Role of p16 as a surrogate marker for HPV in OSCC can be supported in the present study. Moreovera Chemical carcinogen like tobacco is considered as major associative risk factor with p16 and HPV inconcert.


All perennial plants harbor diverse endophytic fungal communities, but why they tolerate these complex asymptomatic symbioses is unknown. Using a multi-pronged approach, we conclusively found that a dryland grass supports endophyte communities comprised predominantly of latent saprophytes that can enhance localized nutrient recycling after senescence. A perennial bunchgrass, Stipagrostis sabulicola, which persists along a gradient of extreme abiotic stress in the hyper-arid Namib Sand Sea, was the focal point of our study. Living tillers yielded 20 fungal endophyte taxa, 80% of which decomposed host litter during a 28-day laboratory decomposition assay. During a 6-month field experiment, tillers with endophytes decomposed twice as fast as sterilized tillers, consistent with the laboratory assay. Furthermore, profiling the community active during decomposition using next-generation sequencing revealed that 59–70% of the S. sabulicola endophyte community is comprised of latent saprophytes, and these dual-niche fungi still constitute a large proportion (58–62%) of the litter community more than a year after senescence. This study provides multiple lines of evidence that the fungal communities that initiate decomposition of standing litter develop in living plants, thus providing a plausible explanation for why plants harbor complex endophyte communities. Using frequent overnight non-rainfall moisture events (fog, dew, high humidity), these latent saprophytes can initiate decomposition of standing litter immediately after tiller senescence, thus maximizing the likelihood that plant-bound nutrients are recycled in situ and contribute to the nutrient island effect that is prevalent in drylands.


"Dark-cutting" meat in beef carcasses can result from conditions such as long-term stress and depleted glycogen stores, but some aspects of the physiological mechanisms that cause dark-cutting phenotypes remain poorly understood. Certain responses to stress factors in fully developed tissues are known to be regulated by specific microRNAs. We investigated microRNA expression in Longissimus lumborum biopsies from carcasses derived from a contemporary group of 78 steers from which a high incidence of dark-cutting meat occurred. Our objective was to identify any potential microRNA signatures that reflect the impact of environmental factors and stresses on genetic signaling networks and result in dark-cutting beef (also known as dark, firm, and dry, or DFD) in some animals. MicroRNA expression was quantified by Illumina NextSeq small RNA sequencing. When RNA extracts from DFD muscle biopsy samples were compared with normal, non-DFD (NON) samples, 29 differentially expressed microRNAs were identified in which expression was at least 20% different in the DFD samples (DFD/NON fold ratio ≤0.8 or ≥1.2). When correction for multiple testing was applied, a single microRNA bta-miR-2422 was identified at a false discovery probability (FDR) of 5.4%. If FDR was relaxed to 30%, additional microRNAs were differentially expressed (bta-miR-10174-5p, bta-miR-1260b, bta-miR-144, bta-miR-142-5p, bta-miR-2285at, bta-miR-2285e, bta-miR-3613a). These microRNAs may play a role in regulating aspects of stress responses that ultimately result in dark-cutting beef carcasses.


While HER2/neu specific antibody (Herceptin) therapy has clear efficacy against HER2 overexpressing tumors, most patients who initially respond to Herceptin show disease progression within one year despite continued high expression of HER2. As an alternative to Herceptin, we developed a novel set of adenoviral vectors encoding human HER2 which break tolerance and induce T and B cell responses in human-HER2-transgenic (HuHER2-Tg) mice (kindly provided by W-Z. Wei, Karmanos Cancer Center, MI). Ad-HER2 vaccination results in a high level of HER2-specific T cells and anti-HER2 vaccine induced antibodies (VIA), which significantly inhibits the growth of human HER2 expressing murine 4T1 breast cancer cells (kindly provided by M. Kershaw, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, Australia) in HuHER2-Tg mice. Anti-HER2 VIA strongly bound to Herceptin-refractory human breast tumor cells and significantly inhibited their growth in vitro, and mediated complement dependent cytotoxicity. Thus, our findings demonstrate that Ad-HER2 vaccination proved to be efficacious and therapeutically relevant in Herceptin refractory tumor models.
 Grant support: NIH P50-CA068438 SPORE in Breast Cancer & DOD CTRA BC050221.


SUMMARY The aim of this study was to evaluate the welfare of dairy cows using a simplified protocol of animal-based observations. Twenty-two commercial dairy farms in the province of Valdivia, Chile, were visited once between March and July 2005. The farms were selected considering the willingness of the owners to participate, distance from the university and size of the herd (291±71.6). Five out of the 22 dairy farms grazed their cows all year round; of the remaining 17 farms four of them kept the cows indoors all year round while 13 kept them indoors during the night. Visits started two hours before afternoon milking, and the cows were systematically observed at milking time in order to evaluate physical condition and behaviour. The data was entered into an Excel XP spread sheet. The results for each welfare indicator were grouped into five quintiles (A, top to E, bottom), then the dairy farms were ranked according to the number of indicators in each category. All the farms had at least one indicator in category A. Only one farm achieved five out of seven indicators in category A. The best evaluated indicator was body condition score of the cows, and the worse one was the "flight zone" of the cows. It can be concluded that no farm had consistenly good or bad results when compared to the others, with regards to evaluating cow welfare using animal based observations.


An experimental study on the flow of a highly viscous fluid through small diameter orifices was conducted. Pressure drops were measured for each of nine orifices, including orifices of nominal diameter 0.5, 1, and 3 mm and three different orifice thicknesses, over wide ranges of flow rates and temperatures. The fluid under consideration exhibits steep dependence of the properties (changes of several orders of magnitude) as a function of temperature and pressure and is also non-Newtonian at the lower temperatures. At small values of Reynolds number, an increase in aspect ratio (length/diameter ratio of the orifice) causes an increase in Euler number. It was also found that at extremely low Reynolds numbers, the Euler number was very strongly influenced by the Reynolds number, while the dependence becomes weaker as the Reynolds number increases toward the turbulent regime, and the Euler number tends to assume a constant value determined by the aspect ratio and the diameter ratio. A two-region (based on Reynolds number) model was developed to predict Euler number as a function of diameter ratio, aspect ratio, viscosity ratio, and generalized Reynolds number. It is shown that for such a highly viscous fluid with some non-Newtonian behavior, accounting for the shear rate through the generalized Reynolds number results in a considerable improvement in the predictive capabilities of the model. Over the laminar, transition, and turbulent regions, the model predicts 86% of the data within ±25% for the geometry and operating conditions investigated in this study.


A composite section, which reconstructs a continuous stratigraphic record from cores of multiple nearby holes, and its associated composite depth scale are important tools for analyzing sediment recovered from a drilling site. However, the standard technique for creating composite depth scales on drilling cruises does not correct for depth distortion within each core. Additionally, the splicing technique used to create composite sections often results in a 10–15% offset between composite depths and measured drill depths. We present a new automated compositing technique that better aligns stratigraphy across holes, corrects depth offsets, and could be performed aboard ship. By analyzing 618 cores from seven Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) sites, we estimate that ∼80% of the depth offset in traditional composite depth scales results from core extension during drilling and extraction. Average rates of extension are 12.4 ± 1.5% for calcareous and siliceous cores from ODP Leg 138 and 8.1 ± 1.1% for calcareous and clay-rich cores from ODP Leg 154. Also, average extension decreases as a function of depth in the sediment column, suggesting that elastic rebound is not the dominant extension mechanism.


We prove nearly matching upper and lower bounds on the randomized communication complexity of the following problem: Alice and Bob are each given a probability distribution over n elements, and they wish to estimate within ±ǫ the statistical (total variation) distance between their distributions. For some range of parameters, there is up to a logn factor gap between the upper and lower bounds, and we identify a barrier to using information complexity techniques to improve the lower bound in this case. We also prove a side result that we discovered along the way: the randomized communication complexity of n-bit Majority composed with n-bit Greater-Than is Θ(n logn).


The exchange coupling between magnetic layers, across a non-magnetic spacer layer, is observed to oscillate as a function of spacer thickness. In earlier work it was shown that the oscillation periods are characteristic of the spacer and it is shown now that the amplitude and phase depend critically on the matching between spacer and ferromagnet. Detailed tight-binding calculations of the coupling across a chromium spacer, using five d orbitals, exhibit oscillations with components of several different periods. However an oversimplified matching is used, so that a fully quantitative comparison with experimental work on Fe/Cr/Fe sandwiches cannot yet be made.


Engineering change occurs throughout the entire product life cycle. Change propagation can lead to unexpected effort and the objective of this paper is to help manage these changes. Propagation depends on the margins for change allowed in individual parameters. The paper examines these parameter margins for components in complex aerospace products. The main objective is to understand how margins are managed in a design process both within a single product development but across product generations within and outside platforms. The results indicate that parameter margins appear in different forms and are only understood by practitioners to a limited extent. This paper shows the critical importance of parameter margins in understanding, managing and predicting changes, both for engineering and for long term product planning, where sequences of changes are considered over generations of the product and associated product platforms. A main conclusion is to propose that design methods use a 'classification' of margin/change types when defining design concepts. Interfaces and associated dependencies are then classified with respect to change sensitivity in order to enable better predictability of effects when changes are made. This offers one route to embodying the 'good judgment' of experienced designers into design methods. This approach represents a design technique tailored to synthesis rather than analysis.


Abstract Globalization extends the areas of interaction between people of different origins. According to Allport's contact theory (1958), intergroup contacts can reduce prejudices and negative attitudes towards foreigners. In this paper we focus on the impact of globalization (Dreher's Index, 2007) on the openness towards immigrants, using multilevel models on the ICCS 2009 data (35 countries). There is a negative relation between globalization and the attitudes of adolescents towards immigrant rights. At the local classroom level the presence of non-natives seems to stimulate a positive attitude. Globalization is a multidimensional process that engenders different consequences at different levels. Keywords: prejudice – xenophobia – Allport – globalization index – ICCS


CONTEXT
The pancreas gives rise to an array of distinct neoplasms that can be solid, cystic, or intraductal and can recapitulate the various lines of differentiation present in the normal gland.

OBJECTIVE
To develop an algorithmic approach to the diagnosis of pancreatic neoplasms that simplifies their pathologic evaluation.

DATA SOURCES
We reviewed literature related to the classification of pancreatic neoplasms on the basis of their gross, histologic, and immunohistochemical features.

CONCLUSIONS
By using a series of dichotomous decisions, the differential diagnosis of a pancreatic neoplasm can be narrowed, and in cases of the more common neoplasms, accurate classification can be achieved. Uncommon neoplasms not accounted for by this approach are also discussed, and the additional diagnostic information needed for complete pathologic reporting is presented.


This article provides an analysis of the legal framework against which the energy trade between the European Union (EU) and the Russian Federation (Russia) has been conducted. In doing so the EU's ability and duty to operate its external energy trade in solidarity are analysed. In addition, the article assesses whether and to what extent the current EU – Russia energy trade is conducted within the confines of a rule based system. In order to illustrate the arguments, the relevant jurisprudence and EU Member State practices are utilised. It is concluded that principle of solidarity is a legal requirement which is embedded in the acquis communautaire of the EU therefore it shall be observed. However, the energy polices across the EU indicate that Member States do not act in solidarity when it comes to their energy relations with Russia. Furthermore, the overall framework for EU – Russia energy trade does not amount to one that is based on the rule of law as it lacks a number of essential elements inter alia an independent adjudication, effective and predictable legal redress and enforcement mechanisms. These characteristics expose the EU and its citizens to risk and uncertainty.


This paper addresses the localization of contacts of an unknown grasped rigid object with its environment, i.e., extrinsic to the robot. We explore the key role that distributed tactile sensing plays in localizing contacts external to the robot, in contrast to the role that aggregated force/torque measurements traditionally play in localizing contacts on the robot. When in contact with the environment, an object will move in accordance with the kinematic and possibly frictional constraints imposed by that contact. Small motions of the object, which are observable with tactile sensors, indirectly encode those constraints and the geometry that defines them.We formulate the extrinsic contact sensing problem as a constraint-based estimation problem. The estimation is subject to the kinematic constraints imposed by the tactile measurements of object motion, as well as the kinematic (e.g., non-penetration) and possibly frictional (e.g., sticking) constraints imposed by rigid-body mechanics. We validate the approach in simulation and with real experiments on the case studies of fixed point and line contacts.This paper discusses the theoretical basis for the value of distributed tactile sensing in contrast to aggregated force/torque measurements. It also provides an estimation framework for localizing environmental contacts with potential impact in contact-rich manipulation scenarios such as assembling or packing.


AIMS: to evaluate the accuracy of the Braden and Waterlow risk assessment scales in critically ill inpatients. METHOD: this prospective cohort study, with 55 patients in intensive care units, was performed through evaluation of sociodemographic and clinical variables, through the application of the scales (Braden and Waterlow) upon admission and every 48 hours; and through the evaluation and classification of the ulcers into categories. RESULTS: the pressure ulcer incidence was 30.9%, with the Braden and Waterlow scales presenting high sensitivity (41% and 71%) and low specificity (21% and 47%) respectively in the three evaluations. The cut off scores found in the first, second and third evaluations were 12, 12 and 11 in the Braden scale, and 16, 15 and 14 in the Waterlow scale. CONCLUSION: the Braden scale was shown to be a good screening instrument, and the Waterlow scale proved to have better predictive power.


Pepper v. Hart transformed the way judges and lawyers in Britain approach statutory interpretation by overruling more than 200 years of precedent and allowing courts to consult legislative history when construing enacted laws. The case involved teachers at a private school whose children were educated at one-fifth the fees charged to parents of other students. The question was how that employee benefit should be valued for income tax purposes under an ambiguously worded statute. The 1992 decision by the Law Lords (Britain's highest court), relying heavily on legislative history, drew sharp academic criticism and triggered spirited debate among leading members of the judiciary. Eighteen years later, the rule of Pepper v. Hart survives relatively intact. Professor James J. Brudney makes use of lower court decisions, parliamentary materials, contemporary media accounts, and interviews with key participants to present the story of the case in depth. The chapter then assesses subsequent developments in the Law Lords and explains why - based on differences in legislative process and structure - the U.S. Supreme Court continues to rely on legislative history more often than do the Law Lords. The story of Pepper v. Hart offers important lessons for ongoing U.S. practice. The British legislative-history debate since 1992, involving issues of weight rather than admissibility, has been enlightening and productive when contrasted with the indeterminate disagreements over "pure textualism" that have characterized federal judicial approaches for twenty-five years. As the Law Lords have come to appreciate, legislative history is valuable as a selectively invoked resource - both to clarify ambiguous statutes in ways that further the design of Parliament and as a confirmatory aid to reinforce textual construction.


Near-field optical microscopy generally uses a tapered optical fiber, which is metal coated, to form a sub-wavelength sized light source. Here, a technique for the fabrication of a new type of probe is described. The new design is based on atomic force microscope probes and consists of a silicon nitride cantilever with a solid transparent conical tip. The probes are made using micromechanical techniques, which allow batch fabrication of the probes. A near-field scanning optical microscope system was built to test the probes. This system features force detection by a beam deflection technique and subsequent force feedback together with a conventional optical microscope. A major advantage of the apparatus is the ease at which images are obtained. Results on a test sample show that an optical resolution of 300 nm can be obtained together with a simultaneous height image. (C) 1996 American Vacuum Society.


Membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis (MPGN) is a histologic pattern of glomerular damage with many etiologies. In the past, it was divided into secondary and primary, or idiopathic forms. In turn, the idiopathic forms were labeled MPGN types I, II, and III based on ultrastructural localization of the electron-dense 'deposits'. A recent major change in classification relies on the presence of immunoglobulins and complement to determine etiologies that are more in line with the pathogenesis of the disease. Idiopathic MPGN II, now called dense deposit disease and C3 glomerulonephritis, are now recognized as diseases of the alternate complement pathway. They are caused by a variety of alternate complement pathway defects including genetic forms and those due to autoantibodies that either activate accelerators of the pathway or block inhibitors of the cascade. These patients need to be evaluated in a different fashion and receive different therapy than those patients with MPGN forms associated with immunoglobulin deposition.


In this paper, 319 incidents of snake predation by spiders are reported based on a comprehensive global literature and social media survey. Snake-catching spiders have been documented from all continents except Antarctica. Snake predation by spiders has been most frequently documented in USA (51% of all incidents) and Australia (29%). The captured snakes are predominantly small-sized with an average body length of 25.9 6 1.3 cm (median1⁄4 27 cm; range: 5.8–100 cm). Altogether .90 snake species from seven families have been documented to be captured by.40 spider species from 11 families. About 60% of the reported incidents were attributable to theridiids ('0.6–1.1 cm body length), a spider family that uses strong tangle webs for prey capture. Especially the Australian redback spider (Latrodectus hasselti Thorell, 1870), the African button spider (Latrodectus indistinctusO. Pickard-Cambridge, 1904), an Israeli widow spider (Latrodectus revivensis Shulov, 1948), and four species ofNorth American widow spiders (Latrodectus geometricus C.L. Koch, 1841, Latrodectus hesperus Chamberlin & Ivie, 1935, Latrodectus mactans (Fabricius, 1775), andLatrodectus variolusWalckenaer, 1837) – equipped with a very potent vertebrate-specific toxin (alatrotoxin) – have proven to be expert snake catchers. The use of vertebrates as a supplementary food source by spiders represents an opportunity to enlarge their food base, resulting in enhanced survival capability. Interestingly, the snakes captured by spiders also encompasses some species from the families Elapidae and Viperidae known to be highly toxic to humans and other vertebrates. Not only do spiders sometimes capture and kill snakes, quite often the tables are turned – that is, a larger number of arthropod-eating snake species (in particular nonvenomous species in the family Colubridae) include spiders in their diets.


Most protein encoding genes in eukaryotes contain introns which are interwoven with exons. After transcription, introns need to be removed in order to generate the final mRNA which can be translated into an amino acid sequence. Precise excision of introns by the spliceosome requires conserved dinucleotides which mark the splice sites. However, there are variations of the highly conserved combination of GT at the 5' end and AG at the 3' end of an intron in the genome. GC-AG and AT-AC are two major non-canonical splice site combinations which have been known for years. During the last years, various minor non-canonical splice site combinations were detected with numerous dinucleotide permutations. Here we expand systematic investigations of non-canonical splice site combinations in plants to all eukaryotes by analysing fungal and animal genome sequences. Comparisons of splice site combinations between these three kingdoms revealed several differences such as a substantially increased CT-AC frequency in fungal genomes. In addition, high numbers of GA-AG splice site combinations were observed in Eurytemora affinis and Oikopleura dioica. In depth investigation of splice site usage based on RNA-Seq read mappings indicates a generally higher flexibility of the 3' splice site compared to the 5' splice site.


Patients infected with HIV are best categorized along a continuum from rapid progressors to HIV long-term nonprogressors. Long-term nonprogressors (LTNPs) are those in which AIDS develop many years after being infected with HIV, often beyond the 10-year mark, and represent 15–20% of the HIV infected patients. Many of these patients are able to control their infection and maintain undetectable viral loads for long periods of time without antiretroviral therapy. After a comprehensive literature search, we found extensive data related to HIV LTNPs in the adult population; however, very limited data was available related to LTNPs within the pediatric population. We present a case of pediatric HIV LTNPs, perinatally infected patient with undetectable viral loads, despite never receiving ART. Although there are not many instances of LTNPs among children, this child may be one, though she had intermittent viremia. She has continued to manifest serologic evidence of infection, with yearly ELISA and western blot positive tests. Based on the viral fitness studies that were performed, this case exemplifies an adolescent LTNP.


At least they are alive is the most charitable comment as the young Albanians stare silently from their orphanage playpens. But the world they look out on is changing fast, and there is a big question mark over how much longer the impoverished state can support them. If the state cannot look after them what does the future hold? In countries as poor as Albania such children, many with no parents, would almost certainly be dead. Will they end up roaming the streets, like children in many South American cities, or will foreign aid come to their rescue?

Albania has an extensive range of residential institutions for children—orphanages, dystrophic homes (for slow developers), as well as psychiatric hospitals and hospitals for people with learning disabilities. But where a child ends up is a bit of a lottery. Certainly there are some perfectly normal children in the dystrophic and psychiatric hospitals. Their survival is a bizarre living memorial to the late dictator Enver Hoxha, whose regime staffed institutions with cheap state labour on the back of the time honoured communist deal "you pretend to pay us and we'll pretend to work." The psychiatric hospital in Vlore, a town of 100000 on …


A useful capability for a mobile robot is the ability to recognize the objects in its environment that move and change (as distinct from background objects, which are largely stationary). This ability can improve the accuracy and reliability of localization and mapping, enhance the ability of the robot to interact with its environment, and facilitate applications such as inventory management and theft detection. Rather than viewing this task as a difficult application of object recognition methods from computer vision, this work is in line with a recent trend in the community towards unsupervised object discovery and tracking that exploits the fundamentally temporal nature of the data acquired by a robot. Unlike earlier approaches, which relied heavily upon computationally intensive techniques from mapping and computer vision, our approach combines visual features and RGB-D data in a simple and effective way to segment objects from robot sensory data. We then use a Dirichlet process to cluster and recognize objects. The performance of our approach is demonstrated in several test domains.


Chronic drug administration induces neuroplastic changes within brain circuits regulating cognitive control and/or emotions. Following repeated pairings between drug intake and environmental cues, increased sensitivity to or salience of these contextual cues provoke conscious or unconscious craving and enhance susceptibility to relapse. To explore brain circuits participating in such experience-induced plasticity, we combined functional MRI with a preclinical drug vs. food self-administration (SA) withdrawal model. Specifically, two groups of rats were trained to associate odor cues with the availability of i.v. cocaine or oral sucrose, respectively. After 20 d of cocaine or sucrose SA followed by prolonged (30 d) forced abstinence, animals were presented with odor cues previously associated with or without (S+/S−) reinforcer (cocaine/sucrose) availability while undergoing functional MRI scans. ANOVA results demonstrate that a learning effect distinguishing S+ from S− was seen in the insula and nucleus accumbens, with the insula response reflecting the individual history of cocaine SA intake. A main effect of group, distinguishing cocaine from sucrose, was seen in the medial prefrontal cortex (infralimbic, prelimbic, and cingulate cortex) and dorsolateral striatum. Critically, only the dorsomedial striatum demonstrated a double dissociation between the two SA groups and learning (S+ vs. S−). These findings demonstrate altered cortico-limbic-striatal reward-related processing to learned, environment reward-associated contextual odor cues, which may serve as potential biomarkers for therapeutic interventions.


Background Catheter ablation is a routine procedure in patients with WPW syndrome. Silent cerebral infarcts (SCI) detected in magnetic resonance imaging may be a complication of the ablation procedure, but it is well documented only in atrial fibrillation ablation. Ablation of left-sided accessory pathways (L-AP) has a similar target area, but WPW patients differ from those with atrial fibrillation, due to lower initial risk of cerebral embolic events. The aim of this study was to determine whether the ablation of left-sided accessory pathways carries the risk of SCI. Material/Methods Twenty consecutive patients with overt L-AP referred for RF ablation in our center were included in the study. An irrigated ablation catheter was used in 8 patients, and a non-irrigated ablation catheter was used in 12 patients. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging was performed pre-procedurally and on the next day after the ablation in all patients. Results Ablation procedures were completed without complications and there were no neurological symptoms following the procedure, although in 2 patients (10%), post-procedural diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance revealed new acute silent cerebral infarcts. Both patients with new cerebral lesions were female, and a non-irrigated catheter was used in both cases. Conclusions This is the first study documenting the presence of silent cerebral infarcts after WPW ablation. Further investigations are needed to evaluate the risk of silent cerebral infarcts associated with L-AP ablation.