Numerical simulations for penetration into C35 concrete by 27 kinds of shaped charges with different cone angles, different liner thicknesses at different stand-offs were performed based on AUTODYN-2D software in this paper. Titanium alloy with a density of 6.0g/cm3 was chosen as liner material. The formations of shaped charge jets (SCJs) were studied and the influence rules of liner thickness, cone angle and stand-off on penetration depth and borehole diameter of SCJs were analyzed. Predecessors' theoretical research achievements were discussed. Results show that large liner thickness is unsuitable for small cone angle, which results in poor penetration efficiency. SCJ formed by larger cone angle and proper liner thickness is not very sensitive to stand-off distance, which has better penetration depth as well as borehole diameter. The penetration depth increases and crater diameter decreases along with the increasing of stand-off distance. These results show a great engineering significance.


The aim in this thesis is to explore how power dynamics are involved as one way of knowing the environment is held to be more rational than the other. This is being put in the case of the development of alternative agriculture in Sweden and Denmark, where organic agriculture has managed to gain greater attention in recent years whilst biodynamic farming has been less successful. Furthermore, this thesis explores the project of political ontology; how the difference between organic and biodynamic farming can be understood as ontological and in what ways these differences are linked to unequal power relations. Qualitative interviews were conducted with five biodynamic farmers in Scania and on Zealand for this research.
The findings of this research suggest that the biodynamic farmers struggle with the dominant understanding of the world limited to a biophysical view on it. Meanwhile, organic farming has managed to negotiate with such ideas and made changes towards ecological modernization. The biodynamic farmer's understanding of the environment exceeds a biophysical understanding of it. The struggle of what should be included in a concept of sustainability could in such a way be understood as an ontological conflict. The ontological difference of organic and biodynamic farming implies different positions of power for them, since different associations are made with the respective understanding of the environment. Overall, the findings suggest that fundamental ontological difference plays a role in the power dynamics which the biodynamic and organic movement find themselves in.


We study agency frictions in the US Congress. We examine the long-standing hypothesis that political elites engage in conflict because they fail to internalize the associated costs. We compare the voting behavior of legislators with draft age sons versus draft age daughters during the conscription-era wars of the twentieth century. We estimate that having a draft age son reduces proconscription voting by 7–11 percentage points. Support for conscription recovers when a legislator's son ages out of eligibility. We establish that agency problems contribute to political conflict and that politicians are influenced by private incentives orthogonal to political concerns or ideological preferences.


Pancreatic islets control glucose homeostasis by the balanced secretion of insulin and other hormones, and their abnormal function causes diabetes or hypoglycemia. Here, we uncover a conserved program of alternative microexons included in mRNAs of islet cells, particularly in genes involved in vesicle transport and exocytosis. Islet microexons (IsletMICs) are regulated by the RNA binding protein SRRM3 and represent a subset of the larger neural program that are particularly sensitive to the levels of this regulator. Both SRRM3 and IsletMICs are induced by elevated glucose levels, and depletion of SRRM3 in beta cell lines and mouse islets, or repression of particular IsletMICs using antisense oligonucleotides, leads to inappropriate insulin secretion. Consistently, SRRM3 mutant mice display defects in islet cell identity and function, leading to hyperinsulinemic hypoglycemia. Importantly, human genetic variants that influence SRRM3 expression and IsletMIC inclusion in islets are associated with fasting glucose variation and type 2 diabetes risk.


Two studies were completed which evaluate the environmental impact of radioactive material transport. The first was a generic study which evaluated all radioactive materials and all transportation modes; the second addressed spent fuel and fuel-cycle wastes shipped by truck, rail and barge. A portion of each of those studies dealing with the change in impact resulting from alternative shipping methods is presented in this paper. Alternatives evaluated in each study were mode shifts, operational constraints, and, in generic case, changes in material properties and package capabilities. Data for the analyses were obtained from a shipper survey and from projections of shipments that would occur in an equilibrium fuel cycle supporting one hundred 1000-MW(e) reactors. Population exposures were deduced from point source radiation formulae using separation distances derived for scenarios appropriate to each shipping mode and to each exposed population group. Fourteen alternatives were investigated for the generic impact case. All showed relatively minor changes in the overall radiological impact. Since the radioactive material transport is estimated to be fewer than 3 latent cancer fatalities (LCF) for each shipment year (compared to some 300,000 yearly cancer fatalities or 5000 LCF's calculated for background radiation using the same radiological effects model), a 15% decrease caused by shifting from passenger air to cargo air is a relatively small effect. Eleven alternatives were considered for the fuel cycle/special train study, but only one produced a reduction in total special train baseline LCF's (.047) that was larger than 5%. (ERA citation 03:044272)


The article presents the role and significance of retrospective analysis of volumes of consumption of various types of diagnostic services to develop the activity of supportive curative diagnostic service.


Ruptured Achilles tendon has been treated by the percutaneous repair method since 1995 at our hospital.This report discusses the treatment results and MRI study. The subjects were 56 cases (27 males, 29 females), whose average age was 44.6 (range: 27 to 61). Five patients were followed up on MRI by their consent. After three months from operation, average dorsal flexion was 16.4 degrees. On MRI, after one month, the Achilles tendon showed the dumbbell type. After three months, all cases showed the spindle type. Conservative treatment is the established method but this method provides fasten results. A possible reason may be percutaneous repair can draw end to end more than conservative treatment, and comparative early bearing and training of ankle motion provides good range of ankle dorsal flexion.


The aim of this study is to compare the performance of Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE) and the Transthoracic approach (TTE) in the diagnosis of Infectious Endocarditis (IE). Between October/90, the data we started transesophageal ultrasound, till April/92, we performed 33 TTE in inpatients with clinical suspicion of IE. Twenty pts (61%) had one or two prosthesis. All the pts had a previous TTE. The diagnosis of IE determined by non-echocardiographic data was established on 18 pts. The other 15 pts, without clinical criteria of IE, were used as the control group. The Echocardiographic criteria for the diagnosis of IE were for both diagnostic tools the presence of masses suggesting vegetation of abscess. The diagnosis was correctly made by TTE in 8 of the 18 pts (S-44%) and by TEE in 16 of the 18 pts (S-89%) with clinical criteria for IE. Of the 15 patients without clinical criteria for IE 14 were correctly identified by TTE (Sp-93%) and 13 by TEE (Sp-89%). With a similar VPP (89%) for both tools has TEE a significative higher value for NPV than TTE (87% vs 58%). This study suggests that TEE, at a same level of specificity as TTE, is highly more sensitive in the diagnosis of IE (S-89 14 for TEE and S-44 23 for TTE) a figure that recommends that all patients with clinical suspicion of IE and a negative TTE should perform a TEE.


The immunohistochemical features of 16 cases of papillary cystadenocarcinoma of salivary glands using a panel of monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies were evaluated. The specimens were from patients postoperatively diagnosed as papillary cystadenocarcinoma of salivary glands where the age of the patients ranged from 20-70 years, males were more commonly affected than the females and parotid gland was the most commonly affected site. The cytokeratins detected by MoAb KL1 and K8.12 were positive in all cases showing a heterogeneity in intensity of reaction. A coexpression of vimentin with cytokeratin was found in 10 cases. The tumor cells had a coexpression of S-100 protein and neuron specific enolase (NSE). Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) was positive in one case with multiple expression of cytokeratins, vimentin NSE, S-100 protein. The polymorphic mucin MAM-6 was positive in all cases and MAM-3 in 8 cases showing different intensity of reaction. The tumor cells were positive for lysozyme (8 cases), lactoferrin (10 cases) and alpha-1-antichymotrypsin (10 cases). The immunoreactive c-erbB-2 oncoprotein on the cell surface membrane was detected in 2 cases. The labeling index of proliferating cell nuclear antigen in the tumor cells ranged from 3.8 to 43.2% (mean 14.2 +/- standard deviation 9.8). Histopathological feature and a heterogeneity of multiple expression of tissue markers may suggest that a population of cells in papillary cystadenocarcinoma may be counterparts of modified myoepithelial cells of pleomorphic adenoma that express epithelial, mesenchymal and neuronal differentiation although the role of myoepithelial cells in the genesis of this tumor is not clear. However, disorganized stratification and malignant transformation of ductal cells may be the most likely possibility in the histogenesis of this tumor.


The article examines the relationship between China's exports to African countries and the implementation of energy projects by Chinese companies. The structure of Chinese exports to Africa and trends in the development of bilateral trade is analyzed. Key factors explaining the close correlation between exports and project implementation are: first, the significant volume of tied financing provided by Chinese banks for the construction of energy infrastructure in African countries, second, the need of these countries to purchase a lot of high-tech equipment in the absence of relevant industries on their territory. The dynamics of supplies of specialized equipment from China used for the construction of various types of power plants - hydroelectric power plants, thermal power plants, wind power plants and solar power plants - is considered in detail. The article provides examples of energy projects of Chinese companies in African countries, for which the supply of equipment is directly found in the imports of the respective countries from China. The tendency for Chinese companies to open production facilities in African countries, in particular cement plants and a photovoltaic modules plant, is noted. The author concludes that the African market remains extremely promising for the implementation of energy projects and the sale of relevant Chinese products despite some negative factors.


Patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) are often resuscitated with crystalloids in the emergency department (ED) to maintain cerebral perfusion. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether crystalloid resuscitation volume impacts mortality in TBI patients. This was a retrospective study of trauma patients with head abbreviated injury scale score ≥2, who received crystalloids during ED resuscitation between 2004 and 2013. Clinical characteristics and volume of crystalloids received in the ED were collected. Patients who received <2 L of crystalloids were categorized as low volume (LOW), whereas those who received ≥2 L were considered high volume (HIGH). Mortality and outcomes were compared. Multivariable regression analysis was used to determine the odds of mortality while controlling for confounders. Over 10 years, 875 patients met inclusion criteria. Overall mortality was 12.5 per cent. Seven hundred and forty-two (85%) were in the LOW cohort and 133 (15%) in the HIGH cohort. Gender and age were similar between the groups. The HIGH cohort had lower admission systolic blood pressure (128 vs 138 mm Hg, P = 0.001), lower Glasgow coma scale score (10 vs 12, P < 0.001), higher head abbreviated injury scale (3.8 vs 3.3, P < 0.001), and higher injury severity score (25 vs 18, P < 0.001). The LOW group had a lower unadjusted mortality (10 vs 26%, P < 0.001). Multivariable analysis adjusting for confounders demonstrated that those resuscitated with ≥2 L of crystalloids had increased odds of mortality (adjusted odds ratio 2.25, P = 0.005). Higher volume crystalloid resuscitation after TBI is associated with increased mortality, thus limited resuscitation for TBI patients may be indicated.


Objective. To evaluate the effects of state insurance mandates requiring insurance plans to cover Pap tests, the standard screening for cervical cancer that is recommended for nearly all adult women. Data Sources. Individual‐level data on 600,000 women age 19–64 from the CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Study Design. Twenty‐four states adopted state mandates requiring private insurers in the state to cover Pap tests from 1988 to 2000. We performed a difference‐in‐differences analysis comparing within‐state changes in Pap test rates before and after adoption of a mandate, controlling for the associated changes in other states that did not adopt a mandate. Principal Findings. Difference‐in‐differences estimates indicated that the Pap test mandates significantly increased past 2‐year cervical cancer screenings by 1.3 percentage points, with larger effects for Hispanic and non‐Hispanic white women. These effects are plausibly concentrated among insured women. Conclusions. Mandating more generous insurance coverage for even inexpensive, routine services with already high utilization rates such as Pap tests can significantly further increase utilization.


The integration of new technologies into the process of production has recently resuscitated the question of world-without-work. Accounts that regard a workless future as a strong possibility often base their arguments on a body of work that upholds that new machines already tend to eliminate the category of work, including knowledge work. This article challenges this view by revisiting Marx's Fragment on Machines through the lens of autonomist Marxist writings. It offers an answer to the research question, inscribed in the title, that in contemporary capitalism the principal source of value and wealth lies in the general intellect embodied in living labour, living-knowledge-as-mêtis, that cannot be crystallized in and reproduced by the system of machinery and organizational tools in any meaningful way. The political implications of this argument will be discussed in the conclusion.


The paper presents results of the research which was done when implementing one stage of the PF7 program project "Polygeneration of energy, fuels, and fertilizers from biomass residues and sewage sludge ( ENERCOM )" (No TREN/FP7/EN/218916) – the study on peat and / or sawdust substitution potential for the solid recovered fuel (SRF) of compost. The compost is produced of pre-treated sewage sludge and biomass residuals in a "Soil-Concept" plant (Luxemburg). During ENERCOM project implementation the laboratory analysis of different compost fractions shows that fraction 10-40 of pre-composted materials can be used for SRF production. The equipment for SRF production in a pellet form was developed in pilot "Soil-Concept". Pelleting press monitoring was carried out to evaluate real environmental indicators (EI). These EI were used for environmental impact assessment (EIA) of generating SRF and its burning for heat energy production. The method of comparison analysis was chosen for the EIA. SRF was compared to the peat fuel and sawdust. Results of technical and environmental evaluations of SRF production and its burning, comparison analysis with peat fuel and sawdust, as well as conclusions and recommendations made are presented. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.erem.64.2.4142


Myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), consisting of subpopulations of polymorphonuclear (PMN; CD11b+Ly6G+Ly6Clo) and monocytic (M; CD11b+Ly6G-Ly6Chi) MDSCs play a major role as immune suppressors in cancer. MDSC-targeted therapy has not been developed yet. Histone deacetylases (HDAC) are critically involved in epigenetic regulation of multiple genes and may regulate MDSC number and function. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of the class I HDAC inhibitor, entinostat on differentiation and function of MDSCs in mouse tumor models of lung cancer (Lewis Lung Carcinoma, LLC) and colon cancer (CT26). LLC and CT26 tumor-bearing mice were treated with entinostat (10 mg/kg, p.o. daily for two weeks). Entinostat caused significant increase in the presence of CD45+ CD11b+ myeloid cells in bone marrow, spleen and tumors. This increase was largely due to accumulation of Ly6ClowLy6G+ PMN. Unexpectedly, this was associated with a small decrease in the presence of common myeloid progenitor (CMP) and granulocyte-macrophage progenitor (GMP) cells in bone marrow. This suggests that entinostat affects differentiation of PMN downstream of GMP. Experiments in vitro demonstrated that entinostat increased differentiation of enriched hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPC) to PMN in the presence of tumor explant supernatant (TES), which supported the in vivo result. To assess the effect of entinostat on the function of PMN-MDSCs, Ly6G+ cells were purified from spleen and tumor of LLC tumor-bearing mice treated with entinostat or vehicle alone and tested for their ability to suppress antigen-specific T cell. As expected Ly6G+ PMN-MDSC from tumor-bearing mice treated with vehicle alone had strong suppressive activity. In contrast, Ly6G+ cells from spleen and tumor of entinostat-treated LLC tumor-bearing mice show significantly reduced suppressive activity. This result was confirmed in experiments with Ly6G+ cells differentiated from HPC culture with/without entinostat treatment. To determine whether entinostat inhibition of PMN-MDSC immunosuppressive function could enhance immune checkpoint activity, entinostat combined with an anti-PD-1 antibody was evaluated using the LLC tumor-bearing mice. These mice were treated with entinostat (10 mg/kg, p.o., daily) and anti-mouse PD-1 rat antibody (10 mg/kg, i.p., twice a week). Entinostat or PD-1 antibody alone did not significantly inhibit the tumor growth. In striking contrast, the combination treatment blocked tumor progression. Our data demonstrate that entinostat increases a population of PMN-MDSCs that are no longer immunosuppressive leading to enhanced anti-tumor activity when combined with an immune checkpoint inhibitor. This novel phenomenon provides further rationale for combination therapy of entinostat with anti-PD-1 antibody or other checkpoint inhibitors in clinical settings. Citation Format: Ayumi Hashimoto, Vinit Kumar, Peter Ordentlich, Dmitry I. Gabrilovich. HDAC inhibitor Entinostat disrupts function of PMN-MDSC [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 5595. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-5595


Background Ureteric injuries leading to ureterovaginal fistula (UVF) is less common than vesicovaginal fistula, as a cause of urinary incontinence. Recently, there is a surge in the number of UVF cases presenting to University College Hospital (UCH) following a caesarean delivery. The urogynaecology unit at UCH is at the forefront of providing surgical repair for women with all forms of genitourinary fistulas. We describe our experience with managing UVF arising from ureteric injury. Methods A retrospective data collection of UVF cases managed from January 2012–December 2017 at UCH is presented. Information on sociodemographic and obstetric characteristics, presenting complaints, antecedent surgery, treatment received, findings at surgery, and postoperative complications were obtained with a structured proforma. Results Eighteen cases of UVFs due to iatrogenic ureteric injury were managed. Majority (N=11; 61.1%) of the women suffered the injury following the emergency caesarean section (EMCS). Abdominal hysterectomy operation accounted for four (22.2%) cases, and one case each (5.6%) was due to vaginal hysterectomy and destructive operations. Prolonged obstructed labour (POL) (81.8%) was the most common indication for the EMCS, while 18.2% had surgery on account of lower uterine segment fibroid. Most of the ureteric injuries were on the left side. Postoperative complications documented were haemorrhage, urinary tract infection, wound infection, and injury to the neighbouring structure. Conclusion Caesarean section being one of the most performed surgical operations in Nigeria was surprisingly found to be the most common cause of ureteric injury ahead of hysterectomy. It is a pointer that the surgeons might not have properly learnt the art of the caesarean delivery well. We recommend adequate surgical training of medical officers/surgeons that are involved.


Unlike primates, training artificial neural networks on changing data distributions leads to a rapid decrease in performance on old tasks. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as catastrophic forgetting. In this paper, we investigate the representational changes that underlie this performance decrease and identify three distinct processes that together account for the phenomenon. The largest component is a misalignment between hidden representations and readout layers. Misalignment occurs due to learning on additional tasks and causes internal representations to shift. Representational geometry is partially conserved under this misalignment and only a small part of the information is irrecoverably lost. All types of representational changes scale with the dimensionality of hidden representations. These insights have implications for deep learning applications that need to be continuously updated, but may also aid aligning ANN models to the rather robust biological vision.


The nematode Halicephalobus mephisto was originally discovered inhabiting a deep terrestrial aquifer 1.3 km underground. H. mephisto can thrive under conditions of abiotic stress including heat and minimal oxygen, where it feeds on a community of both chemolithotrophic and heterotrophic prokaryotes in an unusual ecosystem isolated from the surface biosphere. Here we report the comprehensive genome and transcriptome of this organism, identifying a signature of adaptation: an expanded repertoire of 70 kilodalton heat-shock proteins (Hsp70) and avrRpt2 induced gene 1 (AIG1) proteins. We find that positive selection has driven the expansion of Hsp70 genes, which are also transcriptionally induced upon growth under heat stress. We further show that AIG1 may have been acquired by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from a rhizobial fungus. Over one-third of the genes of H. mephisto are novel, highlighting the divergence of this nematode from other sequenced organisms. This work sheds light on the genomic strategies of adaptation to heat in the first complete subterrestrial eukaryotic genome.


The present study deals with Se0- and Te0-based nanoparticles bio-synthesized by two selenite- and tellurite-reducing bacterial strains, namely Stenotrophomonas maltophilia SeITE02 and Ochrobactrum sp. MPV1, isolated from polluted sites. We evidenced that, by regulating culture conditions and exposure time to the selenite and tellurite oxyanions, differently sized zero-valent Se and Te nanoparticles were produced. The results revealed that these Se0 and Te0 nanoparticles possess antimicrobial and biofilm eradication activity against Escherichia coli JM109, Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1, and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923. In particular, Se0 nanoparticles exhibited antimicrobial activity at quite low concentrations, below that of selenite. Toxic effects of both Se0 and Te0 nanoparticles can be related to the production of reactive oxygen species upon exposure of the bacterial cultures. Evidence so far achieved suggests that the antimicrobial activity seems to be strictly linked to the dimensions of the nanoparticles: indeed, the highest activity was shown by nanoparticles of smaller sizes. In particular, it is worth noting how the bacteria tested in biofilm mode responded to the treatment by Se0 and Te0 nanoparticles with a susceptibility similar to that observed in planktonic cultures. This suggests a possible exploitation of both Se0 and Te0 nanoparticles as efficacious antimicrobial agents with a remarkable biofilm eradication capacity.


Herein, we report the development of a thrombosis-targeted molecular imaging probe with magnetic resonance (MR) and optical dual-modality capacity using dibromomaleimide (DBM)-bearing polymer-grafted NaGdF4 nanoparticles. The random copolymer of bisphosphonic ester (BPE)-P(OEGA-co-DBM) was first synthesized through reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) copolymerization of oligo(ethylene glycol)methyl ether acrylate (OEGA) and DBM-based monomers using a BPE-terminated RAFT agent. The resulting polymers were subjected to deprotection with the formation of bisphosphonic acid (BPA) terminals, allowing for the attachment of the as-synthesized BPA-P(OEGA-co-DBM) chains onto the surface of paramagnetic NaGdF4 nanoparticles through the ligand exchange reaction. Azide moieties could be readily incorporated into the hybrid nanoparticles by the coupling reaction between the highly reactive DBM moieties and amine derivatives. Intriguingly, the coupling reaction was characterized by a unique fluorescence turn-on even in aqueous media, which subsequently enabled the fluorescence imaging applications of the resulting hybrid nanoparticle. Furthermore, a single-chain antibody (scFv), which is specifically used for the active conformation of the GPIIb/IIIa integrin, was successfully attached onto the nanoparticles by a strain-promoted copper-free "click" reaction, allowing the targeting of activated platelets in acute thrombosis. The hybrid nanoparticles prepared through this new surface functionalization protocol possessed not only high colloidal stability under physiological conditions but also potential MR/optical imaging capacity. The thrombosis targeting capacity of the hybrid nanoparticle-based probe was then demonstrated by exploiting DBM conjugation-induced fluorescence in living cells.


This study uses the National Mortality Followback Survey of 1986 to identify the top five Sentinel Health Events Occupational [SHE(O)s], the five leading causes of death, and to ascertain the primary occupations and industries associated with these. We found that, as expected, cardiovascular diseases were four of the five leading causes of death overall. In addition, the SHE(O) responsible for most deaths was cancer of the trachea, bronchus, and lung, followed by renal failure, bladder cancer, myeloid leukemia, and liver cancer. We employed proportionate mortality ratios to analyze the relationship between industry and occupation and category of mortality. In brief, we validated findings by other researchers; for example, farmers were at lower risk of cancer of the trachea, bronchus, and lung, and workers in eating/drinking places had excess risk of liver cancer. We also hypothesize other relationships, such as between motor vehicle dealers and bladder cancer.


In this paper I ground a brief account of the impact of COVID-19 on the United Kingdom in an understanding of a decade of austerity politics from 2010 to 2020, itself a product of the advent and consolidation of post-1970s financialised or rentier capitalism. I argue that such an analysis is essential if realistic plans are to be laid for a "better"—understood here as a more equitable or "fairer"—society. I go on to consider the contributions that sociology can, and arguably should, make to this end. This involves a range of engagements from scholarship at one end of the spectrum to action or muckraking sociology at the other. In addition to plotting a role for sociology, I suggest a set of criteria for recognizing a "fairer society"; postulate a series of institutional reforms that might characterize the attainment of such a society; and outline and confront social structural, cultural and agential obstacles to its realization. A theme running throughout the paper is that the delineation and promulgation of the "good society" remains central to any credible—that is, post-Enlightenment reconstruction of - the sociological project.


In this work, the interaction between the size effect and the thermomechanically induced phase transformation for SMAs composed of Indium-Thallium (InTl) is analyzed. An In-21at%Tl alloy is first fabricated, from which In-21at%Tl nanowires are subsequently produced. Using the mechanical pressure injection system, the bulk alloy is pressed into pores of an Anodized Aluminum Oxide (AAO) template to fabricate the nanowires. The diameter of these nanowires can be altered by changing the anodization parameters of the AAO templates (≈20nm–750nm). The critical diameter for which nanowires show a similar phase transformation behavior to the bulk alloy is experimentally determined to lie between 280nm and 750nm.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


For several years now at the Gaetano Pini Institute of Milan, Italy, we have been improving upon an original instrumental protocol (by means of several radiographic examinations and TC) to understand both congenital and acquired deformations of the lower limbs. Thanks to this technique, it is possibile to evaluate the specific degree of the deformation from any perspective, also from the rotational one; it gives us the possibility to state precisely the dysmorphic pathological consequences on the hip, on the knee and on the ankle joints. This tested kind of interpretation also makes it possible to establish more accurate suggestions regarding surgical correction. If this final correction is achieved in more than one phase, it may be possible to improve the surgical treatment if the contemporary action on the three reference spatial planes is considered. We have already collected data on numerous cases of post-traumatic deformations or congenital dysmorphisms studied by several techniques.


Moyamoya disease (MMD) is a chronic, occlusive cerebrovascular disease that predominantly affects East Asian populations. The major genetic mutation associated with MMD in Asian populations is the p.R4810K substitution in Ring Finger Protein 213 (RNF213). Interestingly, variants in the RNF213 gene have also been implicated in intracranial aneurysms (IA) in French-Canadian population, suggesting that variation in this gene may play a broader role in cerebrovascular phenotypes. In a recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) in a Caucasian population, variants rs6565653 and rs12601526 in the Solute Carrier Family 26 Member 11 (SLC26A11) gene, which is less than 10kb away from RNF213, showed a suggestive association with young onset ischemic stroke. We propose that the signal could be tagging an association with common variation in the RNF213 gene. We analyzed the linkage disequilibrium (LD) pattern in the SLC26A11-RNF213 gene region and we observed a high LD between variants in this region based on D' values. We show that SLC26A11 rs6565653 variant tags RNF213 rs12944088, a missense variant that is more common among subjects with IA than in healthy individuals. Given the fact that rs6565653 tags several RNF213 variants, it is highly likely that some of these tagged variants modify the risk of suffering stroke. The LD analyses suggest that the SLC26A11 signal from the young onset ischemic stroke GWAS performed in a Caucasian population is also tagging variation at the RNF213 loci, supporting the hypothesis that RNF213 variation may result in a variety of neurovascular disorders including an increased risk and/or worse prognosis following ischemic stroke in Caucasian population.


ABSTRACT The encapsulated pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans is poorly recognized by phagocytic cells in the absence of opsonins. Macrophages will bind and internalize complement- or antibody-opsonized C. neoformans; however, less is known about the role of opsonins in dendritic cell (DC)-mediated recognition of the organism. Thus, we studied the opsonic requirements for binding to C. neoformans by cultured human monocyte-derived and murine bone marrow-derived DCs and whether binding leads to antifungal activity and cytokine release. Binding of unopsonized C. neoformans to human and murine DCs was negligible. Opsonization with pooled human serum (PHS) increased binding, while heat treatment of PHS virtually abolished this binding, thus suggesting a role for heat-labile complement components. PHS plus a monoclonal anticapsular antibody, 3C2, had an additive effect on binding for most cryptococcal strains. Human and murine DCs exhibited pronounced anticryptococcal activity in the presence of the antibody at early (2-h) and late (24-h) time points; however, PHS opsonization did not supplement this anticryptococcal activity. Antifungal activity against C. neoformans opsonized in PHS and/or antibody was partially reduced in the presence of inhibitors of the respiratory burst response. Human, but not murine, DCs released modest amounts of tumor necrosis factor alpha when stimulated with C. neoformans opsonized in PHS and/or antibody. However, opsonized C. neoformans failed to stimulate detectable release of interleukin 10 (IL-10) or IL-12p70 from either DC population. Thus, human and murine DCs show maximal binding to and antifungal activity against C. neoformans via a process highly dependent on opsonization.


The article considers how twins discursively negotiated and performed their twinship over the twentieth century through an examination of the jointly written narratives of self of three sets of identical, female, American twins. These years witnessed a shift in the academic, medical, and lay attitudes toward twins—a historical and social shift that I argue is reflected in their narratives and in their perceptions of self. Taken together these three joint autobiographies suggest that researchers' findings regarding the movement of twins along a scale from compliance to contestation to denial is also a temporal movement, reflecting a gradual shift in social and gender expectations regarding twinship. The article sheds light on the history of the lived experience of twinship, in particular that of female twins, and reflects on a more general historical evolution of twentieth-century women's performance of their individuality. After an introduction to the six women and their narratives of self, I turn to outline how each set of twins presented their twinship and individuality in their narrative. I conclude by considering some aspects concerning the historicity and gendering of twinship.


We present a mechanistic study of a PTCDA2-/TiO2 dye-sensitized photocatalytic system, in which the stable radical dianion PTCDA2- is formed via a two-step consecutive photoinduced electron transfer from its neutral precursor PTCDA (i.e., perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride). Photoexcitation of PTCDA2- brings forth an interesting behavior known as vibrationally excited-state-selective, visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). In conjunction with the information gleaned from optical spectroscopy and ultrafast dynamics, we reveal that an intermediate complex (IC) state with a lifetime of ∼12 ps exists in the vicinity of a certain vibrationally excited state of PTCDA2-. Such a unique IC state mediates the interfacial electron transfer (IET) channel from the specific excited state of PTCDA2- to the conduction band continuum of TiO2. As an outcome, the effective IC-mediated IET process in this photocatalytic system leads to a remarkable HER rate that reaches ∼4660 μmol g-1 h-1.


The electronic excitations induced with tunneling electrons into adlayers of 3,4,9,10-perylenetetracarboxylic dianhydride (PTCDA) on Ag(111) have been investigated by in situ fluorescence spectroscopy in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). A minute area of the surface is excited by an electron tunneling process in STM. Fluorescence spectra strongly depend on the coverage of PTCDA on Ag(111). The adsorption of the first PTCDA layer quenches the intrinsic surface plasmon originated from the clean Ag(111). When the second layer is formed, fluorescence spectra are dominated by the signals from PTCDA, which are interpreted as the radiative decay from the manifold of first singlet excited state (S(1)) of adsorbed PTCDA. The fluorescence of PTCDA is independent of the bias polarity. In addition, the fluorescence excitation spectrum agrees with that by optical excitation. Both results indicate that S(1) is directly excited by the inelastic impact scattering of electrons tunneling within the PTCDA adlayer.


Ten years have passed since the economic crisis hit Korea in 1997. To overcome the crisis, Korean government adopted many drastic reform measures mostly recommended by IMF. Since most of its reform measures were recommended by IMF, this policy stance to "escape" from the economic crisis is regarded as "neo-liberal." Particularly, in the area of public finance, the principle of the "small government" was actively pursued. After two years, however, the policy stance began to be changed. Number of civil servants has increased. The size of the government increased as well, largely due to the increase in the welfare expenditure. Many new welfare programs, most important among them is NBLSS, has been introduced. Size of the government debt has increased. Do all these movements indicate that Korean government in last seven years has tried to be a big government? Although it is too early to tell, there is the strong evidence that the idea of European welfare state has prevailed.


The Islamic tradition credits the promulgation of a uniform consonantal skeleton (rasm) of the Quran to the third caliph ʿUthmān (r. 644–656). However, in recent years various scholars have espoused a conjectural dating of the Quran's codification to the time of ʿAbd al-Malik, or have at least taken the view that the Islamic scripture was open to significant revision up until c. 700 CE. The second instalment of this two-part article surveys arguments against this hypothesis. It concludes that as long as no Quranic passages with a distinct stylistic and terminological profile have been compellingly placed in a late seventh-century context, the traditional dating of the standard rasm (excepting certain orthographical features) to 650 or earlier ought to be our default view.


Detailed geometric modeling from images is very important but extremely complex and computationally expensive. In this paper we present an algorithm for large-scale urban terrestrial geometric modeling from videos. In the proposed approach, we classify and segment the contents of images based on the knowledge about the scene. Then the segments of each image are aligned to similar segments of the consecutive images and warped accordingly. The alignment and warping provide an overall image-to-image matching and allow us to achieve refined dense pixel matching more efficiently and reliably. In our experiment, we reconstruct the dense three-dimensional (3D) point cloud of a street and buildings from the video captured by a camera mounted on top of a vehicle. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm works effectively for difficult scenes such as objects that lack of texture or under unfriendly lighting conditions.


Moustafa Hussein Aly Performance of Near-Ballistic Limit Carbon Nano Transistor (CNT) Circuits In this paper, we present a performance comparison betweeen circuits implemented using short channel MOSFETs and those using carbon nanotransistors (CNT)operating near the limit of the ballistic transport circuits. The circuits included digital applications, such as an inverter, NAND and NOR gates, and analog circuit of a folded cascode amplifier. The carbon nanotube can be used in both device fabrication and circuit interconnects as a carbon nanowire (CNW). Analysis and simulation results show that the CNT is superior from the points of view of power dissipation, frequency range and noise margins.


Analog integrated circuit sizing can be modeled as an optimization problem and solved by optimization heuristics. The resulting solution is dependent on the modeling strategy and on the performance estimation, which is done, in general, by electrical simulations. However, the optimized solution falls on the border of the design space, where a small variation in the device parameters affects the circuit performance. In order to address this issue during sizing steps, a Monte Carlo simulation is included in the optimization loop, leading in a computational effort increasing. This work analyses both Latin Hypercube and the traditional random sampling methods in order to reduce the number of Monte Carlo runs for minimizing the necessary time to estimate the resulting yield at each iteration of the optimization process. Based on these analysis a hybrid sampling method is proposed to lower the Monte Carlo processing time. The methodology is applied for the sizing of a two-stage Miller operational transconductance amplifier, showing advantages in terms of processing time and circuit performance while producing a more efficient search in the design space.


I T is commonly held that the golden age of religious journalism in America closed just before the opening of this century. Perhaps it did; certainly a survey of all the chu'rch papers of the present period is likely to prove a depressing experience for most journalists. But there are still church papers which are edited with pungency' and effectiveness, and few surpass the Living Church in that respect. Bishop Stevens is here writing the biography of Frederic Cook Morehouse, the editor who, between 1900 and 19S~, made this weekly organ of the Anglo-Catholic. or High Church, party in the Episcopal Church 'the vigorous paper that it


Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) of alloy 600 is regarded as one of the most importantchallenges to nuclear power plant operation worldwide.This study investigates two heats of alloy 600 (forged control rod drive mechanismnozzle and rolled divider plate) in order to obtain a better understanding ofthe effects of the material parameter on the SCC phenomenon. The experimentalapproach was designed to determine the effect of the manufacturing process (forgedvs. rolled), the cold-work (as-received vs. cold-worked) and the strain path(monotonic vs. complex) on SCC of alloy 600.Specimens with different strain paths have been produced from two materials representativeof plant components and tested in high temperature (360 C) highpressure primary water environment. The manufacturing process has been provento have a great effect on the stress corrosion cracking behaviour of alloy 600.Indeed, the SCC susceptibility assessment has demonstrated that the rolled materialis resistant to SCC even after cold work, whereas the forged material is susceptiblein the as-received state.Microstructural characterisations have been undertaken to explain these differencesin SCC behaviour. The carbide distribution is the main microstructuralparameter influencing SCC but the misorientation, in synergy with the carbidedistribution, has been proven to give a better representation of the materials SCCsusceptibilities.


Unfractionated heparin (UFH) entered medical usage in the 1930s and was the mainstay of acute anticoagulation until the 1980s, when low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWHs) became available. At this time, the acquisition cost of LMWHs, being greater than that of UFH, was a significant barrier to their use even though there was evidence that this was offset by savings in monitoring and other areas. Evidence of the superiority of LMWHs over UFH in many clinical settings has been accumulating and, along with economic analyses that have demonstrated overall cost savings when LMWH is compared to UFH, has resulted in rapidly expanding sales of LMWH, whereas sales of UFH, are in decline. In addition to being more effective than UFH, LMWHs may cause less bleeding, are less likely to cause heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT) and exhibit less inter-patient variability. In addition to the savings from reduced monitoring, the greater acquisition costs for LMWHs are also offset by reduced costs of treating adverse effects and unprevented venous thromboembolism. LMWHs are usually administered once daily via the subcutaneous route, and this often allows treatment to be undertaken in the community rather than in hospitals, thereby saving considerable sums on inpatient costs. Pharmacoeconomic analyses are limited by a variety of factors including geographical and temporal variability in cost inputs, cost shifting, cost inputs that are omitted and payer perspective. Some of these limitations, including the economic impact of HIT and the savings in hospital costs, will be discussed. The effect of changes in acquisition costs since their introduction and the potential impact of medicolegal costs, will also be explored. Settings where evidence of benefit of LMWH over UFH is lacking will also be discussed.


One of the major drawbacks to neural networks is the inability of the user to understand what is happening inside the network. Quadrant-distance (QD) graphs allow the user to graphically display a network's weight vector at any point in training, for networks of any size. This allows the user to quickly and easily identify similarities or differences between solution sets. QD graphs may also be used for a variety of other analysis functions, such as comparing initial weights to final weights, and observing the path of the network as it finds a solution.


Large-scale distributed projects are typically the results of collective efforts performed by multiple developers, each one having a different personality. The study of developers' personalities has the potential of explaining their' behavior in various contexts. For example, the propensity to trust others, a critical factor to the success of global software engineering – has been found to influence positively the result of code reviews in distributed projects. In this paper, we perform a quantitative analysis of developers' personality in open source software projects, intended as an extreme form of distributed projects in which no single organization controls the project. We mine ecosystem-level data from the code commits and email messages contributed by the developers working on the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) projects, as representative of large scale-distributed projects. We find that developers become over time more conscientious, agreeable, and neurotic. Moreover, personality traits do not vary with their role, membership, and extent of contribution to the projects. We also find evidence that more open and more agreeable developers are more likely to become project contributors.


Ecological and economic systems both comprise of autonomous adaptive agents. It is thus possible that similar mechanisms determine the organization of both these complex systems. Indeed several economic theories have already been successfully applied in an ecological context. Here we show that 'efficient market theory' in economics, where future earnings are distributed between competitors by a 'fair game', corresponds to fitness-equalizing mechanisms of coexistence in ecology. In contrast to stabilizing mechanisms, which promote coexistence by giving each species an equilibrium abundance that is resilient to perturbations, equalizing mechanisms promote coexistence without such resilience by minimizing the net fitness differences between species. However, identifying stabilizing and equalizing mechanisms from the short time-series data that are typically available in ecology is challenging. We used techniques from economics that are applied to collections of short time-series from a system. We found that observed species abundance dynamics in a neotropical forest are generally in agreement with efficient market theory implying a dominant role of equalizing mechanisms, which finding quantifies and supports what was generally believed about that specific forest system. Our study highlights that complex systems from ecology and economics share common features suggesting the possibility of further synergy between ecology and economics in future.


A novel photonic technique to perform stretch processing for a wideband linearly-frequency-modulated continuous wave (LFM-CW) radar based on the conception of channelization is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The proposed system consists of a signal generation unit, an optical local oscillator (OLO) generation unit, and a group of parallel detection units. In the proposed system an optical phase correlated reference signal is introduced to the optical-frequency-comb-based channelization technique to provide a reference for data recovery. The proposed technique is experimentally evaluated through a series of static measurements of trihedral corner reflectors (TCRs) distributed along a wide range window.


In the Malay world, mosque-based economic empowerment has grown in popularity, with Indonesia and Malaysia dominating the presentation of documents on the mosque economy. The purpose of this study was to conduct a literature review on the economic empowerment of mosques in the Malay world and its relationship to civilization. On the basis of keywords pertinent to the economic empowerment of mosques in the Malay world, scholarly articles indexed by Scopus and Google Scholar were reviewed. Using techniques of content analysis, 44 relevant articles were gathered and analyzed. The results indicated that mosque-based economic empowerment programs have increased in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, but not in Southern Thailand, Brunei Darussalam, or the Philippines, where mosques continue to be centers of religious activity. Mosque-based economic empowerment is consistent with Ibn Khaldun's Asabiyah concept, in which the mosque serves as a social organization for Muslims in Malay countries. In some countries, mosque-based economic empowerment has reached a spiritual and rational stage, according to Malik Bennabi. This study can be used as a resource by administrators of mosques and Islamic organizations in the Malay world region to promote economic empowerment to strengthen social cohesion and the Asabiyah of the Malay Muslim community.


Introduction Non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis is a chronic lung condition characterised by persistent cough, excessive sputum and recurrent chest infections. Symptoms also include dyspnoea, haemoptysis, depression and fatigue. The latter can have a major impact on patients' physical and psychosocial well-being. We investigated disease- and patient-related factors associated with quality of life, fatigue and depression in bronchiectasis. Method Patients were recruited from the London Bronchiectasis Cohort. A clinical diagnosis of bronchiectasis was confirmed by review of previous CT imaging. A full medical history including exacerbations and aetiology, spirometry, and the SGRQ (for quality of life), CESD (depression), and FACIT (fatigue) questionnaires were completed at a baseline appointment. Statistics were analysed using SPSS. Results 31 patients (25 female) were studied with a mean (SD) age of 58.8 (SD 12.0) years. The commonest aetiologies were post-infectious (15/31) and idiopathic (11/31). The median (IQR) self-reported exacerbation frequency was 3.0 (1.9–5.6)/year. Frequent exacerbations were associated with poorer quality of life: there was a significant association between exacerbation frequency and the SGRQ score (r=0.46, p=0.013). Frequent exacerbations were also associated with greater baseline breathlessness (r=0.40, p=0.038), but not with lung function, depression or fatigue. Patients with greater disease severity (lower FEV1) also had more breathlessness (MRC: r=−0.38, p=0.046), and poorer quality of life (SGRQ: r=−0.50, p=0.005) but not greater depression or fatigue. The depression scale was not related to any of the disease or patient-related factors. The only patient or disease-related variable associated with fatigue was breathlessness (MRC: r=−0.57, p=0.002). Conclusion The determinants of quality of life, depression and fatigue in non-CF bronchiectasis are different. Depression in this population appears to be independent of markers of disease severity such as FEV1, exacerbation frequency and MRC dyspnoea score.


The present article shows and discusses the economic problems of market cartelization, and perceives cartels as objects of public policy and interest. In this paper, the term 'cartel' has been profoundly explained and elaborated, and the selected examples of industry cartelization, coming both from the Polish national economy and economy of the whole European Union, have been presented. Next, the discussion has been set in relevant economic theories that allow to interpret cartel behavior from the viewpoint of regulators (policy-makers) or in the light of collusion detection mechanisms.


Environmental education is an important approach to improve students' environmental literacy. The method of environmental education in colleges and universities is advancing with the development of multimedia technologies, among which virtual reality (VR) technology is gradually being widely applied to education due to its strong sense of immersion and interactivity. This article focuses on the application of VR technology to environmental education in colleges and universities, using EduVenture APP and VR glasses to innovate environmental education, with the aim of improving students' performance and making a strong connection between sense and activity of environmental protection. This research found that the learning efficiency and the sense of environmental protection of students were enhanced with VR assistance in comparison to traditional instruction, and students' learning interest in environmental protection activity was also improved.


This study was constructed to investigate the effects of relationship marketing mechanisms of on customer loyalty in Yazd hotels. Relationship marketing mechanisms include financial, social, and structural mechanisms. The present paper is an applied research adopting a descriptive-correlational method and survey design. The statistical population of this study consisted of the customers who stayed in Yazd 3-star hotels. Through using a pre-test, the population variance was estimated and then the sample size was calculated using unlimited population formula. A questionnaire was used for data collection. In addition to descriptive statistics, the correlation coefficient test and path analysis were used to determine the strength of the relationship between variables and model structural equation of the study to verify the hypotheses, respectively. The results of the study showed that none of relationship marketing mechanisms including financial, social, and structural ones did not have significant impact on the sentiments. Although financial mechanism did not have significant impact on relationship quality, social mechanism influenced on the relationship quality. Moreover, structural mechanism did not affect the quality of the relationship. A qualified relationship has many benefits such as customers' loyalty, customers' satisfaction of the customer service organizations, and introducing them to others.


Abstract Combinatorial Design such as configuration design, design optioneering, component selection, and generative design, is common across engineering. Generating solutions for a combinatorial design task often involves the application of classical computing solvers that can either map or navigate design spaces. However, it has been observed that classical computing resource power-law scales with many design space models. This observation suggests classical computing may not be capable of modelling our future design space needs. To meet future design space modelling needs, this paper examines quantum computing and the characteristics that enables its resources to scale polynomially with design space size. The paper then continues to present a combinatorial design problem that is subsequently represented, constrained and solved by quantum computing. The results of which are the derivation of an initial set of circuits that represent design space constraints. The study shows the game-changing possibilities of quantum computing as an engineering design tool and is the start of an exciting new journey for design research.


Maintenance management is one of the key components on having the good school building and environment. The primary purpose of having the maintenance management at the school is to maintain the facilities at the school, so staff, teacher and especially student who always use the facilities such as cafeteria, science lab and swimming pool. The school buildings across the nation are aging and becoming a barrier to optimize learning and teaching. The aim of this research is on how to ensure good operation of the maintenance management for the smart school at the Klang Valley. Among objectives of this research are to understand the operation of the maintenance management at smart school building, identify the problem in maintenance management and give the recommendation on how to reduce it at smart school. The research was carried out in three (3) different smart school; R.E.A.L Education Group, Asia Pacific Smart School and SRI KDU International Smart School. Data was collection by having the interview and a set of questionnaire was distributed randomly to the staff and teacher at the school to get their respond. It was found that the maintenance management for every school that been studied is having the same problem in their maintenance management which poor in performance, lack of maintenance and narrow work planning.


During recent decades, the Colombian leadership has opted for a pattern of accumulation based on primary export trade, in two distinct but sustained phases of opening of the economy. This is contrary to the model of accumulation that is emerging internationally at the beginnings of XXI Century, with their requirements of investment in science and technology for the production of knowledge. This trend has been highlighted in the mandate of President Alvaro Uribe, and fully manifests itself in the free trade agreements negotiated with developed countries. The consequences that the application of the second phase of the free trade strategy will bring to the country will be a deep backwardness and dependence, with aggravation of poverty and misery conditions of most of the Colombian population.


Introduction: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a chronic illness associated with frequent medical complications and hospitalizations. Importantly, approximately ninety percent of hospitalizations are for pain events, and 30-day re-hospitalization rates are alarmingly high. Factors influencing the high rates are poorly understood; however, close follow-up and continued titration of pain medications have been shown to decrease re-hospitalization rates. Mobile technology has become an increasingly integral part of health care management. We have recently developed SMART (Sickle cell Mobile Application to Record symptoms via Technology) to assist with documentation of pain and interventions. We propose using this current mobile technology as a tool for both patients and providers to monitorand manage symptoms and health interventions. We hypothesize that this technology will lead to an increase in follow up, a significant decrease in readmission rates, as well as overall disease burden.

Methods: We randomized SCD patients who presented to the day hospital for pain control to either standard of care or an iPad with SMART. Patients were enrolled upon discharge from the day hospital and expected to return for a visit at 12 and 30 days after hospitalization. They were followed for a total of 30 days to determine re-utilization rates. Re-utilization was defined as a return for pain management to the day hospital, emergency department (ED), or admission to the hospital. Patients with more than 10 acute care visits in the past 12 months or who were on chronic transfusions were excluded.

Standard of care (SOC) included a review of instructions, discharge medications, upcoming appointments and phone numbers for contact. SMART was programmed with the patient's scheduled medications, upcoming appointments and allowed patients and the medical team to communicate via text. Patients were provided a reminder through the app to record their symptoms and interventions (medication or non-pharmacologic) twice daily. The medical team reviewed symptoms recorded by patients at least once daily and texted patients who were indicating significant changes in pain.

Results: We enrolled 19 SCD patients and randomized 10 to SMART and 9 to SOC (52% male, mean age 31.2 ± 6.6 years). Patients using SMART were more likely to return for their scheduled follow-up visit at 12 days (80% vs. 33%) and 30 days (80% vs. 44%). Thirty-day re-utilization of care was lower for patients using SMART compared to patients receiving SOC (20% vs. 77%, see Table 1). Furthermore, re-utilization for patients using SMART was limited to 2 visits to the day hospital, which occurred 10 and 24 days post discharge. This is in contrast to 8 visits to the ED and 3 to the day hospital among 7 of the 9 patients receiving SOC, with re-utilization occurring a median of 2 days post discharge (range 1-23).

Of the patients using SMART, one patient did not make any entries into the application, while the other 9 patients made almost 1 entry per day for 30 days (median entries 28.9, range 5-107). The medical team texted all patients with SMART (range 2-19 times over 30 days); 60% returned texts to the medical team (range 2-11 times over 30 days). Interestingly, the two patients with SMART who returned within 30 days to the day hospital for further pain treatment had not returned any texts to the medical team.

Conclusion: Our pilot study used an innovative mobile application to improve care for SCD patients who were discharged following day hospital treatment for pain crisis. Patients using SMART were more likely to return for their scheduled follow-up appointments. In addition, 30-day re-utilization of care was much higher for patients receiving SOC than SMART and was similar to previously observed institutional re-utilization rates. In contrast, only 20% of patients given SMART returned for re-utilization of care within 30 days, and they were the patients who did not use the texts for communication. We plan to expand the use of SMART to improve decision-making by medical providers through access to symptoms recorded by patients following discharge and, ultimately, to decrease re-utilization of care.

![Figure][1]

Disclosures Jonassaint: Sicklesoft: Other: officer of Sicklesoft. Shah: Novartis: Speakers Bureau.

 [1]: pending:yes


This paper describes the development of an ultrasonic wheel-array sensor scanning system. The system operates at 10 MHz using a 64-element array transducer which is 50 mm in length and located in a fluid-filled wheel. Thewheel is coupled to the test structure dry, or with a small amount of liquid couplant. An aperture is swept along the array forming a B-scan at each measurement position. The wheel is rolled over the surface of the test structure and a defect map (C-scan) is generated in real-time. The tyre is made from a soft, durable polymer which has very little acoustic loss. The rapid scanning is facilitated by an embedded PC which controls all of the functions of the array transmit and receive module as well as undertaking signal processing of the received waveforms. Three application studies are presented. These are the detection of embedded defects in a thick-section carbon composite test block, the detection of cracking and disbanding in a carbon composite skin-stringer sample and the inspection of sealant layers in an aluminium aircraft wing structure. In each application, the wheel-array sensor was found to produce C-scans of comparable quality to an immersion system with scanning times reduced by factors of 25-50.


Purpose: The purpose of the study was to investigate the incidence, cause and probability of re-hospitalization within 30 and 365 days after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in patients with diabetes. Method: Between January 2010 and September 2014, 2763 patients with diabetes were treated with PCI at two Hospitals in Western Denmark. Reasons for readmission within 30 and 365 days were identified. Results: Readmission risks for patients with diabetes were 58% within 365 days and 18% within 30 days. Reason for readmission was ischemic heart disease (IHD) in 725 patients (27%), and non-IHD-related reasons in 826 patients (31%). IHD-related readmission within 365 days was associated with female gender (OR 1.3, 95% CI: 1.1–1.5), and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, compared to stable angina at the index hospitalization (OR 1.3, 95% CI: 1.1–1.6). Among patients with diabetes, increased risk of readmission due to other reasons were age (OR 1.3, 95% CI: 1.2–1.5) and higher scores of modified Charlson Comorbidity index (CCI): CCI ≥3 (OR 3.6, 95% CI: 2.8–4.6). Conclusion: More than half of the patients with diabetes mellitus undergoing PCI were readmitted within 1 year. Comorbidities were the strongest predictor for non-IHD-related readmission, but did not increase the risk for IHD-related readmissions.


Complexes OsH2Cl2(PiPr3)2 and RuH2Cl2(PiPr3)2 promote the tautomerization of quinoline and 8-methylquinoline to NH tautomers, which lie about 44 kcal.mol-1 above the usual CH tautomers. The NH tautomers are stabilized by coordination to the metal center and by means of a Cl...HN interaction. As a consequence, the six-coordinate elongated dihydrogen complexes OsCl2{kappa-C2-(HNC9H5R)}(eta2-H2)(PiPr3)2, the five-coordinate derivatives RuCl2{kappa-C2-(HNC9H5R)}(PiPr3)2, and the six-coordinate dihydrogen compounds RuCl2{kappa-C2-(HNC9H5R)}(eta2-H2)(PiPr3)2 (R = H, Me) have been isolated and characterized.


Adolescents have a high burden of sexual and reproductive health problems and it is important to reach out to youth groups through health promotion initiatives. A literature review was carried out to identify the elements of a successful health promotion program to improve adolescent reproductive health and sex. This study identified and compiled a literature review published in 2000-2018 that focused on adolescents (10-24 years), reported reproductive and sexual health outcomes (pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections, condoms/contraceptive use, risky sexual behavior, access to health care sexual or intimate partner violence), and includes major studies that are mainly carried out in high-income countries. This report focuses on the features of the reproductive and sexual health program that were successfully identified in the interpretation and discussion of the systematic reviews included. This study identified 66 systematic reviews, of which 37 were reported on programs that were anecdotally or statistically related to the increase in program effectiveness and success. The general characteristics of effective interventions are: long-term or recurrent implementation; multi-regulation and multi-component; parental involvement; according to culture, gender, age; and the inclusion of skill development. There is a marked consistency of features increasing the effectiveness of reproductive and sexual health programs for adolescents even though wide variations in interventions are reviewed. There is a need to better implement this knowledge in future programs, and our findings provide useful guidance for optimizing the design of reproductive and sexual health interventions for adolescents.


The Southern Section Meeting of the Triological Society was held from January 16 through 18,1992, at Sea Island, Ga. Fifty-three papers were presented. John Teichgraeber, MD, described his experience with 10 patients using a temporoparietal fascial flap in orbital reconstruction. The author recommended delaying the flap in contaminated and poorly vascularized wounds when a large pericranial extension is required. J. Andrew Burnam, MD, described his experience with the subcutaneous pedicle extension flap in 35 cases. This random flap should be twice the length of the defect to which it is intended to cover. Advantages of this one-stage procedure include good color match from contiguous tissue and closure without tension in areas of free margins. Some concern was expressed that this flap turns 180° on its blood supply, but no graft failures were reported. The mechanism of nasal vasoconstriction of cocaine by blocking the reuptake of norepinephrine was described by Richard


Pressures are mounting for a regime to verify the dismantlement of US and Russian warheads, as well as a system of international control over the weapons` fissile materials to assure irreversibility. There are at least four motivating factors for these measures: (1) as the United States and Russia lower their numbers of nuclear weapons, each side seeks assurance that the warheads are actually being dismantled; (2) by accounting for the fissile materials and placing them under effective controls, the potential for smuggling and theft is reduced; (3) a fissile materials cutoff is being discussed at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva; verification of a US-Russian cutoff, as well as substantial reductions in fissile materials stockpiles, are seen as integral to the cutoff; (4) calls for total nuclear disarmament have greatly increased; dismantlement verification and international control of fissile materials are widely viewed as requisite steps toward this goal. There are many questions to be answered before the United States can agree to a warhead verification regime and international control over excess fissile materials, let alone total nuclear disarmament. Two of the most important are: What are the prospects for effective verification? and How much fissile material can be declared as excess, and possibly be given over to international control? These topics--compliance weaknesses and excess materials--are the focus of this paper.


The synthesis of ethyl or methyl 4-substituted or unsubstituted 2-(dimethylamino)-5-pyrimidinecarboxylates 10-20, which is mainly carried out by reaction of ethyl or methyl 2-[(dimethylamino)methylene]-3-oxoalkanoates with 1,1-dimethylguanidine, is described. The above esters were hydrolyzed to the relative carboxylic acids 21-30, which were decarboxylated to the corresponding 2,4-disubstituted pyrimidines 31-40. All the new synthesized pyrimidines were evaluated in spontaneously beating and electrically driven atria from reserpine-treated guinea pigs. Their effects were compared to those induced by milrinone in both atria preparations. Compound 28 (4-benzyl-2-(dimethylamino)-5-pyrimidinecarboxylic acid) was the most effective positive inotropic agent, while the corresponding methyl ester 17 reduced both the contractile force and the frequency of guinea pig atria. An antagonism toward the negative influence exerted by endogenous adenosine on the heart seems to be involved in the contractile activity of compound 28. By contrast, compound 17 might be partial agonist at the purinergic inhibitory (A1) receptor. X-ray analysis carried out on 17 and 28 and molecular modeling investigations extended also to related derivatives allowed a possible rationalization between structure and inotropic activity for this series of compounds.


In March 2020, Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) rapidly spread across the globe impacting the mental health of the population and putting an overwhelming pressure on health services. Much has been written about the impact of the pandemic on health-care workers working in hospital settings but less attention has been paid to its effect on community mental health teams (CMHTs). This study is based on 21 remote interviews with community mental health professionals during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using a thematic analysis whereby codes of similar meaning were grouped into main themes. Analysis identified three major contributors to moral distress; changes in the nature of contact with service users, changes to the place of work, and difficulties of balancing risks to the families of CMHT staff and service users. This study demonstrates that necessary organizational changes instituted to minimize the spread of COVID-19, required different ways of working which were not perceived to be in the best interests of service users or the families of CMHT staff. In order to comply with Government directives, CMHT staff were forced to behave in a way which did not match their moral values causing them to experience moral distress.


Abstract. Coasts are among the most intensely used environments on the planet, but they also present dynamic and unique hazards including flooding and erosion. Sea level rise and changing wave climates will alter patterns of erosion and deposition, but some existing coastline evolution models are unable to simulate these effects due to their one-dimensional representation of the systems, or of sediment transport processes. In this paper, the development and application of the Coastline Evolution Model 2D (CEM2D) is presented, that incorporates these influences. The model has been developed from the established CEM model and is capable of simulating fundamental cause-effect relationships in coastal systems. The two-dimensional storage and transport of sediment in CEM2D, which is only done in one-dimension in CEM, means it is also capable of exploring the influence of a variable water level on sediment transport and the formation and evolution of morphological features and landforms at the meso-scale, from 10 to 100 years and over 10 to 100 kilometres. The model sits between one-dimensional and three-dimensional models, with the advantage of increased complexity and detail in model outputs compared to the former, but with more efficiency and less computational expense than the latter.


This paper examines some factors that can complement public health systems in managing the spread of the COVID-19 with implications for preparedness towards possible future pandemics. It adapts and applies two suitable econometric models in the theoretical framework of social determinants of health. The one models are the Poisson's Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) and the quantile estimator, applied to panel data for 195 countries over days of infection from first recorded case. The COVID-19-related data is from our world in data, and the socioeconomic variables are from the World Bank's World Development indicators. The results suggest that enhancing capacity for early testing complemented by reduction of international exposure; improved management of population dynamics; ensuring better sanitation and hygiene practices and reducing alcohol use are key to addressing the rapid spread of the COVID-19, and readiness for future pandemics of similar a kind.


Public Private Partnership (PPP) in Malaysia as an innovative procurement mechanism aims to undertake the public sector infrastructure project construction in order to overcome the weaknesses of conventional system. PPP is seen significantly viable to enhance the quality of public services and stimulate economic growth. After the decades of its implementation, many arguments have been reported along the lively growth of PPP project development. Within that context, this study provides a review of issues and challenges for PPP pertaining to project performance in Malaysia. The objective of this study is to highlight the loophole of PPP implementation in Malaysia through a qualitative approach. A qualitative approach was used to analyse contextual literature review and to investigate four selected performance measurement models as the precedent study to provide a basis for improvement of PPP in Malaysia. The findings showed that the issues and challenges were almost similar between the literature and selected models in which the guideline / framework, Key Performance Indicator (KPI), risk allocation, efficiency & flexibility were perceived as dominant issues. Apart from that, a technical factor had proven as the most threated factor that could hinder the implementation of PPP project in Malaysia. Hence, the structure of PPP model should be more viable towards the stakeholders by developing a clear, realistic and concise guideline in order to improve the service delivery performance and return value for money.


Antibiosis was observed in fruits of different passion fruit geno- types (Passiflora spp.) on Holhymenia histrio Fabr. Essays were accomplished in the Department of Entomology and Nematology - UNESP, Jaboticabal, SP. The development of newly-hatched nymphs on fruits of the different genotypes was studied. The duration and mortality of each nymphal instar, the weight of fourth-instar nymphs, the adults weight and fecundity were determined. The genotypes P. giberti, P. coccinea, P. alata and P. edulis f. flavicarpa presented antibiosis for the bugs H. histrio. P. giberti caused high mortality during the second instar, thus showing to be the less adequate. The fruits of P. nitida were most adequate for the development of the nymphs and adults of the bugs.


Gestures are an important part of interpersonal communication, for example by illustrating physical properties of speech contents (e.g., "the ball is round"). The meaning of these so‐called iconic gestures is strongly intertwined with speech. We investigated the neural correlates of the semantic integration for verbal and gestural information. Participants watched short videos of five speech and gesture conditions performed by an actor, including variation of language (familiar German vs. unfamiliar Russian), variation of gesture (iconic vs. unrelated), as well as isolated familiar language, while brain activation was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging. For familiar speech with either of both gesture types contrasted to Russian speech‐gesture pairs, activation increases were observed at the left temporo‐occipital junction. Apart from this shared location, speech with iconic gestures exclusively engaged left occipital areas, whereas speech with unrelated gestures activated bilateral parietal and posterior temporal regions. Our results demonstrate that the processing of speech with speech‐related versus speech‐unrelated gestures occurs in two distinct but partly overlapping networks. The distinct processing streams (visual versus linguistic/spatial) are interpreted in terms of "auxiliary systems" allowing the integration of speech and gesture in the left temporo‐occipital region. Hum Brain Mapp, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


ZnO-doped In2O3 (ZIO) thin films were deposited on quartz substrates at various deposition temperatures by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. All the ZIO thin films showed a significant dependence on the deposition temperature. A strong preferential growth orientation was observed for all samples except the one deposited at 25 °C. As the deposition temperature was increased, the crystalline orientation of the main (222) plane did not change, but the full width at half maximum got smaller and the intensity increased rapidly. The ZIO thin film deposited at 100 °C showed the highest figure of merit with an average particle size of 60 nm, a bandgap energy of 3.51 eV, an electrical resistivity of 2.63 × 10−3 Ωcm, and an electron concentration of 4.99 × 1020 cm−3. A blue-shift of optical bandgap enegy was observed with increasing deposition temperature. These results suggest that the optimum deposition temperature for growing high-quality ZIO films is 100 °C and that the structural, optical, and electrical properties of ZIO thin films can be modulated by controlling the deposition temperature.


We study cosmological perturbations in bimetric theory with two fluids each of which is coupled to one of the two metrics. Focusing on a healthy branch of background solutions, we clarify the stability of the cosmological perturbations. For this purpose, we extend the condition for the absence of the so-called Higuchi ghost, and show that the condition is guaranteed to be satisfied on the healthy branch. We also calculate the squared propagation speeds of perturbations and derive the conditions for the absence of the gradient instability. To avoid the gradient instability, we find that the model parameters are weakly constrained.


A novel image compression technique using classified vector quantiser and singular value decomposition is presented for the efficient representation of still images. The proposed method is called hybrid classified vector quantisation. A simple but efficient classifier based gradient method which employs only one threshold to determine the class of the input image block that results in a good image quality was utilised. Singular value decomposition method was used for efficient generation of the classified codebooks. The proposed technique was benchmarked with a standard vector quantiser generated using the k-means algorithm, and JPEG-2000. Simulation results indicated that the proposed approach alleviates edge degradation and can reconstruct good visual quality images with higher peak signal-to noise-ratio than the benchmarked techniques.


Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL

Our present work offers a new means by which cancer cells become resistant to anti-cancer treatments and mechanism-driven approaches for overcoming such resistance. Specifically, here we demonstrate a previously unrecognized mechanism of tamoxifen (TMX) resistance distinct from loss of estrogen receptor on basal-like (triple negative) breast cancer cells, which are among the most challenging tumors to treat with current therapies. Our present finding emerged from trying to understand the puzzling differences in regulation of receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) degradation in normal progenitor cells and in breast cancer cells. When glial progenitor cells become slightly more (15-20%) oxidized, such as by exposing them to TMX, we find sequential activation of Fyn (a member of the Src-family of kinases) and c-Cbl (an E3 ubiquitin ligase) is activated. Phosphorylation of c-Cbl causes ubiquitylation of its target proteins and thus increases the degradation of its target proteins, such as particular RTKs, including the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR, our specific target in this study). In contrast to normal progenitor cells, basal-like breast cancer cells exposed to TMX show increased Fyn activation but no increase in c-Cbl phosphorylation. We now have found that oxidation-induced activation of c-Cbl in basal-like breast cancer cells is inhibited due to expression of Cdc42. Cdc42 sequestered c-Cbl, prevented its activation and prevented EGFR from being degraded. Restoration of c-Cbl function, by genetically or pharmacologically inhibiting Cdc42 activation, reduced EGFR levels in these cells. More critically, restoring c-Cbl function sensitized these cells to TMX both in vitro and in vivo. Analysis of tumor growth in vivo showed that reducing the levels of Cdc42 both reduced the size of tumors and made them more sensitive to TMX. The results provide a novel defense mechanism that basal-like breast cancer cells utilize to prevent EGFR degradation which may have high relevance to treatment of these tumors. Of particular importance is the ability of Cdc42 knockdown to confer TMX sensitivity on these otherwise resistant tumor cells.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 769. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-769


There is wide variation in the literature regarding the interpretation of the meaning of the term competence. This interpretation ranges from a description of competence in terms of performance and skills acquired by training to a broad overarching view that encompasses knowledge, understanding, skills, abilities and attitudes. Due to the lack of clarity of the concept of competence, assessment of competences can be very difficult. Some authors warn against associating competence exclusively with skills, others distinguish between the terms competence and competency whilst others treat these terms as being synonymous. The essential problem appears to be that these terms are liberally used as general terms to refer to various aspects of job performance without any attempt being made to give precise definitions of the terms. While various efforts have been made to arrive at a single definition of the term competence, no agreement has been reached and there is still wide variation of meaning between various cultures and between different professions. This is in contrast to the clear definition of the concept of learning outcomes found in the literature. It is recommended that if the term competence is being used, the definition of competence being used in the particular context should be stated and also that competences should be written using the vocabulary of learning outcomes.


Rationale: Lung cancer results in five times more deaths per year than car accidents in the United States. Approximately 57% of lung cancers diagnosed this year will be diagnosed at a late stage and these patients will exhibit a 5-year survival rate of only 4%. Annual screening of high-risk current and former smokers by chest-CT can reduce cancer mortality, however this procedure has a 95% false positive rate. It is therefore critical to develop methods to rapidly and accurately determine which patients with nodules on chest CT have lung cancer and potentially spare those with benign disease an unnecessary invasive procedure. We have previously demonstrated that specific gene expression alterations in cytologically normal bronchial epithelial cells from patients with lung cancer can be leveraged to form a clinically informative lung cancer biomarker in the population of patients undergoing bronchoscopy for suspect lung cancer. We hypothesized that there might be similar expression differences in nasal epithelium and that these could form the basis of a less invasive test that could be applied more broadly to individuals with screen detected nodules on chest CT. Methods: Bronchial (n=676) and nasal (n=280) epithelial brushings were collected from current and former smokers undergoing bronchoscopy for clinical suspicion of lung cancer within the AEGIS clinical trial. 271 subjects had matched bronchial and nasal samples. RNA was extracted and hybridized to Affymetrix Human Gene ST 1.0 Arrays. To establish a connection between bronchial and nasal epithelial gene expression signal for cancer, we first applied the bronchial gene expression-based diagnostic test, BronchoGen, directly to our nasal cohort. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis was then used to determine the concordance of cancer signal between the bronchial and nasal epithelium. To develop the nasal gene expression biomarker for lung cancer detection, we examined the correlation of each gene between the bronchial and nasal epithelium as well as the significance of each gene9s association with cancer in each tissue. Genes passing our selection criteria were passed to a biomarker discovery pipeline in which we examined the performance of different biomarker algorithm configurations (e.g. feature-selection algorithms, classification algorithms, and other biomarker parameters) using cross-validation. Results: Direct application of BronchoGen to our nasal cohort resulted in an AUC of 0.64 on a set of NE samples (n=110) with a matched bronchial sample in the training set used to develop the test. On an independent set of nasal samples (n=109), BronchoGen achieved an AUC of 0.67. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis revealed high levels of concordance between cancer-associated nasal and bronchial gene expression. Using a cross-validation approach, we found that nasal biomarkers built from sets of genes showing significant correlation (p Conclusions: Given the larger sample size, more isolated location in the airway, and higher RIN scores that characterize the bronchial cohort, we sought to leverage bronchial airway epithelial gene-expression to inform which genes in the nasal epithelium should be indicative of the presence of cancer. We have shown that gene expression in the nasal epithelium reflects the presence of lung cancer and can serve as a diagnostic biomarker. We have further demonstrated concordance between bronchial and nasal airway gene expression differences associated with lung cancer. These results suggest the potential to develop a robust nasal gene expression biomarker for lung cancer diagnosis that leverages cancer-associated gene expression differences occurring at other airway sites. Citation Format: Joseph F. Perez-Rogers, Joseph Gerrein, Christina Anderlind, Rebecca L. Kusko, Joshua D. Campbell, Teresa W. Wang, Kate Porta, Duncan Whitney, Avrum Spira, Marc Lenburg. Leveraging Gene Expression in the Bronchial Airway to Develop a Nasal Biomarker for Early Detection of Lung Cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Translation of the Cancer Genome; Feb 7-9, 2015; San Francisco, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(22 Suppl 1):Abstract nr A1-66.


An analysis of the problem of the onset of multiple haemorragіc sarcomatosis has been carried out in case of acquired immune deficiency syndrome at the present stage. A case of the author`s own supervision of Kaposi`s sarcoma from the practice of a forensic medical examination is presented. Spesific characteristics of the medico-legal diagnostics of the presented pathology are determined.


A method is presented which describes fluid mixing phenomena in a vessel from the standpoint of scale decay of concentration eddies which are formed by the inlet fluid. Conversion of homogeneous second-order reaction in an agitated vessel is calculated and compared with the data of Worrell and Eagleton. This method seems to effectively describe the phenomena and also suggests a direction for research in this field.


IoT networks are being used to collect, analyze, and utilize sensor data. There are still some key requirements to leverage IoT networks in digital agriculture, e.g., design and deployment of energy saving and ruggedized sensor nodes (SN), reliable and long-range wireless network connectivity, end-to-end data collection pipelines for batch and streaming data. Thus, we introduce our living lab ORPHEUS and its design and implementation trajectory to showcase our orchestrated testbed of IoT sensors, data connectivity, database orchestration, and visualization dashboard. We deploy light-weight energy saving SNs in the field to collect data, using LoRa (Long Range wireless) to transmit data from the SNs to the Gateway node, upload all the data to the database server, and finally visualize the data. For future exploration, we also built a testbed of embedded devices using four different variants of NVIDIA Jetson development modules (Nano, TX2, Xavier NX, AGX Xavier) to benchmark the potential upgrade choices for SNs in ORPHEUS. Based on our deployment in multiple farms in a 3-county region around Purdue University, and on the Purdue University campus, we present analyses from our living lab deployment and additional components of the next-generation IoT farm.


In order to better understand geologic fac-tors controlling pronounced regional variations in whole-rock chemistry, mineralogy, and mineral chemistry in the batholiths of California, we calculate the magmatic intensive variables f HF /f H 2 O , f HF /f HCl , and f O 2 .Regional-scale west-to-east increases in F/OH in mafic silicates, corresponding to the systematic I-WC to I-MC and I-SC progression, reflect orders-of-magnitude increase in f HF /f H 2 O attending pluton crystallization. Low f HF / f H 2 O of formation of western I-WC types is consistent with their derivation from low-fluorine source rocks in subducted oceanic slabs or the upper mantle. In contrast,higher f HF /f H 2 O of crystallization of I-MC and I-SC types to the east implies the involvement of (1) progressively greater amounts of continental crustal source material such as biotite-bearing metamorphic rocks, their unweathered sedimentary derivatives retaining F-rich mafic minerals, or their fusion products and/or (2) source materials which become more F-rich toward the continental interior. The regional distribution of I-MC and I-SC types suggests that the Precambrian craton of western North America, or derivative sediments, may extend farther north in California and be morphologically more complex than previously thought. From seemingly out-of- place occurrences of I-WC plutons on the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada batholith, we infer the existence of regions where Precambrian basement was thin or absent in Mesozoic time, which prevented extensive cratonal contamination of subducted slab or upper mantle-derived magmas. New methods for estimating T-f O 2 relations in the magmas demonstrate that I-SCR granites crystallize at oxygen fugacities as much as five orders of magnitude lower than those of I-WC, I-MC, and I-SC types under conditions at or below the maximum stability limit of graphite in equilibrium with a C-O-H-S gas phase. The local-scale formation of I-SCR granites in plutonic belts within specific wall-rock terranes containing highly reducing sediments or metasediments may occur by contamination of I-types with graphitic pelite or, in some cases, by the direct fusion of this reducing pelitic wall rock. The spatial distribution of I-SCR granite provinces therefore is controlled simply by wall-rock lithology. Amphibole geobarometry demonstrates a general west-to-east decrease in crystallization pressure across the Sierra Nevada batholith. In contrast, the Peninsular Ranges batholith displays a west-to-east crystallization pressure increase. The bulk of the California batholiths crystallized at pressures less than 4-5 kb and depths less than about 15-19 km. In the southern Sierra Nevada batholith, the San Gabriels, and the eastern Peninsular Ranges, however, plutons crystallized at pressures exceeding 6 kb at deep crustal levels (>23 km). Reconstruction of the pre-erosion top of the batholith shows that in an east-west cross section, the central Sierra Nevada batholith was a horizontal tabular body with an aspect ratio of at least five to one.


The study aims to review and discuss the definition of high-tech industry generally and in Malaysian particularly. It also investigates the importance of this industry in Malaysia with discussing the strengths, opportunities, challenges, weaknesses and concluding with the future trend. The finding of this paper confirm that high-tech industry is an important source of Malaysian economic development and has the potential opportunity to dominate the industry in the industrial era 4.0. The government draw the roadmap precipitated by several policies with aiming to transform Malaysian vision to become one of the developed industrial countries. Yet, the transformation process is fraught with several challenges. Generally, the concept of high-tech industry lacks of consensus definition. In addition, Malaysian still reply on multinational corporations as a source of technology and knowledge transfer, meanwhile there is lack of efficiency technology adoption and utilization. Therefore, empirically exploring the technological factors that boost Malaysian high–tech innovativeness and build its capacity is recommended for future research.