Microtubules (MTs) are key cytoskeletal elements in developing and mature neurons. MT reorganization underlies the morphological changes that occur during neuronal development. Furthermore, MTs contribute to the maintenance of neuronal architecture, enable intracellular transport and act as scaffolds for signaling molecules. Thus, a fine-tuned regulation of MT dynamics and stability is crucial for the correct differentiation and functioning of neurons. Different types of proteins contribute to the regulation of the MT state, such as plus-end tracking proteins (+TIPs), which interact with the plus-ends of growing microtubules, and classical microtubule-associated proteins (MAPs), which bind along the microtubule lattice. Recent evidence indicates that MAPs interplay with End Binding Proteins (EBs), the core +TIPs, in neuronal cells. This might contribute to the orchestrated regulation of MT dynamics in neurons. In this mini-review article, we address recent research on the neuronal crosstalk between EBs and classical MAPs and speculate on its possible functional relevance.


Primates have evolved a variety of restriction factors that prevent retroviral replication. One such factor, TRIM5α, mediates a postentry restriction in many Old World primates. Among New World primates, Aotus trivirgatus exerts a similar early restriction mediated by TRIMCyp, a TRIM5–cyclophilin A (CypA) chimera resulting from a CypA retrotransposition between exons 7 and 8 of the TRIM5 gene. Macaca nemestrina do not express TRIM5α; therefore, we asked whether these animals and related Old World primates express TRIMCyp. RT-PCR of total RNA from M. nemestrina and Macaca fascicularis yielded three TRIMCyp amplification products, one of which is predicted to encode a TRIMCyp chimera containing a full-length CypA. Unlike A. trivirgatus, genomic sequencing of M. nemestrina and M. fascicularis identifies a CypA retrotransposition in the 3′ untranslated region of the TRIM5 locus. There is ≈78% homology between the predicted protein sequences of Old World and New World primate TRIMCyp, with most of the differences found in the TRIM5-derived sequence. Notably, exon 7 is absent from both M. nemestrina and M. fascicularis TRIMCyp. Neither M. nemestrina nor M. fascicularis TRIMCyp could restrict HIV-1 or simian immunodeficiency virus SIVmac in an in vitro infectivity assay. The discovery of TRIMCyp in both M. nemestrina and M. fascicularis indicates that TRIMCyp expression may be more common among Old World primates than previously believed. Convergent evolution of TRIMCyp in both Old World and New World primates suggests that TRIMCyp may have provided evolutionary advantages.


In this work, the residual potassium hydroxide catalyst was removed from palm
 oil-based methyl esters using an adsorption technique. The produced biodiesel
 was initially purified through a water washing process. To produce a
 biodiesel with a better quality and also to meet standard specifications (EN
 14214 and ASTM D6751), batch adsorption on palm shell activated carbon was
 used for further catalyst removal. The Central Composite Design (CCD) of the
 Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used to study the influence of
 adsorbent amount, time and temperature on the adsorption of potassium
 species. The maximum catalyst removal was achieved at 40°C using 0.9 g
 activated carbon for 20 h adsorption time. The results from the Response
 Surface Methodology are in a good agreement with the measured values. The
 absolute error in prediction at the optimum condition was 3.7%, which is
 reasonably accurate. This study proves that adsorption post-treatment
 techniques can be successfully employed to improve the quality of biodiesel
 fuel for its effective use on diesel engines and to minimize the usage of
 water.


Never before in living memory has economic destruction been so severe as it has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has struck at a time when the economy has already been slowing due to structural problems. Therefore, hastening the recovery process and accelerating the pace of economic growth requires the government not only to provide substantial stimulus but also to implement structural reforms. The stimulus provided so far has been mainly by the RBI on the supply side in terms of reducing interest rate, augmenting augment liquidity, restructuring loans to stressed sectors, moratorium on repayment of loans to severely impacted businesses and regulatory forbearance. The fiscal stimulus on the demand side has not been significant and amounted to just about 1.5 percent to 2 percent of GDP. The sharp contraction of the economy by 15.7 percent in the first half has substantially eroded revenue collections requiring both central and state governments to sharply reduce both government consumption and investment expenditures. Faster recovery in the second half of the year will crucially depend upon heavy lifting by the governments which requires them to increase consumption expenditures, transfers as well as capital expenditure by scaling up borrowing as well as monetizing the assets. The aggregate fiscal deficit as well as outstanding debt are likely to show a sharp increase which will raise questions of sustainability. The government has initiated a number of reforms, particularly to infuse flexibility to land and labour markets, reform regulatory systems in education and healthcare, and has made additional borrowing to the states conditional on undertaking power sector reforms, property tax reforms and improving the ease of doing business. However, implementation of these reforms holds the key. There is a need to urgently address problems of the financial sector. Reforms in sectors such as police and judiciary too are overdue to protect the life and property of people and enforce contracts.


The influence of the type of alumina used as catalyst support on the evolution, activity, and lifetime of the catalyst during water-assisted CVD growth (or 'supergrowth') of single-walled carbon nanotube (SWNT) carpets has been studied. The catalyst consisted of a thin Fe film supported on alumina films deposited by different methods: atomic layer deposition (ALD), e-beam, and magnetron sputtering. In order to fully understand the influence of the type of alumina on SWNT carpet growth, crystalline alumina (c-cut sapphire) and annealed alumina deposited by e-beam were also used as catalyst supports. The activity and lifetime of Fe catalyst during SWNT carpet growth showed a strong dependence on the type of alumina used as support. Fe supported on sputtered alumina (sputtered/Fe) showed the highest catalytic activity and lifetime, which was closely followed by e-beam/Fe while Fe supported on sapphire (sapphire/Fe) showed the least catalytic activity and lifetime. AFM, XPS depth profile, variable angle spectroscopic ellipsometry (VASE) studies revealed that the catalyst evolution and the porosity of the different alumina supports correlate with the lifetime and activity of the catalysts.


Pakistan and India are known as great rival countries with a bitter past. There is a huge historical background of both countries. Infact, several wars have been fought between Pakistan and India, so the diplomatic relations between Indo-Pak are influenced by the number of political and historical events. But both countries tried so hard to maintain peace and there are some examples of these efforts. It is very important for both countries to maintain good relations because geopolitically Pakistan and India are considered as major states for natural resources in the region of South Asia. The whole world sees both countries as great rivals, but before making any decision there are a lot of perspectives which we need to examine carefully. This paper will explain some of the major events of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and India.


A backfill system has been designed for the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) which will control the chemical environment of the post-closure repository to a domain where the actinide solubility is within its lowest region. The actinide solubility is highly dependent on the chemical species which constitute the fluid, the resulting pH of the fluid, and the oxidation state of the actinide which is stable under the specific conditions. The use of magnesium oxide (MgO) as the backfill material not only controls the pH of the expected fluids, but also effectively removes carbonate from the system, which has a significant impact on actinide solubility. The backfill selection process, emplacement system design, and confirmatory experimental results are presented.


Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease which often begins in infancy and runs a course of remission and exacerbation. The acute eczematous lesions of AD are characterized by erythema, oozing, and crusting, whereas the chronic lesions show thickened skin and papules. Furthermore, pruritus and sleeplessness are characteristics of AD (1). There is increasing evidence that environmental allergens and food allergens are major provocation factors for the flare-ups of AD (2). Specific IgE antibodies to food or environmental allergens can be detected in the serum of 80% of patients with AD. A subgroup of patients with specific IgE and positive skin prick tests to inhalant or food allergens exhibit positive cutaneous late-phase reactions after epicutaneous application of allergens (3–5). The mononuclear infiltrate in the eczematous reactions to patch testing and in the lesional skin of AD is similar to that of allergic contact dermatitis when stained with immunohistochemical techniques. Mononuclear cells and eosinophil granulocytes can be found mainly in the dermis (4, 6, 7), and Langerhans cells with specific IgE bound to FceRI on their surface in the epidermis (8, 9). CD4-positive T-helper cells predominate in the cellular infiltrate.


We develop a framework for routing multimedia multipoint information flows in ATM networks. This framework consists of a call model and a routing algorithm. The call model stems from the activities performed by standard bodies on the characterization of telecommunication services and on the separation between call control and connection control signalling. This model is used as a basis for the design of a multipoint routing algorithm, that is composed of a heuristic, that generates one point to multipoint path for each source in a group of communicating parties, and a set of criteria to combine such paths into a single one, for resource saving purposes. Two alternative multicast delivery mechanisms are proposed to implement the heuristic and their performance are evaluated by simulation on random graphs.


The Photoplesthymogram (PPG) raw waveform is the basis for both the pulse rate and oximetry during polysomnography (PSG) and Home Sleep Apnea Tests (HSAT). The PPG has also recently become ubiquitous as a basis of continuous measurement for the most widely adopted consumer sleep technologies, particularly smart watches. In this study, we clinically validate AI performance for interoperable, PPG-based epoch-by-epoch Sleep-Wake staging (PPG-SW), Total Sleep Time (PPG-TST), and Respiratory Rate (PPG-RR), when compared to 1) PSG-based panel scoring by technologists (RPSGTs) and 2) PSG-based AI scoring (EEG-SW, EEG-TST, Effort Belt-RR).

 We applied stratified random sampling with proportionate allocation to a database of N>10,000 retrospective PSGs. We controlled for: 1) Obstructive sleep apnea severity, 2) Sleepiness, 3) Medical diagnoses including sleep, psychiatric, neurologic, neurodevelopmental, cardiac, pulmonary, metabolic disorders, 4) Medications including benzodiazepines, antidepressants, stimulants, opiates, sedative-hypnotics, 5) Demographics including sex, age, BMI, weight, and height, to establish representative adult (N=100) PSG studies from which PPG samples were obtained. Double blinded scoring was prospectively collected for each PSG by 3 experienced RPSGTs randomized from a pool of 6 scorers. RR was established by mode when two scorers agreed on RR value and median otherwise.

 AI EEG-SW demonstrated 96%/94%/95% Sensitivity/Specificity/Accuracy compared to 2/3 majority PSG staging, and AI PPG-SW demonstrated 90%/89%/90% Sensitivity/Specificity/Accuracy compared to the same PSG panel. AI EEG-TST achieved a Pearson Correlation Coefficient (R-value) of 0.968 and AI PPG-TST achieved 0.873 R-value compared to 2/3 majority PSG-TST. When compared to the RR panel consensus in N=282 one-minute RR scoring epochs of PSG, AI Effort Belt-RR performance was <= 2 breaths-per-minute (brpm) in 93.6% of epochs with an average difference of 0.992 brpm, and AI PPG-RR performance was <= 2 brpm in 92.2% of epochs with an average difference of 0.996 brpm.

 The study shows interoperable AI analysis performs robustly in evaluating PPG-based epoch-by-epoch sleep-wake stages, total sleep time, and respiratory rate, demonstrating state-of-art accuracy when compared to a prospective, double-blinded PSG scoring panel. This work has implications for consumer sleep technology, HSAT accuracy, inpatient sleep monitoring, and may support the growth of HSATs by increasing total sleep time accuracy and reliability.
 Support (if any):


While much progress has been made in understanding the demographic determinants of mortality in the United States using individual survey data and aggregate tabulations, the lack of population-level register data is a barrier to further advances in mortality research. With the release of Social Security application (SS-5), claim, and death records, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) has created a new administrative data resource for researchers studying mortality. We introduce the Berkeley Unified Numident Mortality Database (BUNMD), a cleaned and harmonized version of these records. This publicly available dataset provides researchers access to over 49 million individual-level mortality records with demographic covariates and fine geographic detail, allowing for high-resolution mortality research.


Ranking is one of the most fundamental problems in machine learning with applications in many branches of computer science such as: information retrieval systems, recommendation systems, machine translation and computational biology. Ranking objects based on possibly conflicting preferences is a central problem in voting research and social choice theory. In this paper we present a new simple combinatorial ranking algorithm adapted to the preference-based setting. We apply this new algorithm to the well-known scenario where the edges of the preference tournament are determined by the majority-voting model. It outperforms existing methods when it cannot be assumed that there exists global ranking of good enough quality and applies combinatorial techniques that havent been used in the ranking context before. Performed experiments show the superiority of the new algorithm over existing methods, also over these that were designed to handle heavily perturbed statistics. By combining our techniques with those presented in \cite{mohri}, we obtain a purely combinatorial algorithm that answers correctly most of the queries in the heterogeneous scenario, where the preference tournament is only locally of good quality but is not necessarily pseudotransitive. As a byproduct of our methods, we obtain the algorithm solving clustering problem for the directed planted partition model. To the best of our knowledge, it is the first purely combinatorial algorithm tackling this problem.


Gravitational-wave (GW) astrophysics is a field in full blossom. Since the landmark detection of GWs from a binary black hole on September 14th 2015, several compact-object binaries have been reported by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration. Such events carry astrophysical and cosmological information ranging from an understanding of how black holes and neutron stars are formed, what neutron stars are composed of, how the Universe expands, and allow testing general relativity in the highly-dynamical strong-field regime. It is the goal of GW astrophysics to extract such information as accurately as possible. Yet, this is only possible if the tools and technology used to detect and analyze GWs are advanced enough. A key aspect of GW searches are waveform models, which encapsulate our best predictions for the gravitational radiation under a certain set of parameters, and that need to be cross-correlated with data to extract GW signals. Waveforms must be very accurate to avoid missing important physics in the data, which might be the key to answer the fundamental questions of GW astrophysics. The continuous improvements of the current LIGO-Virgo detectors, the development of next-generation ground-based detectors such as the Einstein Telescope or the Cosmic Explorer, as well as the development of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), demand accurate waveform models. [Abridged.]


New approaches to drug safety are yielding dividends in the United States and Europe, while legislation to introduce tougher new regulations in Canada continue to languish, delegates to the seventh annual Canadian Drug Information Association conference in Ottawa, Ontario, were told Nov. 4.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "is moving aggressively. Drug safety is moving to the next level, methodology is changing rapidly and enforcement is a high priority," said Dr. Barton Cobert, president of BLCMD Associates LLC, a drug safety consulting firm.

For example, drug companies that fail to report adverse events can —and have — faced charges under the False Claims Act, Barton said, noting that the legislation also allows bona fide whistleblowers to be rewarded with payments with as much as 25% of the financial damages collected from companies.

The US and the European Union introduced risk management approaches to drug safety in 2005. Canada uses the European template for risk evaluation and mitigation strategies, but regulators can only issue guidance in cases where there is noncompliance, said Kimby Barton, cochair of Health Canada's Health Portfolio Risk Management Planning Working Group.

The long-awaited overhaul of Canada's Food and Drug Act, which would have introduced a "life cycle" approach to pharmaceutical monitoring, died on the order paper in Parliament before the last election and has not yet been reintroduced, Barton said. Health Canada's powers to enforce key safety provisions once a drug is on the market are thus very limited.

In the US, amendments to the Food and Drug Administration Act in 2007 were "game changing," Cobert told the more than 250 representatives from government, industry and patient advocacy groups.

The headquarters of the US Food and Drug Administration in Silver Spring, Maryland. The FDA is taking drug safety "to the next level," drug safety expert Dr. Barton Cobert says.

The amendments, which included revisions to the Prescription Drug User Fee Act, gave the FDA the teeth needed to compel companies to conduct post-market studies, patient registries and clinical trials, Cobert added. Furthermore, the FDA can make post-market studies a requirement for new drug applications to be approved.

Post-market study requirements, which "previously were lax," now have fixed time frames and are enforceable, Cobert said, adding that the FDA has provided its field employees with procedures on how to enforce post-market requirements.

The FDA can also now force label changes and require risk evaluation and mitigation strategies for both newly approved drugs, as well as prescription drugs that have been marketed for years, such as opiods, he added.

Cobert also said that several new initiatives are being launched in the US to more actively monitor drug safety, including the Sentinel Initiative, a nationwide electronic monitoring system that aims to have data on 25 million patients by 2010. The initiative will include patient registry data, insurance claims data and other information obtained from health maintenance organizations or government programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and Veterans Health Administration programs.

The big effort to date has been to "normalize the data … and set standards for coding," Cobert said.

Medicare, which covers health care costs for people over age 65 in the United States, is also introducing a safety surveillance system and developing tools to identify low-probability adverse events — the kind of risks that are not identified in premarket clinical trials or early post-marketing experiences, Cobart added.

Another initiative includes expert reviews of the safety of new medical entities. A review of five relatively new drugs (they had been on the market 17 to 64 months) found 22 previously unidentified safety issues on four of the drugs, even though two were being used by fewer than 3500 patients, Cobert said.

Barton told the conference that risk management plans will be a key element in the life cycle approach to pharmaceuticals if, as expected, the Canadian legislation is reintroduced. Already, particularly with respect to new biologics, the regulator has asked for such plans, she said, noting that in fiscal year 2008/09, plans were requested for 67% (10 out of 15) of new drug submissions for biologics.

Because of differences in health care policies and legislation, risk management plans for one jurisdiction may not be applicable in another, Barton noted. Even in Canada, provincial jurisdiction over health care means that "if we suggest strategies for how doctors or pharmacists can prescribe, how will that fly?"


Background: Management of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and lupus nephritis (LN) in pregnancy has been improving in recent decades. However, SLE can still lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes if not appropriately treated. Optimal dose of steroids, as one of the most commonly used for the treatment of SLE and LN in pregnancy is still a subject of debate. In this review, we determine the pregnancy outcomes in SLE and LN patients treated with low vs high doses of steroids. Methods: ProQuest, Pubmed, Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science were carefully searched for relevant studies published in English. A total of 2,596 studies were reviewed. We extracted the data from previous studies showing the use of steroids treatment in high-dose and low-dose related to pregnancy outcomes. We provide larger data about maternal (preterm rupture of membrane, fetal loss, pre-eclampsia, and flare up) and fetal outcomes (prematurity, small gestational age, low birth weight) receiving high vs low steroid in patients with SLE and LN in this systematic review and meta-analysis. Results: A total of 13 studies were included. Of these, one study discussed a group with LN and 12 other studies discussed SLE with related maternal and fetal outcomes. Maternal outcome in the group with low-dose steroid showed a lower risk of fetal loss (odds ratio (OR): 1.93; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.01-3.70), but there were no differences in other maternal outcomes. The low-dose steroid group showed a better fetal outcome, with a lower risk of prematurity (OR: 3.06; 95% CI 1.98-4.71), small gestational age (OR: 2.63; 95% CI 1.15-6.00), and low birth weight (OR: 2.43; 95% CI 1.23-4.79). Conclusions: In pregnant patients with SLE or LN, high-dose steroids are associated with the high risk of fetal loss during pregnancy, preterm birth, small gestational age, and low birth weight.


Refractory ascites is an infrequent complication of cirrhosis. Paracentesis and ultrafiltration of the ascitic fluid with intravenous or intraperitoneal reinfusion of the concentrated ascites has been used as therapy for this condition since 1971. The technique is cumbersome and has high morbidity and mortality rates, even if effective. In this paper we describe a new technique that couples secondary filtration for the removal of macromolecules, with ultrafiltration of ascitic fluid. In its very first application 6 patients underwent 8 treatments. No adverse effect was observed and clinical efficacy was good. Up to 60 g of albumin can be saved in a single session lasting less than 2 hours.


Investigations of AZ91D revealed a strong influence of mainly the following microstructural parameters on corrosion: porosity, the eutectic, the Al-content of the Mg-phase as well as the volume fraction and distribution of gamma-Al12Mg17. Further an improved corrosion resistance was observed by the addition of rare earth elements. The influence of Ce on microstructure and corrosion of sand cast and high pressure die cast AZ91D with 0.5-2.0 wt.% Ce was investigated by SEM before and after potentiodynamic polarization measurements in pH7.5 (bi-distilled water adjusted with KOH). It was observed that Ce significantly improved the corrosion resistance by changing the microstructure. A strong influence of Ce on the average grain size, the fraction of the eutectic, changes in morphology and/or volume fraction of gamma Al12Mg17 and formation of a Ce-rich intermetallic phase was observed. Therefore, not only the chemical composition but also the change of microstructure and the formation of micro-galvanic elements influence the local corrosion mechanism of AZ91D with cerium.


Recently, a perturbation approach was adopted for the non-collinear mixing of plate waves in an isotropic elastic plate with quadratic nonlinearity by Ishii, Biwa, and Adachi [J. Sound Vib. 419, 390-404 (2018)] and a resonance condition was derived theoretically, namely, that a significant scattered plate wave is generated when its frequency and wavevector coincide with the sum/difference of those of its primary waves. However, that analysis assumed monochromatic plane waves that interacted everywhere in the plate. To apply the non-collinear mixing of plate waves to nondestructive evaluation of plate-like structures, the influence of the spatial and temporal finiteness of the primary waves on the generation of the scattered wave must be elucidated. To that end, the present study conducts three-dimensional dynamic finite-element analyses on the mixing of lowest-order antisymmetric Rayleigh-Lamb waves that have finite beam widths and time durations. The generation of scattered lowest-order symmetric Rayleigh-Lamb and shear horizontal waves with sum frequencies is discussed for various beam widths, intersection angles, and primary frequencies. The resonance condition derived originally for monochromatic plane waves in the aforementioned study is found to be valid even when the wave interaction is allowed only within limited space and time.


This paper presents the motions response of moored Round Shape FPSO model due to the wave effect. The proposed of this research is analyzed the possibility of model motion response affected by different mooring system attach to the model. Model experiment was applied in this research to collect motion data for the study. Besides, the numerical simulation using diffraction potential, diffraction potential with Morison Heave correction and ANSYS frequency domain study were also applied in this research to generate comparative data to the experimental results. To investigate the effect of the mooring system to motion response, the model experiment was firstly conducted by attached model scale catenary mooring lines to Round Shape FPSO model. After that, the experiment was repeated by attached model scale taut mooring lines to the same model. The results obtain from the regular wave experiment tests and numerical simulation test were presented in this paper. This research concluded that the mooring systems would not give significant effect to wave frequency motion response after compared the motion result obtain from model experiment conducted using different mooring system.


Mass-transport deposits (MTDs) represent resedimentation phenomena triggered by the combined effect of seismic shocks of regional scale, structural tilting, basin-floor gradient, relative sea-level fluctuations, and/or excess pore-water pressure and can be useful in the reconstruction of basin development dynamics. The present study from the Dinaric Foreland Basin in Croatia documents several limestone blocks (olistoliths), carbonate debris, and associated bipartite carbonate megabeds as MTDs of exotic origin encased in deep neritic hyperpycnites, referred to as host deposits. Detailed facies and micropaleontological analyses indicate that host deposits were sourced from a fluvio-deltaic system located in the proximity of the uplifting orogen, while the MTDs originated from gravitational collapses of late Ypresian and early Lutetian limestones that were uplifted on blind-thrust anticline ridges on the opposite side of the basin. Mass wasting-produced carbonate blocks, debris, and gravity flows were probably triggered concurrently during the middle to late Eocene, but the blocks could have travelled faster downslope due to the lubricating effect of the underlying water "cushion," overpressured mud, and the pull of gravity. Debrisflows and co-genetic turbidity currents that contributed to the formation of bipartite megabeds were likely mobilized deeper and moved slower than the carbonate blocks and could have been partly deflected by the previously emplaced olistoliths, resulting in megabed thinning along the olistoliths' down-dip edges. Those collapses were most likely triggered by the combined effect of relative sea-level changes associated with tectonic activity and seismic shocks of regional scale. The study suggests that progressive uplift of the frontal blind-thrust anticline ridge resulted in episodic emergence and collapses of progressively older limestone units, and marked the onset of development of the wedge-top basin. Conceptual models of olistolith emplacement and onset of basin development are suggested and may be applicable to both ancient and recent settings. The insights obtained from the integration of detailed facies analysis and micropaleontology may be useful in similar areas where such a level of detail cannot be obtained by conventional field methods.


Different microporous starch was synthesized from corn starch in which enzyme hydrolysis and acid hydrolysis technology were used. The microstructure and pore feature of porous starch particles were investigated. The result showed that porous starch produced by enzyme hydrolysis performed better than those from acid hydrolysis. The feature of porous was closely related with the degree of hydrolysis. As the degree of hydrolysis increased, the effect of porous starch got strengthed, resulting in distribution, size and number of pore.


Krukenberg tumour is metastatic ovarian involvement of adenocarcinoma in women of reproductive age group. The primary site is commonly in stomach but less commonly from other parts of gastrointestinal tract and uncommonly from other organs. The route of metastasis of this tumour is still not proven though the raw ovarian surface and transperitoneal invitation of malignant cell is one of the postulations. As is the etiology so is the resection of either ovarian or gastric tumour failed to show any improvement of this condition. Ovarian resection can be done in the form of salphingo-oophorectomy with or without hysterectomy. Gastric resection is also done in the same or subsequent sitting according to stage and presentation. We report such an uncommon entity in a 33 year old lady presenting with lower abdominal lump.J Shaheed Suhrawardy Med Coll, June 2017, Vol.9(1); 38-40


We study short-packet communications, subject to latency and reliability constraints, under the premises of limited frequency diversity and no time diversity. The question addressed is whether, and when, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) outperforms fixed-blocklength schemes with no feedback (FBL-NF) in such a setting. We derive an achievability bound for HARQ, under the assumption of a limited number of transmissions. The bound relies on pilot-assisted transmission to estimate the fading channel and scaled nearest-neighbor decoding at the receiver. We compare our achievability bound for HARQ to state-of-the-art achievability bounds for FBL-NF communications and show that for a given latency, reliability, number of information bits, and number of diversity branches, HARQ may significantly outperform FBL-NF. For example, for an average latency of 1 ms, a target error probability of 10−3, 30 information bits, and 3 diversity branches, the gain in energy per bit is about 4 dB.


We analyse the global structure of the phase space of the planar planetary 2/1 mean-motion resonance in cases where the outer planet is more massive than its inner companion. Inside the resonant domain, we show the existence of two families of periodic orbits, one associated to the librational motion of resonant angle (σ -family) and the other related to the circulatory motion of the difference in longitudes of pericentre (�� -family). The well-known apsidal corotation resonances (ACR) appear as intersections between both families. A complex web of secondary resonances is also detected for low eccentricities, whose strengths and positions are dependent on the individual masses and spatial scale of the system. The construction of dynamical maps for various values of the total angular momentum shows the evolution of the families of stable motion with the eccentricities, identifying possible configurations suitable for exoplanetary systems. For low‐moderate eccentricities, several different stable modes exist outside the ACR. For larger eccentricities, however, all stable solutions are associated to oscillations around the stationary solutions. Finally, we present a possible link between these stable families and the process of resonance capture, identifying the most probable routes from the secular region to the resonant domain, and discussing how the final resonant configuration may be affected by the extension of the chaotic layer around the resonance region.


This paper presents an architecture for distributed computational economies based on peer-to-peer bartering. Our architecture is based on the position that computational economies ought to be bootstrapped based on a layer of simple and robust resource exchange. The architecture is comprised of three pieces: (i) resource discovery, (ii) secure resource peering, and (iii) bartering. Together, these pieces address the end-to-end problem of describing, discovering, and exchanging distributed resources in a secure and decentralized manner. Key in our approach is the ability to securely exchange resources across delegated paths of trust. This, combined with secure resource peering, allows peers to engage in resource exchange with directly connected peers, in addition to peers whom they do not have direct bartering relationships with. Given the bartering economy as a base, we envision an evolutionary path towards more complex scenarios by layering richer functionality at higher layers.


Like many women once powerful in early Hollywood, Lois Weber found herself, by the early 1920s, out of work and increasingly reliant on men like Carl Laemmle and Cecil B. DeMille who had consolidated power in the new studio-controlled economy. Her output during these years has been typically overlooked and dismissed in previous histories. Yet her two central films from this period, The Marriage Clause (1926) and The Angel of Broadway (1927), as well as her work on the film Glamour (1934), show Weber thinking quite self-consciously about changing Hollywood culture, particularly the role of women within an increasingly star-driven, glamour-intoxicated, monopoly-minded, business. Weber was also quite outspoken about her opposition to Hollywood trends, announcing her interest in creating a feminine "screen type" to counter the flappers and vamps clouding Hollywood's imagination. Weber's persona shifted too, away from that of a ground-breaking filmmaker committed to addressing social problems onscreen towards that of a "star-maker" invested only in making pretty young women famous. Aware of the historical stakes, Weber took an active interest in crafting her role in film history, writing letters to the editors of LA newspapers and taking out ads in trade papers celebrating her early work in sound film over a decade before the phenomenon swept Hollywood. Thus, rather than gloss over Weber's late career as most historians do, this paper investigates what Weber's latter years might tell us about the changing tenor of Hollywood in the 1920s, the roles fashioned for women in the new industry, and how pioneering figures like Weber began to imagine their place in history.


Both paclitaxel and docetaxel have shown activity when used as a single agent in patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). Combinations of both drugs with platinum derivatives and antimetabolites have been tested in patient populations with encouraging results, but some have exhibited considerable toxicity. It is unknown as yet whether such combinations are in any way superior to the standard platinum-based regimens. Intensive weekly schemes of taxoids and platinum compounds alone or in combination seem possible and deserve further study. Other agents such as vinorelbine, ifosfamide, thymetaq, trimetrexate, gemcitabine and topotecan showed variable activity in patients with SCCHN, but their role is still questionable. Following the optimistic view on the role of chemoradiation, combinations of paclitaxel (with or without carboplatin) with radiotherapy were studied, and the results seem feasible and promising.


Code classification is a difficult issue in program understanding and automatic coding. Due to the elusive syntax and complicated semantics in programs, most existing studies use techniques based on abstract syntax tree (AST) and graph neural network (GNN) to create code representations for code classification. These techniques utilize the structure and semantic information of the code, but they only take into account pairwise associations and neglect the high-order correlations that already exist between nodes in the AST, which may result in the loss of code structural information. On the other hand, while a general hypergraph can encode high-order data correlations, it is homogeneous and undirected which will result in a lack of semantic and structural information such as node types, edge types, and directions between child nodes and parent nodes when modeling AST. In this study, we propose to represent AST as a heterogeneous directed hypergraph (HDHG) and process the graph by heterogeneous directed hypergraph neural network (HDHGN) for code classification. Our method improves code understanding and can represent high-order data correlations beyond paired interactions. We assess heterogeneous directed hypergraph neural network (HDHGN) on public datasets of Python and Java programs. Our method outperforms previous AST-based and GNN-based methods, which demonstrates the capability of our model.


WITHDRAWAL MANUAL/DNLCND/3341877 Page 6 of 6 financial institution, on their letterhead, that confirms the ABA routing number and my name and account number. For a savings account, I must attach a letter on financial institution letterhead signed by a representative of the financial institution that includes my name, savings account number and ABA routing number. • ACH is a form of electronic funds transfer by which the Record Keeper can transfer my payments directly to my financial institution. • Allow at least 15 days from the date the Record Keeper receives this properly completed form to begin using ACH for my payments. • Upon receipt of this properly completed form, the Record Keeper will notify my financial institution of my ACH request with the account information I have provided. • The pre-notification process takes approximately 10 days. During the pre-notification process, my financial institution will confirm with the Record Keeper that the account and routing information I submitted is correct and that it will accept the ACH transfer. After this confirmation is received, my payments will be transferred to my financial institution within 2 days of the first payment date. • If my payment start date does not allow for the 10 day pre-notification process, my first payment will be sent by check to my address of record. • If I am invested in the WSIB investment program, payments are initiated the second business day of each month. In the event of a change to my minimum distribution, my electronic funds transfer may be subject to a delay, and a check will be sent to my last known address on file with the Record Keeper. • If my financial institution rejects the pre-notification, I will be notified and my checks will be mailed to me until I submit a Plan 3 Direct Deposit form. As a result, it is important that I continue to notify the Record Keeper in writing of any changes to my mailing address. • By choosing an ACH credit to my financial institution account, I am authorizing the Record Keeper to initiate credit entries and, if necessary, debit entries and adjustments for any credit entries in error to my checking or savings account. I am also authorizing my financial institution, in the form of an electronic funds transfer, to credit and/or debit the same to such account. • The Record Keeper will make payments in accordance with the directions I have specified on this form until such time that I notify the Record Keeper in writing that I wish to cancel the ACH agreement. I must provide notice of cancellation at least 30 days prior to a payment date for the cancellation to be effective with respect to all of my subsequent payments. • The Record Keeper reserves the right to terminate the ACH transfers for any reason and will notify me in the event of such termination by sending notice to my last known address on file with the Record Keeper. • It is my obligation to notify the Record Keeper of any address or other changes affecting my electronic fund transfers during my lifetime. I am solely responsible for any consequences and/or liabilities that may arise out of my failure to provide such notification. • By electing ACH, I acknowledge that the Record Keeper is not liable for payments made by the Record Keeper in accordance with this properly completed form. I authorize and direct my financial institution not to hold any overpayments made by the Record Keeper on my behalf, or on behalf of my estate or any current or future joint accountholder, if applicable • ACH delivery is not available to a foreign financial institution or to a United States financial institution for subsequent transfer to a foreign financial institution. Any requests received containing foreign financial institution instructions will be rejected and require new ACH delivery instructions.


The development of mobile Internet and the popularization of intelligent sensor devices greatly facilitate the generation and transmission of massive multimedia data including medical images and pathological models on the open network. The popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies has greatly improved the efficiency of medical image recognition and diagnosis. However, it also poses new challenges to the security and privacy of medical data. The leakage of medical images related to users' privacy is emerging one after another. The existing privacy protection methods based on cryptography or watermarking often bring a burden to image transmission. In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving recognition network for medical images (called MPVCNet) to solve these problems. MPVCNet uses visual cryptography (VC) to transmit images by sharing. Benefiting from the secret-sharing characteristics of VC, MPVCNet can securely transmit images in clear text, which can both protect privacy and mitigate performance loss. Aiming at the problem that VC is easy to forge, we combine trusted computing environments (TEE) and blind watermarking technologies to embed verification information into sharing images. We further leverage the transfer learning technology to abate the side effect resulting from the use of visual cryptography. The results of the experiment show that our approach can maintain the trustworthiness and recognition performance of the recognition networks while protecting the privacy of medical images.


The analysis of different SMEs definitions worldwide reveal that it is very difficult to arrive at a common definition. In fact one study by Auciello (1975) in 75 countries found more than 75 definitions were used in the target countries. This demonstrates very well that there is no common accepted definition of SMEs. SMEs businesses range from very small micro-firms run by one or two persons and very slow growth or no growth to fast growing medium businesses earning millions of dollars and majority employing as many as 250 employees (Fjose et al., 2010). SMEs all over the world and in Tanzania in particular, can be easily established since their requirements in terms of capital; technology, management and even utilities are not as demanding as it is the case for large enterprises. They are regarded as backbone of economic growth in almost all developed and developing countries. In Tanzania, SMEs contribute over 30% of the GDP, and employs 3-4 million people, which is 20-30% of the total labour force (Kazungu, Ndiege and Matolo, 2013). Therefore this paper has identified several challenges facing SMEs such as financial access which is consistently reported as one of the major obstacles to SME's growth and development where only 20 % of African SMEs have a line of credit from a financial institution. And suggests technical approaches to solving them in respect to the developing economy of Tanzania. Keywords : Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Challenges. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-17-07 Publication date: September 30 th 2020


Prompt γ-neutron activation analysis (PGNAA) is a multielemental analytical technique based on the detection of γ-rays emitted by excited nuclei following neutron radioactive capture or neutron inelastic scattering. The accumulated count rate relative to the γ-ray energy characteristic of a certain isotope depends on its concentration. Measurements take place during sample irradiation. The technique can provide accurate information on the elemental composition of materials in a broad range of cases: raw materials, mineral exploration, contaminants, detection of forbidden products, such as drugs and explosives, inspection of containers and applications in health care. Among the main advantages of the PGNAA technique are: faster results; nondestructiveness; flexible sample requirements; bulk sample analysis; in situ application by direct on-line measurement; detectable unique signatures for most elements; improved accuracy for short-lived elements; low residual activity. On the other hand, the most significant limitations are: higher detection limits (DLs) as compared with delayed γ-neutron activation analysis (DGNAA); longer irradiation times; single (one-cycle) sample irradiation; impracticability of enhancing a specific isotope contribution by radiochemical or physical (half-life) separation techniques; requirement for relatively larger samples.


The use of color-encoded microspheres for a bead-based assay has attracted increasing attention for high-throughput multiplexed bioassays. A fluorescent PCC 6803@ZIF-8 composite was prepared as a bead-based assay platform by a self-assembled zeolitic imidazolate framework (ZIF-8) on the surface of inactivated PCC 6803 cells. The composite fluorescence owing to the presence of pigment proteins in PCC 6803 could be gradually bleached with the prolongation of the ultraviolet light irradiation time. The composites with different fluorescence intensities were therefore obtained as encoded microspheres for the multiplexed assay. ZIF-8 provides a stable, rigid shell and a large specific surface area for composites, which prevent the composites from breakage during use and storage, simplify the protein immobilization procedure, reduce non-specific adsorption, and enhance the detection sensitivity. The encoded composites were successfully used to detect multiple DNA insertion sequences of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The presented strategy offers an innovative color-encoding method for high-throughput multiplexed bioassays without the need of using chemically synthesized fluorescent materials.


Abstract Global AIDS policy has failed to stop the spread of HIV in sub-Saharan Africa because prevention programs are limited by an unscientific theory of disease causation, which assumes that differences in HIV prevalence among populations are adequately explained by variation in rates of unsafe sexual behaviors. But differences in sexual behavior cannot explain 250-fold differences in HIV prevalence among countries and increasing divergence in incidence. Such disparities point to biological characteristics of the pathogen, the host, and the environment, all of which influence individual risk of infection and the spread of infectious diseases in populations. This paper explores the ways in which Western constructions of race and sexuality have drawn attention to sexual behavior alone and away from scientific evidence of biological risk factors that increase HIV transmission in poor populations. Much of the discussion addresses sub-Saharan Africa, but the biological implications could apply to poor people in other regions.


This large-scale SSHRC funded study examined the word identification and comprehension strategies of 344 adult basic education students enrolled in 58 full-time and part-time programs situated in urban and rural communities across Canada. Background to the Study The reading behaviours, skills, and processes of adult literacy learners is a relatively new field of academic study, despite the ever-growing awareness of and support for adult literacy. A recent study examining the characteristics of research on reading between 1969 to 1998 found that only 3 percent of the research involved adults as research participants (Guzetti, Anders & Neuman, 1999). Over the last 16 years, a small body of research has been conducted on the reading strategies and processes of the adult population. However, some of this research is problematic because it focuses on phonological and orthographic skills, and has employed assessment procedures that do not reflect authentic reading (Hiebert, Valencia & Afflerbach, 1994). The major purpose of our study was to examine the word identification and comprehension strategies used by 344 adult basic education students.


Sintering of Yb-doped fused silica granulates is a well established technique developed by the IPHT and Heraeus Quarzglas and it produces very homogeneous rare earth doped bulk silica core rods for fiber laser applications. By using a newly developed laser induced deflection (LID) technique we are able to pre-characterize directly the material absorption properties of the bulk material prior to the laser fiber production. The bulk absorption results measured by LID are without scattering effects and they are typically in good agreement with the total attenuation measured in the fibers. We achieved a fiber background loss of 20 dB/km. Furthermore, we present detailed studies of the refractive index homogeneity of the Yb-doped bulk materials and laser fibers to show the unique features of the Yb-doped bulk silica. Multimode double cladding laser fibers with an extra large mode area XLMA fiber design (core diameter up to 100 μm) have been produced from the Yb-doped bulk silica rods by two different techniques. One is a classical jacketing method; the other employs the stacking of un-doped, Yb- and F-doped rods and F-doped tubes. Different fiber types have been tested in different fiber laser setups. The influence of the fiber end cap properties on the fiber laser focus shift is discussed in detail. We have achieved fiber laser output powers up to 1.925 kW, limited only by the pump power. We also investigated the long term laser stability at different power levels.


Having analyzed the research of foreign and domestic scientists who are dedicated to developing communicative competence in English writing, we have come to the conclusion that this kind of writing is often neglected in English language courses in higher education and teaching it frequently lacks efficiency and intensity due to the lack of elaborated teaching and learning technologies. The research, submitted for consideration, was an attempt to create an efficient and intensive technology for the needs of teaching English to future specialists in that language at Ukrainian higher educational institutions using project technology. Such technology is intended to be based on observing a whole range of specially developed methodological principles for developing the communicative competence in English writing of future teachers of English on the basis of project technologies. The research completed demonstrates that introduction of project technologies into teaching English writing at linguistic higher educational institutions, beginning with the second year of the student's English studies, should be based on three main methodological principles and ten subordinated ones that will provide organizational background, independence of implementation of students` project work and optimization of teaching English writing


We calculate the short-range exchange-correlation energy of the uniform electron gas with two modified electron- electron interactions. While the short- range exchange functionals are calculated analytically, coupled-cluster and Fermi- hypernetted-chain calculations are carried out for the correlation energy and the results are fitted to an analytical parametrization. These data enable us to construct the local density approximation corresponding to these modified interactions. © 2004 Wiley


This paper presents an injection-locked push-push oscillator which generates the second harmonic signal in Ku-band. Two sub-oscillators operate in-phase at the same fundamental frequency in a two-wavelength ring resonator. Moreover, two external injection signals are placed on the resonator at a half-wavelength between the sub-oscillators. The oscillator does not require additional phase-shift between the injection signals, and this task is done by the resonator and the power combining circuit. The push-push principle is satisfied by synchronization due to the phase relation of the sub-oscillators and the external injection signal source. Phase noise improvement was achieved by the injection locking,


Background Radiotherapy (RT) is clinically well-established cancer treatment. However, radioresistance remains a significant issue associated with failure of RT. Phototherapy-induced radiosensitization has recently attracted attention in translational cancer research. Methods Cu-Sb-S nanoparticles (NPs) coated with ultra-small Au nanocrystals (Au@Cu-Sb-S) were synthesized and characterized. The biosafety profiles, absorption of near-infrared (NIR) laser and radiation-enhancing effect of the NPs were evaluated. In vitro and in vivo spectral computed tomography (CT) imaging and photoacoustic (PA) imaging were performed in 4T1 breast cancer-bearing mice. The synergetic radio-phototherapy was assessed by in vivo tumor inhibition studies. Results Au@Cu-Sb-S NPs were prepared by in situ growth of Au NCs on the surface of Cu-Sb-S NPs. The cell viability experiments showed that the combination of Au@Cu-Sb-S+NIR+RT was significantly more cytotoxic to tumor cells than the other treatments at concentrations above 25 ppm Sb. In vitro and in vivo spectral CT imaging demonstrated that the X-ray attenuation ability of Au@Cu-Sb-S NPs was superior to that of the clinically used Iodine, particularly at lower KeV levels. Au@Cu-Sb-S NPs showed a concentration-dependent and remarkable PA signal brightening effect. In vivo tumor inhibition studies showed that the prepared Au@Cu-Sb-S NPs significantly suppressed tumor growth in 4T1 breast cancer-bearing mice treated with NIR laser irradiation and an intermediate X-ray dose (4 Gy). Conclusion These results indicate that Au@Cu-Sb-S integrated with spectral CT, PA imaging, and phototherapy-enhanced radiosensitization is a promising multifunctional theranostic nanoplatform for clinical applications.


Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) antagonists, such as cetuximab and panitumumab, are therapeutic agents that can be effective in colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment. It has been shown that 40% of CRC tumors have activating K-RAS exon 2 codon 12 and 13 mutations and that these mutations may be associated with a poor response to EGFR antagonists. Very high sensitivity detection of such diagnostic biomarkers is necessary to determine the presence or emergence of drug resistant tumor cell populations. The use of Locked Nucleic Acid (LNA™) containing oligonucleotides (oligos) have been used in microRNA (sample preparation), RNA (in situ hybridization), and DNA (SNP detection using allele specific PCR) applications. The advantage of using LNA-containing oligos is that the denaturation temperature of LNA-oligo:DNA duplex is increased as compared to the DNA:DNA duplex To further the limit of detection of Sanger sequencing, a LNA-based approach has been developed to selectively block the sequencing of the wild-type DNA and allow the sequencing of DNA containing any mutation (BLOC-Sequencing). During cycle sequencing, an additional annealing step is added to hybridize the LNA containing oligo to the template DNA. Then, a denaturing step is performed at a temperature at which the LNA-containing oligo remains annealed to the wild-type sequence; however, the LNA oligo denatures from the mutant sequence. The sequencing primer then anneals to the mutant sequence and subsequently extended. Since LNA-containing oligos block amplification of the wild-type sequence, the mutant-containing DNA will be sequenced in a non-biased manner. Preliminary results using two sequences in a 1:1 ratio differing in only 2 nucleotides within the range where the LNA blocking oligo anneals demonstrated complete blocking of one sequence (sequence 1) where the LNA containing oligo was 100% complementary. The unblocked sequence (sequence 2) sequenced successfully, with minimal background due to sequence 1. Straight Sanger sequencing results of the 1:1 mixture without the LNA blocking oligo gave equal proportion of the two sequences present. To show applicability for use of this methodology in CRC samples, the limit of detection for multiple codon 12 and codon 13 K-RAS exon 2 mutations with and without the addition of the K-RAS exon 2 wild type specific LNA oligo in both the forward and reverse directions will be demonstrated. In addition, we will compare the results of 30 previously genotyped FFPE samples with this technique. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4855. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-4855


Summary: Many genomic and proteomic analyses generate as a result a tree of genes or proteins. These trees are often large (containing tens of thousands of nodes and edges), and need a visualization tool to fully display all the information contained in the tree. Clustering analysis can be performed on these trees to obtain clusters of proteins, and we need an efficient way to visualize the clustering results. We present a novel tree visualization tool to help with such analyses. Availability: http://www2.renci.org/~jeff/software/bin/win32/ProteinVis-2.1.6-win32.zip Contact: email@example.com; firstname.lastname@example.com


Perfume mixtures contain perfume raw materials (PRMs) with varying structures and hydrophobicities, which influence PRM localization within a surfactant-based formulation and thereby affect the phase behavior. In rinse-off products, the addition of water can further affect the phase behavior. In this study, a mixture of 12 PRMs was used as the oil phase in an aqueous system consisting of sodium trideceth-2 sulfate as a primary surfactant, cocamidopropyl betaine as a cosurfactant, and dipropylene glycol as a cosolvent. A series of phase diagrams were constructed with increasing water content, simulating the use conditions for rinse-off products, to determine how the phase boundaries shift with dilution. Using these phase diagrams, the compositions of interest in the micelle without perfume, micelle with perfume, microemulsion, and micelle-microemulsion transition regions were identified at each dilution level. The structural changes were probed through combined small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) and cryo-transmission electron microscopy analyses. The SANS results showed that ellipsoidal micelles were maintained as the perfume content and the dilution level increased. With ≥50 wt % water, increasing the perfume content increased the micelle volume. Interestingly, a higher rate of volume increase was observed at ≥70 wt % water. Notably, the volumes of the micelles with and without perfume increased steadily with dilution, whereas the volumes of the assemblies in the transition region and the microemulsion region increased more rapidly once diluted to 70 and 80 wt % water, respectively.


A cylindrical TM010 microwave cavity has been used not only to determine the average electron density decay rates in a plasma afterglow, but also to heat the electrons. In this way it was possible to measure the electron temperature dependence of the recombination coefficient of Ne2+ ions with electrons. At Te=300 K, a value of α(Ne2+)=(1·8±0·1)×10−7 cm3 s−1 was obtained. Over the range 300 less-than-or-eq, slant Te less-than-or-eq, slant 1500 K, α(Ne2+) decreased as Te−0.36.


The instrument consists of a solid base of brass, with two tlhumb. screws, by means of which it can be firmly fastened to the post otorten table or coffin-board. Attached to the base by two strong hinges is a radial slide, also of brass, in which is fitted a steel spring or clip for holding the head, capable of being moved to either extremity of the slide, and of being held fast at any point by means of two thumb. screws. The blades of the clip are made to secutre the head, as in a vice, by means of a leather strap passed through their extremities over the forehead. The backward and forward movements of the radial slide are limited by a quadrant with thumb-screw, and enable it to be set at varying angles with the base. The instrument is also fitted with clips of different sizes, and of lighter make, covered with leather, for use in the operating theatre, in cases where the head is required to be held steadily, and in which chlorofonn is inadmissible or otherwise unnecessary. T. R. JaEssoP. Leeds, JUlY 1871.


The equilibrium deformations of nuclei in the rare-earth region are studied with the self-consistent quadrupole-plus-pairing interaction model by considering all the nucleons in the nucleus explicitly. It is shown that similar results can be obtained by performing calculations with or without the assumption of an inert core. The only difference is in the strengths of the quadrupole and pairing interactions to be used in the respective calculations. The experimental static quadrupole moments and the B(E2) values are reproduced correctly by performing calculations with bare nucleon charges for all the nucleons.


Background; Vegetables and Fruits have got major acceptance in the modern scientific world nowadays and advisable to use more per daily food consumption. Although these food products have got more acceptances, their preparation and sanitation before consumption at the household level have to get proper attention. Objective: The objective was to assess the microbial load of vegetables and fruits which had been submitted at the Public health microbiology laboratory of Ethiopian Public Health Institute, from the year 2008- 2017, ( 10 years Retrospective data).Methods: Samples were tested for the presence of Mold, Yeast, Mesophilic aerobic bacteria, Total coliform, Thermo-tolerant coliform and the Indicator E.coli, to determine the contamination level based on the NMKL protocol. For viable bacteria count, APHA protocol was applied. Result: One hundred ninety-five 5.9% (195/ 3279) raw and processed products had been received per ten years. Of these, 15% (29/195) of the samples revealed an intolerable microbial quality of the mesophilic aerobic plate count, followed by total coliforms 7.7% (15/195), thermo-tolerant coliforms 10.8 % (21/ 195), E.coli 3 % (6/ 195), mold count 1.5% (3/195) and yeast count 1.5% (3/195) (ICMSF protocol). Discussion and Conclusion: Although vegetables and fruits are currently proved to be the best healthy foods worldwide and are available with the low cost relatively, in the developing countries like Ethiopia, their consumption rate is overwhelmed by cereals and animal products based on the live status of the community. Therefore, joint efforts have to be exerted by different branches of MOH for encouraging the community to use vegetables and fruits as its main food source for better health and to reduce nasty illnesses like diabetes, obesity, heart diseases and so on. However, while doing so, series health education has to be provided on sanitation procedures like immediate cooking or disinfection before consumption to prevent the community from environmental risks.


Metastatic lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related death in the world and novel approaches are necessary to elucidate specific genes that drive lung cancer progression and metastasis. Lung cancers commonly demonstrate genetic alteration of potent drivers like Kras, p53 or EGFR accompanied with hundreds of low frequency gene aberrations which are a mix of key driver events and nascent passenger mutations. We established a robust screening platform to selectively identify these functionally critical "driver" genes in lung cancers from a prioritized list of candidates selected by a multi-level cross-species comparison of our published high confidence transcriptome data from genetically-engineered mouse models and genomic data of human lung cancers from TCGA, focusing on elevated gene expression and/or gene amplification. We identified 225 putative candidate driver genes which were used to construct a lentiviral based cDNA expression library with unique molecular barcoding of individual cDNAs. Using a non-metastatic syngeneic mouse lung cancer model we generated individually transduced stable over-expressing lines for each gene. These candidate lines were used for a unique in vivo positive selection screen to identify functional metastasis drivers. We transplanted pools of 20 cDNA expressing lines into syngeneic mice and observed for primary tumor growth and occurrence of metastases in lungs and other organs. Metastatic drivers were identified by the relative enrichment of the unique barcode sequences in the genomic DNA from metastatic lesions over primary tumors. We have identified both known (e.g. MYC) and several novel (e.g. THRA, TMEM106B, GNAS) potential oncogenic and metastatic drivers. We validated our top hits for their individual in vivo metastatic potencies by gain-of-function/loss-of-function studies and identified TMEM106B as one of the primary drivers of metastasis. TMEM106B is a transmembrane protein localizing to the lysosomes and has been shown to drive expression of lysosomal genes. We hypothesize that elevated levels of TMEM106B is able to drive the expression and secretion of lysosomal enzymes thus making cancer cells hyper invasive and metastatic. We found strong correlation for expression of TMEM106B with several lysosomal genes in a panel of 1016 human lung cancers and are currently performing in depth studies to understand these mechanisms of TMEM106B driven metastasis. We are also analyzing the clinical relevance of TMEM106B based upon their expression pattern and prognostic utility across TCGA and other public datasets, along with in-house patient samples and tissue microarrays of resected and biopsy specimens. Identification of such novel players will significantly advance the field of cancer target discovery by identifying new drug targets and biomarkers, essential for effective treatment options for lung cancer patients. Citation Format: Samrat Kundu, Caitlin Grzeskowiak, Chad J. Creighton, Kenneth L. Scott, Don L. Gibbons. Identifying TMEM106B as a novel metastasis driver in non-small cell lung cancers through an in vivo gain-of-function screen. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 688.


Many drugs affect respiration in man. The changes in respiratory function following their administration are due to a direct effect on the respiratory system or are the consequence of a central, metabolic (alteration of the acid-base balance) or vascular effect (pulmonary hypertension). Regulatory documents (CPMP, FDA and MHW drafts) are in agreement in considering the respiratory system as a vital function to explore during safety pharmacology studies. On the basis of these recommendations, the first studies to be performed should be on conscious unrestrained animals, in general the drug being administered as a single dose. The effects on the respiratory function are best studied by plethysmography in the guinea-pig or rat. The measurement of ventilatory parameters--respiratory rate, tidal volume, inspiratory time, expiratory time, peak inspiratory flow, peak exploratory flow and resistance--allow the differentiation between drugs affecting respiratory control and those altering lung mechanical properties. The pulmonary hypertension risk could be evaluated in the dog during haemodynamic studies. Finally, the study of the effects on blood gases should always be carried out in conscious animals, usually in the dog. For drugs belonging to pharmacological classes presenting a high respiratory risk, complementary studies should be considered. The extrapolation from healthy persons to ill patients (especially chronic respiratory insufficiency patients) of the incurred risk is often difficult. For this reason, it is very useful to study the effect of such drugs on the respiratory function of pathological animals.


The selection of multi-functional teams is a key issue in problem solving. Currently there are no papers in the literature that discuss analytical approaches to forming teams. Furthermore, no comprehensive model exists to prioritize team membership based on customer requirements or product characteristics. To deal with the underlying complexities of the team selection process, a methodology for team formation is developed. The methodology is based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) approach and the Quality Function Deployment (QFD) method. A QFD planning matrix is used to organize the factors considered in the team selection. The importance measure for each team member is determined with the AHP approach. A mathematical programming model is developed to determine the composition of a team. The methodology developed in this paper is tested by the selection of teams in concurrent engineering. A detailed discussion of the model implementation and how to reduce the number of comparisons in the AHP process is presented. Possible modi®cations of the model to include ``soft factors'', i.e., leadership, morale, personalities of group members, group values and so on are also discussed.


Modern microelectronics technologies play important roles in body sensor networks (BSN). In this paper a field programmable analogue ASIC working on the discrete-time mode for biomedical signal filtering was presented. The ASIC we have developed incorporates a switched-capacitor based analogue module, a current source, a voltage source, an oscillator, and a double-phase non-overlapping clock source offering different clock rates. By alternating the circuit topologies and the clock frequencies for the on-chip switched-capacitors the ASIC could be dynamically configured as a high-pass filter or a low-pass filter with adjustable cut-off frequencies and pass-band gains. The ASIC was fabricated using the SMIC 0.18um CMOS technology with a die size of 1.0mm×1.2mm and the power consumption of approximately 1.1 mW. The ASIC was fully tested and the results indicated that the ASIC performed as desired. In the future an autonomous Field Programmable Analogue Array ASIC will be developed towards intelligent processing-on-node BSNs.


Background Moderate to severe plaque psoriasis has a serious effect on health-related quality of life. Patients treated with biologic medications place importance on satisfaction and treatment frequency options. We assessed patient-reported treatment satisfaction and dosing frequency choice with biologics. Methods We used a health care claims database to identify patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. Participants completed the Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire for Medication. Results were compared between patients experienced with biologics (adalimumab, etanercept, or ustekinumab) or not (cyclosporine or methotrexate). Participants were asked for their choices of dosing options of once every 1–2 weeks, 3–4 weeks, 1–2 months, or 2–3 months. Participants were also asked for their choices of dosing options of every 1, 2, 3, and so on up to every 12+ weeks. Results A total of 426 patients completed the survey (263 biologic-experienced and 163 biologic-naïve patients). Patient satisfaction with psoriasis treatment was significantly higher in the biologic-experienced cohort. The most frequently chosen option (38.8% of all participating patients) was every 2–3 months; 37.3% chose once every 1–2 weeks. Significant differences were found in the percentage of biologic-naïve patients choosing 2–3-month (49.7%) over 1–2-week (20.9%) dosing (P<0.001). Among biologic-experienced patients, the difference between the percentage of patients choosing the 2–3-month (35.7%) and 1–2-week (41.8%) options was not significant (P=0.264). The two most often week-specific intervals chosen by biologic-naïve patients were 12+ weeks (42.3%) and 4 weeks (15.6%). The biologic-experienced patients most often chose 12+ weeks (31.2%) and 1 week (25.9%). Conclusion Patients using biologics reported satisfaction with their treatment, which may positively affect outcomes. Longer dosing intervals were chosen most frequently among all patients combined. Reports of patient satisfaction with prior treatments and choices regarding dosing frequency, among all other considerations, should be evaluated in determining an appropriate biologic medication for psoriasis.


We propose a protocol to interconnect the GSM mobile communication networks and PSTN through an IP based backbone. The basic functions of mobile communication, such as call setup, call recovery, and handover, together with further applications such as conference calls, are taken into account. Not only the establishment and closing of a conference call are discussed, but also the recovery procedures due to the failure of handover are also considered. Different feasible interconnection types are also studied. There are several possible connecting topologies, and they can be divided into two categories: (1) MSCs (mobile switching centres) of the same operator are connected in traditional architecture-only the GMSCs (gateway MSCs) of different operators are connected via the IP network; (2) all MSCs are linked through the IP network. We have studied the mechanisms suitable for the above connections.


We report a continuous-wave (CW) optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a MgO-doped periodically poled LiNbO(3) (MgO:PPLN) crystal. The 532 nm pump generates coherent radiation that is tunable from 800 to 920 nm for the signal and from 1250 to 1580 nm for the idler, respectively. The OPO output power exhibits a slowly varying instability that we attribute to a thermal effect induced by the pump. This instability is truncated by means of a low-pass servo that includes a single-mode fiber that filters the beam into a single spatial mode. The resulting output characteristics are promising for radiometric applications in the near infrared including most fiber-optic communication bands.


Many papers explain the drop of download performance when two TCP connections in opposite directions share a common bottleneck link by ACK compression, the phenomenon in which download ACKs arrive in bursts so that TCP self clocking breaks. Efficient mechanisms to cope with the performance problem exist and we do not consider proposing yet another solution. We rather thoroughly analyze the interactions between connections and show that actually ACK compression only arises in a perfectly symmetrical setup and it has little impact on performance. We provide a different explanation of the interactions---data pendulum, a core phenomenon that we analyze in this paper. In the data pendulum effect, data and ACK segments alternately fill only one of the link buffers (on the upload or download side) at a time, but almost never both of them. We analyze the effect in the case in which buffers are structured as arrays of bytes and derive an expression for the ratio between the download and upload throughput. Simulation results and measurements confirm our analysis and show how appropriate buffer sizing alleviates performance degradation. We also consider the case of buffers structured as arrays of packets and show that it amplifies the effects of data pendulum.


The biased percolation model is proposed for investigating device degradation and failure associated with the generation of defects due to local Joule heating. The degradation process of a thin film is monitored by the evolution of damage pattern, current distribution, macroscopic sample resistance and its fluctuations, defect concentration and device lifetime. The conductor-insulator (CI) and conductor-superconductor (CS) like degradation processes are considered. The results can be used to propose non-destructive indicators for testing the reliability of samples and to interpret experiments.


Early identification of CSF rhinorrhoea can reduce the risk of meningitis and potentially decrease the length of hospital stay. To determine the exact site of leak, intrathecal fluorescein (IF) is frequently used as a diagnostic tool adjunct to repair surgery in rhinorrhea. Although this is generally considered safe, there is a slight risk of seizures, radicular symptoms such as numbness and transient paraparesis.1 Miss. AB, a 20 month old child weighing 11.6kg with history of traumatic subdural collections was admitted with episodes of absence seizures, ataxia and unresponsiveness. Initial investigations involved an electroencephalogram which reported a normal background rhythm. A follow up MRI scan reported no definite site of abnormal CSF leak to confirm the working diagnosis. Hence, IF was proposed as a diagnostic tool to identify the location of a possible leak. The pharmacist conducted a therapeutic review with the aim of appraising existing evidence for the use of IF in paediatrics. A total of 12 articles were identified using Medline and Embase. 5 case series and 1 case report were selected for further review to determine the safety profile, optimal dose and appropriate formulation for the diagnostic procedure. Studies showed at lower concentrations, with doses ranging from 25-100mg the rate of minor complications such as nausea/vomiting, headache and dizziness was negligible.1 2 No complications were accounted in using the lowest dose (<25mg).2 Another study specifically mentioned no adverse reactions observed in children when 0.1ml/kg of 5% fluorescein was administered.3 The case report presented a paediatric patient (16 months) with CSF leak who was administered 0.125ml (6.25mg) of 5% IT to identify the leak.4 The potential dosage for Miss. AB was decided as between 10mg to 25mg balancing the increasing risk of adverse reactions with higher doses and possibility of false-negative result with lower doses. The neurosurgical team used this evidence to present the patient's case to the chairman's board for an off-label use approval at the trust. Upon enquiring various manufactures, the 5% unlicensed injection was unavailable to purchase and the 10% injection is unsuitable for intrathecal use. Therefore, the 20% fluorescence sodium injection which is an unlicensed 'specials' product usually used in adults was recommended by pharmacy. The smallest measurable dose of 0.1ml (20mg) of 20% fluorescein sodium, diluted in 10ml CSF with 5ml infused via a 0.2micron filter was recommended. The batch number and pyrogen free certificate was obtained from pharmacy procurement and application was submitted. Upon receiving the panel approval, IF was used and a CSF leak was identified. This has aided the surgeons to confirm diagnosis and repair the rhinorrhea. With this successful intervention, the use of IF can be an established option to diagnose CSF rhinorrhea prior to surgery in the trust. These findings will be used in submitting a formulary application and drafting trust guidance for extending the use of IF to paediatrics as a diagnostic tool in neurosurgery. References Javadi S, Samimi H, Naderi F, et al. The use of low- dose intrathecal fluorescein in endoscopic repair of cerebrospinal fluid rhinorrhea. Archives of Iranian Medicine 2013;16:264-266. Rainer K, Wienke A, Wolfgang D, et al. Use of sodium fluorescein solution for detection of cerebrospinal fluid fistulas: an analysis of 420 administrations and reported complications in Europe and the United States. Laryngoscope 2004;114:266-272. Crosara P, Becker C, Stamm A, et al. Chemical and cytological analysis of cerebral spinal fluid after intrathecal injection of hypodense fluorescein. Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology 2015;81:549-553 Lue A, Manolidis S. Intrathecal fluorescein to localize cerebrospinal fluid leakage in Bilateral Mondini Dysplasia. Otology & Neurotology 2004;25:50-52.


The study of synchronization phenomena in coupled dynamical systems is an active field of research in many scientific disciplines including the neurosciences. Over the last decades, a number of time series analysis techniques have been proposed to capture both linear and nonlinear aspects of interactions. While most of these techniques allow one to quantify the strength of interactions, developments that resulted from advances in nonlinear dynamics and in information and synchronization theory aim at assessing directed interactions. Most of these techniques, however, assume the underlying systems to be at least approximately stationary and require a large number of data points to robustly assess directed interactions. Recent extensions allow assessing directed interactions from short and transient signals and are particularly suited for the analysis of evoked and event-related activity.


A sequential study with computerized tomography (CT-scan) of two cases of chronic subdural hematoma was reported. Case 1 was a 67-year-old man who had a mild head injury. The initial CT-scan taken after 24 days of his injury showed bilateral frontotemporal extracerebral low density areas. This was diagnosed as subdural effusion because of its location, shape and the Hounsfield unit (11.0). He was admitted to our hospital with complaints of headache, nausea, vomiting and left hemiparesis. The CT-scan on the 41st day after his injury showed bilateral extracerebral high density areas instead of the previous low density. An operation was performed, and membranes of a subdural hematoma were observed. Case 2 was a 47-year-old man, who was admitted because of a mild head injury. The initial CT-scan (25 days) revealed bilateral extracerebral low density areas. This low density showed 11.7 in Hounsfield units suggesting subdural effusion. Follow-up CT-scans (after 76 days, 111 days, 113 days) demonstrated that chronic subdural hematoma had developed consequent on the post-traumatic subdural effusion. An operation disclosed a wellencapsulated hematoma. The conclusions obtained in this study were as follows; (1) Development of the hematoma membrane does not start immediately after head injury. (2) Subdural effusion is formed a few days after head injury. (3) Then, neomembrane begins to form during a certain period of subdural effusion. (4) Existence of the isolated cerebrospinal fluid between the dura and arachnoid membrane is the most important factor forming subdural hematoma. (5) Repeated hemorrhaging into the cavity from this neo-membrane may cause chronic subdural hematoma.


Objective—Genetic ablation of the growth suppressor p27Kip1 (p27) in the mouse aggravates atherosclerosis coinciding with enhanced arterial cell proliferation. However, it is unknown whether molecular mechanisms that limit p27's protective function contribute to atherosclerosis development and whether p27 exerts proliferation-independent activities in the arterial wall. This study aims to provide insight into both questions by investigating the role in atherosclerosis of p27 phosphorylation at serine 10 (p27-phospho-Ser10), a major posttranslational modification of this protein. Methods and Results—Immunoblotting studies revealed a marked reduction in p27-phospho-Ser10 in atherosclerotic arteries from apolipoprotein E–null mice, and expression of the nonphosphorylatable mutant p27Ser10Ala, either global or restricted to bone marrow, accelerated atherosclerosis. p27Ser10Ala expression did not affect cell proliferation in early and advanced atheroma but activated RhoA/Rho-associated coiled-coil containing protein kinase (ROCK) signaling and promoted macrophage foam cell formation in a ROCK-dependent manner. Supporting the clinical relevance of these findings, human atherosclerotic coronary arteries exhibited a prominent reduction in p27-phospho-Ser10 and increased ezrin/radixin/moesin protein phosphorylation, a marker of RhoA/ROCK activation. Conclusion—Scarce phosphorylation of p27 at Ser10 is a hallmark of human and mouse atherosclerosis and promotes disease progression in mice. This proatherogenic effect is mediated by a proliferation-independent mechanism that involves augmented foam cell formation owing to increased RhoA/ROCK activity. These findings unveil a new atheroprotective action of p27 and identify p27-phospho-Ser10 as an attractive target for the treatment of atherosclerosis.


The Upper Pleistocene loess-palaeosol sequence from the Kolodiiv section (East Carpathian Foreland) has been palaeomagnetically studied. Almost all samples displayed moderate to high positive palaeomagnetic inclinations and declinations enclosed between 320° and 40°. However, one sample from the fossil soil of the last interglacial pedocomplex (at 16.6 m profile depth) was reverse magnetized and therefore can be correlated with the Blake Palaeomagnetic Event. Consequently that palaeosol can be related to (Oxygen Isotope Stage) OIS 5e1. Another sample from the Dubno 1 interstadial palaeosol demonstrated southern declination and significant lowering of inclination (up to 40°). This might be a record of the Laschamp Palaeomagnetic Event or of any Late Pleistocene palaeomagnetic excursion. The magnetic susceptibility and anhysteretic remanent magnetization data reflect the presence of several soils forming during the warm conditions of OIS 5 and the complex nature of the Eemian warming. Two palaeosols that developed between ca.115 ka and 120 ka indicate at least two climatic optima during the Eemian. High values of magnetic susceptibility (up to 300 ´ 10-6 SI units) noted in the middle of the section that contains slump deposits (9.5 m to 11m of depth) suggest that this material was derived from older soils of interglacial type.


Gas bubble in aquatic sediments has a significant effect on its geophysical and geomechanical properties. Recent studies have shown that methane gas and hydrate can coexist in gas hydrate–bearing sediments. Accurate calibration and understanding of the fundamental processes regarding such coexisting gas bubble dynamics is essential for geophysical characterization and hazard mitigation. We conducted high-resolution synchrotron imaging of methane hydrate formation from methane gas in water-saturated sand. While previous hydrate synchrotron imaging has focused on hydrate evolution, here we focus on the gas bubble dynamics. We used a novel semantic segmentation technique based on convolutional neural networks to observe bubble dynamics before and during hydrate formation. Our results show that bubbles change shape and size even before hydrate formation. Hydrate forms on the outer surface of the bubbles, leading to reduction in bubble size, connectivity of bubbles, and the development of nano-to micro-sized bubbles. Interestingly, methane gas bubble size does not monotonously decrease with hydrate formation; rather, we observe some bubbles being completely used up during hydrate formation, while bubbles originate from hydrates in other parts. This indicates the dynamic nature of gas and hydrate formation. We also used an effective medium model including gas bubble resonance effects to study how these bubble sizes affect the geophysical properties. Gas bubble resonance modeling for field or experimental data generally considers an average or equivalent bubble size. We use synchrotron imaging data to extract individual gas bubble volumes and equivalent spherical radii from the segmented images and implement this into the rock physics model. Our modeling results show that using actual bubble size distribution has a different effect on the geophysical properties compared to the using mean and median bubble size distributions. Our imaging and modeling studies show that the existence of these small gas bubbles of a specific size range, compared to a bigger bubble of equivalent volume, may give rise to significant uncertainties in the geophysical inversion of gas quantification.


England has produced several firstrate textbooks of immunology, and some have even reached the status of classics. Most noteworthy, however, is that the different groups writing these texts have successfully avoided overlapping their respective, welldefined audiences. As stated by the editors, this book is specifically aimed at a frequently overlooked audience: the physician active in other fields, too busy to stay informed in areas, such as immunology, that infiltrate virtually all aspects of modern medicine in a most pervasive fashion. It is a common experience that after a stimulating conference on immunology delivered to such an audience, somebody invariably comes up with the legitimate question: "Where can I read about all this?" The answer is not easy: a book too simple will certainly alienate the solicitant; a book too specialized (there are many of these), conversely, will probably not be read beyond the initial pages. Holborow and Reeves' book seems


The S-transform (ST) is an extension of wavelet transform which possesses superior property over the latter as the moving functions are fixed with respect to time axis while the localizing scalable Gaussian window dilates and translates. Phase spectrum obtained in this transform is always with respect to fixed reference point and the real and imaginary spectrum can be localized independently. Such a transform with moving and scalable localizing Gaussian window, therefore, provides excellent time localization property for different signals. Utilizing the ST fault current signal is analyzed for an advanced series compensated transmission system. The spectral analysis of the current signals at different fault conditions of the system clearly classifies the faulty phase and faulty section


The present review focuses on the ethiology, pathogenesis, epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of the "Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease" (ADPKD). It is an inheritable genetic disorder traditionally described in Persian cats and presently recognized in crossbreed cats worldwide. Affected animals develop chronic renal insufficiency and failure, and disease has a late onset, usually when cats are over three years old, and there is no specific treatment for it. However, the development in recent times of ultrasound imaging as the main diagnostic tool for ADPKD, is allowing early disease detection, improve prognosis and to implement control measures based on preventing breeding from affected cat to avoid genetically ADPKD susceptible progeny.


CONTENTSIntroduction §1. The category of manifolds over algebras §2. Submanifolds generated by invariant submodules §3. Jet bundles as manifolds over local algebras §4. The -prolongation functor on the category of manifolds over algebras §5. Bundles of transversal jets over manifolds with foliations §6. Pseudogroup structures on manifolds over local algebras §7. Fields of geometric objects on jet bundles §8. Higher-order connections on manifoldsReferences


Author(s): Devries, Karen | Advisor(s): Haraway, Donna J. | Abstract: How might feminists better inherit worlds produced by the modern method of dividing knowledge into religious and secular, sacred and profane? While many moderns pledge allegiance to one sphere or the other, the complicated heritage of various feminisms includes a few theorists who are queerly positioned in relation to this Great Divide and its discursive apparatus. To elaborate this queer positioning, this dissertation introduces a Prodigal Daughter figure who belongs to a kin group of feminist figures intent on producing "situated knowledges." Neither properly religious nor secular, Prodigal Daughter has a fractured sense of belonging to her heritage of Western Christian Realism and its religious and secular offspring. Honing in on this logic through a reading of the Christian Parable of the Prodigal Son, the Prodigal Daughter disidentifies with dominant Christian and Secular knowledge formations and gathers up stories regarding knowledge about religion in the contemporary United States. Juxtaposed to phallogocentric stories and modes of knowledge production, the dissertation draws on personal memoir to enact a counter-narrative of a permanently Prodigal Daughter. Unlike the straight and narrow path of a Pilgrim's Progress conversion narrative, Prodigal Daughter charts her path in a wayfaring mode seeking worldly knowledge and wisdom. Part I is oriented around belonging, knowledge, and authority in the Christian Reformed Church in Churchill, Montana. Formed in this crucible, Prodigal Daughter experiences an increasingly fractured sense of belonging and ventures out into the secular world. Part II traces Prodigal Daughter's knowledge seeking endeavors in several allegorical places, including: the Lands of Liberal Learning (Chapter 3), a Pluralist Pantheon (Chapter 4), the Bluffs of Betrayal and Registers of Difference (Chapter 5), and eventually, the Quagmire of Critique (Chapter 6). The dissertation concludes with Signposts to Feminist Worldly Wisdom where Prodigal Daughter acquires the language to help her and her queer kin flourish in a world structured by discursive regimes that reproduce subjects and conditions of possibility through markers of religious and sexual identity.


This paper studies a multi-antenna network integrated sensing and communication (ISAC) system, in which a set of multi-antenna base stations (BSs) employ the coordinated transmit beamforming to serve their respectively associated single-antenna communication users (CUs), and at the same time reuse the reflected information signals to perform joint target detection. In particular, we consider two target detection scenarios depending on the time synchronization among BSs. In Scenario I, these BSs are synchronized and can exploit the target-reflected signals over both the direct links (from each BS to target to itself) and the cross links (from each BS to target to other BSs) for joint detection. In Scenario II, these BSs are not synchronized and can only utilize target-reflected signals over the direct links for joint detection. For each scenario, we derive the detection probability under a specific false alarm probability at any given target location. Based on the derivation, we optimize the coordinated transmit beamforming at the BSs to maximize the minimum detection probability over a particular target area, while ensuring the minimum signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) constraints at the CUs, subject to the maximum transmit power constraints at the BSs. We use the semi-definite relaxation (SDR) technique to obtain highly-quality solutions to the formulated problems. Numerical results show that for each scenario, the proposed design achieves higher detection probability than the benchmark scheme based on communication design. It is also shown that the time synchronization among BSs is beneficial in enhancing the detection performance as more reflected signal paths are exploited.