Background: Previous studies examining the association of apolipoprotein E (APOE) gene polymorphism with the risk of ischemic stroke (IS) have yielded conflicting results. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis to investigate the association between APOE ε4 gene polymorphism and risk of IS. Summary: A literature search for genetic association studies published before May 30, 2015, was conducted in the PubMed, EMBASE and Google Scholar databases. The following search terms were used: (apolipoprotein E) or (APOE) and (ε4) and (polymorphism) or (polymorphisms) and ('ischemic stroke' or 'IS') and ('cerebral infarction' or 'CI') and ('genetic polymorphism' or 'single nucleotide polymorphisms' or 'SNP'). ORs and 95% CIs were used to calculate the strength of association. Begg's funnel plot was used to assess the potential for publication bias. In our meta-analysis, 26 case-control studies involving 6,397 IS cases and 19,053 controls were included. Overall significant association between carrier of ε4 allele and risk of IS was observed (OR 1.43, 95% CI 1.10-1.85, p = 0.007). In the subgroup analysis based on ethnicity, a significant association between Apo ε4 carrier and risk of IS was observed in Asian studies (OR 1.53, 95% CI 1.04-2.25, p = 0.031) whereas borderline significant association between APO ε4 carrier and risk of IS was observed in Caucasian studies (OR 1.36, 95% CI 0.95-1.93, p = 0.093). Key Messages: Our meta-analysis suggests that APOE ε4 allele is associated with higher risk of IS in Asian population as compared to Caucasian population.


This paper deals with the application of modern estimation techniques to the problem of speech data rate reduction. It is desirable to adaptively identify and quantitize the parameters of the speech model. These paramaters cannot be identified and quantized exactly; the performance of the predictor is thereby degraded and this could prevent data reduction. In many cases it is desirable to emply a suboptimal predictor in order to simplify the algorithms, and predictor performance is again degraded. This paper develops sensitivity and error analysis as a potential method for determining quantitatively how speech data reduction system performance is degraded by imprecise parameter knowledge or suboptimal filtering. An intended use of the sensitivity and error analysis algorithms is to determine parameter identification and model structure requirements of configuration concepts for adaptive speech digitizers. First, sensitivity and error analysis algorithms are presented that form the basis for the remainder of the work. The algorithms are then used to determine how imprecise knowledge of vocal tract parameters degrades predictor performance in speech. Transversal filters have previously been proposed for this application. The sensitivity analysis algorithms are then used to determine when and by how much the transverse filter is suboptimal to the Kalman filter. In particular, the question of how effectively a higher order of all-pole model approximates a system with zeros is answered, as this question is of considerable importance in speech. Finally, the physical significance of the innovations process in speech data rate reduction is studied.


For more than twenty years, the Supreme Court's holding in Ohio v. Roberts (1980) established the controlling legal standard governing the constitutional limits on the admission of hearsay evidence against a criminal defendant, and the circumstances under which the exclusion of such evidence might be required by the Sixth Amendment right of the accused to be confronted with the witnesses against him.Those constitutional limits were completely overturned in somewhat piecemeal fashion, however, in a pair of decisions that were handed down by the Supreme Court in 2004 and 2006, both of them written by Justice Antonin Scalia. As it happens, Justice Scalia's opinions overturned the Roberts decision with such unusual subtlety and indirection that a great number of state and federal courts were unaware that the Court had done so, even after examining the same cases in which the Court had laid that earlier precedent to rest.This article includes a precise explanation as to how the Court's decision to finally overturn Roberts was announced with such unusual indirection that the decision was missed not merely by a number of lower appellate courts but even the official Reporter of Decisions at the Supreme Court, and why the Roberts decision was in fact ultimately laid to rest in "the legal equivalent of a covert operation."


We report on the realization and characterization of a silicon-based integrated optical platform which implements a vertical coupling scheme between a Whispering-gallery type microresonator and a buried dielectric waveguide. The vertical coupling allows for the separation of the resonator and the waveguide into different planes, which enables the realization of the optical components in different materials/thicknesses. The high optical quality of this micro-optical system follows from the accurate planarization of the waveguide topography, which is achieved by multiple depositions-and-reflows of a borophosphosilicate glass over strip waveguides. Importantly, we demonstrate the feasibility of our approach for wafer-scale mass fabrication of freestanding planar resonators suspended in air and coupled to integrated bus waveguides. This opens the door for the realization of stable all-integrated resonator systems and it has the potential to substitute todays complicated fiber-taper coupling schemes.


The Gram-negative bacterium Sphingomonas sp. A1 incorporates alginate into cells via the cell-surface pit without prior depolymerization by extracellular enzymes. Alginate import across cytoplasmic membranes thereby depends on the ATP-binding cassette transporter AlgM1M2SS (a heterotetramer of AlgM1, AlgM2, and AlgS), which cooperates with the periplasmic solute-binding protein AlgQ1 or AlgQ2; however, several details of AlgM1M2SS-mediated alginate import are not well-understood. Herein, we analyzed ATPase and transport activities of AlgM1M2SS after reconstitution into liposomes with AlgQ2 and alginate oligosaccharide substrates having different polymerization degrees (PDs). Longer alginate oligosaccharides (PD ≥ 5) stimulated the ATPase activity of AlgM1M2SS but were inert as substrates of AlgM1M2SS-mediated transport, indicating that AlgM1M2SS-mediated ATP hydrolysis can be stimulated independently of substrate transport. Using X-ray crystallography in the presence of AlgQ2 and long alginate oligosaccharides (PD 6–8) and with the humid air and glue-coating method, we determined the crystal structure of AlgM1M2SS in complex with oligosaccharide-bound AlgQ2 at 3.6 Å resolution. The structure of the ATP-binding cassette transporter in complex with non-transport ligand-bound periplasmic solute-binding protein revealed that AlgM1M2SS and AlgQ2 adopt inward-facing and closed conformations, respectively. These in vitro assays and structural analyses indicated that interactions between AlgM1M2SS in the inward-facing conformation and periplasmic ligand-bound AlgQ2 in the closed conformation induce ATP hydrolysis by the ATP-binding protein AlgS. We conclude that substrate-bound AlgQ2 in the closed conformation initially interacts with AlgM1M2SS, the AlgM1M2SS–AlgQ2 complex then forms, and this formation is followed by ATP hydrolysis.


Ammonia production, oxygen consumption, heart rate and blood pressure were observed in the isolated working rabbit heart perfused with Krebs-Ringer solution and with Krebs-Ringer solution containing dog hemoglobin. Oxygen consumption and an index to cardiac effort (heart rate x blood pressure) were shown to be correlated. There was a lesser correlation between ammonia production and cardiac effort. The ratio, ammonia production/oxygen consumption, when both are expressed as micromoles/minute/ gram of heart weight, averaged 0.064 ± .006. Perfusate pH was altered by alternately exposing the perfusate to 95%O2– 5%CO2 and 90%O2–10%CO2. No effect on the ratio ammonia production/oxygen consumption was noted. l-Epinephrine, 0.1–1.0 µg/ml, was continuously infused and resulted in an increase in cardiac effort, oxygen consumption, ammonia production and the ratio of ammonia production/ oxygen consumption.


The effect of shallow trench isolation mechanical stress on MOSFET dopant diffusion has become significant, and affects device behavior for sub-100-nm technologies. This paper presents a stress-dependent dopant diffusion model and demonstrates its capability to reflect experimental results for a state-of-the-art logic CMOS technology. The proposed stress-dependent dopant diffusion model is shown to successfully reproduce device characteristics covering a wide range of active area sizes, gate lengths, and device operating conditions.


This paper proposes a vision-based side vehicle detection for blind spot detection systems. The proposed algorithm uses a HoG cascade classifier in order to detect vehicles, and tracks the detected vehicles with Kalman filter. The proposed algorithm performs a periodical vehicle detection instead of every frame vehicle detection. And the proposed algorithm reduces the detecting image size by downscaling the original image and setting the region of interest where vehicles can exist. As a result, we can reduce the processing time for vehicle detection. Also, the proposed algorithm uses a false alarm reducing methods by control the reliability points at vehicle tracking. We evaluated the performance of the proposed algorithm in terms of processing time and detection ratio. At target board, the proposed algorithm has 40 frames per second, which meets the real time requirements of the ADAS systems. The detection ratio of the proposed algorithm is over 96 % at both original image size and downscale image size.


This essay examines William Poel's three Elizabethanist experiments of Hamlet as a way of addressing the issue of authenticity and translation. Poel objects to the pictorial staging of Shakespeare by actor-managers on the ground that their Shakespeare is 'inauthentic.' Poel's Hamlets attempt to achieve authentic Shakespeare by restoring the original text(1881), the original theatre condition(1900), and the original meaning(1914). Underlying Poel's Elizabethan project is his wish to revive the glorious moment of the Elizabethan theatre. This paper argues that Poel's Elizabethanism was conditioned by the imperial anxiety of Edwardian England. Poel, by inscribing the authorial intention as sole source of authenticity and thus restoring Elizabethan England to Shakespeare, reinforces the idea of the Empire and the cultural ownership of Shakespeare. However, it is doubtful if Poel was ever able to realize Shakespeare's intention, as he ignores the dynamism between the author and the audience and turns his Shakespeare into a museum piece. Poel's case presents the pitfalls of authorial authenticity, rigid adherence to which without negotiating the gap between past and present may result in cultural tourism, or cultural imperialism.


In the treatment of metastatic melanoma, a highly therapy-refractory cancer, alkylating agents are used and, for the subgroup of BRAFV600E cancers, the B-Raf inhibitor vemurafenib. Although vemurafenib is initially beneficial, development of drug resistance occurs leading to tumor relapse, which necessitates the requirement for combined or sequential therapy with other drugs, including genotoxic alkylating agents. This leads to the question whether vemurafenib and alkylating agents act synergistically and whether chronic vemurafenib treatment alters the melanoma cell response to alkylating agents. Here we show that a) BRAFV600E melanoma cells are killed by vemurafenib, driving apoptosis, b) BRAFV600E melanoma cells are neither more resistant nor sensitive to temozolomide/fotemustine than non-mutant cells, c) combined treatment with vemurafenib plus temozolomide or fotemustine has an additive effect on cell kill, d) acquired vemurafenib resistance of BRAFV600E melanoma cells does not affect MGMT, MSH2, MSH6, PMS2 and MLH1, nor does it affect the resistance to temozolomide and fotemustine, e) metastatic melanoma biopsies obtained from patients prior to and after vemurafenib treatment did not show a change in the MGMT promoter methylation status and MGMT expression level. The data suggest that consecutive treatment with vemurafenib and alkylating drugs is a reasonable strategy for metastatic melanoma treatment.


ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM IS A CONTESTED GENRE, not unlike the documentary. The majority opinion is that an ethnographic film is any documentary that focuses on non-Western people (see Heider). The adjective "ethnographic" is used in a very loose manner, similar to the way psychological or historical is applied to a film. Few people expect a psychological film to be a serious rendering of the constructs of psychology or for the maker of the film to be a professionally trained psychologist. As a consequence, many films screened at places such as the American Anthropological Association or the Margaret Mead festival are documentaries made by professional filmmakers who have little or no training in anthropology. I have argued for a more restricted approach-one that confines the genre to the work of academic anthropologists. In my book Picturing Culture, I articulated a fantasy version of this position. To begin ... a moral tale for anthropologists, a fantasy in which an anthropological cinema exists-not documentaries about "anthropological" subjects, but films designed by anthropologists to communicate anthropological insights. It is a well-articulated genre distinct from the conceptual limitations of realist documentary and broadcast journalism. It borrows conventions and techniques from the whole of cinema-fiction, documentary, animation and experimental. A multitude of film styles vie for prominence-equal to the number of theoretical positions found in the field. There are general audience films produced for television as well as highly sophisticated works designed for professionals. While some films intended for a general audience are collaboratively made with professional filmmakers, solely professional anthropologists, who use the medium to convey the results of their ethnographic studies and ethnological knowledge, produce most. University departments regularly teach the theory, history, practice and criticism of anthropological communications-verbal, written and pictorial-enabling scholars from senior professors to graduate students to select the most appropriate mode in which to publish their work. There are a variety of venues where these works are displayed regularly and serve as the basis for scholarly discussion. Canons of criticism exist that allow for a critical discourse about the ways in which anthropology is realized pictorially. A low-cost distribution system for all these anthropological products is firmly established. Videotapes/CD-ROMs/DVDs are as common as books in the libraries of anthropologists, and the internet and world wide web occupy a place of some prominence as an anthropological resource. Needless to say, the fantasy has remained just that. I see no reason to assume things will change much, although with the advent of "prosumer" three-chip digital cameras and the ease of computer editing, more anthropologists are delving into video production. Having lived through a number of major technological changes, beginning with cable television and sync-sound Super 8mm cameras, which both promised radical departures from the norm, I am not one to put much faith in what might be called techno-salvation. A change in technology will not bring about the kind of changes I am interested in because the problems are not technical. They are conceptual. To accomplish the task I have proposed, anthropologists will have to divorce themselves from the economic realities of the commercial documentary world. Anthropological filmmaking would have to become a scholarly activity with no commercial potential, similar to the way scholars write books published by scholarly publishers. Academics never assume that their publishing efforts will produce a living wage. It is now possible for scholars to experiment without obtaining large grants that require the production of materials designed either for the classroom or for public television, nor are they forced to hire professional crews whose goals are often at odds with those of a scholar. …


S u m m a r y Authors identified nutritional and clinical risks and investigated their effect on population health in Slovakia within more than the last 40 years. The results were supported by nationally representative, nutrition researches conducted on more than 20 000 people. Simultaneously, the following factors were studied: average lipid blood levels; prevalence of dyslipidaemia, obesity, diabetes mellitus (DM) and colorectal carcinoma in Slovak Republic; and the results of 4 dietetic tests (pectin + ascorbic acid, essential phospholipids, powder from Pleurotus ostreatus, and flavonoid preparation). As a result some improvement measures were suggested for the population in terms of nutrition, some regulation changes were proposed in food and nutritional policy, and finally some proposals were addressed to food processors.


Background: Pregnancy is associated with the change in thyroid function. Thyroid function is also affected by goitrogenic substances in some plant foods, like cassava. Aim: This study aims to assess thyroid function status and its association to consumption of foods containing goitrogenic substances. Methods: A cross sectional study was done on a total of 65 pregnant women attending Sawla Health Center, South Ethiopia. Serum samples were collected and analyzed for TSH, total T4 and total T3 by using ELISA kit. Data on consumption of foods containing were obtained from food frequency questionnaire. Results: The median TSH of the first, second and third trimesters, respectively are 2.57, 1.86 and 2.42 mIU/L, which are within the reference interval (0.30-6.20 mIU/L) of the test kit. The median total T4 values (9.8, 10.0 and 10.3 μg/dl in the first, second and third trimesters, respectively) were also within the reference interval (4.8-11.6 μg/dl) of the test kits. The median total T3 in the first (2.60 ng/ml) and third (2.35 ng/ml) trimesters were elevated, but it was within the reference interval (0.69-2.02 ng/ml) in the second trimester (1.92 ng/ml). Though statistically non-significant median TSH was increased in women grouped as cassava consumers and M. stenopetala consumers while median total T4 values were decreased in these groups. Conclusion: The study subjects have normal thyroid function as the median values of TSH and total T4 were within the reference interval of the test kit. Frequent consumption of cassava and Moringa stenopetala may affect thyroid function.


M oday, O cber 9, 2017 These models are rendered and imported into BlenderTM (Amsterdam, The Netherlands). They are then inverted along the vertical axis to create a working template of the contralateral ear. The depths of the scapha, triangular fossa and cymba are deepened to accentuate contours. Additional relief is added to the helical root for further definition. The final template is digitally separated to create the requisite components for the Nagata technique: helix; antihelical fold with the superior and inferior crus; tragus; and base frame. The helix is digitally straightened to optimize modeling. Finally, the complete auricular model and its components are individually 3D-printed (Builder Premium 3D Printer, Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands) using polylactic-acid filament and sterilized according to manufacture's specifications (121°C for 1 hour and 30 minute dry cycle).


Scene Text Detection (STD) is critical for obtaining textual information from natural scenes, serving for automated driving and security surveillance. However, existing text detection methods fall short when dealing with the variation in text curvatures, orientations, and aspect ratios in complex backgrounds. To meet the challenge, we propose a method called CA-STD to detect arbitrarily shaped text against a complicated background. Firstly, a Feature Refinement Module (FRM) is proposed to enhance feature representation. Additionally, the conditional attention mechanism is proposed not only to decouple the spatial and textual information from scene text images, but also to model the relationship among different feature vectors. Finally, the Contour Information Aggregation (CIA) is presented to enrich the feature representation of text contours by considering circular topology and semantic information simultaneously to obtain the detection curves with arbitrary shapes. The proposed CA-STD method is evaluated on different datasets with extensive experiments. On the one hand, the CA-STD outperforms state-of-the-art methods and achieves 82.9 in precision on the dataset of TotalText. On the other hand, the method has better performance than state-of-the-art methods and achieves the F1 score of 83.8 on the dataset of CTW-1500. The quantitative and qualitative analysis proves that the CA-STD can detect variably shaped scene text effectively.


Introduction Abnormal interactions among distributed brain systems are implicated in the mechanisms of nicotine addiction. However, the relationship between the structural covariance network, a measure of brain connectivity, and smoking severity remains unclear. To fill this gap, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between structural covariance network and smoking severity in smokers. Methods A total of 101 male smokers and 51 male non-smokers were recruited, and they underwent a T1-weighted anatomical image scan. First, an individualized structural covariance network was derived via a jackknife-bias estimation procedure for each participant. Then, a data-driven machine learning method called connectome-based predictive modeling (CPM) was conducted to infer smoking severity measured with Fagerström Test for Nicotine Dependence (FTND) scores using an individualized structural covariance network. The performance of CPM was evaluated using the leave-one-out cross-validation and a permutation testing. Results As a result, CPM identified the smoking severity-related structural covariance network, as indicated by a significant correlation between predicted and actual FTND scores (r = 0.23, permutation p = 0.020). Identified networks comprised of edges mainly located between the subcortical–cerebellum network and networks including the frontoparietal default model and motor and visual networks. Discussion These results identified smoking severity-related structural covariance networks and provided a new insight into the neural underpinnings of smoking severity.


Multinational corporations operating in Sweden often use English as their official corporate language. The employees are expected to communicate using English both internally and with external busi ...


South East Asia has earned the dubious reputation of being the world's prime child sex tourism destination. While a number of commentators have analysed extra-territorial legislation in the home countries of travelling child sex off enders, this article assesses the laws in the South East Asian destination countries in order to stimulate debate and action on much-needed reform. Unfortunately, few provisions in national legislation specifically address child sex tourism as a distinct form of sexual exploitation. To enhance the legal response to this abhorrent crime, it is recommended that national legislation directly address child sex tourism. Further, given the transnational nature of the crime, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) should urgently adopt a multinational approach that synchronises national legislation and complies with, or exceeds, the minimum standards prescribed by international law.


This paper analyzes the role of absorptive capacity in R&D spillovers through strategic R&D investments in a game-theoretic framework. In the model, a firm's effective R&D is composed of idiosyncratic R&D, which produces its own innovations, and identical R&D, which improves absorptive capacity. The model shows that in the presence of absorptive capacity firms have a tendency to underinvest (overinvest) in idiosyncratic (identical) R&D relative to the social optimum. As the spillover becomes larger, firms decrease their own R&D while they become more inclined towards strategic exploitation of rivals' efforts. Since the former effect overpowers the latter, the total amount of R&D decreases as the spillover increases. This is socially undesirable, providing a potential justification for a governmental subsidy for idiosyncratic R&D and a tax on identical R&D. The findings may have important implications for newly industrialized or emerging countries that consider a redirection of national R&D policy and intellectual property rights (IPR) regime.


The breadth of offerings at the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO) Resource Center and Technology Pavilion at the first joint meeting with the European Society of Ophthalmology (SOE) is extraordinary. Physicians can try the demo for the Basic and Clinical Science Course on CD-ROM, flip through the latest patient education products, get help with critical business issues such as coding, and learn the ins and outs of acquiring and installing an electronic medical records system.


Abstract The kurtosis of the distribution of financial returns characterized by high volatility persistence and thick tails is notoriously difficult to estimate precisely. We propose a simple but effective procedure of estimating the kurtosis coefficient (and variance) based on volatility filtering that uses a simple GARCH model. In addition to an estimate, the proposed algorithm issues a signal of whether the kurtosis (or variance) is finite or infinite. We also show how to construct confidence intervals around the proposed estimates. Simulations indicate that the proposed estimates are much less median biased than the usual method-of-moments estimates, their confidence intervals having much more precise coverage probabilities. The procedure alsoworks well when the underlying volatility process is not the one the filtering technique is based on. We illustrate how the algorithm works using several actual series of returns.


Recurrent dislocation of the peroneal tendons is an important, although infrequent, cause of disability of the ankle. We used a simple procedure that corrects the basic deformity of a shallow peroneal groove, without the use of metallic fixation or transfer of a tendon or ligament. The groove for the tendons is deepened by removal of some inner fibular substance, while the smooth tenosynovial channel is maintained as an intact periosteal flap on the fibula. The technique was used successfully in ten cases.


Cytokines play a role in the chronicity of inflammation, the formation of lesions and the persistence of the immune response observed in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The dysregulation of the cytokines observed in RA is of great immunopathological importance. There is an increase in the macrophage-derived cytokines such as interleukin 1, the tumor necrosis factor alpha and interleukin 6. At the same time, there is a decrease in the lymphocyte-derived cytokines such as interleukin 2, interferon gamma and interleukin 4. Certain growth factors (transforming growth factor beta, platelet derived growth factor, granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor) also play a role in RA. The study of the role of these various cytokines in the formation and maintenance of articular and extra-articular lesions in RA is carried out.


Selection and placement of appropriate personnel for the right job leads to great success in any organization. However, this is one of the most important activities carried out by Human Resource (HR). Minimizing imprecision and subjective value judgment in personnel selection processes were taken into consideration in this research by developing personnel selection and placement framework using the Mamdani- fuzzy model. This research work is aimed at developing Mamdani- fuzzy framework for academic staff selection and placement. A model with three levels has been developed to manage the database, and the necessary conditions required from applicants for selection and placement, and the consideration of individual temperament was paramount. Tools: Java script and HTML (for the front end) PHP and MySQL (for the database storage as back end).  Experimental results using fuzzy classification membership function defined by the truth value of a fuzzy propositional function would also be used as part of the analysis and design. When the need arise, MathLab would be employed for some analysis and simulations. A graphical user interface (GUI) would be developed for all the relevant forms in order to effectively interact with the users of the system


This study examined the impact of information technology on tax administration in south west, Nigeria. It specifically investigated the effect of information technology on tax productivity and the relationship between information technology on tax implementation and tax planning. Descriptive research design was employed, of which questionnaire was used to gather data and analysed with multiple regression and pearson product moment correlation. The study revealed that information technology (Online Tax Filing-OTF, Online Tax Registration-OTR and Online Tax Remittance-OTRE) affect tax productivity with -1.9%, 7.3% and 31.5% (p=0.85, 0.526 and 0.00), there is relationship of -5.9% (p=0.520), 9.7% (p=0.290) and 0.344 (p=0.000) between OTF, OTR and OTRE on Tax Implementation-TAXIMP and -3.8% (p=0.684), 14% (p=0.140) and -0.190 (p=0.038<0.05) relationship between OTF, OTR and OTRE on Tax Planning-TAXPLNN. The study concluded that information technology enhance the level of tax productivity and administration. It is therefore recommended that the respective agencies (federal, state and local government) responsible for tax collection should carry out one on one awareness in the form of seminars and sensitization of the process and suitability of information technology on tax administration.


Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reconstruction is one of the important inverse imaging problems. Unlike the classical MRI approaches which demand long scanning time and are prone to reconstruction artifacts, compressed sensing MRI (CS-MRI) generates the scans data relatively faster and produces less artifacts for medical diagnosis. Model-based CS-MRI algorithms require long reconstruction time to obtain an MR image. On the other hand, although training time of deep learning techniques for the task is rather long, their reconstruction time is much shorter compared to iterative model-based MRI algorithms. Moreover, recent works have shown that Gaussian denoisers including deep denoisers can be utilized to solve the inverse problems in a plug-and-play fashion. In this paper, we propose an iterative convolutional neural network based Gaussian denoiser as a solver for the CS-MRI problem. Our experiments show that the proposed method has better reconstruction ability when compared to some important model-based and deep learning based methods from the literature.


This study was conducted to enhance the utilization of renewable energy resources to contribute towards national electricity supply sustainability and sustainable socio-economic development. Four methodologies were developed starting with solar radiation modeling using artificial neural networks (ANNs), followed by modeling and investigating the feasibility of grid-connected solar PV applications under the Feed-in-Tariff (FIT) program. After that, a sensitivity analysis was developed based on economic indicators. Next, a solar PV power hybrid standalone street light application was modeled for remote areas where electricity extension can be made cost-effective. Lastly, people's acceptance, and obstacles to using solar energy applications were investigated. The outcomes of the resource analyses show that the ANN solar maps are sufficiently accurate to be utilized with solar radiation applications in Peninsular Malaysia, whereby from all 12 designed models, the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) was less than 6.07%. The model with a MAPE value of 4.04% and correlation (R) of 0.965 attained a fairly steady reading, which can be safely inferred as a high reliability level in terms of weather data prediction. Solar radiation mapping indicates the annual radiation in Peninsular Malaysia is between 3.88 and 5.13 kWh/m2/day. However, the northeast region has the highest potential for solar energy throughout the year. In this context, the renewable energy outputs from the grid-connected solar PV in pilot locations varied between a maximum of 1.312 MWh/kWp in Lubok Merbau and a minimum of 1.010 MWh/kWp in Cameron Highlands, with capacity factors of 15% and 11.5% respectively. The cost of electricity ranges from $0.36/kWh for the most favorable locations to $0.28/kWh for less favorable locations, while the mean cost in the entire peninsular region is about $0.31/kWh. Government incentives are expected to reduce the payback period by approximately 73%, with the current payback periods ranging from a minimum of 7.4 years in Beyan Lepas to a maximum of 9.6 years in Cameron Highlands, while the mean payback period in Peninsular Malaysia is expected to be 8 years. According to a street light application analysis, using renewable energy-based solar radiation for street lighting is not recommended in Malaysia mostly due to the frequent occurrence of continuously heavy cloud cover and rainy days. Such conditions require a proportionate increase in PV size as well as number of batteries in order to adequately harvest the required energy in a shorter time span, hence causing an overall increase in the cost of providing street light poles. Based on the social acceptance of solar energy technology, the survey shows significant potential to implement solar PV applications in Malaysia. Nonetheless, there has also been considerable failure to provide promotional informative features of solar PV applications, where people are still not even familiar with the term Feed-in-Tariff. However, around 36% are potentially ready to begin PV projects but require loans to reduce the starting capital costs, even if the loans stipulate sharing the FIT benefits with banks in advance.


One of the reasons for setting up an unemployment insurance scheme is to allow job losers to smooth consumption. We test for the impact of unemployment benefits on changes in household food expenditure of individuals who have recently experienced a job loss. We also study the relationship between unemployment benefits and the financial wealth of the unemployed. From our empirical analysis we conclude that, for households without financial wealth at the time of job loss, unemployment benefits help to smooth food consumption. For households running debt before job loss, there is evidence that lower replacement rates lead to a postponement of debt repayment.


BACKGROUND
The term basal ganglia usually includes the striatum, globus pallidus, substantia nigra and the subthalamic nucleus. Basal ganglia disease may cause a number of movement disorders. This article reviews central elements of normal basal ganglia function and discusses how basal ganglia dysfunction may give rise to various motor disturbances.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
This review is based on personal experience and literature retrieved from searches in PubMed.

RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION
The basal ganglia consist of a complex network of nuclei and neural pathways. They participate in the planning of voluntary movement, but also seem to be involved in cognitive and affective functions. Basal ganglia dysfunction may lead to hypokinetic as well as hyperkinetic disorders, and many of these are caused by changes in dopaminergic activity. Nonetheless, pathophysiological explanations for the various movement disorders are not known in detail. It is likely that impulse frequency and firing patterns in neural loops through the basal ganglia are of great importance in both normal function and disease.


Brain atrophy with mental and neurologic deterioration developing a few months after radiation therapy in patients without residual or recurrent brain tumors has been recognized. Two illustrative case reports of this pathologic entity are presented. Six autopsy cases with this entity including the two cases were reviewed neurologically, radiographically, and histopathologically. All patients presented progressive disturbances of mental status and consciousness, akinesia, and tremor‐like involuntary movement. Computerized tomography (CT) demonstrated marked enlargement of the ventricles, moderate widening of the cortical sulci, and a moderately attenuated CT number for the white matter in all six patients. Four of the six patients had CSF drainage (ventriculoperitoneal shunt or continuous lumbar drainage), however, none of them improved. Histologic examination demonstrated swelling and loss of the myelin sheath in the white matter in all patients, and reactive astrocytosis in three of the six patients. Neither prominent neuronal loss in the cerebral cortex or basal ganglia, nor axonal loss in the white matter was generally identified. The blood vessels of the cerebral cortex and white matter were normal. Ependymal layer and the surrounding brain tissue were normal in all patients. These findings suggested that this pathologic condition results from demyelination secondary to direct neurotoxic effect of irradiation. The authors' previous report was reviewed and the differential diagnoses, the risk factors for this pathologic entity, and the indication for radiation therapy in aged patients with a malignant brain tumor are discussed.


In the view of sustainable management of Rhagoletis cerasi (L.) (Diptera, Tephritidae), a key pest of cherry orchards in Europe, we tested the efficacy of five blends containing male produced volatiles that were used as lures on yellow sticky traps, during a two year field study. Results show a superior efficacy of one of the blends (RC1 = 2-hexanone: 3-heptanone: nonanal), which captured three times more individuals than control in both years. Good results were also obtained by RC2 (beta-phellandrene: geranyl acetate: (+)-limonene) with an average number of catches which was half that of RC1 in both years. Our findings showed that one of the tested blends, which possibly represents the male sexual pheromone, has a promising potential for practical applications of synthetic lures in monitoring, mass-trapping or attract and kill strategies.


The French historian Maurice Agulhon is regarded as the «father»
of the apparition of the concept of «sociability», applied to the historical studies, in
the Sixties of the XX century. This term obtained almost immediate acceptance
because its value in order to renew several sectors of social history then practised.
The present work tries to approach to the mentioned concept as it was firstly conceived
by Agulhon; and to the following revisions of it which were released lately
by the same French author. Fertility of those works can be still observed nowadays.


The human beta 2-microglobulin (beta-2m)-associated human thymocyte differentiation antigens T6 and M241 were compared using biochemical techniques. T6 and M241 antigens reside on different molecules with apparent m.w. of 49,000 and 43,000, respectively. Here we show that both proteins have a protein backbone m.w. of 33,000. In addition, T6 and M241 have a large portion of their peptides in common. When we compared the protein backbone m.w. of T6 and M241 with the murine beta-2m-associated thymus leukemia (TL) antigens, we found a considerable difference in size, suggesting that T6 and M241 may not be human homologues of TL antigens and constitute a novel type of major histocompatibility (MHC) class I antigens.


Vasoconstriction-volume analysis postulates that arteriolar vasoconstriction is the mechanism of blood pressure elevation in patients with "high-renin" essential hypertension while a volume expanded state with relatively dilated arterioles sustains "low renin" essential hypertension. To test this hypothesis we carried out hemodynamic and PRA studies in 43 essential hypertensives. Cardiac index was directly related to PRA (r=0,41; p less than 0,01), by contrast, peripheral vascular resistances and plasma volume were unrelated to PRA. The data do not support the bipolar hypothesis since vasoconstriction and volume expansion are associated with unpredictable changes in PRA. The direct relationship between CI and PRA may be interpreted as the result of a common factor (presumably sympathetic nervous system) governing both functions.


Using diagrammatic perturbation theory, we calculate the higher-order susceptibility for the n-wave process, omega(0) = (n/2 - 1)(omega(1) - omega(2)) + omega(1), in a phase-matched n-wave-mixing geometry. We include the 16 Zeeman and hyperfine levels of the sodium ground (3S((1/2))) and excited (3P((1/2))) states, finding resonances at subharmonics [+/-(1/2), +/-?, ..., +/-1(n/2 - 1)] of the ground-level transition frequencies. The computed spectrum for eight-wave mixing is in satisfactory agreement with experiment. In addition, a theoretical twelve-wave-mixing spectrum predicts a new higher-order selection rule.


English teachers are those who are central in developing and conducting English test as one of the teacher's roles in educational duty is taking part as an assessor. Teachers, consequently, need to have capability in constructing quality English tests for their students. However, in some places in Indonesia, sometimes it is found that English tests constructed by the teachers are erroneous and contain some mistakes, even not valid. In consideration with this condition, this study particularly attempts to investigate descriptively how do the teachers construct the final English tests for the sixth grades primary school students in Purworejo in 2008/2009 and to what extent do the tests comply with the objectives of the English program. The study was addressed to answer the two research questions; (1) What steps do the teachers do in constructing the final tests on English for the sixth grades primary school students?; and (2) To what extent do the English final tests comply with the objectives of the English program conducted in the schools? To answer these research questions, the study used qualitative descriptive approach by applying open-ended interview and documents as the instruments for obtaining the data. There were three English teachers who had been teaching English in three different elementary schools in Purworejo who were purposively selected as the respondents of this study. When the study was conducted, they were constructing the English final tests for the students of the sixth grade elementary schools. The first research questions was answered through analyzing the interview transcriptions in which it was found that all of the respondents did not conduct the stage of pre-testing of the tests' batteries they made. All of the respondents stated that the time constraint was the cause of it, besides that they needed adequate support and facility from the schools such as test's schedule, proctors, fund, and students as test-takers. The findings of the document analysis of the syllabuses and the items of the tests show that some of the items of the tests did not represent the language elements (vocabulary and grammar) involved in the syllabuses. The absence of the pretest's result and analysis of the pretest's result possibly made the teachers impossible to revise the tests' errors. The conclusion of the study shows that constructing an English quality test requires the test writer to follow all the steps of test construction proposed by the theories. Therefore, English teachers are suggested to follow all the steps of test construction proposed by the theories periodically in constructing English tests. In order to help the teachers to construct quality English tests well, the principals of the schools are also suggested to facilitate the process of test construction well, for example, by managing test's schedule and providing proctors, fund, and students as the test-takers.


Mentors, sponsors, and networks increase your chances of having a successful career. Mentors provide valuable guidance and advice on career alternatives, while sponsors support candidates selected for highly desirable roles by serving as a reference that they can perform well in positions of increasing responsibility and importance. Networking increases the number of people who are familiar with your abilities and is a powerful way to sustain and enhance your reputation and circle of influence. Networking is about making the right connections and building beneficial relationships. In this article, we showcase how the combination of mentoring, sponsoring, and networking produces advisors who can enable us to have a rewarding and successful professional career. We share our three-component system for optimizing your chances of career success.
 – Mentoring and the "Critical Listening" model: Intelligent questioning, ranking of options or preferences, and attentive listening are used during mentoring sessions. The balance between these modes as you progress through your career from fresh graduate to mid-career to experienced professional. This model includes practical examples to guide you in your approach mentoring loops whether for either the first or for the nth time with the aim of maximizing the value you can gain from mentoring. – Sponsoring and the "BET" model: BET is our acronym for Building a Network, Equal Priorities, and Tactics (BET). We explain how individuals can acquire and tactically leverage sponsors throughout their careers. The approaches of sponsors and protégées evolves with career stage, that changes priorities and focus. – Networking Development and Optimization: Networking for mentoring and sponsoring is essential to career success. A diverse network enhances innovation and problem solving. We benefit from both deep and shallow connections. Networking built on a foundation of reciprocity includes an exchange of mutually beneficial information that establishes long-lasting professional relationships. Methods to diagnose and address network gaps help professionals to achieve career objectives. Strong networking skills build collaborative relationships that add value for both one's career and employer.
 Understanding how to maximize the value of mentoring, sponsoring, and networking is essential to career success. We encourage self-analyses throughout your career and provide guidelines on how to leverage mentors and sponsors and utilize best practices to expand your professional network.
 In an era where COVID has drastically changed how most of us work, understanding how to thrive with these three key instruments for career success is challenging, given the additional hurdle of having to do it in a virtual ecosystem with fewer or no opportunities to meet face to face. This article raises awareness and provides practical guidance for individuals on building beneficial relationships from mentoring, sponsoring, and networking. Keeping networks alive and strong in a reduced mobility world requires new strategies.


We use a testimonio methodology to examine how engaging in a research collective designed with and for, and comprised by current and former undocumented scholars promoted our development, persistence, and professional preparedness. We argue that research collectives initiated through participatory action research serve as counterspaces for revelation, validation, resistance, empowerment, and liberation for undocumented students. We conclude with recommendations on how faculty can become empowerment agents and create these critical spaces in higher education.


Objective:To determine the frequency of peripheral neuropathy and myopathy in HIV-infected subjects enrolled in a combination antiretroviral treatment trial. Design and methods:AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) protocol 175 was a multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled, clinical trial. A total of 2467 subjects were randomized to one of four single or combination regimens, containing zidovudine (ZDV), didanosine (ddI), zalcitabine (ddC), and their respective placebos. Site investigators reported peripheral neuropathy, and the diagnosis of distal symmetrical neuropathy (DSP) was established by the study authors. Myalgia, muscle weakness and creatine phosphokinase (CPK) were prospectively assessed in a subset of the antiretroviral-naive cohort (n = 1067). Results:Of 222 site diagnoses of neuropathy, 109 (49%) were DSP. There was a significant difference between treatment arms for rate of DSP and time to first grade 2 or higher DSP (ZDV–ddC, 6%; ZDV, 4%; ZDV–ddI, 4%; ddI, 3%; P = 0.029). Age and Karnofsky score were significant predictors of DSP. Fifty-six (54%) out of 104 patients with DSP remained on study medication at full (n = 29) or reduced (n = 27) dose within 6 months of developing neuropathy. There was no significant difference between treatment arms in the rate of myalgia or muscle weakness. The median CPK of subjects on ZDV–ddC was significantly higher than other study treatments, although CPK levels did not correlate with symptoms of myopathy. Only six subjects were diagnosed with myopathy during the study (one ZDV–ddI, one ZDV–ddC, and four ddI). Conclusions:DSP and myopathy may occur with current dosing regimens of combination antiretroviral therapy, and should be diagnosed using stringent criteria. ZDV–ddC was associated with the highest rate of DSP, although features of myopathy were not significantly different between treatment regimens.


This letter presents the design and implementation of a 70 GHz millimeter-wave compact folded loop dual-mode on-chip bandpass filter (BPF) using a 0.18 mum standard CMOS process. A compact BPF, consisting of such a planar ring resonator structure having dual transmission zeros was fabricated and designed. The size of the designed filter is 650 X 670 mum2. Calculated circuit model, EM simulated and measured results of the proposed filter operating at 70 GHz are shown in a good agreement and have good performance. The filter has a 3-dB bandwidth of about 18 GHz at the center frequency of 70 GHz. The measured insertion loss of the passband is about 3.6 dB and the return loss is better than 10 dB within the passband.


The term "policy-based computing" refers to a software paradigm that incorporates a set of decision-making technologies into its management components in order to simplify and automate the administration of computer systems. A significant part of this simplification is achieved by allowing administrators and operators to specify management operations in terms of objectives or goals, rather than detailed instructions that need to be executed. A higher level of abstraction is thus supported, while permitting dynamic adjustment of the behavior of the running system without changing its implementation. This paper focuses on the application of the policy-based software paradigm to the automated provisioning architecture described elsewhere in this issue. We show how the use of policies can enhance utility computing services by making them more customizable and more responsive to business objectives.


The disturbance cancellation techniques are investigated in this paper for Passive Bistatic Radars. The conventional procedure is to compute a clean signal by iteratively constructing an error vector from the residual of the surveillance samples after subtraction of a linear combination of clutters samples. A weight vector is eventually extracted in pure block algorithms, while a weight matrix is computed in iterative schemes. It is illustrated in this paper that the computed weight matrix in the latter case contains valuable information describing the clutters properties. The weight matrix-based disturbance attenuation technique is then innovated and its effectiveness is compared to the conventional errorbased procedure in the test bed of several available iterative algorithms. Moreover, a revision of the FBLMS algorithm is presented to cover the case of complex input signals.


Pregnancy and lactation involve extra energy needs. As extra energy intakes over pregnancy and lactation are limited, and energy savings by reduced physical activity are assumed to be restricted, it has been postulated that during pregnancy and lactation, energy expenditure is further reduced by improved efficiency of energy metabolism. Such improved metabolic efficiency could be reflected in reduced diet-induced thermogenesis, and increased work efficiency. This hypothesis was addressed in a longitudinal study, including pre-pregnant baseline measurements, measurements in each trimester of pregnancy and measurements during lactation at 2 months post partum. No changes were observed in diet-induced thermogenesis or work efficiency during pregnancy (Chapters 2 and 3, respectively) and lactation (Chapter 5). The power of the study was sufficient to detect changes of physiologically importance in both parameters. As no metabolic adaptations appear to take place, we reassessed the magnitude of the imbalance between energy inputs and outputs during pregnancy and lactation. Pronounced underestimation of the energy savings by reduced physical activity might be the major cause of this imbalance (Chapter 4). Urge differences in the changes in energy intake and in physical activity are observed between subjects. This high between-subject variability implies that energy intake recommendations based on group averages may have only limited value for individual women.


OBJECTIVE
To isolate the effect of greater inpatient cost-sharing on Medicaid entry among Medicare beneficiaries.

DATA SOURCES
Medicare administrative data (years 2007-2010) were linked to nursing home assessments and area-level socioeconomic indicators.

STUDY DESIGN
Medicare beneficiaries who are readmitted to a hospital must pay an additional deductible ($1,100 in 2010) if their readmission occurs more than 59 days following discharge. In a regression discontinuity analysis, we take advantage of this Medicare benefit feature to test whether beneficiaries with greater cost-sharing have higher rates of Medicaid enrollment.

DATA EXTRACTION METHODS
We identified 221,248 Medicare beneficiaries with an initial hospital stay and a readmission 53-59 days later (no deductible) or 60-66 days later (charged a deductible).

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS
Among beneficiaries in low-socioeconomic areas with two hospitalizations, those readmitted 60-66 days after discharge were 21 percent more likely to join Medicaid compared with those readmitted 53-59 days following their initial hospitalization (absolute difference in adjusted risk of Medicaid entry: 3.7 percent vs. 3.1 percent, p = .01).

CONCLUSIONS
Increasing Medicare cost-sharing requirements may promote Medicaid enrollment among low-income beneficiaries. Potential savings from an increased cost-sharing in the Medicare program may be offset by increased Medicaid participation.


Abstract : This reference manual provides instructions for determining atomistic material properties important for modeling dislocations in the energetic molecular crystal RDX using the Large-Scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator (LAMMPS) molecular dynamics simulator. Detailed procedures are provided by describing LAMMPS input files and Linux shell scripts used for determining material properties such as elastic constants, minimized crystal structures from various loading conditions and generalized stacking fault energy surfaces of the minimized structures. Detailed descriptions of Matlab scripts are also provided for post-processing the simulation data. These procedures are well suited to molecular crystals where steric interactions across the slip plane can impede dislocation motion. All LAMMPS input and output files, shell scripts, and Matlab files for post-processing are available for download at: https://arlpartners2.arl.army.mil/hsai/projects/mesoscale/files/LAMMPS_RDX_GSFsurf.tar.gz.


The survival strategies of polar organisms at permanently or extremely cold temperatures and their application to cryobiology were reviewed here. In addition, ongoing studies on psychrophiles also were described. Psychrophiles are extremophiles that can grow and reproduce in cold temperatures, typically at ? 10 to 20℃. These organisms developed various mechanisms of adaptation to extremely cold environments. Polar organisms cope with these extreme physicochemical conditions using strategies such as avoidance, protection and partnership with other organisms. Understanding on the strategies adopted by polar organisms may provide insight on the physiological process that cells can go through during freezing. Cryopreservation may be able to take advantage of the findings described above. Currently, genomes of many cold-loving organisms have been sequenced and comparative genomics has revealed, at a molecular level, the characteristics of these organisms. The investigation of microorganisms on the polar glaciers may expand our understanding on the origin of life on Earth and other planets.


A simple procedure is used to formulate a Cu–Pb pair interaction function within the embedded atom (EAM) method framework. Embedding, density and pair functions for pure Cu and pure Pb are taken from previously published EAM studies. Optimization of the Cu–Pb potential was achieved by comparing with experiment the computed heats of mixing for Cu–Pb liquid alloys and the equilibrium phase diagram, the latter being determined via a thermodynamic integration technique. The topology of the temperature-composition phase diagram computed with this EAM potential is consistent with experiment and features a liquid–liquid miscibility gap, low solubility of Pb in solid Cu and a monotectic reaction at approximately 1012 K.


Recent works in the domain of deep learning for object recognition on common image classification benchmarks often address the representation learning problem under the assumption of i.i.d. input data. Although achieving satisfying results, this assumption seems not realistic when agents have to learn autonomously. An autonomous agent receives a continual visual flow of objects which is far from an i.i.d. distribution of objects. Moreover, agents have to construct their representations of the world and adapt to unknown environments, without relying on external sources of information such as labels that would be provided post-classification and are unavoidable when an over-segmentation is done. Then, in order to exploit the learned representation effectively for object recognition, a clear and meaningful relationship w.r.t. real object categories is required, which has been largely neglected in existing unsupervised algorithms.In this paper, we propose a novelty detection method for continual and unsupervised object recognition, as an extension for the recent CURL model, which allows to moderate over-segmentation while preserving accuracy, in order to meet the requirements for autonomy. We experimentally validated our approach on two standard image classification benchmarks, MNIST and Fashion-MNIST, in this unsupervised and continual learning setting and improve the state of the art in terms of cluster purity, which is crucial for subsequent object recognition, since it facilitates clustering when information on ground truth labels is not available for free.


Sixteen cases of postnatal cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection were identified in a neonatal intensive care unit population over a five year period. Eleven of these infants had gastrointestinal signs at the time of presentation. These ranged from minor and transient (abdominal distension and enteral feed intolerance) to severe and life threatening (protein losing enteropathy, diarrhoea, and hypernatraemic dehydration). An initial diagnosis of necrotising enterocolitis was common, but no infant showed intestinal or hepatic portal pneumatosis. The gestational age of the infants was 24–38 weeks. All had received fresh maternal breast milk. It is suggested that CMV enteritis is added to the spectrum of clinical manifestations of postnatal CMV infection. Signs suggestive of necrotising enterocolitis with atypical features should prompt investigations for CMV infection.


Abstract To assess the suitability of 99mTc labeled 5α-reductase (5α-Rds) inhibitors for non-invasive targeting of prostate cancer (PCa) using Male Sprague Dawely Rat (MSDR) model. In this work, dutasteride (Cpd-1) a 5α-Rds inhibitor was derivatized to its dithiocarbamate analogue (Cpd-2) for subsequent synthesis of 99mTc(CO)3-dutasteride dithiocarbamate (Cpd-3) using tricarbonyl technique. To determine the structure of Cpd-3, for the first time a reference Re(CO)3-dutasteride dithiocarbamate (Cpd-4) was synthesized and characterized with NMR, ESIMS, HPLC and elemental analysis. HPLC was used to establish the identity of Cpd-3 using Cpd-4 as a reference standard. The suitability of Cpd-3 as a new 5α-Rds targeting agent was investigated, both in vitro and vivo. The Cpd-3 has shown ≥98 % in vitro stability at room temperature and was remained ≥90 % stable up to 6 h. In serum Cpd-3 has revealed an analogous behavior with a small decrease in stability after 16 h. High uptake (26.25 ± 1.10 %, after 4 h of i.v.) of Cpd-3 was observed in the prostate (target tissue) of MSDR model with reasonably good target to non-target ratio. Blocking the target site with excess Cpd-2 considerably decreased the uptake of Cpd-3 to 4.10 ± 0.75 % in PCa. High in vitro stability in saline and serum and in vivo uptake in prostate of MSDR model plausibly attracts the opportunity of using Cpd-3 as a novel radiopharmaceutical for non invasive targeting of prostate.


This article offers 'insider perspectives' on participatory action research (PAR) by exploring the reflective narratives of older volunteer researchers who were involved in a recent participatory action research project into the needs, experiences and aspirations of older lesbian women and gay men (OLGs) living in Dorset, England. It explores in their own words the experiences of being a volunteer researcher on a project that explored the marginalized identities of older lesbians and gay men. The Gay and Grey project was funded for three years by the Big Lottery Fund, and was a joint initiative between Help and Care, a voluntary agency working with older people in Dorset, and Bournemouth University. In this article the volunteers offer narrative reflections on their involvement in this project, and what it meant to them. The tensions in participatory action research will be explored in terms of the different expectations of stake-holders in the research. Consideration will be given to what can be learnt from the narratives of volunteer researchers, and the issues of inclusivity within marginalized voices.


The fourth generation broadband (4GBB) concept aims for ubiquitous and high-speed data communication over the existing twisted copper pairs between the last distribution point and the customer premise equipment. Although it saves deployment cost for the last-mile communication, using the existing copper infrastructure makes the system vulnerable to crosstalk due to electro-magnetic coupling from the neighboring pairs.
Crosstalk is frequency-dependent and its interfering effects vary with implementation scenarios. When exploring higher frequencies and more functionality for the copper-based infrastructure, new practical problems emerge which opens up a space of unknowns to be investigated. This thesis deals with crosstalk, its effects, its mitigation, and approaches to exploit it in emerging systems and applications. Dividing the frequency range into three bands and taking into account the respective architecture's characteristics, precoding schemes are proposed that properly process the crosstalk to improve end-users' quality of experience.
Chapters I–III of this thesis cope with sudden termination changes that significantly degrade the delivered throughput to active users when using a frequency range from 30 MHz to 180 MHz. A general model that interprets the changed coupling environment is presented and analyzed. Efficient precoder updating procedures are proposed for both linear and non-linear precoding systems which minimize the disturbed period to active end-users.
Chapter IV designs modified linear precoders for rate-boosting by utilizing strong crosstalk between 150 MHz and 300 MHz. Taking advantage of a common network topology in a novel way, the proposed precoding schemes can add a decent amount of extra data-rate to target end-user(s) on top of the normal precoding schemes.
Finally, Chapters V–VII revisit the frequencies below 30MHz and investigate the potential of using the existing copper-based infrastructure as the analog fronthaul for small-cell densification of the mobile networks. An LTE-over-copper system is sketched and analyzed invoking 3GPP requirements. A time-domain precoding scheme is proposed that performs channel estimation using carried LTE signals and yields an effective channel that is crosstalk-free and has identical direct paths.


This research aims to describe how dyslexic children pronounce Arabic words in KȋbAr book, to mention the factors that can cause pronunciation change in dyslexic children and to know the effects of KȋbAr towards Arabic reading ability in elementary school students. The method used in this research is experimental with single subject and A-B-A design including baseline 1, intervention, and baseline 2. The subjects in this research are three third grade dyslexic students of elementary school of Sempu, Yogyakarta. The data are gathered with reading test and then the data are being analyzed statistically using descriptive method with visual graph both within and inter condition. The result suggested that there was in increase in students reading ability which was seen from the mean level of the three subjects. The mean in PAV subject increased in baseline 1 from 66.64% to 87.47% in the intervention stage and it further increased to 98.61% in baseline 2. The mean in subject AN also increased from 62.47% in baseline 1 to 80.56% in the invention stage. It further increased to 93% in baseline 2. Thirdly, the mean in subject GAS rose from 54.16% in baseline 1 to 76.4% in intervention stage and further improved to 87.47% in baseline 2. Thus, there were significant increases in all subjects. Subject VAG experience significant increase as much as 24.47% while subject AN increased as much as 30.53%. Similarly, the last subject, GAS showed a significant increased 33.31%. the percentage of overlapping data of the three subjects was 0% which meant that KȋbAr can increase students Arabic reading skill especially in Arabic hijaiyyah words


The nonlinear behavior of the modulational instability of nearly constant amplitude, weakly dispersive, weakly nonlinear circularly polarized MHD waves with an initial periodic modulation is studied. The phenomena of recurrence is discussed by results from a multiple time scale development near marginal growth, a numerical study for moderate wavenumbers and finally a study of qualitative dynamics for nearly constant wavetrains. The conclusion is that the phenomena of recurrence and slow randomization of periodic wave motion of nonlinear MHD waves can only occur for large wavenumbers compared to the marginal one. For wavenumbers near the marginal one, it is expected that an initially constant amplitude wave will break irreversibly into a broad spectrum of waves.


We examine graphitization of amorphous carbon (a-C) in a-C/Ni bilayer samples having the structure Si/SiO2/a-C(3–30 nm)/Ni(100 nm). In situ x-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements during heating in He at 3 °C/s to 1000 °C showed graphitic C formation beginning at temperatures T of 640–730 °C, suggesting graphitization by direct metal-induced crystallization, rather than by a dissolution/precipitation mechanism in which C is dissolved during heating and expelled from solution upon cooling. We also find that graphitic C, once formed, can be reversibly dissolved by heating to T>950 °C, and that nongraphitic C can be volatilized by annealing in H2-containing ambients.


ABSTRACT Why do wealthy people purchase citizenship in peripheral countries? This article investigates the demand for citizenship by investment programmes, which enable naturalisation based on a donation or financial investment. Extending research on long-distance naturalisation among the middle class and on residence by investment programmes, I examine the motives of the wealthy using citizenship by investment options. Based on over one hundred interviews with rich naturalisers and intermediaries in the citizenship industry, I find that mobility, both in the present and as a future hedge, is a strong driver, followed by business advantages. Often it is privileges in third countries – not the place granting the citizenship – that are sought. In contrast to middle-class strategic naturalisers, quality of life, education options, and job prospects were not important, though navigating geopolitical barriers and risks were. Many naturalisers were not compensating for the failures of their citizenship at birth, but manoeuvering within a world of state competition. Finally, some individuals inverted the citizenship hierarchy and downgraded from 'first tier' memberships when, after years of living abroad, their nationality became a liability. The conclusion elaborates on the duplex structure of intra-state and inter-state inequality that channels demand, and the implications for citizenship more broadly.


The substantial portions of the text came from Dr. Thomas Sowers research, "The Rhetoric of Political Conservativism in the Post-Reagan Era" presented at the Louisiana Political Science Association Annual Meeting in 2001.

 This article has been retracted to straighten the academic record. In making this decision the Editorial Board follows COPE's Retraction Guidelines. Aim is to promote the circulation of scientific research by offering an ideal research publication platform with due consideration of internationally accepted standards on publication ethics. The Editorial Board would like to extend its sincere apologies for any inconvenience this retraction may have caused.

 The full retraction notice in PDF is preceding the original paper, which is marked "RETRACTED".


This paper aims to assessing impact of reduction of non-point source pollution in the Bokha Stream watershed. The BASINS/HSPF model was calibrated and verified for water flow and water qualities using Total Maximum Daily Load 8days data from 2006 to 2007. Accuracy of the BASINS/HSPF models in simulating hydrology and water quality was compared and there were somewhat differences of statistical results, but water flow and water quality were simulated in good conditions over the study period. The applicability of models was tested to evaluate non-point source control scenarios to response hydrology and water quality in the Bokha stream using various measures which include BMPs approach and change of landuse. The evaluation of reduction of non-point source pollution was developed using load-duration curve. Despite strong reduction of non-point source, there are not satiated target quality at low flow season.


Controlling the position of Direct Current servo motor is the first aim of this paper, by Bacterial Foraging Algorithm (BFA), the best Proportional – Integral - Derivative (PID) controller parameters were obtained through Mat-Lab application, including the simulation and modeling of Direct Current servo motor, BFA controller and conventional PID Controller as benchmark to the performance of BFA. Proportional – Integral - Derivative controller is a closed loop system, the error made by the Direct Current motor was corrected and determine the correct position to the desired point were controlled By integrating the Proportional – Integral - Derivative controller. Kp, Ki and Kd parameters was tuned to the find best values, which make the Direct Current Motor reached quickly the accurate position without any mistake.


Introduction: A significant proportion of traumatic injuries sustained during the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq developed subsequent wound infections. Previous studies demonstrate lower infectious rates with timely administration of antibiotics, but do not evaluate impact on mortality. We compare demographics, injury characteristics, and survival rates among adult combat casualties receiving prehospital wound prophylaxis versus casualties not receiving antibiotic prophylaxis.Methods: We used a series of emergency department (ED) procedure codes to identify subjects within the Department of Defense Trauma Registry (DODTR) from January 2007 to August 2016. We included subjects that sustained a gunshot wound (GSW), traumatic amputation, or open-fracture proximal to the digits. We stratified our comparisons of characteristics between casualties receiving antibiotic prophylaxis to those not receiving antibiotic prophylaxis by specific injury pattern.Results: During the study period, our predefined ED search codes captured 28222 of the total 38769 subjects encountered in the DODTR. We identified 6662 subjects with a GSW, 1899 subjects with an amputation, and 6553 subjects with an open fracture. Among subjects with these injuries, 9.8% (1483 of 15114) received prehospital wound prophylaxis. There was no difference in survival to discharge rates between casualties that received prehospital wound prophylaxis and those that did not among subjects who sustained amputations (93.9% vs. 90.7%, p=0.271) or open fractures (96.8% versus 95.9%, p=0.368). In the GSW group, subjects that received antibiotics had a significantly higher survival rate compared to subjects that did not receive prehospital wound prophylaxis (96.2% versus 92.8%, p<0.001). This association persisted on multivariable regression analysis (OR 1.61, 95% CI 1.09-2.38).Conclusion: Military prehospital providers infrequently administered wound prophylaxis during the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. There is an association between prehospital administration of antibiotics and increased survival among casualties suffering gunshot wounds.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the endocrine abnormalities in intracranial germ cell tumors (iGCTs) treated with radio-therapy (RT), and to discuss the effects of RT on pituitary functions.

METHODS
Seventy-seven patients diagnosed with iGCTs who had received RT and endocrine follow-up in Huashan Hospital between January 2010 and July 2017 were retrospectively analyzed, consisting of 49 germinomas and 28 NGGCTs. The median follow-up period was 50.0 months. Fifty-one patients had radiologically proved suprasellar/sellar lesions.

RESULTS
The male to female ratio was 62/15. The median endocrine follow-up period was 19 (4, 42) months. The median age at the last endocrine visit was 18 (16, 20) years old. The 5-year overall and recurrence-free survival were both 98.7%. The overall prevalence of central adrenal insufficiency (CAI), central hypothyroidism (CHT), central hypogonadism (CHG), hyperprolactinemia, and central diabetes insipidus (CDI) was 57.3%, 56%, 56.6%, 35.3%, and 52.1%, respectively, after RT. Patients having suprasellar/sellar lesions showed significantly higher post-therapeutic prevalence of hypopituitarism than those who didn't. Compared to that before RT, CAI, CHT, and CHG weren't significantly improved while the levels of prolactin and the prevalence of CDI declined significantly (P =.03 and.001). The radiation doses to pituitary and hypothalamus between those with and without CAI, CHT, and CHG weren't significantly different.

CONCLUSION
The prevalence of hypopituitarism was high in iGCTs, especially in those with suprasellar/sellar involvement. The levels of prolactin and the prevalence of CDI declined significantly after RT. The hypopituitarism in iGCTs was mainly induced by tumor effects, and RT showed no additional damage to pituitary functions in our study.

ABBREVIATIONS
AFP = alpha-fetoprotein; CAI = central adrenal insufficiency; CDI = central diabetes insipidus; CHG = central hypogonadism; CHT = central hypothyroidism; CT = computed tomography; DA = dopamine; GH = growth hormone; βHCG = beta-human chorionic gonadotropin; HPA = hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal; HPG = hypothalamus-pituitary-gonadal; HPL = hyperprolactinemia; HPT = hypothalamus-pituitary-thyroid; iGCT = intracranial germ cell tumor; IGF-1 = insulin-like growth factor 1; NGGCT = nongerminomatous germ cell tumors; OS = overall survival; PFS = progression-free survival; PRL = hypothalamus-pituitary-prolactin; RT = radiotherapy.


Firearms research has been hindered by a persistent lack of high-quality, reliable, and timely data. Using social media data in firearms research is, therefore, appealing: these data are large in scale, continuously provided, passively obtained, inexpensive in some cases, and easily combined with data from traditional sources. We consider how social media data have been used in firearms research to date and how they can be best used moving forward. Despite the many advantages of using social media data, there are key analytical and ethical considerations associated with their use, including understanding the underlying population, constructing valid and reliable measures from shared content, the possibility of false data and misinformation through fake accounts, and concerns having to do with the privacy and consent of social media users. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, we show that there is a compelling case for the continued development of these data for firearms research and suggest principles for their responsible use in this context.


Histogram comparison is a popular technique for image and video indexing. The complexity of the technique can be reduced by representing the histogram by its moments. In this paper, we propose two techniques to improve the performance of the basic histogram/moment-based technique. First, we propose to use orthogonal Legendre moments for representing histograms. Since Legendre moments are orthogonal, they provide superior indexing performance compared to regular moments at a similar complexity. Secondly, we propose to compare the histograms of wavelet coefficients at different scales. The wavelet coefficients provide important directional information, and hence improve the performance of the basic histogram-based technique. The proposed scheme can be easily extended to color images and also be integrated into a wavelet-based image coder.


Abstract In this study the electric arc furnace slag was used as coarse natural aggregate substitute in concrete paving blocks production. The concrete mixture was defined by using weight proportions in the ratio of 1:2:3:0.51 (cement:sand:coarse aggregate:water) in order to obtain a compressive strength of 35 MPa. Four groups of concrete were prepared: a reference recipe and three others with the slag replacing the natural aggregate in the proportions of 25%, 50% and 75%. The compressive strength was not influenced by the slag content; however, it was influenced by the curing age, as the sample with 75% of slag addition had its compressive strength increased by 13.5% from 7 to 56 days. Water absorption presented a slightly reduction with slag addition. The results of compressive strength and water absorption met the Brazilian technical requirements, making the paving blocks suitable for use in light vehicle traffic. The results obtained in this study highlight the influence of the production process in the final quality of the steel slag, and the need of stablishing technical and environmental requirements to guide and promote the safe use of electric arc furnace slag in concrete.


This study was launched to investigate surface runoff and soil loss as affected by integration of conservation tillage with fanya juus at plot level. Runoff and soil loss were recorded through three tied isolated trenches and pegs which were installed on behind fanya juus. USLE soil erosion model was selected for validation. Result showed that conservation tillage significantly reduced soil loss as compared to traditional ploughed farm plots. Throughout the study period, 1534.0 and 794.8 m3/ha runoff volumes were recorded from traditional and conservation tillage systems, respectively. Thus runoff volumes induced 8.03 and 4.50 t/ha/month soil loss from traditional and conservation tillage systems, respectively. Reduction of runoff volume and soil loss in the conservation tillage system attributed to retarded movement of water in the presence of invisible barriers in each furrow that are laid along the contour. The result of USLE was found to be satisfactory result in both tillage treatments. The relative difference between measured and estimated soil loss were found to be 38.85 and 2.0 percent in traditional and conservation tillage treatments, respectively on wheat farm plot.


Rapid urbanization in the dry zone of Sri Lanka has resulted in considerable losses in its original forest cover. Urban expansion, which typically includes expansion of human settlements and commercial establishments, and the construction of linear infrastructural facilities (roads, railways, and transmission lines) have led to many adverse impacts on natural landscapes. Linear infrastructure would be particularly detrimental when natural habitats are fragmented. Here we report on the changes in green cover along a stretch of the Elahera-Giritale B112 road where reconstruction took place during 2017-2019. The road traverses through the Giritale Nature Reserve block II and Angamedilla National Park, in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka. The study area covered a 3.8 km section of the road, 80% of which runs through the protected areas, and a 1 km buffer on either side of this road. We monitored changes in forest cover over the two decades i.e., from 2000 to 2020, using differences in the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), calculated based on the images in Landsat 5,7 and 8 thematic mapper using the ArcGIS platform. The accuracy of the classified habitats was verified using Google Earth images and ground-truthing. Accordingly, non[1]vegetated areas and four types of vegetated areas were identified. The range of NDVI recorded were non-vegetated (0.14-0.39), grasslands (0.39-0.41), shrublands (0.41-0.48), open forests (0.48-0.54) and dense forests (0.54-0.74). The study revealed that there were considerable losses in the forest cover over the 20 years. The non-vegetated habitats within the buffer zone of 200 m on either side of the road accounted for 8.6% of the total non-vegetated areas in the year 2000 whereas this had increased to 15.4% in the year 2020. Similarly, losses were noted for dense and open forests. Scrublands, grasslands, and built-up areas on the other hand have increased, replacing the forest habitats. The findings highlight the need to monitor forest cover losses arising from such linear infrastructure facilities, particularly when they are within or adjacent to protected habitats, and for remedial measures to be taken to strengthen the protection of these vital ecosystems.
 Keywords: Forest cover, Fragmentation, NDVI, Roads


Multifrequency digital holographic reconstructions of primary sound sources embedded in scattering media are demonstrated. The sound field is measured with a scanning laser Doppler vibrometer (LDV) and broadening of the spectral content of the sound source is achieved by tuning the primary ultrasound (US) transducer around its resonance frequency. The results show that combining the complex amplitudes from the different frequency reconstructions results in a reduced susceptibility to multiple scattered sound and makes possible a quite thorough localization of the primary sound source. The depth resolution obtained is 11 US frequencies. This depth sensitivity is improved even further to only 2.8 wavelengths by applying a filter determined from the standard deviation over the phases.


The objectives of this bibliographic study were to identify and to characterize nursing scientific productions of organ donation and transplantation since 1997 to 2007. The LILACS, MEDLINE, BDENF, PERIENF AND DEDALUS databases were searched using the following keywords: "nursing and transplantation" and "nursing and donation", identifying 30 articles. The results had shown that the most of publications from the southeast region; the majority of approaching was qualitative; nurses were the main authors and the principal subjects were renal and hepatic transplantation. It was concluded that it is necessary more Brazilian nursing publications of organ donation and transplantation.


Mobility models play key role in design and development of simulation tools that generate realistic mobility movements to study and develop algorithms and procedures for Next Generation Networks. The lack of realistic nature in the existing Mobility Models demand decentralized distributed nature mobility pattern with path guiding mechanisms in tailor made simulation environment developed for Next Generation networks. This paper aims to develop a novel mobility model to generate mobile movement near to realistic nature. This paper also proposes path guiding nodes at significant points in order to change mobile movements based on the context of the mobile path.


In this paper, recent advances achieved on the development of a new system capable of continuously monitoring the structural health of steel and concrete bridges using wireless sensors are presented. This system will be able to harvest its own power from structural vibration and wind energy and, based on the data collected and on embedded algorithms, assess and predict the health of the structure. In order to reach this objective, this five-year project includes a series of tasks that encompass a variety of developments such as developing an ultra low power AE system, energy harvester hardware and especial sensors for passive and active acoustic wave detection. Thorough studies on acoustic emission produced by corrosion on reinforced concrete and by crack propagation on steel components, and the development of models that correlate AE data with component remaining life are also part of the project activities. This project is funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) through its Technology Innovation Program (TIP) under grant # 70NANB9H007.


In many urban centres of developing countries a large population is without access to water or are poorly served by the official water utilities. These rely on independent and small scale water providers (I&SSWPs). Such providers largely operate unofficially. Their role is often ignored or misunderstood and described negatively. This research aimed at examining water provision by I&SSWPs and the need to intergrate their services into the formal water supply as a possible means of improving water provision. The research was done through household water usage study and analysis of I&SSWPs. Key water stakeholders were also involved. Questionnaires, interviews, focus group discussions and workshops were used. In addition, water quality monitoring involving supply chain analysis combined with sanitary inspections was carried out. I&SSWPs operating under various business models bring basic water services to households in areas served. Water provision by I&SSWPs is complex resulting in interactions and overlaps between the formal and informal water provision. Some provide a 'virtual piped network' while where households have their own connections to official piped network discontinuity makes I&SSWPs the main sources. Through I&SSWPs with their own sources, households per capita water use improved remarkably. I&SSWPs generally operate competitively. Cost of water from I&SSWPs without their own sources is high for poor households, but would be pro-poor strategies are ineffective. I&SSWPs' income and profits vary, but water selling remains an important means of sustaining livelihoods. Although house-hold decision makers understand the importance of choosing safe drinking water, access factors can supersede resulting in the use of poor quality sources provided by some I&SSWPs. This research demonstrates the need to reconcile the vital services I&SSWPs provide with the need to improve practice to protect users and make services affordable. Consumers will benefit if the role I&SSWPs play can be recognized and enhanced to improve water provision.


Adaptive interference mitigation requires significant resources due to recursive processing. Specific to satellite systems, interference mitigation by employing adaptive beamforming at the gateway or at the satellite both have associated problems. While ground based beamforming reduces the satellite payload complexity, it results in added feeder link bandwidth requirements, higher gateway complexity and suffers from feeder link channel degradations. On the other hand, employing adaptive beamforming onboard the satellite gives more flexibility in case of variation in traffic dynamics and also for changing of beam patterns. However, these advantages come at the cost of additional complexity at the satellite. In pursuit of retaining the benefits of onboard beamforming and to reduce the complexity associated with adaptive processing, we here propose a novel semi-adaptive beamformer for a Hybrid Terrestrial-Satellite Mobile System. The proposed algorithm is a dual form of beamforming that enables adaptive and non-adaptive processing to coexist via a robust gradient based switching mechanism. We present a detailed complexity analysis of the proposed algorithm and derive bounds associated with its power requirements. In the scenarios studied, results show that the proposed algorithm consumes up to 98% less filter computing power as compared to full-adaptive case without compromising on system performance.


Lung cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and a leading cause of cancer-associated deaths worldwide. It is imperative to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying early lung cancer development so that better diagnostic and treatment options can be identified. We conducted a multi-platform genomic screen of stage I/II lung adenocarcinoma and non-tumor adjacent tissue excised from patients recruited into our ongoing NCI-MD Case-Control Study. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are 20-22 nucleotide non-coding RNAs that regulate mRNA transcription and translation through sequence-specific base pairing. miRNAs are transcribed from large pri-miRNAs as independent transcripts or within introns of protein-coding genes. Although it is unclear whether they possess independent promoter regions, several miRNAs are adjacent to CpG islands. CpG island methylation is a well-described mechanism by which genes and miRNAs with tumor-suppressive function are silenced in cancer. Such regulation could have important implications for progression of early stage lung cancer. Methods: Forty paired tumor and adjacent non-tumor tissues were characterized through methylation profiling using Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation27 BeadChip assays, miRNA expression profiling using Nanostring nCounter miRNA Expression Assay and mRNA expression profiling using Illumina HumanRef-8 v3 Expression Beadchip arrays. Consistency of methylation profiling was compared across three other cohorts of lung adenocarcinoma: TCGA (The Cancer Genome Atlas) lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) consisting of 23 matched-tissue pairs downloaded from the TCGA data portal; GSE32867, comprising 60 matched-tissue pairs published by Selamat et al. (Genome Res. 2012 Jul;22(7)) and downloaded from GEO; and a lung adenocarcinoma cohort from Japan consisting of 76 matched-tissue pairs. Additionally, in order to functionally validate miRNA-associated methylation we exposed A549 lung cancer cell line to a chromatin demethylation protocol of 5-aza/TSA. Results: We found seven miRNA loci hypermethylated in tumors. Four of these are located within homeobox gene clusters, miR-196b (HOXA9), miR-615 (HOXC5), miR-10a (HOXB4), and miR-10b (HOXD4). Two others are located adjacent to genes with significant changes in methylation, miR-638 (DNM2) and miR-639 (GPSN2). Increased methylation of miR-34b/c (BTG4) in lung tumors was consistent with prior studies. A comparative analysis of methylation at these loci showed a high concordance between our study and methylation profiling in three other cohorts of lung adenocarcinoma. Through microRNA expression profiling, we determined that miR-520e is the top downregulated miRNA in tumors. Interestingly, miR-520e belongs to a large microRNA cluster in 19q13.42 (miR-515 family) flanked by a CpG island. Functional validation of putative tumor-suppressor microRNAs is ongoing. We have confirmed that miR-615 and miR-520e are methylated and become demethylated and reactivated by exposure to a combination of 5-aza and TSA in-vitro. Conclusions: CpG sites associated with miRNAs are methylated in early stage lung adenocarcinoma across independent cohorts of lung cancer. Therefore, tumor suppressive miRNAs maybe epigenetically controlled through CpG island methylation in early stage lung adenocarcinoma. Analysis of their association with patient outcome is forthcoming. Citation Format: Ana I. Robles, Hirokazu Okayama, Saikartik A. Kumar, Zaneta Franklin, Elise D. Bowman, Daniel Edelman, Holly Stevenson, David Petersen, Ewy Mathe, Yae Kanai, Takashi Kohno, Naoto Tsuchiya, Paul Meltzer, Jun Yokota, Curtis C. Harris. Epigenetic regulation of microRNAs in early stage lung adenocarcinoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Third AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Basic Cancer Research; Sep 18-22, 2013; National Harbor, MD. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(19 Suppl):Abstract nr A47.


— Nowadays, Multimedia Communication has been developed and improved rapidly in order to enable users to communicate between each other over the Internet. In general, the multimedia communication consists of audio, video and instant messages communication. This paper surveys the functions and the privileges of different VoIP protocols (i.e. InterAsterisk eXchange Protocol (IAX), Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), and H.323 protocol), Multimedia Conferencing System (MCS) (i.e. Real Time Switching Control Protocol (RSW) and Multipoint File Transfer System (MFTS), and multimedia applications (i.e. ISO MPEG-4 standards). As well as, this paper make some comparisons among them in terms of codec, transport protocol, call setup format, etc.


Similarities between tumors and the inflammatory response associated with wound healing have been recognized for more than 150 years and continue to intrigue. Some years ago, based on our then recent discovery of vascular permeability factor (VPF)/VEGF, I suggested that tumors behaved as wounds that do not heal. More particularly, I proposed that tumors co-opted the wound-healing response to induce the stroma they required for maintenance and growth. Work over the past few decades has supported this hypothesis and has put it on a firmer molecular basis. In outline, VPF/VEGF initiates a sequence of events in both tumors and wounds that includes the following: increased vascular permeability; extravasation of plasma, fibrinogen and other plasma proteins; activation of the clotting system outside the vascular system; deposition of an extravascular fibrin gel that serves as a provisional stroma and a favorable matrix for cell migration; induction of angiogenesis and arterio-venogenesis; subsequent degradation of fibrin and its replacement by "granulation tissue" (highly vascular connective tissue); and, finally, vascular resorption and collagen synthesis, resulting in the formation of dense fibrous connective tissue (called "scar tissue" in wounds and "desmoplasia" in cancer). A similar sequence of events also takes place in a variety of important inflammatory diseases that involve cellular immunity. Cancer Immunol Res; 3(1); 1–11. ©2015 AACR.


The flexible constellation of technologies that comprise virtual environment (VE) systems provide many new opportunities for training. However, the lessons learned from decades of research in flight and driving simulation seem largely forgotten. This review recalls a set of long-term issues that will constrain the application of VE systems to training. In particular, the issues of cost effectiveness, interface usability, transfer of training, transfer theory, and training feedback are addressed. Training and research decisions that do not consider these issues are likely to result in programs and recommendations that do little to efficiently improve skills and knowledge.


Relapsing polychondritis is a rare disease of uncertain etiology, characterized by inflammation of cartilage. Cartilage of the respiratory tract is engaged in more than half of all cases. Hydralazine-induced systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE) is a well known disease. Females who are slow acetylators and are HLA-DR4 positive when treated with hydralazine are at serious risk of contracting SLE syndrome. We describe here a woman, treated for 10 years with hydralazine, who was a slow acetylator and was HLA-DR4 positive and who presented with a relapsing polychondritis and ultimately required a permanent tracheostoma. To our knowledge, this is the first published case of relapsing polychondritis induced by hydralazine.


This study investigates the spillover effects of the herding behavior of institutional investors in industries using the new spillover index. We further examine the lead-lag relationship between the herding spillover index and stock market. Finally, this paper furthers our understanding of the momentum strategy in industries. The empirical evidence indicates that industry herding in terms of semi-conductor manufacturing has had a significant impact on other types of industry herding. Second, since the industry herding spillover index and the selling industry herding spillover index have led to stock index returns, we conjecture that the industry herding spillover effect is a predicate to stock returns. Finally, the results support the claim that an institutional investor is an industry momentum trader. Moreover, we find that a long position in relation to higher or lower herding winners and a short position in relation to low herding losers yields good subsequent returns. JEL classification numbers: G02; G23Keywords: Industry herding, Spillover Index, Momentum