Management of hepatitis C virus (HCV) recurrence is a major challenge after liver transplantation. Significant dysregulated expression of HCV receptors (i.e. claudin‐1, occludin, tetraspanin CD81, scavenger receptor type B1) has been shown recently during HCV infection. This might facilitate hepatocytic entry and reinfection of HCV. MicroRNAs (miRs) play role in the regulation of gene expression. We aimed to characterize miR expression profiles related to HCV infection and antiviral therapy in adult liver transplant recipients, with special emphasis on miRs predicted to target HCV receptors.


Mechanical ventilation is a key form of life support for patients with pulmonary impairment. Healthcare workers are required to continuously adjust ventilator settings for each patient, a challenging and time consuming task. Hence, it would be beneficial to develop an automated decision support tool to optimize ventilation treatment. We present DeepVent, a Conservative Q-Learning (CQL) based offline Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) agent that learns to predict the optimal ventilator parameters for a patient to promote 90 day survival. We design a clinically relevant intermediate reward that encourages continuous improvement of the patient vitals as well as addresses the challenge of sparse reward in RL. We find that DeepVent recommends ventilation parameters within safe ranges, as outlined in recent clinical trials. The CQL algorithm offers additional safety by mitigating the overestimation of the value estimates of out-of-distribution states/actions. We evaluate our agent using Fitted Q Evaluation (FQE) and demonstrate that it outperforms physicians from the MIMIC-III dataset.


A 68-year-old asthmatic presented markedly unwell with arthralgia, mononeuritis multiplex, peripheral neuropathy, and eosinophilia. His past medical history included perennial rhinitis, and nasal polyps. Three months prior to admission his prednisolone was stopped and Montelukast was started. The diagnosis of Montelukast-associated Churg-Strauss syndrome was made. The drug was stopped and steroids started with general improvement and reduction of eosinophilia; however, the neurological deficit persisted.


BACKGROUND
Age-related auditory processing deficits have been shown to negatively affect speech recognition for older adult listeners. In contrast, older adults gain benefit from their ability to make use of semantic and lexical content of the speech signal (i.e., top-down processing), particularly in complex listening situations. Assessment of auditory processing abilities among aging adults should take into consideration semantic and lexical content of the speech signal.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of lexical and attentional factors on dichotic speech recognition performance characteristics for older adult listeners.

RESEARCH DESIGN
A repeated measures design was used to examine differences in dichotic word recognition as a function of lexical and attentional factors.

STUDY SAMPLE
Thirty-five older adults (61-85 yr) with sensorineural hearing loss participated in this study.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Dichotic speech recognition was evaluated using consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) word and nonsense CVC syllable stimuli administered in the free recall, directed recall right, and directed recall left response conditions.

RESULTS
Dichotic speech recognition performance for nonsense CVC syllables was significantly poorer than performance for CVC words. Dichotic recognition performance varied across response condition for both stimulus types, which is consistent with previous studies on dichotic speech recognition. Inspection of individual results revealed that five listeners demonstrated an auditory-based left ear deficit for one or both stimulus types.

CONCLUSIONS
Lexical content of stimulus materials affects performance characteristics for dichotic speech recognition tasks in the older adult population. The use of nonsense CVC syllable material may provide a way to assess dichotic speech recognition performance while potentially lessening the effects of lexical content on performance (i.e., measuring bottom-up auditory function both with and without top-down processing).


A novel HPDS with dovetail-like diversion grooves was proposed, and the geometry outline of the dovetail-like diversion groove. CFD commercial software was used to simulate the three-dimensional flow field of the dovetail-like hole-pattern damping seal (D-HPDS). The leakage characteristics of the damping seals with a typical circular hole, leaf-like hole and dovetail-like hole were compared numerically and experimentally. The three-velocity zone model of HPDS was proposed to reveal the mechanism of leakage reduction effect of the D-HPDS compared with typical C-HPDS. The influence of operating parameters and key geometric parameters on leakage characteristics of the D-HPDS was studied. The results show that the leakage rate of the D-HPDS can be reduced significantly in a wide range of operating conditions compared with the typical C-HPDS, and the maximum reduction amplitude of leakage rate reaches up to 25% at a relatively small pressure ratio. The main reasons for the leakage reduction of the D-HPDS can be explained by the fact that the change of outflow direction from the cavity induced by the interaction effect of adjacent cavities, further resulting in the formation of turbulent vortex in the cavity and the low-speed flow zone in the sealing gap. For the design goal of low leakage rate, the inclined angle of dovetail-like diversion groove is appropriate between 45° and 55°, the tip extension ratio is appropriate between 0.8 and 0.95


BACKGROUND
Initial data indicate that long-term weight loss for patients who have undergone laparoscopic adjustable silicone gastric banding (LASGB) may be inadequate. It is anticipated that many of these patients will require revision in the next few years. The procedure of choice for such a revision is unknown.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Two LASGB patients, who underwent a laparoscopic gastric band removal with a conversion to a biliopancreatic diversion with a duodenal switch (BPD/DS), are presented.

RESULTS
Their procedures were completed without intraoperative complications. Significant weight loss over 12 and 13 months was achieved.

CONCLUSION
The BPD/DS, as opposed to the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RGB), is well suited for LASGB revision, as its proximal anastomosis is at the duodenum, away from the gastric band scar tissue. Our experience performing laparoscopic BPD/DS has yielded satisfactory weight loss results without the need for revision.


RATIONALE
Effects of synthetic kappa opioid receptor agonists on cocaine-induced reward have been studied extensively in rats but relatively few studies have used the endogenous kappa agonist dynorphin A(1-17).

OBJECTIVES
Three studies were conducted to examine the effect of the natural sequence dynorphin on cocaine-induced increases in dopamine, on the formation of conditioned place preference and on increases in locomotor activity in C57BL/6 J mice.

METHODS
After implantation of guide cannulae into the caudate putamen, mice were allowed 4-5 days to recover from surgery. In the first study, dynorphin A (0, 1, 2, 4.4 nmol) was infused into the caudate putamen and dopamine levels were measured by in vivo microdialysis in that brain region. Then, the effect of dynorphin A (4.4 nmol) on increases in dopamine levels induced by 15 mg/kg cocaine i.p. was also measured with in vivo microdialysis. The third experiment examined the effect of dynorphin A (4.4 nmol) on conditioned place preference and locomotion induced by 15 mg/kg cocaine.

RESULTS
Dynorphin A significantly decreased basal dopamine levels in a dose-dependent manner by more than 60% at the highest dose, and this effect was completely blocked by pre-injection of the kappa-opioid receptor antagonist nor-BNI (10 mg/kg). The highest dose of dynorphin (4.4 nmol) blocked increases in dopamine levels, the formation of conditioned place preference and attenuated locomotion induced by 15 mg/kg cocaine.

CONCLUSION
The blockade of the cocaine-induced rise in striatal dopamine may contribute to both dynorphin's ability to prevent the development of cocaine-induced conditioned place preference and to attenuate the increase in locomotor activity.


This paper highlights the advantages or simulation tools to understand application-engineering issues in energy efficiency project development by taking the case of a glass processing facility. Simulation of the proposed case was carried out to ascertain whether the acceleration and deceleration time of the blower and the thermal and mechanical stresses in the system were within the permissible limits. Simulation helped in taking into account the potential problems. In the system possibly arising due to the stress generated and thus helped in developing a proper solution. It also indicated that the success of the project largely depended on the application engineering aspects showing the cruciality of the approach undertaken.


Simple Summary Tumor-suppressor genes are involved in DNA break repair through the homologous recombination system and are widely known for their role in hereditary cancer. Beyond breast and ovarian cancer, prostate and pancreatic cancer also have targetable homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) beyond the well-known BRCA1 and BRCA2 with relevance that exceeds diagnostic purposes. In this review, we aim to summarize the roles of HRD across tumor types and the treatment landscape to guide the targeting of damaged DNA repair based on the cancer's genetic features. Abstract BRCA1 and BRCA2 are the most recognized tumor-suppressor genes involved in double-strand DNA break repair through the homologous recombination (HR) system. Widely known for its role in hereditary cancer, HR deficiency (HRD) has turned out to be critical beyond breast and ovarian cancer: for prostate and pancreatic cancer also. The relevance for the identification of these patients exceeds diagnostic purposes, since results published from clinical trials with poly-ADP ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors (PARPi) have shown how this type of targeted therapy can modify the long-term evolution of patients with HRD. Somatic aberrations in other HRD pathway genes, but also indirect genomic instability as a sign of this DNA repair impairment (known as HRD scar), have been reported to be relevant events that lead to more frequently than expected HR loss of function in several tumor types, and should therefore be included in the current diagnostic and therapeutic algorithm. However, the optimal strategy to identify HRD and potential PARPi responders in cancer remains undefined. In this review, we summarize the role and prevalence of HRD across tumor types and the current treatment landscape to guide the agnostic targeting of damaged DNA repair. We also discuss the challenge of testing patients and provide a special insight for new strategies to select patients who benefit from PARPi due to HRD scarring.


Conventional tracking filters using feedback control encounter a hang-up problem when fast acquisition is required in high-speed TDMA systems. This paper introduces a feedforward tracking filter (FTF) which solves the hang-up problem. Using two identical bandpass filters (BPF5) and feedforward control to compensate both phase and frequency variations, this FTF provides fast acquisition and unconditional stability. Different BPF configurations used in the FTF scheme are evaluated and it is found that, for the same noise bandwidth of the BPF, the FTF using two identical double-tuned BPFs provides the best performance. The fast acquisition of the FTF is not degraded by the inter-burst-interference encountered in TDMA applications. The effects of misaligned BPFs on the tracking performance are studied analytically and experimentally.


The article examines European integration as a historical process of the implementation of strategic idea of the United Europe. The project of the United Europe was born largely out of the desire to prevent military conflicts among European countries. The author analyzes the stages of this project's development, as well as the emergence of new European institutes and their specific character. The process of European unification was accompanied by active discussions between the Euro-Enthusiasts and the Euro-Sceptics, concerning the scale of political and economic transformations, functions and competences of national states within the boundaries of integration, as well as guaranteeing their sovereignty and security within the union. The author stresses the role of European states and the USA in shaping post-war global politics, and analyzes the complex relations of the new political entity with the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. Particular attention is paid to the European integration process after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the bipolar world, in the conditions of construction of new democratic states in the post-socialist space, which led to the political and military crisis within European borders, the revision of the European integration project, the strengthening of separatist nationalist tendencies in the EU and the intensification of the criticism aimed at the integration ideology. The subject of criticism became the lack of democratic participation and the growing power of unelected, high-paid and wasteful European bureaucracy. The growing discontent with the EU institutes among the population of national states reflects the crisis of the project of a United Europe and the growing antagonism between the European bureaucracy and the national elites of European states. This antagonism can only be resolved by remodeling the EU policy in modern conditions.


Islamic boarding schools as religious education institutions have the main objectives, namely; preparing santri to master the knowledge of Islam (taffaqquh fi al din), then followed by propaganda spreading Islam and the stronghold of the people in the field of morals. Al Urwatul Wutsqo Islamic Boarding School Diwek Jombang includes educational institutions that contribute to the nation by holding promotions to encourage the public to obtain the proper education. The purpose of this study was to determine the promotional strategies in marketing management in the Al Urwatul Wutsqo Islamic Boarding School Diwek Jombang. This type of research is field research. The results of the study indicate that the promotion strategy uses tools; electronic media, stickers, banners, wall clocks, calendars, and personal selling. Marketing management through the stages of planning, organization, actualization, evaluation. The supporting factors are vision, motivation from caregivers, santri whose loyalty and totality and promotional tools are quite interesting. The inhibitors are santri / ustadz who are not visionary and semisi with Islamic boarding schools and some weaknesses of promotional tools. The conclusion of this study is that the implementation of promotional strategies in marketing management of the Al Urwatul Wutsqo Islamic Boarding School Diwek Jombang uses existing management tools and functions in the company's marketing management.


Wood chip thickness is an important factor in pulp quality and yield. An artificial neural network model was developed and incorporated into a growth and yield simulator to predict wood chip thickness distributions from stand and tree characteristics. Models based on direct parameter estimation and parameter recovery were also developed for comparison to the neural network. Data were derived from 11,771 individual loblolly pine chip thickness measurements. Four stand ages, five dbh (diameter at breast height) classes, and three stem positions were used to predict the cumulative proportion of chip weight per chip thickness class. Results showed that the neural network model was superior to the two deterministic models on the basis of bias, root mean square error, and index of fit. Sensitivity analyses for the neural network model demonstrated that thicker chips were produced by younger stands and lower stem positions. The neural network was combined with a growth and yield simulator to demonstrate its use as a tool for procurement foresters and mill managers in predicting yields from stands of given characteristics.


Onco-nephrology is an evolving subspecialty that focuses on the complex relationships existing between kidney and cancer. In this opinion piece, we propose a 'decalogue of onco-nephrology', in order to highlight the areas where the nephrologist and oncologist should work closely over the ensuing years to provide cutting-edge care for patients afflicted with cancer and kidney disease. The 10 points we have highlighted include (1) acute kidney injury and chronic kidney disease in cancer patients; (2) nephrotoxic effects of anticancer therapy, either traditional chemotherapeutics or novel molecularly targeted agents; (3) paraneoplastic renal manifestations; (4) management of patients nephrectomized for a kidney cancer; (5) renal replacement therapy and active oncological treatments; (6) kidney transplantation in cancer survivors and cancer risk in ESRD patients; (7) oncological treatment in kidney transplant patients; (8) pain management in patients with cancer and kidney disease, (9) development of integrated guidelines for onco-nephrology patients and (10) clinical trials designed specifically for onco-nephrology. Following these points, a multidisciplinary onco-nephrology team will be key to providing outstanding, cutting-edge care in both the acute and chronic setting to these patients.


People seeking information through search engines are assumed to behave similarly, regardless of the topic which they are searching. Here we use mouse tracking, which is correlated with gaze, to show that the information seeking patterns of people differ dramatically depending on their level of anxiety at the time of the search. We investigate the behavior of people during searches for medical symptoms, ranging from benign indications, where users are not usually anxious, to ones which could harbinger life-threatening conditions, where extreme anxiety is expected. We show that for the latter, 90% of people never saw more than the top 67% of the screen, compared to over 95% scanned by people seeking information on benign symptoms, even though relevant documents are similarly distributed in the results pages to these queries. Based on this observation, we develop a model which can predict the level of anxiety experienced by a user, using attributes derived from mouse tracking data and other user interactions. The model achieves Kendall's Tau of 0.48 with the medical severity of the symptoms searched. We show the importance of using information about the users? level of anxiety as predicted by the model, when measuring search engine performance. Our results prove that ignoring this information can lead to significant over-estimation of performance. Additionally, we show the utility of the model in three special instances: where multiple symptoms are searched concurrently; where the searcher has an underlying medical condition; and when users seek information on ways to commit suicide. In the latter, our results demonstrate the importance of help-line notices, and emphasize the need to measure the effective number of results seen by the user. Our results indicate that measures of relevance which use anxiety information can lead to more accurate understanding of the quality of search results, especially when delivering potentially life-saving information to users.


SEB Privatisation: Transcending the Issue of Ownership Subodh Wagle Girish Sant Shantanu Dixit WE are glad that EPW is continuing the debate on the important issue of power sector privatisation. Arun Ghosh, in his article (EPW, July 19) argues that APSEB has been working most efficiently and, with limited tariff hike, not just APSEB but all SEBs can raise the required resources for expansion. Hence, for him, privatisation of SEBs and their unbundling are not needed and are unnecessarily promoted by the World Bank and other pro-privatisation lobbies. To support his arguments, he cites data regarding plant availability, auxiliary consumption and the tariff hike required to achieve 3 per cent ROR. His opposition to privatisation arises mainly from fears of rent seeking by politicians and officials, expropriation of assets and excessive profiteering by the private sector and failure to arrive at sector-level optimality due to the proposed unbundling. He predicts that the proposed privatisation of APSEB will lead to high cost of power resulting in loss of access for rural consumers (including farmers) with adverse impacts on food security and development of rural areas.


Introduction: Activation of Poly ADP-ribose polymerase 1 (PARP1) contributes to tissue damage during ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury due to rapid depletion of NAD+ and ATP pools causing cellular dysfunction and death. We hypothesized that inhibiting PARP1 would not only reduce myocardial infarct (MI) size in mice, but that the reduced energy depletion might also help preserve LV geometry early after MI. Methods and Results for Acute MI: Panel A) In the study of MI size, ~12 wk old C57BL/6 mice were subject to 30 min LAD occlusion followed by 120 min reperfusion. Risk region and infarct size were assessed by Phthalo blue and TTC staining. Treatment with a PARP1 inhibitor starting 5 min before reperfusion and continuing for 2 hr significantly reduced infarct size in a dose-dependent manner (p≤0.05 by ANOVA, n=8-9/group) compared to controls, reaching a 64% reduction at a dose of 3.6 μmol/kg, IP (plasma conc. ~200nM). Methods and Results for Acute Pump Failure: Panel B) To test if PARP1 inhibition could protect against acute pump failure after MI, mice were first subject to 40 min LAD occlusion and 60 min reperfusion to obtain similar MI sizes, then treated with either vehicle or 3.6 μmol/kg PARP1 inhibitor over the next 2 hr (n=8/group). At 24 hr post reperfusion, left ventricular (LV) volumes were evaluated from base to apex with 2D echo (Vevo 2100). Risk region and MI size were quantified after imaging to confirm no significant difference in infarct size. Compared to control mice, delayed PARP1 inhibition significantly reduced both LV EDV (18.1%, p≤0.05) and LV ESV (24.1%, p≤0.05). Conclusions: PARP1 inhibition initiated before and maintained during reperfusion reduces MI size. In the second study, we showed for the first time that delayed PARP1 inhibition attenuates acute LV dilation, independent of its ability to reduce MI size. Together, these findings suggest that PARP1 inhibition may prove beneficial in the settings of both acute MI and acute pump failure.


Neurotransmitters act as trophic factors during brain development, regulating expression of genes that control cellular differentiation. One example of this trophism is the beta adrenergic signaling cascade: activation of beta receptors leads sequentially to increased cyclic AMP (cAMP), augmented expression of the nuclear transcription factor, c-fos, and induction of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC), an enzyme obligatory for neuronal development. After neonatal lesioning of noradrenergic nerves with 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA), beta receptors become uncoupled from ODC induction in the cerebellum, a region that undergoes its peak of cell replication/differentiation postnatally. The present study investigates the mechanism for uncoupling of beta receptors from response elements. In the cerebellum, 6-OHDA had minor effects on beta receptor binding capabilities and caused slight supersensitivity of the beta adrenergic response of adenylate cyclase; the latter reflected increased expression of cyclase catalytic subunits, rather than a specific effect on beta receptor coupling. In contrast, the linkage of cAMP to cerebellar c-fos expression showed marked deficiencies in lesioned animals and a corresponding loss of the ability of beta receptors to induce c-fos; accordingly, this is a likely point at which beta adrenergic control of ODC is programmed by neuronal input. A critical period exists for neurotrophic influence: the alterations persisted past the point at which cerebellar norepinephrine levels recovered, and comparable effects did not occur in earlier-developing regions. In the forebrain, for example, neonatal lesions produced receptor upregulation and supersensitivity of c-fos to cAMP stimulation. These results suggest that presynaptic input is vital in programming beta adrenergic responsiveness during a critical period of development, and that interruption of transsynaptic events occurring at this time can lead to lasting alterations in neuronal differentiation and responsiveness.


Background: Up to 30% of gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA) overexpress HER2. ZW25 is a novel bispecific antibody that targets HER2 domains ECD2 and ECD4, resulting in multiple differentiated and unique mechanisms of action, including increased antibody binding density and improved receptor internalization and downregulation relative to trastuzumab. In an ongoing phase 1 trial (ZWI-ZW25-101; NCT02892123), single-agent ZW25 was well tolerated and showed promising anti-tumor activity across HER2-expressing solid tumors. This abstract presents data for GEA patients treated with ZW25 in combination with chemotherapy in Study ZWI-ZW25-101. Methods Eligible patients had HER2-expressing (IHC 3+, IHC 2+/FISH+, or IHC 2+/FISH-) GEA and had disease progression after 1–3 lines of prior chemotherapy for advanced and/or metastatic disease. Fresh or archived tumor tissue was required for central review of HER2 status, although patients could be enrolled based on local results. Patients received ZW25 in combination with paclitaxel or capecitabine. Evaluations included standard safety assessments, tumor re-staging (Q8W by RECIST 1.1), and assessment of peak/trough pharmacokinetic (PK) levels during each cycle. Results To date, 14 patients have been enrolled, with safety and efficacy data available for 11. ZW25 was administered in combination with paclitaxel (n=5) or capecitabine (n=6). The median age was 62 yrs (range, 26-80). The median number of prior anti-cancer regimens was 3 and the median number of prior HER2-targeted therapies was 1. Six patients (55%) were HER2 IHC3+ or IHC2+ and FISH+ per central review. The most common adverse events (AEs) considered related to ZW25 or ZW25 and chemotherapy were diarrhea (n=5; 45%), fatigue (n=3; 27%), and nausea (n=3; 27%); the majority of events were Grade 1 or 2. Grade 3 or higher events considered related to ZW25 or ZW25 and chemotherapy occurred in 3 patients (27%), including fatigue, hypokalemia, and neutropenia (n=1 each). One additional patient experienced a Grade 5 serious adverse event of pneumonitis, reported as related to the combination of ZW25 and paclitaxel. This patient had been previously treated with trastuzumab, cisplatin, and capecitabine; pembrolizumab and margetuximab; and most recently DS8201, and had asymptomatic interstitial lung disease at study entry. A total of 9/11 patients (82%) had measurable disease and 8/9 (89%) were response-evaluable. The objective response rate was 63% (95% CI: 25, 92) (5/8 patients; all partial responses, with 4 confirmed to date) and the disease control rate was 75% (6/8 patients). Responses were seen in patients with FISH+ and FISH- disease, as well as in combination with either paclitaxel or capecitabine. Patients have received between 1 and 12 cycles of treatment and 4 patients remain on treatment. PK data will be presented at the meeting. Conclusions The combination of ZW25 with chemotherapy was generally well tolerated in heavily pre-treated patients with HER2 high- and low-expressing GEA and the preliminary anti-tumor activity is promising. Further evaluation of the safety and efficacy of ZW25 in combination with standard of care chemotherapy regimens has been initiated in frontline GEA (ZW25-201; NCT03929666). Citation Format: Funda Meric-Bernstam, Jorge Chaves, Do-Youn Oh, Jeeyun Lee, Yoon-Koo Kang, Erika Hamilton, Jose Mayordomo, Melody Cobleigh, Christos Vaklavas, Elena Elimova, Jaffer Ajani, Jordi Rodon, Gerry Rowse, Todd Gray, Rose Lai, Diana Hanna. Safety and efficacy of ZW25, a HER2-targeted bispecific antibody, in combination with chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced and/or metastatic HER2-expressing gastroesophageal cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2019 Oct 26-30; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2019;18(12 Suppl):Abstract nr B001. doi:10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-19-B001


We present a measurement of angular observables and a test of lepton flavor universality in the $B\to K^\ast\ell\ell$ decay, where $\ell$ is either $e$ or $\mu$.
For the first time, the angular analysis in the $B\to K^\ast\ell\ell$ decay is performed separately for the electron and muon channels.
The analysis is performed using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $711~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ containing $772\times 10^{6}$ $B\bar B$ pairs, collected at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at the asymmetric-energy $e^+e^-$ collider KEKB.


Synchrotron radiation from hot gas near a black hole results in a polarized image. The image polarization is determined by effects including the orientation of the magnetic field in the emitting region, relativistic motion of the gas, strong gravitational lensing by the black hole, and parallel transport in the curved spacetime. We explore these effects using a simple model of an axisymmetric, equatorial accretion disk around a Schwarzschild black hole. By using an approximate expression for the null geodesics derived by Beloborodov (2002) and conservation of the Walker-Penrose constant, we provide analytic estimates for the image polarization. We test this model using currently favored general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of M87*, using ring parameters given by the simulations. For a subset of these with modest Faraday effects, we show that the ring model broadly reproduces the polarimetric image morphology. Our model also predicts the polarization evolution for compact flaring regions, such as those observed from Sgr A* with GRAVITY. With suitably chosen parameters, our simple model can reproduce the EVPA pattern and relative polarized intensity in Event Horizon Telescope images of M87*. Under the physically motivated assumption that the magnetic field trails the fluid velocity, this comparison is consistent with the clockwise rotation inferred from total intensity images.


Since the 1990s European conservative-corporatist welfare states have expanded public support for child- and eldercare needs. This is in marked contrast to Southern European countries, of which Italy is a paradigmatic example. In Italy, the traditional configuration (limited development of social services coupled with the importance of informal care, mainly provided by women) has recently come under strain, also because of the increasing employment of women. Nonetheless, rather than the development of new policies, this has given rise to a hybrid combination of informal care and the development of a loosely regulated and little supported care market. In this sense, the article asks why care in Italy has been "going private" instead of "going public". It is argued that cultural features and political ideology do not provide a sufficient explanation: in addition to sharp financial constraints, the structure and functioning of the state and labor market and migration regulation need to be considered.


OBJECTIVES Biochemical markers for Alzheimer's disease would be of great value, especially to help in diagnosis early in the course of the disease. A pronounced increase in CSF tau protein (CSF-tau) is found in most patients with Alzheimer's disease. However, the specificity has to be further studied, as an increase in CSF-tau has also been found in other dementias, especially in vascular dementia. As most previous CSF studies have been based on selected inpatients, it was considered of special interest to examine the diagnostic potential of CSF-tau in a community population based sample of consecutive patients with dementia. Such patient material has been examined at the Piteå River Valley Hospital in Northern Sweden since 1986, and includes all those with memory disturbances in the community. The aim was also to study if an increase in CSF-tau is found early in the disease process, and whether CSF-tau changes during the progression of disease. METHODS Participants: Community population based sample of 75 demented patients (43 with Alzheimer's disease, 21 with vascular dementia, and 11 with mixed Alzheimer's disease/vascular dementia), 18 healthy subjects, and 18 neurological controls. A follow up investigation (including analysis of a new CSF sample) was performed in all patients after about one year. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Concentrations of total (both normal tau and PHF-tau) tau in CSF, clinical measures (duration and severity of dementia), and apoE polymorphism. RESULTS CSF-tau was markedly increased in Alzheimer's disease, 41/43 (95%) patients had values above the cut off level (mean+2 SD) in controls (306 pg/ml). High CSF-tau concentrations were also found in most patients with vascular dementia, preferentially in patients with vascular dementia without progressive leukoaraiosis on CT, whereas patients with vascular dementia with progressive leukoaraiosis had normal CSF-tau. Concentrations of CSF-tau were stable at one year follow up in both patients with Alzheimer's disease and patients with vascular dementia, and there was no correlation between CSF-tau and either duration or severity of dementia. CONCLUSIONS The findings confirm the high sensitivity of CSF-tau for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, but high CSF-tau was also found in vascular dementia, resulting in a lower specificity. However, high CSF-tau is preferentially found in patients with vascular dementia without progressive leukoaraiosis, which may constitute a group with concomitant Alzheimer's disease pathology. High CSF-tau may be present during the whole course of the disease in Alzheimer's disease. Possibly, therefore, the same high CSF-tau concentrations may be present before the onset of clinical dementia. Follow up studies on such patients will tell whether analysis of CSF-tau is useful as a biochemical marker for early Alzheimer's disease.


One of the most widely known effects in nano electronics is the Coulomb-blocked effect which reduces the shot noise in a device. However, the effect of shrinking of the size is not always so beneficial, shot noise can even increase, because of other effects. Moreover, other types of noises and new effects can set strong limits for device performance. From classical knowledge on device noise, an increased 1/f noise and increased effective thermal noise voltage and quantum uncertainty noises are expected which imply performance limitations at the low frequency and high frequency ends, respectively. The results is a reduced long-term stability an increased frequency of false-bit-switching or false alarm events. These considerations can help us to understand why biology is using neural spikes. From the research-and- development side, the original and engineering of conductance noise is often an unsolved problem. For example, in carbon nanotubes, the published experimental results are contradictory and it is not possible to draw a final conclusion about the nature and possible ways of engineering this crucial kind of noise source. It is important to realize that more active noise sources do not always mean limitation of performance. In chemical sensing applications, the measurement of noise can be used to detect chemical agents and their composition with a great selectivity and sensitivity, because the chemical fragments dynamically interact with the current transport in the device. This is the situation when the noise in nano-sensors has a great advantage as compared to the noise in classical devices. The increased specific surface of nanostructures and the large number of possible structural combinations have a great potential for both gas and fluid sensing application s via noise analysis.


GlycoSuiteDB is an annotated and curated relational database of glycan structures reported in the literature. It contains information on the glycan type, core type, linkages and anomeric configurations, mass, composition and the analytical methods used by the researchers to determine the glycan structure. Native and recombinant sources are detailed, including species, tissue and/or cell type, cell line, strain, life stage, disease, and if known the protein to which the glycan structures are attached. There are links to SWISS-PROT/TrEMBL and PubMed where applicable. Recent developments include the implementation of searching by 2D structure and substructure, disease and reference. The database is updated twice a year, and now contains over 7650 entries. Access to GlycoSuiteDB is available at http://www.glycosuite.com.


Non-holonomic vehicles are of immense practical value and increasingly subject to automation. However, controlling them accurately, e.g., when parking, is known to be challenging for automatic control methods, including model predictive control (MPC). Combining results from MPC theory and sub-Riemannian geometry in the form of homogeneous nilpotent system approximations, this paper pro-poses a comprehensive, ready-to-apply design procedure for MPC controllers to steer controllable, driftless nonholonomic vehicles into given setpoints. It can be ascer-tained that the resulting controllers nominally asymptotically stabilize the setpoint for a large-enough prediction horizon. The design procedure is exemplarily applied to four vehicles, including the kinematic car and a differentially driven mobile robot with up to two trailers. The controllers use a non-quadratic cost function tailored to the non-holonomic kinematics. Novelly, for the considered example vehicles, it is proven that a quadratic cost employed in an otherwise similar controller is insufficient to reliably asymptotically stabilize the closed loop. Since quadratic costs are the conventional choice in control, this highlights the relevance of the findings. To the knowledge of the authors, it is the first time that MPC controllers of the proposed structure are applied to non-holonomic vehicles beyond very simple ones, in particular (partly) on hardware.


Contamination by organic matters, nutrient, pathogenic bacteria, micro pollutant and detergent/surfactant caused quality decrease of water in tidal zone. This study was aimed to evaluate quality of various water resources and to elaborate correlation between tidal environment condition and water resources quality at Muliasari village district of Tanjung Lago. Water sample was taken by purposive sampling method. Analysis result using Storet method showed average value of several parameters at high tide are: temperature 31.37°C;TSS 74.28 mg/L;pH 3.38; salinity 1.82; DO 5.05 mg/L; BOD 32.51 mg/L; COD 98.5 mg/L; ammonia 0.29 mg/L; phosphate 0.1690 mg/L; Fe 0.272 mg/L and Coliform 0.31/100 mg/L. At low tide these parameters had values for temperature 27.13°C; TSS 67.14 mg/L; pH 3.38; salinity 1.7; DO 4.86 mg/L; BOD 14.13 mg/L; COD 43.71; ammonia 0.244 mg/L; phosphate 0.1695 mg/L; Fe 0.232 mg/L and Coliform 0.32/100 mg/L. According to Governor's provision no.16/2005 on water quality standard, water from various resources of Muliasari village were moderately polluted. Domestic waste water management is needed at this area followed by training and enhance occupant's awareness to maintain hygiene and environment quality. Monitoring effort is also necessary on water resources quality for at least once every 6 months. Key words: Water quality, tidal zone, domestic waste


64 percutaneous renal biopsies were done on 60 patients with renal impairment (serum creatinine level more than 1.5 mg%) under sonographic guidance. In 62 biopsies (96.8%), more than 3 glomeruli were seen, in 45 biopsies (70.3%) the amount of at least 10 glomeruli could be obtained, this being the amount desirable for a good histological diagnosis; 8 cases (12.5%) presented with minor complications after the biopsies. All of them resolved spontaneously. Ultrasound-guided percutaneous renal biopsy is a safe procedure for rapid diagnosis and induction of a specific therapy in patients with renal impairment.


Recent studies indicate that blogs are the breakthrough user application of this decade. Yet, the blogosphere in its current form is suffering from various problems. The fuzziness of the audience, disconnectedness, fragmentation, and lack of conversational coherence may have their roots not only in sociological factors but also in technological shortcomings of the current infrastructure. These problems hinder an effective deployment of blogs in collaborative learning activities. Within this contribution, an interface specification for user-centred distribution of feed ggregation activities is proposed which is both a prerequisite and basic infrastructure for blog-based collaboration. By presenting an overview on the current state of the art in feed and interaction standards, a clear lack of support for active network management will be elaborated. The design requirements for a solution to fill this gap will be sketched and complemented by a step by step description of the communication process of the proposed "FeedBack" specification. Preliminary results from a trial with a reference implementation for WordPress provide a proof of concept.


Background: Physicians are highly respected in their communities. They play a crucial role in issues related to health and people turn to them for advice and consultation. This study was therefore conducted to determine the prevalence of smoking among physicians in Enugu, Nigeria, a group of health professionals who should act as role models.
Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive survey was carried out between June and July 2004 at a tertiary health facility located in Enugu, the capital of Enugu state in south-east Nigeria. Information was obtained with the aid of a self-administered structured questionnaire.
Results: Of the 450 physicians contacted, 377 completed the questionnaire, giving a response rate of 83.8%. The mean age of the respondents was 30.9 years and majority 319(84.6%) were males. The physicians comprised of about 8 % current smokers, 13.3% ex-smokers and 78.8% who had never smoked. Majority (60%) of smokers began smoking before the age of 20 and reasons for starting included curiosity (55%), peer pressure (35%), stress of medical school (22.5%) and having a family member who smoked (10%). All respondents agreed that smoking is hazardous to health and majority recognized the association between smoking and various diseases. Non -smokers were more likely than smokers to counsel their patients on the dangers of smoking and to consider themselves as role models. This difference was found to be statistically significant (p
Conclusion: Because of their important role as health educators, physicians should not smoke. It is highly recommended that smoking cessation training be implemented in medical schools and also be made available to practicing Nigerian physicians through continuing medical education. A national policy on tobacco control should also be developed and strictly enforced. KEY WORDS: Tobacco smoking; Physicians; Enugu Journal of Community Medicine & Primary Health Care Vol.16(2) 2004: 34-38


Drawing on the corporate and national archives of the former Czechoslovakia, this important volume contributes to the debate on the circulation of technical and organisational knowledge in twentieth-century Europe. Fava examines in depth the transfer of Fordist practices from the US to Central Europe, using koda Auto, the leading Czechoslovak car manufacturer, as a case study. Covering the 1918-68 period, marked by the growing influence of the American model of mass production and also by the sovietisation of the Czechoslovak society and industry, Fava examines how the stratification of foreign technical and organisational knowledge shaped the Czechoslovak car production practices contributing to the formation of a specific technical and organisational culture. Along with the questions typical of company cases in business history and relative to koda corporate structure, performance, production processes and product quality, this much-needed study also addresses the issue of the Communist Party's controversial approach to mass motorisation.


ABSTRACT The purpose of our study was to examine the preoperative clinical factors and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings associated with peroneal pathology in chronic lateral ankle instability patients, as well as the clinical factors associated with peroneal lesions being detected on MRI. Peroneal pathology was determined from intraoperative findings. Patients with/without peroneal pathology were compared regarding their preoperative clinical findings. MRI reports were examined to determine the sensitivity of detecting peroneal pathologies. Clinical factors were compared between patients (N = 238) with undetected and detected peroneal lesions on MRI. Conservative treatment, preoperative physical therapy, and lack of a traumatic inciting event were associated with peroneal pathology. MRI had a sensitivity of 61.11% for detecting peroneal pathology. No clinical factors were significantly different between "detected" and "undetected" cases. Certain historical factors were associated with peroneal pathology in patients with chronic lateral ankle instability, and MRI had a high false‐negative rate. Surgeons should exercise caution when ruling out peroneal pathology based on preoperative physical examination or MRI. &NA; Level of Evidence: 3


This is the first book to provide a complete introduction to Post-Keynesian and other alternative theories of economics. Concise yet comprehensive, and written to be accessible to a wide audience, it offers a unique opportunity to enhance traditional neo-classical economics training with authoritative coverage of the full range of the non-orthodox paradigm.


This paper arises from research into using historical film in a Maltese secondary history classroom vis-à-vis its impact on student motivation, engagement and historical understanding. The paper outlines and discusses indicators of students' affective and cognitive engagement
 when responding to and analysing historical film's moving images – that is, extracts from footage of twentieth- and twenty-first century historical events captured live on camera as shown on newsreels, broadcast on television or forming part of a historical documentary. Using a single-site
 study, data was collected from two cohorts of Year 11 students following the history option programme. Each cohort was taught for an academic year and moving images were used as sources in history lessons. Analysing students' discourse in whole-class dialogues to obtain evidence for student
 engagement, findings showed different indicators of students' expressive verbal engagement with moving images: asking questions, making spontaneous observations, inserting oneself, establishing associations, and peer interaction. Findings suggest that underlying students' expressive engagement
 were the visual and auditory appeal of moving images, and classroom talk. Features of classroom talk in which moving images were used were consistent with views of dialogic teaching. Based on this evidence, it is argued that moving images can be used as a tool for engaging students, through
 classroom talk in a dialogic context, in developing historical understanding. It is also suggested that there is potential for using students' verbal utterances when analysing moving images for assessing learning.


Decision makers often face complicated decision problems with intangible and conflicting criteria. Numerous multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods have been proposed to handle the measurement of the priorities of conflicting tangible/intangible criteria and in turn use them to choose the best alternative for a decision. However, the presence of many MCDM methods bewilders users. The existence of these methods becomes a decision problem in itself, and decision makers may be uncertain about which one to use. Thus the comparative analysis and evaluation of various MCDM methods has come under scrutiny by both researchers and practitioners in order to discover if there are logical, mathematical, social or practical reasons why one method is better than another. Criteria for their evaluation are the first important issue that needs to be resolved. In this paper, 16 criteria are introduced that may be used to judge and evaluate various MCDM methods. The criteria proposed and some guidelines for their evaluation are given to help readers evaluate these MCDM methods.


Background Reactions to treatment are common following acupuncture. Understanding how these reactions are interpreted by patients is largely unexplored. Objective To examine patients' ratings of the severity and bothersomeness of a range of common treatment reactions, and to assess their impact on willingness to try acupuncture again. Methods Self-reported ratings of the frequency, severity and bothersomeness of treatment reactions from 133 patients in the acupuncture arm of a pragmatic randomised controlled trial of acupuncture for chronic back pain are described and analysed. Results A total of 133 acupuncture patients reported at 3 months reactions that they had experienced at any time during a course of up to 10 acupuncture treatment sessions. They received a total of 1150 treatments, an average of 8.6 sessions per patient. All patients reported treatment reactions, most commonly relaxation (84%, n = 112), which was significantly associated with willingness to try acupuncture again, (χ2 = 7.860, df = 1, p = 0.005). Only 16% (n=21) were unwilling to experience a specific treatment reaction again, and 9% (n = 12) were unwilling to try acupuncture again. The most 'bothersome' reaction was a temporary worsening of symptoms (29%, n=38), though this was not associated with an unwillingness to try acupuncture again (χ2 = 0.382, df = 1, p>0.536). Those unwilling to try acupuncture again reported significantly less reduction in their pain at 3 months (mean (SE) SF-36 bodily pain score at 3 months 30.453 (3.598) vs 19.30 (1.128); p=0.003). Conclusion Among this group of patients seeking help for low back pain, the experience of treatment reactions was universal. There was no evidence that the bothersomeness of treatment reactions was associated with patient's willingness to try acupuncture again. The benefit of pain reduction over the course of treatment appeared to outweigh self-rated bothersome reactions to treatment.


The natural "vanilla flavour" obtained from the pods of Vanilla planifolia is the largest flavouring ingredient in food industry. In order to
evaluate the usefulness of genetic markers such as RAPD and ISSR for assessing the diversity among clones of V. planifolia and to create
a database for the available germplasm, we investigated the existing population cultivated in India. The genetic diversity among 25
accessions collected from 13 major locations was studied. Forty random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and 11 inter-simple
sequence repeats (ISSR) primers resulted in 326 scorable bands ranging in size from 200 bp to 2800 bp and 83 scorable bands from 200
bp to 2500 bp, respectively. Banding pattern among the different samples collected within accessions was similar indicating that the
morphological difference observed within accession had no genetic background. On the other hand, molecular analysis among different
accessions from different locations also yielded identical PCR band profiles in both RAPD and ISSR analysis. These results clearly
indicate that V. planifolia cultivated in India is likely to share the same genetic background and therefore, the genetic diversity is
extremely low. Therefore we propose other biotechnological approaches to induce genetic variations to improve the agronomical traits.


In this article we investigate a system of geometric evolution equations describing a curvature driven motion of a family of 3D curves in the normal and binormal directions. Evolving curves may be subject of mutual interactions having both local or nonlocal character where the entire curve may influence evolution of other curves. Such an evolution and interaction can be found in applications. We explore the direct Lagrangian approach for treating the geometric flow of such interacting curves. Using the abstract theory of nonlinear analytic semi-flows, we are able to prove local existence, uniqueness and continuation of classical H\"older smooth solutions to the governing system of nonlinear parabolic equations. Using the finite volume method, we construct an efficient numerical scheme solving the governing system of nonlinear parabolic equations. Additionally, a nontrivial tangential velocity is considered allowing for redistribution of discretization nodes. We also present several computational studies of the flow combining the normal and binormal velocity and considering nonlocal interactions.


Vertical crossbar arrays provide a cost-effective approach for high density three-dimensional (3D) integration of resistive random access memory. However, an individual selector device is not allowed to be integrated with the memory cell separately. The development of V-RRAM has impeded the lack of satisfactory self-selective cells. In this study, we have developed a high performance bilayer self-selective device using HfO2 as the memory switching layer and a mixed ionic and electron conductor as the selective layer. The device exhibits high non-linearity (>10(3)) and ultra-low half-select leakage (<0.1 pA). A four layer vertical crossbar array was successfully demonstrated based on the developed self-selective device. High uniformity, ultra-low leakage, sub-nA operation, self-compliance, and excellent read/write disturbance immunity were achieved. The robust array level performance shows attractive potential for low power and high density 3D data storage applications.


Involvement of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) by hematopoietic malignancies may be difficult to document by morphology alone. In cases with low numbers of cells or ambiguous morphology, the diagnoses of "atypical" or "suspicious" may be used. The significance of these diagnostic terms in this scenario has not been well established.


This master thesis proposes a Linux-based software architecture for modern telematics devices. Our device is installed in trucks and has the purpose of forwarding collected GPS data to an online data center in a robust way. Telematics units are are highly concurrent systems where a crucial part of the software architecture is the communication schema: Within the system, sensor data need to be independently gathered and processed. Relevant information is then presented to the truck driver or forwarded to an online data center.
We investigate D-Bus, an IPC system that is mostly used in desktop Linux systems, as a potential replacement for traditonal, in-kernel message passing. When moving to more
elaborated embedded hardware platforms, such higher level programming paradigms and protocols become more attractive than pure low level programming. This thesis highlights
the possibility of incorporating such techniques also in embedded Linux systems.
We demonstrate an event-driven system architecture, implemented using the Qt C++ framework. D-Bus is used for the system's interprocess communication, in contrast to
TCP sockets that were used in the previous product. We make low level sensor data available via D-Bus by two layers of abstraction: a Linux I2C chip driver and Linux daemon using D-Bus.


In this paper, a Decision Support System for Management of Tele-Medical Transportation Services has been designed and developed. The system is developed with symbiotic approach to achieve the aim of providing the necessary Quality based Information Resources for real life interaction among Decision Members of Tele-Medical Transportation System to enable speedy decision management by scanning the future. The salient features of the System are: quick and interactive communication, instant content support, anonymity of the member"s identity, vast resources of content and system support.


The paper looks into the current socioeconomic research on resilience to natural disasters among urban households, firms, and communities in the Philippines. It reviews the related analytical frameworks, methodologies, and empirical studies already available with the end purpose of identifying research gaps and recommending studies and actions that can be undertaken to address them. The paper explains that the Philippines and Manila, at present, are among the least resilient countries and cities in the world, respectively. It also shows that there are foreign and locally developed analytical frameworks and methodologies on urban resilience that have been used in research. Furthermore, it found that there are already a number of empirical studies covering resilience of households, firms, and communities, particularly to natural disasters, than have been conducted in specific urban areas like Metro Manila and other Philippine cities. From the review, the paper identifies some gaps in the current research on urban resilience and recommends specific researches and related activities that can be undertaken in the future.


The evolutionary path followed by a galaxy shapes its internal structure, and, in particular, its internal colour variation. We present a study of the internal colour variation within galaxies from the Seventh Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS DR7). We statistically study the connection between the internal colour variation and global galactic properties, looking for hints of the recent galactic evolution. Considering only galaxies with good photometry and spectral measurements, we define four luminosity-threshold samples within the redshift range 0.01 < z < 0.17, each containing more than 48 000 galaxies. Colour gradients are calculated for these galaxies from the surface brightness measurements provided by the SDSS DR7. Possible systematic effects in their determination have been analysed. We find that, on average, galaxies have redder cores than their external parts. We also find that it is more likely to find steep colour gradients among late-type galaxies. This result holds for a range of classifications based on both morphological and spectral characteristics. In fact, our results relate, on average, steep colour gradients to a higher presence of young stars within a galaxy. Our results also suggest that nuclear activity is a marginal driver for creating steep colour gradients in massive galaxies. We have selected pairs of interacting galaxies, with a separation of 5 arcmin, in projected radius, and a difference in redshift of 100 km s−1, finding that they present steeper gradients than the average population, skewed towards bluer cores. Our analysis implies that colour gradients can be useful for selecting galaxies that have suffered a recent (minor) burst of star formation.


Summary Methotrexate (MTX) is an antimetabolite that it is widely used in childhood cancers. Gastrointestinal toxicity stemming from oxidative damage is an important factor limiting its use. MTX causes morphological damage in the mucosa of the small intestine and serious barrier function disorder. Bacterial translocation can be seen when intestinal barrier functions are deteriorated. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of hesperidin, a powerful antioxidant, in the prevention of bacterial translocation caused by MTX. Rats were given a single intraperitoneal dose of MTX at 20 mg/kg body weight. Hesperidin was given with oral gavage at 200 mg/kg body weight through 5 days. On the 6 th day, biopsy specimens from the ileocecal region, ascending colon and mesenteric lymph nodes were placed in culture media. Increased intestinal bacteria growth was found and prominent bacterial translocation were determined in the MTX group (P<0.05). Hesperidin significantly reduced the growth load and bacterial translocation. This study showed that hesperidin protects against translocation by preventing damage caused by MTX.


The effects were studied of surface buffer layers, a sputtered gold or platinum film and/or a screen-printed Y2BaCuO5 (211) layer, on the microstructure, preferred orientation and superconducting transition of YBa2Cu3O7-x (123) films, grown by a melt method without crucible on polycrystalline alumina substrates. The degree of (00L) preferred orientation (DPO) reached 89% as Pt buffer alone was used, but this was without a superconducting transition. A combined 211 layer on a sputtered metal layer resulted in films with Tc-zero of above 55 K, smoother film surfaces and DPO of 44%. The growth of preferred orientation is attributed to an inhomogeneous (00L) nucleation effect during solidification. Reduced surface cracks and better connection among crystallites of the film grown on a combined buffer layer are responsible for the measurable superconducting transition.


The vampire metaphor has been used in numerous papers describing biological interactions between two populations. Such a metaphor translates well to a standard endogenous growth model with public debt. Public debt can be assimilated to a Vamp, whose blood-sucking behavior corresponds to the harmful effect of the debt burden on productive public expenditures. However, the complete destruction of public debt in the long-run is shown to be socially undesirable, because this would imply too much distortionary taxation, with damaging effects on the balanced growth path. By identifying ecological or biological processes with usual national account relationships, this analysis is one step further in the integration of macroeconomics and environmental economics.


Wolf Springs field (north and south pools) and South Wolf Springs field (a.k.a. Wolf Springs fields), located in Yellowstone County, Montana, were discovered in 1955 and 1957, respectively, and have produced more than 5.7 million bbl oil from the Pennsylvanian Amsden Formation. Amsden reservoir rocks in the area are fractured and brecciated cherts and dolomites that occur in several laterally persistent and mappable zones. The Amsden was deposited in a peritidal to sabkha setting where evaporite minerals, mainly anhydrite, were once common. These evaporites were partly replaced by silica (chalcedony and chert) soon after deposition. Later dissolution of the remaining evaporites soon after the silicification event, or during the pre-Middle Jurassic unconformity (PMJU), produced the solution-collapse chert breccias that now serve as the best reservoir facies in the field. Subtle variations in the diagenetic history of these breccias was a major factor in shaping reservoir quality. The Wolf Springs fields are unconformity-related combination structural and stratigraphic traps. The fields are located on a structural closure on the Custer anticline, where porosity and permeability development exhibit a northeast-southwest orientation perpendicular to structural strike of the anticline. The solution-collapse breccias pinch out laterally into either dense dolomites or anhydrite-plugged collapse breccias. The overlying shaly dolomite breccia of the Botts member (informal name) located just below the Piper unconformity and the Jurassic Piper Limestone provide an effective top seal. (Begin page 132) Understanding the geographic distribution of the chert/dolomite zones provides a key to exploration for these reservoirs. This must be coupled with analysis of available rocks and drillstem-test data and the integration of the regional hydrodynamic forces affecting the Amsden. These exploration tools should lead to the discovery of new Amsden reserves in the Bull Mountains basin and Central Montana platform.


The concept of age-associated memory impairment (AAMI) suggests that clinically recognized memory dysfunction can be a feature of normal aging. To determine whether AAMI represents a variant of normal aging, we longitudinally studied individuals meeting AAMI criteria for development of dementia. Two hundred two community-living individuals (mean age, 77 years) with or without mild memory impairment were assessed annually for an average of 3 years at the Washington University Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. At baseline, no individual was unequivocally demented, as defined by a Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) score of 1 or greater. Modified National Institute of Mental Health criteria were used to identify individuals with AAMI who otherwise met a criterion for cognitive normality. The Short Blessed Test (SBT) was used as a measure of general cognitive function; conservative (SBT = 5) and permissive (SBT = 10) cutoff scores were used as indicators of cognitive normality. With the more permissive measure of cognitive normality, 59 (29%) of the 202 individuals met AAMI criteria. Progression to dementia by 3 years occurred in 42% of AAMI individuals versus 16% of the individuals who did not meet AAMI criteria. With the more restrictive SBT cutoff of 5, 22% of individuals met AAMI criteria; progression to dementia occurred in 31% of these individuals versus 9% of the individuals without AAMI. Survival times to dementia differed significantly between AAMI and non-AAMI groups defined by either cutoff score. Our findings indicate that individuals with AAMI have a three-fold greater risk for development of dementia than individuals who do not meet AAMI criteria. Hence, AAMI may represent a dementia prodrome rather than a benign variant of aging.


In the period from 1949--1979 537 patients with positive direct Coombs-reaction were observed, their serological findings are presented and analysed regarding correlations to ABO, Rh, age and sex. Close connexions between the strength of the direct Coombs-reaction, autoantibodies in the serum and the absence of haptoglobin were found as it was expected. The sensitivity of different methods to detect autoantibodies, frequencies and specificities are discussed. Two causes of autoimmune hemolytic anemia with monospecific autoantibodies and four healthy blood donors with unexpected and inexplicable positive direct Coombs-reaction are described.


The debate over homosexuality and marriage is alive and well in the minds of open-minded legal academics. The purposes of this article are three fold, focusing on psychological and legal issues of the day. The object is to clarify misconceptions and stimulate proper thinking on crucial matter, and simply to fair. It seeks to educate the average reader on the contours of this debate as that reader strives for the truth. First promoted is an understanding of the context of the arguments about homosexuality with respect to what it means to have integrated experiences of same-sex attraction into a gay, lesbian, or bisexual identity. Discussing the scholarly debate within the gay community between essentialists and social constructionists, related metaphysical questions about sexual orientation are raised. It then presents a recently proposed model of same-sex identity development that takes seriously the person creed, valuative framework, and attributions of those who experience same-sex attraction. Then the article turns to two of the key arguments in the debate about whether two people who integrate their experiences of same-sex attraction into a gay, lesbian, or bisexual identity have the right to have their relationship recognized by society as a marriage. The first of these is the fundamental rights argument, discussing the legal implications and requirements that marriage is a fundamental right constitutionally required to be afforded to all people. The second of these is the sanctity of marriage argument, and the article discusses what is meant by the sanctity of marriage by explaining the essence of marriage and the marital act of sex as a legal principle that has guided the law. Political manipulation and the lack of fairness have resulted in these arguments not being reasonably and practically understood by the general public. The article concludes with an introduction of each of the other articles appearing in this journal issue. Those articles do a superior job of examining the available evidence on whether homosexuality is associated with medical or psychological harm, the effects of homosexuality on children, pedophile behavior, homosexual parenting and the propagation of homosexuality to an American public. The articles contained in this issue of the Regent Law Review begin to state the relevance of each of these issues in this very legal and very vital debate. The objective is to clarify misconceptions and stimulate proper thinking on this imperative and essential matter, and to simply be fair. There is a desperate need for fairness, accuracy, and honesty in discussion homosexuality, marriage and the law, namely because of the consequences each will have on our children. May be you challenged to reflect clearly on these issues as you read, and be more educated in the problems of this debate as you strive for the truth.


With the goal of maximizing the most suitable placement of elderly persons into different types of residential settings, a mathematical system is being developed, using discriminant function analysis, for replicating interdisciplinary clinical team judgments concerning case specific appropriateness for (1) an institutional setting; (2) an apartment in sheltered housing (providing at least the major meal of the day plus housekeeping services); and (3) an apartment in more traditional housing for the elderly. Two discriminant function systems are being developed--the first for separating elderly persons into those needing institutionalization and those requiring a less supervised setting and the second for separting persons judged not to be in need of institutionalization into those requiring either sheltered housing or some other more independent residency situation. While the first function is considered more fully developed at this time, the second is nevertheless useful in that is suggests forces (variables) predictive of such judgments.


Drawing on insights from Cedric Robinson's theory of racial capitalism, we analyse black and Latinx blue-collar warehouse workers' concerns about health and safety in Amazon's warehouses as well as their collective efforts to organise and improve working conditions
 during the pandemic. The pandemic increased the demand for home-delivered e-commerce, bringing Amazon's (directly employed) global workforce to over 1.2 million workers and making Amazon the second largest company in the US. Amazon's business model, particularly its Amazon Prime
 programme, has further driven consumer demand for expedited, free shipping. Amazon's logistics system puts pressure on warehouse workers, who are electronically surveilled, to work very quickly, resulting in high rates of turnover and injury on the job. In the US, this workforce is not
 unionised and is disproportionately black and Latinx. Workers of colour are also leading workplace organising efforts in various cities in the United States. Our research combines information from in-depth interviews with current and former Amazon warehouse workers in Inland Southern California,
 one of the largest hubs of Amazon warehouses in the world. We also analyse interviews with leading high-profile current and former black Amazon warehouse worker activists across US cities, affiliated with the Congress of Essential Workers, Amazonians United Chicagoland, the Awood Center, and
 Bay Area Amazonians who have demanded improvements in their working and safety conditions and faced retaliation, disciplining and/or firing during the pandemic.


Parameters influencing the penetration coefficient λ were experimentally investigated by causing various liquids to flow in horizontal, straight glass capillaries of different radii. The conductivity of the capillary tube remains constant during the flow and is defined in terms of penetration coefficient, density, gravity, capillary radius, surface tension, and contact angle. The relationship between the square root of time and the penetration distance was found to hold true for the whole period studied. The experimental and theoretical values of both penetration coefficient and conductivity compared favorably and verified the validity of Poiseuille's law in unfilled capillaries. Theoretical proportionality between the square of the penetration coefficient and the capillary radius, on the one hand, and liquid properties in terms of α cos αα/μ, on the other, was found to be experimentally true. Experimental values of the penetration coefficient matched those calculated theoretically from handbook data when using the contact angle calculated from the capillary height reached by the advancing meniscus.


This paper investigates the evolution of sub-central government borrowing in Spain over the period 1996–2011. The arguments and figures provided show that the intense process of political and fiscal decentralisation that took place over the 1990s and 2000s did not lead to higher debt ratios in terms of GDP at these tiers of government until 2007. Although a kind of overspending bias was in effect until the late 2000s, the paper shows that the evolution of GDP and tax revenues provided regional and local governments with enough resources to vigorously pursue their devolved public policy responsibilities and still keep their debt ratios under control. However, since 2008, when the world financial crisis broke out, the situation has changed dramatically. Even though the crisis originated in the financial sector, the paper concludes by stressing the importance of creating incentives and setting controls through institutional arrangements characterising multilevel government for all tiers of government to save in periods of economic growth in order to confront the impact of recession once it comes.


Testlet effects can be taken into account by incorporating specific dimensions in addition to the general dimension into the item response theory model. Three such multidimensional models are described: the bi-factor model, the testlet model, and a second-order model. It is shown how the second-order model is formally equivalent to the testlet model. In turn, both models are constrained bi-factor models. Therefore, the efficient full maximum likelihood estimation method that has been established for the bi-factor model can be modified to estimate the parameters of the two other models. An application on a testlet-based international English assessment indicated that the bi-factor model was the preferred model for this particular data set.


Poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC)/acrylonitrile–butadiene rubber (NBR) were mixed with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and silicon carbide (SiC) to prepare microwave-absorbing composites. The complex permittivity, direct-current (dc) conductivity, microwave-absorbing performance, morphology, and mechanical properties of the composites were studied. The real and imaginary parts of the permittivity of the composites increased with increasing MWCNT content. The premixing of the MWCNTs with PVC was more beneficial to the dispersion of MWCNTs; this led to a higher dc conductivity and permittivity and better microwave-absorbing performance than the premixing of MWCNTs with NBR for the PVC/NBR/MWCNT composites. The PVC/NBR/MWCNT composites had a minimum reflection loss (RLmin) of −49.5 dB at the optimum thickness of 1.96 mm. The efficient microwave absorption of the PVC/NBR/MWCNT composites was due to a high dielectric loss and moderate permittivity. The incorporation of SiC into the PVC/NBR/MWCNT composites increased the real and imaginary parts of permittivity of the composites. When the SiC content was 70 phr, RLmin decreased to −34.9 dB at a thickness of 3 mm. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2013


Rockfall and snow avalanche events often cause injury to European larch (Larix decidua Mill.) trees, giving rise to the formation of callus tissue and tangential rows of traumatic resin ducts (TRDs). We analyzed and quantified anatomical reactions of juvenile trees injured before the start of the growing season by snow avalanches (15 trees, 324 cross sections) or rockfalls (18 trees, 270 cross sections). Traumatic resin ducts were observed in the growth ring formed following injury in 94.3% of the rockfall samples and 87.3% of the snow avalanche samples. Traumatic resin ducts were formed at the beginning of the new annual ring around wounds caused by rockfalls. In contrast, in trees injured by snow avalanches, TRDs were not formed until after the formation of several rows of early earlywood (EE) tracheids (mean +/- SD = 4.19 +/- 2.56 rows). The dimensions of the EE tracheids observed in the snow avalanche samples were greatly reduced in the tissues bordering the wound, with radial width reaching an average of only 50% and lumen cross-sectional area an average of only 46% of pre-event values. It is therefore possible to differentiate injuries due to past snow avalanches from injuries due to rockfall based on anatomical growth reactions in the tissues bordering scars.


Among orbital lymphoproliferative disorders, about 55% of diagnosed cancerous tumors are orbital lymphomas, and nearly 50% of benign cases are immunoglobulin G4-related ophthalmic disease (IgG4-ROD). However, due to nonspecific characteristics, the differentiation of the two diseases is challenging. In this study, conventional magnetic resonance imaging-based radiomics approaches were explored for clinical recognition of orbital lymphomas and IgG4-ROD. We investigated the value of radiomics features of axial T1- (T1WI-) and T2-weighted (T2WI), contrast-enhanced T1WI in axial (CE-T1WI) and coronal (CE-T1WI-cor) planes, and 78 patients (orbital lymphoma, 36; IgG4-ROD, 42) were retrospectively reviewed. The mass lesions were manually annotated and represented with 99 features. The performance of elastic net-based radiomics models using single or multiple modalities with or without feature selection was compared. The demographic features showed orbital lymphoma patients were significantly older than IgG4-ROD patients (p < 0.01), and most of the patients were male (72% in the orbital lymphoma group vs. 23% in the IgG4-ROD group; p = 0.03). The MR imaging findings revealed orbital lymphomas were mostly unilateral (81%, p = 0.02) and wrapped eyeballs or optic nerves frequently (78%, p = 0.02). In addition, orbital lymphomas showed isointense in T1WI (100%, p < 0.01), and IgG4-ROD was isointense (60%, p < 0.01) or hyperintense (40%, p < 0.01) in T1WI with well-defined shape (64%, p < 0.01). The experimental comparison indicated that using CE-T1WI radiomics features achieved superior results, and the features in combination with CE-T1WI-cor features and the feature preselection method could further improve the classification performance. In conclusion, this study comparatively analyzed orbital lymphoma and IgG4-ROD from demographic features, MR imaging findings, and radiomics features. It might deepen our understanding and benefit disease management.


Going concern is important issue to be addressed since it determine how the business will survive. This study is entitled "Going Concern Audit Opinion on Manufacturing Companies in Indonesia. Secondary data in this study are audited financial reports and annual financial reports of manufacturing companies listed on the IDX for the 2013-2017 period. The statistical method used in this study is logistic regression analysis, because in this study the independent variable is a mixture of continuous or metric variables. The results showed that audit tenure had no effect on going concern audit opinion. And the auditor's reputation does not have an influence on the company's decision makers in conducting going concern audit opinion. The debt default also affects going concern audit opinion.


Background: Oxidative stress is involved with carcinogenesis of lung cancer and promotes tumor growth. Antioxidants play roles in inhibition of oxidative stress; consequently slow progression of tumor growth. This study aimed to show the correlation between median survival in advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and antioxidant levels. Methods: Newly diagnosed advanced-stage NSCLC patient in Khonkaen University Hospital during June 2006 and June 2008 were enrolled. Participants who had history of taking dietary supplements were excluded. Tumor data and nutritional status were evaluated in all patients. Serum from each participant was taken since the date of diagnosis to determine non-enzymatic antioxidants, trace element antioxidants, and peroxidase levels. Each antioxidant level was categorized into quartiles to analyze the correlation with survival time. Both univariate analysis and COX regression model which included nutritional status were used in the analysis. Results: Thirty patients with mean age of 59.8 (range, 35-82) were enrolled. The majority of patients was male (76%), malnourished (90%), had a history of smoking (80%), and received chemotherapy for treatment of NSCLC (73%). Patients with the highest quartile of zinc had significantly longer survival time than with the lowest quartile (14.7 Vs 5.6 months) in both univariate and multivariate analysis ( P = 0.01 and 0.007, respectively); while the significance of manganese was proven in only univariate model. Other antioxidants levels including retinol, α-tocopherol, β-carotene, lycopene, β-cryptoxanthin, selenium, copper, and peroxidase did not demonstrate relationship with survival time. Conclusion: The low level of some antioxidants, particularly zinc, produced a significantly poor prognosis in advanced-stage non-small cell lung cancer patients. Citation Format: Kosin Wirasorn, Pranithi Hongprabhas, Veeradej Pisprasert, Kulthida Klarod, Patcharee Boonsiri. Serum antioxidant levels and survival time in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-20. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-LB-20


The Citarum River is one of the most strategic rivers in West Java Province, Indonesia. It has been a major water supplier for various agricultural and industrial needs. Unfortunately, human activity increases around the watershed. Thus, the water quality of the river decreases due to pollution. The central and regional governments launched the Citarum Harum program to reduce pollution in the Citarum River. One of the main issues of the program is related to environmental law enforcement. A lengthy process, high case costs, and light sanctions make law enforcement through the courts ineffective. This study discusses whether the environmental law enforcement in the Citarum River is smart enforcement. The study used normative empirical legal analysis with a juridical approach. This study concludes that the government should plan the law enforcement by means of Smart Enforcement strategy to make the enforcement more effective and efficient. It will provide clearer directions to law enforcement officers in the law enforcement. In addition, the efforts to carry out effective and efficient environmental law enforcement need more human and financial resources.


Enteroviruses comprise a large group of mammalian pathogens that includes poliovirus. Pathology in humans ranges from sub-clinical to acute flaccid paralysis, myocarditis and meningitis. Until now, all the enteroviral proteins were thought to derive from proteolytic processing of a polyprotein encoded in a single open reading frame (ORF). We report that many enterovirus genomes also harbor an upstream ORF (uORF) that is subject to strong purifying selection. Using echovirus 7 and poliovirus 1, we confirmed expression of uORF protein (UP) in infected cells. Using ribosome profiling (a technique for global footprinting of translating ribosomes), we also demonstrated translation of the uORF in representative members of the predominant human enterovirus species, namely Enterovirus A, B and C. In differentiated human intestinal organoids, UP-knockout echoviruses are attenuated compared to wild-type virus at late stages of infection where membrane-associated UP facilitates virus release. Thus we have identified a previously unknown enterovirus protein that facilitates virus growth in gut epithelial cells – the site of initial viral invasion into susceptible hosts. These findings overturn the 50-year-old dogma that enteroviruses use a single-polyprotein gene expression strategy, and have important implications for understanding enterovirus pathogenesis.


Nowadays nearly all radiation fields used for X-ray diagnostics are pulsed. These fields are characterised by a high dose rate during the pulse and a short pulse duration in the range of a few milliseconds. The use of active electronic dosimeters has increased in the past few years, but these types of dosimeters might possibly not measure reliably in pulsed radiation fields. Not only personal dosimeters but also area dosimeters that are used mainly for dose rate measurements are concerned. These cannot be substituted by using passive dosimeter types. The characteristics of active electronic dosimeters determined in a continuous radiation field cannot be transferred to those in pulsed fields. Some provisional measurements with typical electronic dosimeters in pulsed radiation fields are presented to reveal this basic problem.


A construction process of hydrogen peroxide supply system was investigated to use hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer of bi-propellant liquid rocket engine. To use hydrogen peroxide as a rocket propellant, it has to be in high concentration over 90%. It is very important to make the supply system free of pollutants, because highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide has a characteristic of hypersensitive reaction to pollutants such as dust and oil sludge. We suggested the cleaning and passivation process of main components to minimize pollutants of the supply system. In conclusion, we verified stability of the constructed supply system by leak test and hot test.


Abstract 4107 In the recent years, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) emerged as major drugs as part of Ph+ALL treatment armamentarium. Indeed, treatment with TKIs may allow for increased rate of complete response (CR) and greater opportunity for patients to proceed to alloHSCT, which remains the only curative option in those eligible patients. The current survey from the ALWP of EBMT aimed to assess the outcome [overall survival (OS), leukemia-free survival (LFS), non-relapse mortality (NRM), and relapse incidence (RI)] of a cohort of 1041 Ph+ALL patients who received allo-HSCT in CR1 between 2000 and 2010 from an HLA-matched related or unrelated donor (HLA matching at least 6/6). The primary endpoint of the study was to assess the impact of the use of TKIs prior to alloHSCT considering the time period before and after 2007 when TKIs were made available in most EBMT centers for the treatment of adult Ph+ALL according to the European label extension for TKIs in adult Ph+ALL. In this series, the median age as 42 y. (range, 18–73) and 58% were males. Median time from diagnosis to CR1 was 42 days and from diagnosis to alloHSCT 162 days. 552 patients (53%) received alloHSCT from an HLA-matched related donor, while 489 patients (47%) received an HLA-matched unrelated graft. Prior to alloHSCT, 869 patients (83%) underwent a myeloablative conditioning (MAC) regimen, while 172 (17%) received a reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) regimen. The MAC regimens included high-dose TBI in 719 cases (83%) and the RIC regimens included low-dose TBI in 47 cases (27%). With a median follow-up of 20 months (range, 1–132) after alloHSCT, in the whole cohort, the 2-years OS and LFS were 54±2% and 42±2%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, NRM was significantly influenced by age>37 y. in the MAC subgroup (P 42 y. was associated with a lower LFS (P=0.001, HR=1.34, 95%CI, 1.12–1.6). In the MAC alloHSCT subgroup, TBI and year of transplant ≥2007 were associated with significantly improved LFS (P=0.01, HR=0.75, 95%CI, 0.59–0.94; and P=0.005, HR=0.76, 95%CI, 0.62–0.92, respectively), while age>37 y. was a negative predictive factor for LFS (P=0.001, HR=1.38, 95%CI, 1.14–1.68). In the RIC alloHSCT subgroup, no significantly predictive factors were found for LFS. When considering RI, multivariate analysis showed that the year of transplant ≥2007 was also associated with decreased relapse in both the MAC and RIC subgroups (P=0.003, HR=0.67, 95%CI, 0.51–0.88 and P=0.007, HR=0.50, 95%CI, 0.31–0.83, respectively). In the MAC subgroups, the use of TBI and an HLA-matched unrelated graft were found to be factors associated with decreased RI (P=0.008, HR=0.66, 95%CI, 0.48–0.90 and P=0.03, HR=0.75, 95%CI, 0.58–0.97, respectively). In all, this large survey suggests that the introduction of TKIs after the year 2007 within European centers, has likely improved the outcome of adult Ph+ALL patients eligible for alloHSCT. Prospective evaluation are needed since further improvement would be expected in the next few years with the wider use of minimal residual disease assessment associated to TKI-based preemptive and/or maintenance strategies after alloHSCT. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Evidence for linkage of asthma and its associated phenotypes with susceptibility genes on chromosome 12 has been demonstrated in one group of Minnesota families. The evidence is strong in affected sib pairs and weakens in analysis of the large pedigrees. A second group of families provided little evidence for such linkage. A discrepancy has been demonstrated in different families. This may be due to several factors, including genetic heterogeneity and gene–gene, or gene–environmental interaction effects as well as the statistical power of the sample population used.


Background: MMP-2 and MMP-9 are proteolytic enzymes involved in the remodeling of extracellular matrix and regulated in their function by a family of proteins called TIMPs. MMP-2 and MMP-9 and TIMPs are secreted in joints by both synovial cells and chondrocytes, and are implicated in osteoarthritis onset and progression. The aim of this study was to investigate the localization of MMP-2 and TIMPs expression and their relationship in the synovial membrane of equine fetlock (metacarpo-phalangeal joint), which is the joint most frequently affected by osteoarthritis due to his high weight-bearing impact and shearing forces. Method: This study analyzed the immunohistochemical expression of MMP-2 and tissue inhibitors of MMP (TIMPs) in synovial membrane sections from 40 equine metacarpo-phalangeal joints affected by osteoarthritis in order to better assess their role in the pathogenesis of joint-structure alterations. Immunohistochemical study was performed using the Avidin-Biotin-Peroxidase complex method, and the percentage of labeled cells was assessed semi-quantitatively. Data obtained were statistically revised through the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Results: MMP-2 and TIMPs were expressed by type-B synoviocytes and endothelial cells. MMP-2 expression was not significantly associated to the macroscopic findings while a linear correlation between MMP-2 and TIMPs expression was observed. Conclusion: These data suggest that in degenerative joint disease the synovial expression of TIMPs may contribute to the regulation of MMP-2 expression in order to reach a new dynamic balance and that MMP-2 plays an important pro-homeostatic role in physiological and pathological equine synovial membrane.


Nanocomposite materials with metallic or ceramic inclusions show great promise as highly-tunable functional materials, particularly for applications where high dielectric permittivities are desirable, such as charge-storage or energy-storage materials. These applications present a challenge for computational approaches, as the field response of the nanoscale inclusion is quantum in nature, yet any representative sample of the material must encompass hundreds if not thousands of atoms. As currently implemented, finite element methods offer some predictive power for macroscale matrix-inclusion composites. However, their applicability cannot necessarily be extended to few-nanometer, molecular scale inclusions, where quantum and interfacial effects gain importance in the overall response to the applied field. Here, we develop an adjustable finite element method approach to calculate the low frequency dielectric constant of composites consisting of a metal-oxide matrix with molecular-scale silver inclusions, by introducing an interfacial layer in the general model. A process for coarse-graining atomistic ab initio results to generate best fit finite element models is also laid out in this work. We show that a continuum model informed by ab initio results can capture many of the relevant polarization effects in a metal/metal oxide nanocomposite, at a fraction of the computational cost.


Abstract Purpose – This study aimed to assess the impact of director-generals' human and social capitals on the organizational performance of farmers' cooperatives in Fujian Province. Design/Methodology/Approach – Questionnaire survey data of 303 standard cooperatives in nine cities of Fujian Province were statistically analyzed. Findings – We identified that director-generals' human and social capitals affect all four dimensions of cooperative performance, through the mediating role of management effectiveness. Practical Implications – We offer suggestions and measures for improving cooperatives' performance by enhancing the human and social capitals of director-generals. Based on China's national conditions, we propose measures to improve director-generals' human and social capitals by the Internal trust, Government policy support, and Business network (IGB) model, which emphasizes establishing a social network of cooperatives' director-generals, accumulating social capital, and promoting cooperative development through internal members, government departments, and commercial organizations.


The first dc helicity injection is tried applying a voltage between two parallel plates, and effects on plasma performance are studied in the reversed field pinch plasma. The injected current is nearly proportional to the applied voltage VH with a small offset-induced voltage ( approximately -30 V), and a transient increase in the toroidal flux and a decrease in the poloidal field (plasma takes the more relaxed state) is found near the injection port, regardless of the polarity of VH. The induced voltage measured as a function of the insertion depth shows the presence of high-energy electrons.


Human Genomics
Understanding the trajectory of a developing human requires an understanding of how genes are regulated and expressed. Two papers now present a pooled approach using three levels of combinatorial indexing to examine the single-cell gene expression and chromatin landscapes from 15 organs in fetal samples. Cao et al. focus on measurements of RNA in broadly distributed cell types and provide insights into organ specificity. Domcke et al. examined the chromatin accessibility of cells from these organs and identify the regulatory elements that regulate gene expression. Together, these analyses generate comprehensive atlases of early human development.

Science , this issue p. [eaba7721][1], p. [eaba7612][2]

 [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aba7721
 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aba7612


The essence of Natural Science consists of products, processes, and attitudes. The scientific method at the elementary school level is learned gradually. One of them is by involving students to observe their surroundings. One of the science materials at the elementary school level is the ecosystem. Students' understanding of ecosystem material will be very good if students observe directly at the surrounding environment. However, the concept of food chains and food webs is very rarely found directly in the environment at one observation at a time. For that, a website-based learning media is needed on ecosystem materials for fifth grade students of SD Brawijaya Smart. School. This research is a research and development research with the Dick & Carey development model. The subject of this research validator involved one material expert, design expert and learning expert respectively. In addition, this study also involved 25 fifth grade students of SD Brawijaya Smart School to assess the attractiveness of the website application for students. The ecosystem material website application in class V SD Brawijaya Smart School fulfills the feasibility test of several validators. The results of the validation of material experts were 96%, design experts 96%, and learning experts 92%. These results indicate that the website developed is feasible / valid for use in the learning process. This research is limited to the process of developing a check dam to test the validity of the ecosystem website application in class V SD Brawijaya Smart School. Therefore, further research is needed to test the effectiveness of the ecosystem material website application on students' conceptual understanding.


A theory of cognitive systems individuation is presented and defended. The approach has some affinity with Leonard Talmy's Overlapping Systems Model of Cognitive Organization, and the paper's first section explores aspects of Talmy's view that are shared by the view developed herein. According to the view on offer – the conditional probability of co-contribution account (cpc) – a cognitive system is a collection of mechanisms that contribute, in overlapping subsets, to a wide variety of forms of intelligent behavior. Central to this approach is the idea of an integrated system. A formal characterization of integration is laid out in the form of a conditional-probability based measure of the clustering of causal contributors to the production of intelligent behavior. I relate the view to the debate over extended and embodied cognition and respond to objections that have been raised in print by Andy Clark, Colin Klein, and Felipe de Brigard.