Interlocking tables, as the function specification of the Computer Based Interlocking System (CBI), play an important role in ensuring safe train movements at a railway station. The development and verification of interlocking tables is entirely manual process currently, which is inefficient and error-prone due to the complexity of the CBI and the human interferences. In order to tackle these problems, we introduce a toolset based on Domain Specific Language for Computer Based Interlocking Systems (DSL-CBI) to automatically generate and verify the interlocking table. In this paper, we address how to use the algorithm to automatically generate the interlocking table by inputting the XML file of the railway station designed by DSL-CBI, and how to use model checking to verify whether there are any conflicting settings in it. We also discuss the advantages of the toolset and the significant contribution in developing CBI based on the proposed toolset.


Medical ethics underpin the moral framework that delineates the professional relationship between physicians and their patients and thereby is an integral part of making patient-centric healthcare decisions. The concept of ethics is deeply embedded in the field of surgery as surgeons confront a myriad of dilemmas as a part of their routine, whether it be in a preoperative or postoperative environment. The current review aims to describe the state of surgical ethics in Pakistan, with the intent of encouraging dialogues about the ethical considerations relevant to the field surgery that will identify actionable areas for improvement. While most surgeons are aware of the traditional principles of ethics and their practice, their surgical and clinical decisions may fall short of these standards because of time constraints and prevailing cultural and religious beliefs and taboos. The rigorous application of ethical principles in areas of patient-related communication, such as consenting, trainee education, palliative and end-of-life care, and surgical innovation and research, will have significant implications for patients, surgeons, and society. Our review has identified the lack of formal bioethics education and insufficient oversight and ethical regulations to be at the core of inadequate ethical practices in Pakistan and has highlighted actionable areas to be addressed in the future.


Calcium looping process (CLP), which uses reversible reactions of CaO/CO2 for capturing CO2, has received considerable attention recently owing to abundant reserves of potential sorbents and its various applications in post-combustion, pre-combustion capture and thermal energy storage. The main advantage of the CO2 capture processes based on CLP is the much lower cost compared with other competing technologies. However, these processes face a major challenge, i.e., the loss-in-capacity problem of CaO-based sorbent after multiple cycles of carbonation/calcination. The calcium conversion of conventional CaO-based sorbents would decrease rapidly from nearly 80% in the first cycle to less than 20% in the 20th cycle. The loss-in-capacity problem increases the operating difficulty and costs and is one of the major obstacles to the application of the CLP-based systems and a solution is urgently needed to move the systems towards commercialization. Currently it is one of the hot topics in the research area of calcium looping. This work aims to find a solution to the problem and has been focusing on one particular strategy, i.e., synthesis of sintering-resistant calcium based sorbents that can sustain high calcium conversion over multiple cycles. First of all, this work attempted to find suitable calcium precursors for the synthesis of calcium based sorbents. The study of calcium precursors is very important for sorbent synthesis because it would directly affect the performance of final sorbent. Therefore, 9 different potential calcium precursors (including 4 new and unreported precursors and 5 conventional precursors) for the production of CaO sorbents were studied in this thesis. It was found that the CaO produced from one of the unreported precursors, i.e. calcium D-gluconate monohydrate (CG-CaO), exhibited the best capacity for capturing CO2 with a 30-minute calcium conversion of 83.8% at the 9th cycle, a few times better than the sorbent produced from conventional limestone. The sorbent CG-CaO also showed a much faster decomposition rate and higher predicted residual conversion after prolonged cycles, which are both beneficial for realistic applications, compared with the CaO produced from conventional CaCO3. Therefore, it was confirmed that the selection of the appropriate calcium precursors is an important step in synthesizing effective CO2 sorbents. Secondly, the work attempted to identify a method of synthesizing sintering-resistant sorbents. Following the hypothesis that separating nanosized CaO particles using inert metal oxides in the sorbent to prevent calcium sintering would produce highly effective sorbents, a simple and novel method (Wet Mixing) was discovered to produce sintering-resistant sorbents from soluable calcium and inert metal precursors including some precursors used in the precursor study. It was found that the calcium conversion of the sorbents was maintained at more than 90% over 24 cycles of utilization, under the conditions similar to those in practical systems. It was also found that a wide range of precursors could be used to produce highly sintering-resistant CO2 sorbents using the Wet Mixing method as long as they are soluable. This is believed to be because Wet Mixing can achieve a uniform distribution of calcium oxide nano-particles in the framework of inert metal oxide, and this is confirmed by high resolution images of the sorbents. A spray drying technique was also investigated as a quick manufacture process that can be used together with the Wet Mixing method to produce effective CO2 sorbent particles. Thirdly, theoretical work was conducted to understand the carbonation behavior of single sorbent particles in order to better design sorbent particles and identify optimum operating conditions. A modified grain size model has been developed to simulate the carbonation behavior of a synthetic sorbent particle (CGMG75, produced from calcium D-gluconate and magnesium D-gluconate with 75 wt.% of CaO content). It was found that the conversion of CaO mainly depends on particle size, reaction temperature, CaO content and its porosity. The carbonation reaction does not generate a significant temperature increase inside the particle with a maximum increment of less than 20K. Moreover, the diffusional effects seem to be negligible while the heat transfer due to convection is significant. From the simulation results it is clear that smaller CaO grain size is preferred and the well-known two stage behavior of carbonation (i.e. initial fast reaction followed by much slower reaction which was normally attributed to the more important diffusional effects in the second stage due to the formation of calcium carbonate product layer) could not be due to diffusional effects. Fourthly, the applicability of the synthetic sorbent (CGMG75) in an energy storage system was evaluated. Kinetic studies of CGMG75/CO2 and PbO/CO2 reactions were performed to examine the feasibility of utilizing the sorbents in a chemical heat pump system. The results showed that under the derived conditions for the chemical heat pump system, the synthetic sorbent did not have the problem of loss-in-capacity after multiple carbonation/calcination cycles, and therefore is believed to be applicable. In summary, this work discovered a new method that can be used to synthesize highly sintering-resistant CO2 sorbents that can be used in a chemical heat pump system without the problem of loss-in-capacity. The sorbents could be potentially utilized in other high temperature CO2 capture applications based on preliminary results, and further work needed has been identified.


Background: The primary aim of the medical therapy for BPH is to improve quality of life by relieving the lower urinary tract symptoms and prevent complications. Objectives: To compare efficacy and safety of double dose of tamsulosin monotherapy with combination of conventional dose of tamsulosin and finasteride in symptomatic BPH. Methods: This was a prospective study carried out in the Department of Urology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during the period of July 2005 to June 2006. Total 60 patients of 45-80 years of age were consequently selected according to inclusion criteria. After completion of baseline clinical evaluation and investigations, participants were divided into two groups, group A and group B. Group A were given tamsulosin 0.4 mg for 1 week. Then double dose of tamsulosin (0.8 mg) were given from 2nd week for 12 months. Group B were given tamsulosin 0.4 mg and finasteride 5 mg for the same duration. Efficacy was evaluated at 6 month and 12 month follow up visit and a comparison was made between them. During follow up each was observed for any adverse effect. The parameters monitored were International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS), Maximum urine flow rate (Qmax), Post Voidal Residual Volume (PVR) and Prostate volume. Results : Both double dose of tamsulosin 0.8 mg and combination of conventional dose of tamsulosin 0.4 mg and finasteride 5 mg are effective in relieving symptoms of BPH but combination dose is superior to double dose monotherapy. Outcome parameters at end point follow up after 12 months showed significant improvement of IPSS (p<0.05), PVR(p<0.001), Q max (p<0.001) and prostate volume (p<0.001) in combination group than double dose group .The incidence of adverse events were also significantly less in combination group (p<0.05). Conclusion: Combination of conventional dose of tamsulosin with finasteride appears to have more efficacy and safety than double dose of tamsulosin in symptomatic BPH.


The properties of the interstellar medium (ISM) surrounding a planetary system can impact planetary climate through a number of mechanisms, including changing the size of the astrosphere (one of the major shields for cosmic rays) as well as direct deposition of material into planetary atmospheres. In order to constrain the ambient ISM conditions for exoplanetary systems, we present observations of interstellar Na i and K i absorption toward seventeen early type stars in the Kepler prime mission field of view (FOV). We identify 39 Na i and 8 K i velocity components, and attribute these to 11 ISM clouds. Six of these are detected toward more than one star, and for these clouds we put limits on the cloud properties, including distance and hydrogen number density. We identify one cloud with significant (≳1.5 cm−3) hydrogen number density located within the nominal ∼100 pc boundary of the Local Bubble. We identify systems with confirmed planets within the Kepler FOV that could lie within these ISM clouds, and estimate upper limits on the astrosphere sizes of these systems under the assumption that they do lie within these clouds. Under this condition, the Kepler-20, 42, and 445 multiplanet systems could have compressed astrospheres much smaller than the present-day heliosphere. Among the known habitable zone planet hosts, Kepler-186 could have an astrosphere somewhat smaller than the heliosphere, while Kepler-437 and KOI-4427 could have astrospheres much larger than the heliosphere. The thick disk star Kepler-444 may have an astrosphere just a few AU in radius.


The genus Sanguinolites was instituted by M'Coy1 in 1844 to include a group of shells previously classed with Sanguinolaria. In 1877 R. Etheridge, Jun.,2 described and figured certain lamellibranchs obtained from a bed of shale near the base of the Lower Limestones at Abden, Fife. He referred them to Sanguinolites? and on account of differences from the described species of this genus he adopted abdenensis as a specific name. The shore section at Abden (see Fig. 22) was detailed in the Geological Survey Memoir of Central and Western Fife and Kinross-shire, published in 1900.3 Sanguinolites abdenensis was recorded more precisely in this memoir as occurring in fossiliferous shales lying below the first Abden Limestone. Part of the section there given is:— ft. ins. Limestone (First Abden Limestone) .. .. 10 — Shale with nodules of limestone and marine fossils 1 — Green and red tuffs .. .. .. .. .. 6 — Dark shale with brachiopods and lamellibranchs 1 6 Soft pale marly shale or fireclay .. .. .. 1 6 Dark shales with a lamellibranch fauna including Sanguinolites abdenensis .. .. .. .. 2 11 Bone bed with numerous fish remains .. .. — 1 In 1910 the Geological Survey Memoir on the neighbourhood of Edinburgh was published.4 In this work reference was made to a brachiopod-bearing shale underlain by a "bone bed" discovered by the late Mr. A. Macconochie. In the Burdiehouse Burn these beds were found underlying a limestone which occurs 130 ft. below the Gilmerton Limestone. This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract


Introduction: House dust mite (HDM) allergy has been reported as an actual cause of asthma in children. Subcutaneous immunotherapy (SCIT) is a recommended treatment for HDM allergy patients. However, there were limited data about the characteristic of pediatric patients with HDM-SCIT, particularly in Indonesia. This study was aimed to evaluate the characteristic of pediatric patients with allergic asthma. Methods: Study participants were pediatric patients confirmed with HDM allergy from Skin Prick Test (SPT) in the pediatric allergy-immunology outpatient clinic in Saiful Anwar Hospital Malang, Indonesia. Patients who were treated with HDM-SCIT in the early build-up phase of treatment were included in this study. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the patients were recorded. Peripheral blood samples were drawn to evaluate the total eosinophil count (TEC), total basophil count (TBC), neutrophillymphocyte ratio (NLR), specific IgE (sIgE) and total IgE (t-IgE) level. Clinical diagnosis of asthma was classified according to the Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) criteria. The evaluation of asthma control was assessed by the Asthma Control Test (ACT) score. Results: Thirty-two patients were enrolled in this study, including 14 male and 18 female. The mean age of children was 6.92 ± 2.60 years old. There were 21 subjects with uncontrolled asthma and 11 subjects with partially controlled asthma. Demographic characteristics including age, sex, nutritional status and family history were not significantly different between uncontrolled and partially controlled asthma groups (p> 0.05). TEC, TBC, NLR, and tIgE were not different significantly among groups (p> 0.05). This study showed that the mean of sIgE serum level was higher in uncontrolled asthma compared to partially controlled asthma group (p= 0.022). Moreover, it was a negative significant correlation between sIgE serum level and ACT score (p= 0.002, r= -0.532). Conclusion: Higher sIgE levels were correlated with poor asthma control in HDM-SCIT patients.


In the present paper, some reliability measures of a computer system of two cold standby identical units are obtained using a semi-Markov process and a regenerative point technique. For this purpose, a reliability model is proposed by considering independent h/w and s/w failure. Initially, one unit is operative and another is kept as spare in cold standby. A single server is provided to conduct preventive maintenance, repair, replacement and up-gradation of the components upon their failure. Then, a maximum operation time system undergoes preventive maintenance, directly from normal mode. If the repair of the h/w is not possible by the server up to a pre-specific time, it is replaced by a new one with some replacement time. However, only up-gradation of the software by a new one is made whenever s/w fails to execute the desired function properly. Priority to h/w repair is given over h/w replacement and s/w up-gradation. The failure time distribution of the h/w and s/w follows a negative exponential while the distributions of preventive maintenance, repair, upgradation and replacement time are taken as arbitrary with different probability density functions. To depict the importance of the study, graphs are drawn for a particular case with fixed values of other parameters and costs. © 2014 Jordan Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. All rights reserved


Summary Statement The use of moulage is assumed to add realism and authentic context in simulation. Despite the expense required to utilize moulage effectively, there is little exploration in the literature as to both its necessity and its accuracy of portrayal. We explore engagement, authenticity, and realism theories in the context of moulage and highlight the need for more evidence on moulage in simulation-based education, including suggestions for future research. In particular, we urge the simulation community to move beyond descriptive papers to investigate moulage in terms of justification and clarification.


ABSTRACT Purpose: To report the clinical and molecular genetic findings in two brothers with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and mevalonate kinase deficiency (MKD). Methods: The brothers were examined clinically and with fundus autofluorescence, near-infrared autofluorescence, and spectral domain optical coherence tomography. Targeted resequencing was done with a custom designed gene panel containing 78 genes associated with RP. Mutations were confirmed by direct Sanger sequencing. Results: Both brothers, aged 46 and 47 years, were found to carry compound heterozygous mutations in the MVK gene (c.59A>C, c.1000G>A) encoding mevalonate kinase. They presented with severe ataxia, pseudophakia due to early onset cataract, and progressed retinitis pigmentosa. In one brother with cystoid macular edema, treatment with dorzolamide was beneficial. Serum IgD levels were markedly increased in both brothers and mevalonic acid blood and urine levels were markedly increased in the one brother who could be examined. The disease severity differed between the brothers—one had more severe ataxia and less severe visual deficiency compared to the other. Conclusion: MKD can be associated with RP and early onset cataract. Most MKD patients developing RP carry the (p.Ala334Thr) mutation. Macular edema can be treated using local dorzolamide.


Computing similarity between two legal documents is an important and challenging task in the domain of Legal Information Retrieval. Finding similar legal documents has many applications in downstream tasks, including prior-case retrieval, recommendation of legal articles, and so on. Prior works have proposed two broad ways of measuring similarity between legal documents - analyzing the precedent citation network, and measuring similarity based on textual content similarity measures. But there has not been a comprehensive comparison of these existing methods on a common platform. In this paper, we perform the first systematic analysis of the existing methods. In addition, we explore two promising new similarity computation methods - one text-based and the other based on network embeddings, which have not been considered till now.


2012, Delta Air Lines was the world's second largest airline, providing air transportation for passengers, cargo, and mail. Delta operated an extensive domestic and international network across all continents in the world except Antarctica. It was also a founding partner of the SkyTeam airline alliance. Delta had used mergers and acquisitions successfully to solidify its strong position as a leader in the airline industry. It had gone through five M&As since 1953, including the most recent acquisition of Northwest Air Lines, which turned Delta into an airline with major operations in every region of the world. Unfortunately, the Northwest merger took a toll on Delta's financial position by contributing to its high long-term debt. In 2012, top management was cautiously exploring opportunities for entering new markets, routes, and partnerships in order to boost market share. The airline industry was known for being extremely competitive with significant market share volatility, strong price competition, and low brand loyalty. Management was also seeking out ways to reduce costs and expenses in an industry that was rapidly consolidating into fewer major national and international players.


Framing bias plays a significant role in exacerbating political polarization by distorting the perception of actual events. Media outlets with divergent political stances often use polarized language in their reporting of the same event. We propose a new loss function that encourages the model to minimize the polarity difference between the polarized input articles to reduce framing bias. Specifically, our loss is designed to jointly optimize the model to map polarity ends bidirectionally. Our experimental results demonstrate that incorporating the proposed polarity minimization loss leads to a substantial reduction in framing bias when compared to a BART-based multi-document summarization model. Notably, we find that the effectiveness of this approach is most pronounced when the model is trained to minimize the polarity loss associated with informational framing bias (i.e., skewed selection of information to report).


The study was designed focusing on stilt fishing industry, a small-scale and traditional fishery method practicing in Sri Lanka, to examine the Socio, Economic and Environment aspects in Traditional Fishing and Modern Fishing and to identify the challenges and threats particularly in Traditional Stilt Fishing (TSF) at community level. Further study indented to examine the available opportunities for the people who are engaging in Traditional Fishing industry, particularly in Traditional Stilt Fishing (TSF), and to identify already applied survival strategies of same fishing community. Special reference was given to examine the contextual preparations of TSF for the tourism intervention as a supplementary income generator and to identify the mediating effect on TSF by the Southern coast tourism industry. Finally to develop strategies to overcome challenges faced by TSF through harnessing the potentials and manipulating opportunities at community level. The data in the study were collected from six sites of stilt fishing in southern Sri Lanka, using three sophisticated questionnaire from stilt fishermen (sample size 100) and those who  are interested in promoting it (tour guides/ operators/ hoteliers) (sample size 25) and those who are visiting it (tourists) (sample size 50). Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were used to analyze collected data. It was observed that tourism development gives more opportunities and living standards to the stilt fishing community. It was concluded that certain sites (within the six mentioned sites) possess higher comparable advantage in promoting stilt fishing than others. More than 70% of stilt fishers were satisfied with their jobs while most of them are earning satisfactory level of income through tourism. Around 50% of the interviewed tourists claimed that they were satisfied by visiting stilt fishing and government should consider ensuring sustainability of the stilt fishing industry. It was recommended to establish thorough system to promote tourism in terms of pricing of stilt fishing, value addition to stilt fishing, women empowerment, tourists' safety assurance. The study was limited to present data, since there were no recorded statistics in the past regarding stilt fishing industry, thus the nature of the study requires a time series analysis. Therefore future research implications are available varying from job satisfactory with time series analysis in stilt fishing to in-depth analysis of socio economic aspects of stilt fishing community in Sri Lanka. Keywords: Challenges, Opportunities, Traditional Stilt Fishing Industry.


An initial acute coronary event is an important predictor of future cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease. The aim of this study was to identify an association between acute coronary events during the predialysis phase of chronic kidney disease and major adverse cardiac events in patients initiating maintenance haemodialysis. One hundred sixty-nine patients initiating maintenance haemodialysis were enrolled in this study. In the subsequent follow-up period (median: 60 months), subjects experiencing an initial major adverse cardiac event were compared with those who did not have such an event on the basis of several clinical parameter measurements at the end of the predialysis phase. A history of an acute coronary event was present in 21 patients (12%), and these patients had a higher cumulative major adverse cardiac event rate during follow-up than subjects without a history of acute coronary event (75 vs 19%, P < 0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis showed that the following four parameters independently predicted major adverse cardiac events: a history of acute coronary events (hazard ratio, 4.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.61 to 8.13; P < 0.001), presence of diabetes (hazard ratio, 7.70; 95% confidence interval, 3.29 to 23.83; P < 0.001), each 1 g/dl increment in haemoglobin (hazard ratio, 1.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.23 to 2.34; P = 0.002) and each 1 kg/m(2) decrement in body mass index (hazard ratio, 0.80; 95% confidence interval, 0.72 to 0.98; P = 0.005). In conclusion, these results suggest that a history of acute coronary events, presence of diabetes, increased haemoglobin concentration or decreased body mass index at the end of the predialysis phase were significantly associated with the occurrence of a major adverse cardiac event in patients initiating maintenance haemodialysis.


Hexatertiary butyl-substituted D(3)-symmetrical cage ligands composed of octahedral bidentate complexes of Ni(II) or Cu(II) ligated on either side to triskelion arrangements of three salicyl rings bound to a central nitrogen hub atom exhibit triple-helical conformations. Maximization of intermolecular aromatic-aromatic interactions between these complexes promote extended tongue and groove interleaving and affords a supramolecular array of diastereomeric intermeshed C(3)-symmetrical triple-helices perpetuating sideways throughout alternating enantiomeric layer stacks in the entire P-3 space group crystal lattice. Chiral recognition within these supramolecular ensembles is based upon the principles of helical sense and phase. A discussion of the symmetry, mechanical and chemical factors, and constraints influencing the formation of these self-assembled crystalline supramolecular ensembles will be presented.


For about 5000 years or more, mushrooms have been used as medicines by human beings. Fungi are the great recyclers in nature. Ganoderma lucidum (Reishi) is one of the most commonly used species of medicinal mushrooms. Reishi is not an edible mushroom, though people use reishi to brew teas for medicinal purposes only. This mushroom, due to its large number of pharmacological properties, has attracted substantial attention in recent era. The fruiting bodies of Ganoderma contain a variety of chemical substances. Almost all medicinal properties have been ascribed to G. lucidum. The spores, fruiting bodies, mycelia of Ganoderma contain various bioactive substances. The present study was done to screen the powdered mushroom and its successive extracts such as petroleum ether extract, chloroform extract, methanolic extract and aqueous extract on the basis of phytochemical tests and other tests. The different extracts showed the presence of different constituents. There was no foreign matter reported in the powdered mushroom, the ash value was not more than 4.8% w/w. The powdered mushroom showed different color under long UV, short UV and visible light. The different extracts showed presence of different chemical constituents which may have different pharmacological properties and may prove beneficial for human race for curing many diseases. Keywords: Ganoderma, mushroom, fungi, vitamins


Opinion mining and sentiment analysis in texts from social networks such as Twitter has taken great importance during the last decade. Quality lexicons for the sentiment analysis task are easily found in languages such as English; however, this is not the case in Spanish. For this reason, we propose CSL, a Combined Spanish Lexicon approach for sentiment analysis that uses an ensemble of six lexicons in Spanish and a weighted bag of words strategy. In order to build CSL we used 68,019 tweets previously classified by researchers at the Spanish Society of Natural Language Processing (SEPLN) obtaining a precision of 62.05 and a recall of 60.75 in the validation set, showing improvements in both measurements. Additionally, we compare the results of CSL with a very well-known commercial software for sentiment analysis in Spanish finding an improvement of 10 points in precision and 15 points in recall.


The purpose of this study is to identify the level of mental health knowledge of defectors and to investigate the effect of sociodemographic characteristics and mental health knowledge level on mental health attitudes. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 150 people and analyzed the data of 138 people. The t test and one-way analysis of variance were used to analyze differences according to demographic characteristics. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to measure the effect of mental illness knowledge on attitudes toward mental illness. The positive correlations between the mental health attitudes of North Korean defectors and the knowledge level were significant, and the knowledge level between final academic achievement in South Korea and the entry year into South Korea was also significant. The higher the knowledge of mental health, the more generous the minds of those with mental illness because they know better about it, and they have negative thoughts about regulating their lives.


BACKGROUND: Long-term weight loss is difficult to maintain, but recently cognitive behavioral therapy has been shown to be effective for long-term weight loss and maintenance.METHODS: The 119 participants, who had been assigned to program to lose weight, were interviewed by dieticians regarding their motivation for weight loss and psychological status and self-corrected problems with their eating activities and exercises, following recognition of problems, discussing solutions, and devising personal dietary plans and exercise plan to loose weight at 1.0-2.0 kg per month.RESULTS: In women, the prevalence of motivation to resolve the situation (n = 44, 84.6%) was significantly higher than that of men (n = 33, 67.3%; p < 0.05). In men, awareness of the need to keep healthy by oneself was significantly associated with the motivation to resolve the situation (p = 0.002) and the availability of support from others (p = 0.004). Thirty problems and 29 dietary goals were set by participants. The percentages of intake of alcohol (p < 0.05) and intake of sweets (p < 0.01) as the problems and decrease of intake in specified foods (p < 0.01) and snacks (p = 0.05) as dietary goals were significantly different between men and women. Women with BMI over 31 kg/m² set fewer additional steps as exercise goals than those with BMI under 29 kg/m² (p < 0.05).CONCLUSIONS: The characters of subjects such as psychological status and the problems and the target recognized by participants were different between gender and the degree of obesity.


Increasing evidence suggests that the chemokine interleukin (IL)‐8/CXCL8 plays important roles in CNS development, neuronal survival, modulation of excitability, and neuroimmune response. Recently, we have shown that CXCL8 can acutely modulate ion channel activity in septal neurons expressing receptors CXCR1 and/or CXCR2. This was a surprising finding, insofar as CXCR1 expression had not been described for the mammalian brain. Here we investigated whether CXCR1 transcripts are present in other brain regions, whether they are expressed at the single‐cell level in molecularly identified neurons and astrocytes, and how they are regulated during early postnatal development. In addition, possible cellular colocalization of CXCR1 and CXCR2 transcripts was examined. Semiquantitative reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (RT‐PCR) revealed that CXCR1 mRNAs were expressed in the septum, striatum, hippocampus, cerebellum, and cortex (temporoparietal and entorhinal) at different levels and appeared to be regulated independently from CXCR2 during development. By using RT multiplex PCR on acutely dissociated cells from these brain regions, we show that CXCR1 transcripts were expressed in 83% of 84 sampled neurons displaying cholinergic (choline acetyltransferase mRNAs), γ‐aminobutyric acidergic (glutamic acid decarboxylases 65 and 67 mRNAs), or glutamatergic (vesicular glutamate transporters 1 and 2 mRNAs) phenotypes. CXCR1 and CXCR2 transcripts were colocalized in 45% of neurons sampled and also were present in some glial fibrillary acidic protein mRNA‐expressing astrocytes. This is the first study to demonstrate the widespread expression of CXCR1 transcripts in the brain and suggests that CXCR1 may have hitherto unsuspected roles in neuromodulation and inflammation. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


This paper looks beyond the conventional notion of technology transfer where the parties involved are a government laboratory and a business firm or an entrepreneur. The paper examines the factors that make it possible for an economic region such as the San Francisco Bay Area to succeed in large scale technology commercialisation from various sources including government laboratories, universities, and corporate research and development efforts. The regions success factors include: the talent pool, pillar companies, supply of capital, university and R&D linkages to the economy, support services, and a good quality of life. The process of technology commercialisation is neither obvious nor very rapid. For a region to be a successful host to technology commercialisation it needs to have in place the infrastructure of technology commercialisation (ITC). Civic entrepreneurs are a key element of the ITC, in addition to the success factors for Silicon Valley listed above. A key lesson from the Silicon Valley experience is that technology commercialisation moves faster and with greater success when it is a part of broad-based economic development efforts. Finally, despite the apparent "placelessness" of Internet and information technologies, it is important to realise that location and place matter a great deal. It matters because knowledge workers value access to universities as well as K-12 education, cultural richness, civic virtue, choice in housing and transportation, diversity of employment opportunities, and a healthy environment. These are location specific attributes, and places that possess these attributes and work to enhance and maintain them are the best places for technology commercialisation. Therefore, such places tend to create more wealth and have well-developed economies.


Games face a crisis of diversity in both their content and in the industry itself. The inequalities that underlie these issues are heightened in the Global South. Addressing these issues will require a systemic decolonisation of games education in which future generations of industry professionals become critically engaged in their creative practice. Decolonisation requires the investigation and reconstruction of the ways knowledge is created and produced. To enable this, the curricula employed in teaching games requires close investigation and intervention. The difficulties of enabling access to knowledge when teaching games are exacerbated when seen in light of the need for decolonisation. Situated in a South African context, this article investigates the first-year core course 'Key Concepts in Game Design' offered at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. It outlines the challenges games education faces in South Africa and takes stock of the state of the course and of the perceptions of students enrolled in it. It demonstrates that the course curriculum requires increased Africanisation and the establishment of common play practices. Finally, it highlights the importance of focusing on the development of critical game literacies as part of the decolonising project.


This paper proposes the incremental Bayesian optimization algorithm (iBOA), which modifies standard BOA by removing the population of solutions and using incremental updates of the Bayesian network. iBOA is shown to be able to learn and exploit unrestricted Bayesian networks using incremental techniques for updating both the structure as well as the parameters of the probabilistic model. This represents an important step toward the design of competent incremental estimation of distribution algorithms that can solve difficult nearly decomposable problems scalably and reliably.


Extensional deformations represent an effective stimulus to explore the rich rheological response of branched polymers and elastomers, enabling the design of polymers with specific molecular structure. However, probing the polymer behavior at large deformations is often limited by the experimental devices. We here present an alternative use of the Sentmanat Extensional Rheometer (SER) that allows Hencky strain units much larger than the maximum value achievable, ∼3.6. The proposed procedure consists of an oblique positioning of the sample in the measuring area. If a small inclination of the sample is used, the departure from the ideal uniaxial flow is negligible at Hencky strains <1, and nearly zero for larger values. Experimental results in the linear viscoelastic regime are compared with the double reptation model in order to discern polydispersity and branching effects, whereas the extensional rheology data are contrasted with the molecular stress function theory (MSF), revealing important information about the polymer structure, especially on the long-chain branching (LCB). Finally, the analysis of sample failure upon elongation allowed us to correlate the polymer structure to the rheological behavior during mixing processes.


Objective. To explore the previously reported associations between cervical squamous lesions and psychologic measures of stress and depression. Methods. In a multicenter cohort study, women with HIV and HIV-seronegative women had Pap tests and completed self-report questionnaires including the Perceived Stress Scale-10 (PSS), which measures perceived stress, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Checklist-Civilian Version (PCL-C), which measures symptoms of PTSD, and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale, which measures depressive symptoms. Results. Median scores were 13 (range = 0-38) for the PSS, 24 (range = 17-85) for the PCL-C, and 8 (range = 0-57) for the CES-D, indicating moderate stress and minimal depression. For PSS, compared with women in the lowest tertile of reported stress, the odds ratios (ORs) for squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) were 0.88 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.50-1.54) for women in the middle tertile and 0.96 (95% CI = 0.54-1.68) for women in the highest tertile. For PCL-C, compared with women in the lowest tertile of PTSD symptoms, ORs for SIL were 0.79 (95% CI = 0.43-1.41) for women in the middle tertile and 1.17 (95% CI = 0.68-2.01) for women in the highest tertile. Rates of SIL were similar for CES-D scores 16 or higher (compared with women with lower scores; OR = 1.41, 95% CI = 0.88-2.26) and 23 or higher (OR = 1.39, 95% CI = 0.81-2.40). In the multivariable analysis including the number of sexual partners, age, income, ethnicity, and serostatus, stress as measured by PSS and PCL-C and depressive symptoms as measured by CES-D remained unassociated with SIL. Conclusions. We found no evidence that stress and depression affect the prevalence of cervical squamous lesions.


The relationship between viral infection with Kaposi sarcoma‐associated herpesvirus (KSHV) and the onset of Kaposi sarcoma (KS) in AIDS patients is incompletely understood. This study investigates the use of three serological assays to predict the development of KS in HIV‐positive patients. Serially collected serum samples from 36 patients with KS and matched controls in the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS) were analyzed in a case control study. Three serologic assays to detect antibodies against KSHV (nuclear and membrane antigen immunofluorescence assay, N‐IFA, M‐IFA and ORF 65.2 ELISA) were used to determine the predictive value of KSHV‐seropositivity. Serial samples from the cases were also analyzed to determine longitudinal patterns of seroreactivity and identify cases of seroconversion. Assay sensitivity for detection of KSHV antibodies was highest for M‐IFA (83%), followed by N‐IFA (74%) and 65.2 ELISA (52%). At the time of initial serum sampling (median 4.7 years before KS), only the N‐IFA distinguished case and control sera (61% vs. 32%) and no assay was clearly predictive of subsequent onset of clinical KS. Moreover, an unexpectedly high rate of reversions to seronegativity were observed by N‐IFA (27/33) as well as by 65.2 ELISA (11/26) in the longitudinal analysis. Analysis of the ORF65.2 ELISA index indicated that these reversions before the clinical onset of KS were associated with antibody levels that frequently hovered around the level of detectability. A marked increase in ORF 65.2 antibody titer occurred in a third of the patients at the time of KS diagnosis. Only two seroconversions were documented. KSHV infection within the SHCS is likely to have preceded HIV infection. KSHV infection alone is not highly predictive of KS development in this cohort of HIV‐infected homosexual men as compared with matched controls. Three KSHV serologic assays, though sensitive at the time of clinical KS are inconsistently positive before the development of AIDS‐related KS. J. Med. Virol. 64:157–166, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The aim of the present retrospective study was to assess the recurrence rate of preinvasive disease and the newly detected invasive disease rate in a cohort of women treated with excisional methods for high-grade cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Women were treated with large loop excision of the transformation zone (LLETZ) . Surgical specimens underwent histological examination and the status of endocervical as well as ectocervical margins was recorded. Follow-up protocol included testing for HP HPV DNA at 6 months after the initial treatment following which the patients either went to normal recall if tests were normal, had annual smears or repeat LLETZ if clinically indicated. Majority [54.5%] patients had negative TOC after LLETZ. In TOC positive patients, colposcopy was normal in 67.8% patients, low grade and HPV were seen in 14.28% patients each. No moderate or high grade seen. Colposcopy was normal in 75% of patients in TOC negative group. 78.9% patients were able to go for normal recall with their GP. Only 6.2% were advised annual smears. Among the 8 patients taken up for a biopsy, 3 turned out negative, 3 had HPV and only 2 showed CIN 1 changes. NO patient had cervical changes CIN2 or above. NONE of the patients needed a repeat LLETZ. Women having undergone excisional treatment for high-grade CIN indicate a very low risk for recurrent disease and potentially negligible risk for invasive cancer, provided that a strict and vigorous follow-up is offered after treatment.


This study examined the potential of abalone β-glucuronidase as a viable and cost effective alternative to current hydrolysis procedures using acid, Helix pomatia β-glucuronidase and Escherichia coli β-glucuronidase. Abalone β-glucuronidase successfully hydrolyzed oxazepam-glucuronide and lorazepam-glucuronide within 5% of the spiked control concentration. Benzodiazepines present in authentic urine specimens were within 20% of the concentrations obtained with the current hydrolysis procedure using H. pomatia β-glucuronidase. JWH 018 N-(5-hydroxypentyl) β-d-glucuronide was hydrolyzed within 10% of the control concentration. Authentic urine specimens showed improved glucuronide cleavage using abalone β-glucuronidase with up to an 85% increase of drug concentration, compared with the results obtained using E. coli β-glucuronidase. The JWH 018 and JWH 073 carboxylic acid metabolites also showed increased drug concentrations of up to 24%. Abalone β-glucuronidase was able to completely hydrolyze a morphine-3-glucuronide control, but only 82% of total morphine was hydrolyzed in authentic urine specimens compared with acid hydrolysis results. Hydrolysis of codeine and hydromorphone varied between specimens, suggesting that abalone β-glucuronidase may not be as efficient in hydrolyzing the glucuronide linkages in opioid compounds compared with acid hydrolysis. Abalone β-glucuronidase demonstrates effectiveness as a low cost option for enzyme hydrolysis of benzodiazepines and synthetic cannabinoids.


This article compares two approaches to housing chronically homeless individuals with psychiatric disabilities and often substance abuse. The experimental Housing First programme offered immediate access to independent housing without requiring psychiatric treatment or sobriety; the control Continuum of Care programmes made treatment and sobriety prerequisites for housing. A total of 225 participants were interviewed prior to random assignment and every 6-months thereafter for 2 years. Data were analysed using repeated measures analysis of variance. Participants randomly assigned to the experimental condition spent significantly less time homeless and in psychiatric hospitals, and incurred fewer costs than controls. A sub-sample recruited from psychiatric hospitals (n = 68) spent less time homeless and more time hospitalized, and incurred more costs than a sub-sample (n = 157) recruited from the streets. Recruitment source by programme interactions showed that the experimental programme had greater effects on reducing hospitalization for the hospital sub-sample and reducing homelessness for the street sub-sample. Three-way interactions including time indicated that in the experimental group, hospitalization and homelessness declined faster for the hospital and street sub-samples, respectively, than for comparable controls. Overall results support the Housing First approach. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


CARD9 is an adaptor molecule containing an N-terminal Caspase Recruitment Domain (CARD) and a C-terminal Coiled-coil domain. Previous study showed that it activated NF-κB transcription factor when overexpressed in cell line. In order to understand the role of CARD9 in immune responses, we created and analyzed CARD9 deficient mice. We found that p38 activation was selectively defected in CARD9 deficient macrophages in responses to bacterial and viral mimetics-induced signaling pathways. Macrophages from the CARD9 deficient mice produced significantly decreased amount of proinflammatory cytokines in response to components of intracellular microbial pathogens. Furthermore, in response to Listeria moncytogenes infection, CARD9 deficient mice were impaired in innate immunity and failed to activate anti-bacterial clearance. Together, our data demonstrated that CARD9 plays an essential and selective role in immune responses against intracellular bacterial infection.


Herein, carboxymethyl cellulose sodium (CMCNa)/graphene oxide (GO) hydrogel microparticles (CGs) with diameters of 2.2–3.6 μm were prepared facilely via spray drying. The as-prepared CGs were used as adsorbents for the removal of methylene blue (MB), Eosin Y and various heavy metal ions. The results revealed that the adsorption capacities of the CG with 8 wt% GO increased by 340–354% for the dyes and 350–500% for heavy metal ions, in comparison with the pristine CMCNa reference. Moreover, the microparticle structure also endowed the CGs with high adsorption kinetics as the adsorption equilibrium for all pollutants was commonly reached within 30 min. The adsorption mechanisms for dyes were due to both electrostatic and π–π interactions, while those for heavy metals were the synergistic effect of electrostatic interactions, surface complexation and ion exchange. Further investigation indicated that the adsorption isotherms and kinetics can be well fitted by the Langmuir isotherm model and the pseudo-second-order model, respectively. By adjusting the GO content and solution pH, the adsorption capacities of our CGs can be further improved. The unique adsorption properties of our CGs, together with the spray drying method, make them very promising in the mass production of broad-spectrum adsorbents for water purification.


Hepatitis E virus (HEV) can infect humans, pigs, and many other animals, but the recombination of HEV has rarely been reported. In the present study, phylogenetic and recombination analyses were performed on 557 complete HEV genomes in GenBank. A potentially significant quadruple recombination event was identified by recombination detection analysis. The recombinant progeny virus HEV_32_Manchester_301214 was produced by recombination between the major parent HEPAC-44 and the minor parent HE-JA15-1335, thereby reflecting inter-genotype recombination. HEV_32_Manchester_301214 and HEPAC-44 belong to genotype 3, while HE-JA15-1335 belongs to genotype 1, and these three strains have all been separated from humans. Three breakpoints of the four recombination events occurred in the ORF2 region, while another occurred in the ORF1 region. This quadruple recombination event was confirmed by phylogenetic analysis. The genotype, host and the recombination regions of the three strains were analyzed. These results of the analyses provide valuable suggestions for future research on HEV diversity.


Introduction: We will consider some similarities between the wonderland that Alice stumbled into and what her reactions might be if she wandered into the present Business-Landscape. Body: The story Alice in Wonderland has three main elements: The First is known as Anthropomorphism, all it means is that there are creatures and objects that can talk and have human emotions; secondly some things make sense; some don't, which is known as literary non-sense. Lastly of course, there is everything else. Similarly, in today's business world we have Uncertainty, which many people know more about than me; and there are Unintended Consequences, which very few of us know much about. So I will focus on the easiest part, which is also my strength and we will talk mostly about Everything Else today. A central aspect of our lives is uncertainty and our struggle to overcome it. We discuss the nature of uncertainty in society and in our daily lives. One way in which we presently attempt to understand the world around us is by categorizing our observations into various fields or disciplines. We provide an alternate view of the role of various disciplines and consider why categorizations, despite being helpful need to be supplemented with a broader perspective to truly comprehending the cosmos and finding better solutions both for business and for everything else. We discuss the one certainty despite all the uncertainty around us, which is the subjectivity in all decision making, which gives rise to unintended consequences. We consider a tale of two consequences: Unintended and Welcome; Unintended and Unwanted and how this is a recurring theme in all walks of life. We briefly venture into the world of economics and finance, and an unintended consequence of technology which is creating complexity and also leading to the use of lots of data to deal with problems. We see how something seemingly scary, (monsters like mathematics) can become an extremely helpful tool, when the right mind set is adopted. We consider some techniques that can be helpful to increase our intelligence; and if we make an assumption that Albert Einstein was smart, these techniques might show us how to become smarter than him. Conclusion: We conclude with a discussion of how we can overcome the uncertainty around us succinctly described as, "Fighting Uncertainty with Uncertainty". The main topics we consider are: - The Nature of Uncertainty - Objectively Subjective - A Tale of Two Consequences - The Miracle of Mathematics - Becoming Smarter than Albert Einstein - Fighting Uncertainty with Uncertainty


Arising from the principal-agent consideration, Jensen and Murphy (1990b) studied the pay-performance sensitivity (including pay, options, stockholdings, and dismissal) for chief executive officers (CEOs) in the 1980s. They found that CEO wealth changes $3.25 for every $1,000 change in shareholder wealth. In this study, we revisit the issue of the linkage between CEO pay and performance but with the difference that we only include observable measures in the pay-performance sensitivity estimate. Our data on executive compensation stems from the ExecuComp database on S&P 1500 firms, and the performance data from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) database (total: 23,737 firm-year observations). We find that CEO wealth changes $5.34 for every $1,000 change in shareholder wealth. Almost all of this sensitivity is attributed to compensation through stock options and the CEO's inside stockholdings. Today, the incentives generated by stock options have increased thirteen times, and the total pay-performance sensitivity has almost doubled in value, compared to when Jensen and Murphy (1990b) estimated the pay-performance sensitivity in the 1980s for the first time. Despite the increased pay performance sensitivity, we hypothesize that internal and external political forces negatively affect the CEO's performance incentives. Compensation constraints reduce the pay performance sensitivity and hereby the incentives for the CEO to maximize shareholder wealth. Further research on how CEO wealth varies with absolute and relative corporate performance is required to determine if the CEO's incentives are consistent with shareholder wealth maximization.


This article deals with the role of clinical practice guidelines within hospital or out-patient management these days, along with aspects related to the latest auxiliary tools of medical care, such as: origins, their relationship to evidence-based medicine, their requirements, methods to devise, implement and assess them, as well as the most important sites to consult the best current guidelines. The idea for the present article comes from these guidelines' growing, widespread use in medical care.


Three decades ago, theoretical physicists suggested that the controlled recovery of charges could result in electronic circuitry whose power dissipation approaches thermodynamic limits, growing at a significantly slower pace than the fCV/sup 2/ rate for CMOS switching power. Early engineering research in this field, which became generally known as adiabatic computing, focused on the asymptotic energetics of computation, exploring VLSI designs that use reversible logic and adiabatic switching to preserve information and achieve nearly zero power dissipation as operating frequencies approach zero. Recent advances in CMOS VLSI design have taken us to real working chips that rely on controlled charge recovery to operate at substantially lower power dissipation levels than their conventional counterparts. Although their origins can be traced back to the early adiabatic circuits, these charge-recovering systems approach energy recycling from a more practical angle, shedding reversibility to achieve operating frequencies in the hundreds of MHz with relatively low overhead. Among other charge-recovery designs, researchers have demonstrated microcontrollers, standard-cell ASICs, SRAMs, LCD panel drivers, I/O drivers, and multiGHz clock networks. In this paper, we present an overview of the field and focus on two chip designs that highlight some of the promising charge recovering techniques in practice.


Based on $(106.41 \pm 0.86)\times 10^{6}$ $\psi(3686)$ events collected with the BESIII detector at the BEPCII collider, the branching fractions of $\psi(3686) \to \pi^+\pi^- J/\psi$, $J/\psi \to e^+e^- $, and $J/\psi \to \mu^+\mu^-$ are measured. We obtain ${\cal B}[\psi(3686) \to \pi^+\pi^-J/\psi]=(34.98\pm 0.02\pm 0.45)%$, ${\cal B}[J/\psi \to e^+e^-] = (5.983 \pm 0.007 \pm 0.037)%$ and ${\cal B}[J/\psi \to \mu^+\mu^-] = (5.973 \pm 0.007 \pm 0.038)%$. The measurement of ${\cal B}[\psi(3686) \to \pi^{+}\pi^{-}J/\psi]$ confirms the CLEO-c measurement, and is apparently larger than the others. The measured $J/\psi$ leptonic decay branching fractions agree with previous experiments within one standard deviation. These results lead to ${\cal B}[J/\psi \to l^+l^-] = (5.978 \pm 0.005 \pm 0.040)%$ by averaging over the $e^{+}e^{-}$ and $\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ channels and a ratio of ${\cal B}[J/\psi \to e^+e^-] / {\cal B}[J/\psi \to \mu^+\mu^-] = 1.0017 \pm 0.0017 \pm 0.0033$, which tests $e$-$\mu$ universality at the four tenths of a percent level. All the measurements presented in this paper are the most precise in the world to date.


ABSTRACT Although current evidence confirms the importance of diet for mental health, many psychologists avoid discussing dietary intake with clients, questioning whether this information is within their scope of practice. This article provides psychologists with a review focused on the connection between what we eat and how we feel. Eating a healthy, whole-foods-based diet is an important tool to promote mental health recovery and maintenance. We begin by reviewing several mechanisms by which nutrients maximize brain health, including enabling metabolic reactions to occur, supporting mitochondrial function, reducing inflammation and assisting with detoxification. Understanding the vital role of nutrients for brain health will aid clients in understanding the importance of optimizing their intake of a range of nutrients in order to maximize their mental health: no single nutrient is sufficient. Next, we summarize evidence relating diet to mental health, followed by a consideration of circumstances that may contribute to a client requiring additional nutrients, such as chronic stress, medication use, individual biochemistry, and consuming nutrient-depleted food. The evidence base for treating psychological problems in children with supplementary nutrients is then reviewed, and a case study of a child whose self-regulatory skills improved with broad-spectrum multinutrients is used to illustrate this treatment. The breadth and consistency of the research highlights the importance of children receiving a good foundation of nutrients for optimizing brain health. Finally, we offer practical suggestions for psychologists to incorporate this information into their clinical practice and discuss these suggestions within the context of informed consent.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the effect of vitrectomy on the concentration of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and the pharmacokinetics of intravitreally injected bevacizumab in the aqueous humor in cynomolgus macaques.

METHODS
Pars plana lensectomy and a standard three-port vitrectomy were performed in one eye each of six macaques. After a minimal 12-week healing period, the vitrectomized eyes received an intravitreal injection of bevacizumab (1.25 mg/50 μL). Aqueous humor and venous blood samples were obtained from the macaques just before vitrectomy, just before injection of bevacizumab, on days 1, 3, and 7, and during weeks 2, 4, 6, and 8 after the injection. The bevacizumab and VEGF concentrations were measured by using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

RESULTS
The VEGF concentrations in the aqueous humor ranged from 52.6 to 113.9 pg/mL (mean ± standard deviation [SD], 81.7 ± 27.0 pg/mL) before vitrectomy and 20.7 to 72.7 pg/mL (mean ± SD, 51.4 ± 20.5 pg/mL) 3 months after vitrectomy, a difference that reached significance (P = 0.03). The aqueous VEGF concentrations decreased to less than 9.0 pg/mL, the lower limit of detection, in all eyes between 1 and 7 days after injection of bevacizumab. The mean half-life of 1.25 mg intravitreally injected bevacizumab was 1.5 ± 0.6 days (range, 1.0-2.4 days) in the aqueous humor.

CONCLUSIONS
The VEGF concentration in the aqueous humor decreased and the half-life of the intravitreally injected bevacizumab was shorter in vitrectomized eyes.


Neuroblastoma, which is caused by the precursors of the sympathetic nervous system, is the most commonly encountered extracranial solid tumor in the pediatric age group. TRPV1 channels, which are a subchannel of the TRP channel family in the cell membrane, are channel permeable to calcium that are known to have increased expression based on increased free radicals. They were reported to lead to apoptosis based on increased amount of intracellular free calcium when they are excessively stimulated. With this study, we purposed to determine the effect levels of erlotinib and melatonin on neuroblastoma cells through TRPV1 channels. SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were used in the study. The cell series were divided into 7 main groups as Control, Erlotinib (ERLT) (5 µM, 24 hours), MEL (1 mM, 24 hours), ERLT+CPZ, MEL+CPZ, ERLT+MEL and ERLT+MEL+CPZ. TRPV1 channel activation in all groups was achieved by capsaicin. The calcium signals, intracellular reactive oxygen types, caspase-3 and -9 and mitochondrial membrane depolarization levels were analyzed in the groups, and the groups were compared to each other. Cytosolic calcium concentration, apoptosis, mitochondrial membrane depolarization caspase-3 and caspase-9 activation, and reactive oxygen species levels were importantly higher in comparison to the control group in the ERLT (p<0.001), ERLT+MEL (p<0.001) and MEL (p<0.05; p<0.001) groups. In the comparison of the groups that used TRPV1 channel blocker (ERLT+CPZ, ERLT+MEL+CPZ, MEL+CPZ) and the groups that did not use channel blocker (ERLT, ERLT+MEL, MEL), all values were lower in the group that used the blocker (p<0.05). Using melatonin and erlotinib together in neuroblastoma tumor cells increased apoptotic pathway activity through TRPV1 channels.


A background of nanohertz gravitational waves from supermassive black hole binaries could soon be detected by pulsar timing arrays, which measure the times-of-arrival of radio pulses from millisecond pulsars with very high precision. The European Pulsar Timing Array uses five large European radio telescopes to monitor high-precision millisecond pulsars, imposing in this way strong constraints on a gravitational wave background. To achieve the necessary precision needed to detect gravitational waves, the Large European Array for Pulsars (LEAP) performs simultaneous observations of pulsars with all five telescopes, which allows us to coherently add the radio pulses, maximize the signal-to-noise of pulsar signals and increase the precision of times-of-arrival. We report on the progress made and results obtained by the LEAP collaboration, and in particular on the addition of the Sardinia Radio Telescope to the LEAP observations during its scientific validation phase. In addition, we discuss how LEAP can be used to monitor strong-gravity systems such as double neutron star systems and impose strong constraints on post-keplerian parameters.


The cobalt analogue of a highly active nickel electrocatalyst for hydrogen production has been synthesized and characterized as [Co(PPh2NPh2)2(CH3CN)](BF4)2. In the presence of triflic acid in acetonitrile solution, the complex loses one cyclic diphosphine ligand to form [Co(PPh2NPh2)(CH3CN)3](BF4)2, which has been synthesized independently and stucturally characterized. The latter complex serves as an electrocatalyst for hydrogen formation with a turnover frequency of 90 s−1 and an overpotential of 285 mV using bromoanilinium tetrafluoroborate as the acid. A similar cobalt complex with a related diphosphine ligand that does not contain a pendant base is not catalytically active, confirming an important role for the pendant amine in the catalytic reaction.


We tested Collerton et al.'s model of visual hallucinations by re-examining a data set for correlations between visual hallucinations and measures of attentional function in schizophrenia patients. These data did not support their model. We suggest that cortical hyperexcitability plays an important role in hallucinations, and propose an alternative model that links evidence for cortical hyperexcitability with abnormal neural dynamics.


Transmission characteristics of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) written in holey fibers with different air-hole size are investigated. The cladding mode coupling of FBGs inscribed on holey fibers is remarkably suppressed due to air holes inside of the silica cladding. The wavelength spacing between the main peak due to the core mode coupling and side peak due to the first-order cladding mode coupling increases as the air-hole size increases because the reduction of the effective index of cladding mode depends on the air-hole size within the fiber. The strain and temperature sensitivities of FBGs are also investigated corresponding to air-hole size of holey fibers. The temperature sensitivities of holey-fiber-based FBGs are similar regardless of air-hole size of holey fibers (~1.9%), but their strain sensitivities are enhanced (~28.4%) as the air-hole size increases


The prognosis of older adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has not improved over the last three decades, despite the improvement in the outcome of younger adults during this same time due to the use of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and intensive cytarabine consolidation. Older adults can not tolerate intensive therapy due to poor performance status, impaired organ function, and comorbid illnesses. Tipifarnib is an oral farnesyl transferase inhibitor with activity in the treatment of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and high-risk AML patients. The primary objective of study S0432 was to test whether any of four different regimens of tipifarnib is sufficiently effective and tolerable therapy for previously untreated AML in patients of age 70 or over to warrant phase III study. Patients could not be considered candidates for, or must have declined, conventional induction chemotherapy. Patients had to have adequate renal and hepatic function, and the white blood cell (WBC) count had to be less than 30,000/cmm at the time of registration. Eligible patients could have a history of MDS, but could not have received AML induction chemotherapy or stem cell transplantation. Patients were randomized to receive either 600 mg or 300 mg of tipifarnib twice daily for either 21 consecutive days or 7 days every other week. Cycles were repeated every 28 days until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients achieving complete remission (CR) or CR with incomplete hematologic recovery (CRi) were to receive three additional cycles and then discontinue therapy. Patients achieving partial remission (PR) or with stable disease could continue treatment until progression of AML. If none of the first 15 patients on an arm achieved CR, CRi or PR, then accrual to that arm would be closed. However, all 4 treatment arms continued to full accrual. Three hundred forty-eight patients were registered between September 15, 2004 and February 15, 2006. Eighteen patients were excluded from analysis due to diagnosis other than AML, WBC above 30,000/cmm, no protocol therapy, and incorrect regimen administered. The median age in each arm was 78 years. The following are the treatment regimens: arm 1, 600 mg twice daily for 21 days; arm 2, 600 mg twice daily for 7 days every other week; arm 3, 300 mg twice daily for 21 days; arm 4, 300 mg twice daily for 7 days every other week. Responses were seen in each of the treatment arms with acceptable toxicities. The most common grade 3 or 4 adverse events were fatigue, febrile neutropenia, and infection in each treatment arm. However, the CR + CRi rates were less than 20% in each treatment arm, suggesting that further investigation of any of these regimens of tipifarnib is not warranted. Identification of predictors of response to tipifarnib, to further define the population of elderly AML patients most likely to benefit from this agent, should be investigated.


The recent introduction and spreading of new pathogens, along with the global climate change, has contributed to a considerable decrease in trout production. The increase of fish production presumes the avoidance and control of limiting noxious factors (Purser and Forteath, 2003; Sedgwick, 1990; Shepherd and Bromage, 1992). The presence of potentially pathogenic bacteria in fish of different age categories (n=10/ basin) and level of bacterial contamination of culture waters (12 basins) on a commercial trout farm with mixed population of rainbow and brook trout was monitored by insemination on McConkey agar and use of ID 32 E, API 20NE and API Staph galleries. Both fish and culture waters were higly polluted with bacteria, but the highest bacterial load was found in commercial trout, suggesting the vulnerability of this age category. The pottentially pathogenic bacteria for both fish (Aeromonas hydrophila) and humans (E. coli) indicated technological failure and potential fecal polution of the waters, increasing the risk for handlers and consumers.


A theoretical economic model of fertility decisions over time is developed. According to this model, parents cannot choose directly the time of the birth of their children but, by incurring a cost, can affect the probability of a birth. Parents make their choices subject to constraints; they modify their choices over time in response to a birth, a death, and the passage of time. The choice is made over a probability of a birth, yet there still is a well-defined desired number of children that, in general, will alter over the childbearing period. Parents may have more or fewer children than they desire at any point during or at the end of the childbearing period because births and deaths are stochastic. This model presents 1 method of extending the static household demand framework, which was pioneered by Becker (1960), to a dynamic and stochastic setting. After setting forth the model and comparing it to other dynamic models in the literature, attention is directed to the following: the solution procedure; how spacing of births is generated in the model with the focus on the features of the model that prevent births from occurring either all at the beginning or all at the end; selected comparative dynamic results, including the interactions among the different explanatory variables in their effect on fertility decisions; and extending the model to include other dimensions of fertility, such as the average age of the children and other decisions of the parents. In a static model, the effects of prices and income on a desired number of births are straightforward. In contrast, in the dynamic model, the effect of a change in, for example, the initial value of income may have opposite effects on the control at different time periods. Further, the effects of prices and incomes on fertility decisions depend on particular values of other variables in the model. These effects can be expected to vary systematically from developed to devloping countries. Using simulation studies, it is possible to examine how the effects of economic variables are likely to alter as a country develops.


PURPOSE
The evidence of a deficit in working memory in specific language impairment (SLI) is of sufficient magnitude to suggest a primary role in developmental language disorder. However, little research has investigated memory in late talkers who recover from their early delay. Drawing on a longitudinal, community sample, this study compared the memory profiles of 3 groups of 5-year-olds: children with SLI who had been identified as late talkers, resolved late talkers (RLTs), and children with typical language development (TLD).

METHOD
Participants were 25 children with SLI, 45 RLTs, and 32 children with TLD. Subtests from the Working Memory Test Battery for Children and the Children's Memory Scale plus recalling sentences and nonword repetition tasks were administered to test the components of Baddeley's working memory model.

RESULTS
The SLI group showed significantly poorer performance than the RLT and TLD groups on measures of the phonological loop and episodic buffer. The RLT and TLD groups scored similarly on all memory measures.

CONCLUSIONS
The results support previous findings that sentence recall and nonword repetition are markers of SLI. Although residual effects of late-talking status may emerge over time, RLTs do not necessarily show memory deficits at 5 years of age despite delayed early vocabulary development.


Proteins are composed of domains, recurrent protein fragments with distinct structure, function and evolutionary history. Some domains exist only as single domain proteins, however, a majority of them are also combined with other domains. Domain rearrangements are important in the evolution of new proteins as new functionalities can arise in a single evolutionary event. In addition, the domain repertoire can be expanded through mutations of existing domains and de novo creation. The processes of domain rearrangement and creation have been the focus of this thesis.According to our estimates about 65% of the eukaryotic and 40% of the prokaryotic proteins are of multidomain type. We found that insertion of a single domain at the N- or C-terminus was the most common event in the creation of novel multidomain architectures. However, domain repeats deviate from this pattern and are often expanded through duplications of several domains. Next, by mapping domain combinations onto an evolutionary tree we estimated that roughly one domain architecture has been created per million years, with the highest rates in metazoa. Much of this so called explosion of new architectures in metazoa seems to be explained by a set of domains amenable to exon shuffling. In contrast to domain architectures, most known domain families evolved early. However, many proteins have incomplete domain coverage, and could hence contain de novo created domains. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, however, species specific sequences constitute only a minor fraction of the proteome, and are often short, disordered sequences located at the protein termini.


Summary 1- and 3-Methylmercapto-2-acetylaminofluorene (1- and 3-methylmercapto-AAF) were identified as degradation products of hepatic protein-bound methionyl derivatives in rats given AAF or N-hydroxy-AAF. The same derivatives were shown previously to be products of the in vitro reaction of free or peptide-bound methionine with various synthetic esters of N-hydroxy-AAF, including the very reactive O-sulfonate (AAF-N-sulfate). The amounts of o-methylmercapto-AAF obtained from liver protein were proportional to the dose of N-hydroxy-AAF given i.p. and appear to be a measure of the amount of ester-like metabolites of the carcinogen formed in vivo. 1- and 3-Methylmercapto-2-aminofluorene were not obtained as degradation products of the liver proteins of rats or other animals given N-hydroxy-AAF or of rats given N-hydroxy-2-aminofluorene. The soluble proteins of rat liver contain sulfotransferase(s) which synthesize AAF-N-sulfate from N-hydroxy-AAF and 3′-phosphoadenosine 5′-phosphosulfate; magnesium and manganous ions stimulate the system. Under a variety of conditions, the N-hydroxy-AAF sulfotransferase activity in rat liver, as assayed in vitro, paralleled the amounts of o-methylmercapto-AAF which could be released from the livers of similarly treated rats after administration of N-hydroxy-AAF and the susceptibility to liver tumor induction by N-hydroxy-AAF. Adult male rat liver, which is highly susceptible to carcinogenesis with N-hydroxy-AAF, contained considerably more N-hydroxy-AAF sulfotransferase activity and formed considerably more protein-bound 1- and 3-(methion-S-yl)-AAF in vivo than did the livers of female rats or of male mice, hamsters, rabbits, or guinea pigs. Female rats and the latter species are relatively resistant to hepatic carcinogenesis with N-hydroxy-AAF. Similarly, the increased hepatic carcinogenicity of 2-aminofluorene derivatives in female gonadectomized rats given testosterone and the marked inhibition of hepatocarcinogenesis with N-hydroxy-AAF in hypophysectomized or thyroidectomized male rats were mirrored by corresponding changes in hepatic sulfotransferase activity for N-hydroxy-AAF and the formation of protein-bound methionyl-AAF derivatives in vivo. The results strongly suggest that AAF-N-sulfate is at least one of the ultimate reactive and carcinogenic metabolites of AAF and N-hydroxy-AAF in rat liver. Syntheses of the following new compounds are described: N-methoxy-AAF, potassium 4-acetylaminobiphenyl-N-sulfate, 3-methylmercapto-4-acetylaminophenyl, and 3-methylmercapto-4-aminobiphenyl hydrochloride.


Innovation has been a fundamental piece of our lives. When going bent another cafe/restaurants or bistro, individuals normally use sites or applications to question close by spots and afterward select one hooked in to normal rating. Notwithstanding, the traditional rating is now and again insufficient to foresee the character of the café as individuals have alternate points of view and wishes while assessing an eatery. During this paper, an overview framework for sentiments in eatery audits is proposed. The framework may be a useful device for clients during a hurry to assist them improve decisions about the nature of a restaurant while saving their time. This is often finished via naturally and rapidly furnishing the clients with a synopsis of the sentiments within the café's/restaurants surveys. The proposed synopsis framework has been actualized during a versatile area based application with KNN Algorithm and Multi keyword search it accomplished a high convenience score.


The aim of this study was to carry out a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature on drug-use prevention with vulnerable young people. A search of electronic databases was conducted to find evaluations of prevention programmes targeted at high-risk young people and including illegal drug use as an outcome measure. Sixteen relevant studies were found that used a suitable quality of research design, involving at least a comparison group. The most common setting for these evaluations was in schools, where life-skills training interventions showed positive results in reducing drug use (at least in the short term). In the community an intensive multi-component intervention (the Children at Risk program) was the most effective. Across different settings the 11–13 age range appeared to be a crucial period for intervention with vulnerable young people. All of the sixteen studies included in the review were from North America and therefore there is a need for outcome evaluations of targeted drug preve...


Background: Although the role of BRCA1 and BRCA2 has been well studied in women of European ancestry, the contribution of these and other genes associated with hereditary cancers remains unknown in other populations. Here, we utilized panel testing to analyze 94 cancer predisposition genes in African American women (AAW) diagnosed with invasive breast cancer. Methods: 145 self-described AAW who enrolled in the Clinical Breast Care Project from 2001-2012 and had genomic DNA available were identified. Targeted sequencing was performed using the TruSight Cancer panel (Illumina). Pathogenic mutations were identified using VariantStudio and classified as pathogenic, uncertain significance (VUS), or benign using ClinVar. Results: Mean age at diagnosis was 52.1 years (range 25-81 years), and 32% of AAW had a family history. The majority of tumors were ER+HER2- (53%) followed by triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC, 34%). Seven percent of AAW had pathogenic mutations in high-risk genes including BRCA1 (n=7), BRCA2 (n=3), and TP53 (n=1); VUS were detected in BRCA1 (n=1) and BRCA2 (n=2); and an additional woman had a private variant (D2965E) in BRCA2. A further 1% of AAW harbored mutations in the moderate-penetrance gene CHEK2. VUS were also detected in ATM (n=9), CDH1 (n=1), CHEK2 (n=2), MSH2 (n=1), MSH6 (n=5), NBN (n=1), PALB2 (n=4), PMS2 (n=3), RAD51C (n=1), SMAD4 (n=1), TP53 (n=1), and TSC2 (n=1). Conclusions: Although 94 cancer predisposition genes were evaluated, pathogenic mutations in AAW were detected only in four well-established breast cancer predisposition genes (BRCA1, BRCA2, CHEK2, and TP53). Overall mutation frequency was 9%; however, an additional 25% of AAW harbored private variants and VUS, underscoring the critical need to establish the pathogenicity of these variants. The opinions or assertions contained herein are the private ones of the author/speaker and are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Department of Defense, the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, or any other agency of the U.S. Government. Citation Format: Heather L. Blackburn, Craig D. Shriver, Rachel E. Ellsworth. Panel testing to evaluate genetic predisposition to breast cancer in African American women [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr B77.


Neo‐classical microeconomic theory has been suggested to offer (1) an appropriate analytical tool for construction price determination while, at the same time, (2) full‐cost pricing is most commonly accepted pricing policy of construction firms. Paradoxically, however, both are mutually exclusive theories. Only one, if any, can be correct. This paper examines both (1) and (2) by analysis of the evidence available in literature and concludes in favour of (1). It is only in disequilibrium, however, that the differences in behaviour can be clearly observed. In equilibrium, the difference between the two theories from a practical point of view is not very substantial. In addition, the endemic nature of uncertainty in the industry in general makes the task of estimating costs and prices difficult in practice. Therefore, although neoclassical microeconomic theory provides a useful means of analysis, it offers little for the practice of pricing, which is much more closely related to the marketing discipline than economics.


Objectives: National outcomes data regarding surgical gastrostomy tube (G-tube) and percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tube procedures are lacking. Our objectives were to describe trends in G-tube and PEG procedures, examine regional variation, and compare outcomes. Methods: This was a retrospective study using pediatric admissions during 1997, 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009 from the Kids' Inpatient Database. Length of stay and cost were adjusted for demographics, complexity, setting, year, and infection or surgical complication. Results: G-tubes were placed during 64,412 admissions, increasing from 16.6 procedures/100,000 US children in 1997 to 18.5 in 2009. Surgical gastrostomy rates increased by 19% (0.17 procedures/100,000/year, P < 0.002) and, among children <1 year, they increased by 32% (2.56 procedures/100,000/year, P < 0.01). PEG rates did not increase (0.02 procedures/100,000/year, P = 0.47) in the study years. The West had an 18% higher rate than the national average for surgical G-tubes and a 10% higher rate for PEGs. When the sole procedure during the admission was gastrostomy, the G-tube was associated with a 19% (confidence interval 9.7–57.5) longer length of stay, and a 25% higher cost (confidence interval 16.4–34.5) compared with PEG. Conclusions: Surgical gastrostomy insertion rates have increased whereas PEG rates have not, despite evidence of better severity-adjusted outcome measures for PEG tubes. Surgical gastrostomy insertion in children <1 year of age yielded the greatest increase, which may relate to a changing patient population; however, regional variation suggests that provider preference also plays a role. Our data underline the need for more robust collection and analysis of surgical outcomes to guide decision making.


The initial transient solute redistribution during directional solidification is systematically investigated by carefully comparing the current theoreltical models with experimental results. It is shown that at the transient front solute redistribution generally meets an exponential profile no matter whether there exi sts liquid convection or pure diffusion in front of the liquid/solid interface.The profile can be described by a unified formula. Based on this, a general time-dependent linear dynamic analysis of the morphological instability of a solidifying planar interface during directional solidification is carried out. It is found that the timedependent instability solution has the same form as the steadystate solution described by Mullins and Sekerka, but the timedependent concentration gradient GtC, interface velocity Vi and diffusion length l should replace the corresponding steadystate concentration gradi ent GC,interface velocity V,diffusion length DL/V in Mulli ns and Sekerka solution.


Systemic sclerosis is a rare acquired systemic disease characterised by heterogeneous evolution and outcome. Each year novel insights into the pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of this severe disease have been published. We herewith provide our overview of the most significant literature contributions published over the last year.


Background: The implant-supported removable partial denture appears to be an interesting alternative for cases where the implantsupported fixed prosthesis is contraindicated whether it is for medical, local or financial reasons. The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate the biological and mechanical behavior of the implant under a removable partial denture. Methods: A literature search was conducted on the following databases: Pubmed [Medline], Science Direct and Cochrane Library. Research was limited to publications in English and French during the period from 01/1/2007 to 27/03/2020. Results: Of the 334 citations initially identified, 22 articles met our inclusion criteria, assessing the implant survival rate, patient satisfaction, and the occurrence of implant and prosthetic complications. As well as the evaluation of the stress distribution on the three support surfaces of this prosthesis. Finally, the evaluation of implant localization. The results showed a high rate of implant survival, the occurrence of some prosthetic complications. Stable and acceptable bone resorption over the long term. Better stress distribution at the implant and the bone. Conclusion: The biological and mechanical behaviour of the implant under this type of prosthesis appears to be viable in the short, medium and long term. Although this association between implantology and partial prosthesis seems promising, additional studies are needed to spread this practice still reserved for some specific cases.


With the transformation of social development and customer needs, the traditional model of value creation has been unable to adapt to market environment evolving. In order to enhance the core competitiveness of the firms, and meet the customers' needs, the value co-creation model was proposed and has achieved some good results. In the value co-creation model, customers and firms are brought into the process of production and consumption, and drawing support from the value proposition offered by firms. The business value and customer value are created together. Based theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the behaviour mechanism of value co-creation activities in the service industry between the customers and the firms are analysed in detail. Through the literature review, the theoretical model reflecting the relations among the concepts is established. In this study, the data were collected by the survey method. The structural equation model was used in the data analysis. The results showed that value co-creation attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioural control could truly affect the customers' co-creation behaviour. Finally, some suggestions and countermeasures that could effectively manage and motivate the value co-creation behaviour of the customers in the service industry were put forward.


The Islamic Republic of Iran as one of the widest countries of Middle East and economic poles of southeast of Asia is neighbor of 7 foreign countries in grand. An important negative result of this fact is smuggling in border cities of Iran that is named undergrand or informal economy. In the east of Iran, this phenomenon is in figure of smugging of economic goods with negative marginal utility which are called good commodities in economics that in addition to negative economic aspects has a variety of social disorders. In the west of country illegal import of commodities from neighbourhood countries is followed several negative economic results. The purpose of this article is to survey effective factors and results of smuggling extension in Iran.


A time-resolved reflection pump-probe method was combined with a surface plasmon resonance technique in Kretschmann geometry for the investigation of ultrafast light-induced processes in thin films. Transient changes in the gold layer's reflectivity were observed when the layer was excited by 3 ps duration pulses with photon energy exceeding the interband transition and by probing with photon energy close to the interband transition. Comparison of the experimental and modeling results has shown that the imaginary part of the dielectric function of gold increases linearly during excitation, whereas the real part remains unchanged. The decay of the light-induced changes has two components. The first component is faster than the pulse duration, and the second is much longer than 1.5 ns; they are related to cooling of the electron plasma and lattice, respectively.


ABSTRACT Ning, D.-z.; Li, Q.-x.; Chen, L.-f.; Zhao, M., and Teng, B., 2017. Higher harmonics induced by dual-submerged structures. Various types of submerged multibody systems are being inserted into and being devised in the real sea. Nonlinear diffraction of regular waves attributable to dual-submerged cylinders and boxes is investigated both experimentally and numerically in this study. The ultimate objective of the study is to provide best practice guidelines for the engineers in the field leading to the better design of the submerged structures with better hydrodynamic performance and higher survival characteristics. A two-dimensional fully nonlinear numerical wave flume based on a time-domain higher order boundary element method is used, and the comparisons between the numerical and experimental results are carried out for cross-checking both the numerical model and physical experiments. The influence of the submergence, gap distance, size, and geometric shape of the two submerged structures on the higher free harmonics is also investigated. It is found that a decrease in the smaller submergence depth of the two submerged structures leads to an increase in the amplitudes of the higher harmonic free waves generated at the lee side of the structures. The amplitude of the higher order free-harmonic waves is found to oscillate with the distance between the two submerged structures periodically, and the oscillating length is about half of the incident wavelength. Furthermore, a phase difference between the two submerged rectangular structures with different widths is observed.


An online evaluation method is proposed for PSS in this paper, which is an advanced analysis function based on Wide Area Measurement System (WAMS). It tracks the operating status of the power system in real time. Once low-frequency oscillation is detected, the developed evaluation function first collects the control output of the PSS to be assessed and the various recording signals reflecting the system oscillation, for instance, the power of the generators and important tie lines. Next these data are analyzed and the parameters of the oscillatory modes are computed using Prony algorithm. Then the phase relationship between the power deviation generated by the PSS control and power oscillation actually measured is analyzed for every modes, in order to provide a quantitative estimation criterion for the effectiveness of damping low-frequency oscillation of a certain mode. Theoretical analysis and simulation was performed to validate the correctness of the method proposed.


Some of the key questions that we must ask ourselves when we compare old rituals –religious, cosmic or cyclic rituals– with the new rituals of modern societies, where mass media has invaded with force, are: which traits constitute their differences? In which circumstances and at what level do these differences present themselves? Why do some rituals change radically and others do not? Where do these changes come from and what is it that makes them possible, what drives them? And, at the same time, we must ask ourselves about their semiotic orientation and direction. Our comparative analysis of old and new rituals reveals differences in four separate orders in which we would like to study in depth. According to our hypothesis, there have been transformations between old and modern rituals in the dimensions of shapes, the rigidness of norms, the limits of the scenario and the sphere of communication. This analysis will allow us to classify the ritual changes in the intra-ritual changes, inter-ritual changes and trans-ritual


Studies have shown that at the end of an introductory statistics course, students struggle with building block concepts, such as mean and standard deviation, and rely on procedural understandings of the concepts. This study aims to investigate the understandings entering freshman of a department of mathematics and statistics (including mathematics education), students who are presumably better prepared in terms of mathematics and statistics than the average university student, have of introductory statistics. This case study found that these students enter college with common statistical misunderstandings, lack of knowledge, and idiosyncratic collections of correct statistical knowledge. Moreover, they also have a wide range of beliefs about their knowledge with some of the students who believe that they have the strongest knowledge also having significant misconceptions. More attention to these statistical building blocks may be required in a university introduction statistics course.


In today's information age, people are striving towards better use of the technological infrastructure. Distance education is desirable for those who are unable to attend the traditional class, because of their work requirements. A distant education system can be very effective and useful to provide a learning environment in which teacher and students located remotely can participate in the same lecture and exchange their ideas and opinions. Also it can overcome the other deficiencies of the educational system which does not provide an environment to make up for missed lectures. The goal of this project is to develop an integrated environment for the delivery of course material, independent of time and geography. The paper covers the motivation for virtual classrooms, the selection and the use of delivery technologies, strategies and issues, and participant feedback. The components of this Web based classroom environment are Active Server Pages (ASP), the Server database, Java and VB scripts, and an Internet Information Server (IIS) application. ASP provides a means for Web developers to activate their Web sites with dynamic live database-driven content. The code that produces this rich content runs on the server. Integrating such emerging technologies would truthfully produce an effective distance learning environment.


Source-level timing simulation (SLTS) is a promising method to overcome one major challenge in early and rapid prototyping: fast and accurate simulation of timing behavior. However, most of existing SLTS approaches are still coupled with a considerable simulation overhead. We present a method to reduce source-level timing simulation overhead by removing superfluous instrumentation based on instrumentation dependency graphs. We show in experiments, that our optimizations decrease simulation overhead significantly (up to factor 7.7), without losing accuracy. Our detailed experiments are based on benchmarks as well as real life production code, that is simulated in a virtual environment.


The selection of an appropriate procurement method is becoming an increasingly important issue due to complex decision-makings by clients early of project lifecycles. The aim of this research is to improve and enhance procurement system in Malaysia's construction industry through identifying, evaluating and ranking essential factors that affect the selection of the traditional and the non-traditional procurement methods from consultant quantity surveyors' perspectives. An extensive literature review of various procurement methods and factors which influence the selection of an appropriate procurement method for construction projects in Malaysia was conducted. A survey by questionnaire was carried out to elicit professionals' views on factors that influence the selection of procurement method for their planned projects; a total of 31 consultant quantity surveyors responded the survey. The data was then analysed using frequency analysis which then displayed in pie chart form and the factors were ranked according to their Relative Importance Index (RII). The results indicate that the top three significant factors that have most influence on the selection of procurement methods in Malaysia's construction projects are: price certainty; degree of project complexity; time constraints of project. This research concludes that there is lack of variety of procurement methods used in the Malaysia's construction industry where traditional procurement methods are preferred. This is because majority of professionals in Malaysia are not familiar and not widely experienced with the other alternative procurement methods. It is therefore highly recommended that the parties involved in the selection process should consider carefully all the available procurement methods for works which include study them and analyse their pros and cons to know their effects on the projects. Lastly, the project performance criteria must be established and match against the performance outcomes of the various methods before selecting.