. Research on multi-agent interaction involving both multiple artificial agents and humans is still in its infancy. Most recent approaches have focused on environments with collaboration-focused human behavior, or providing only a small, defined set of situations. When deploying robots in human-inhabited environments in the future, it will be unlikely that all interactions fit a predefined model of collaboration, where collaborative behavior is still expected from the robot. Existing approaches are unlikely to effectively create such behaviors in such "coexistence" environments. To tackle this issue, we introduce a novel framework that decomposes interaction and task-solving into separate learning problems and blends the resulting policies at inference time. Policies are learned with maximum entropy re-inforcement learning, allowing us to create interaction-impact-aware agents and scale the cost of training agents linearly with the number of agents and available tasks. We propose a weighting function covering the alignment of interaction distributions with the original task. We demonstrate that our framework addresses the scaling problem while solving a given task and considering collaboration opportunities in a co-existence particle environment and a new cooking environment. Our work introduces a new learning paradigm that opens the path to more complex multi-robot, multi-human interactions.


Two experiments were conducted to investigate the automatic processing of emotional facial expressions while performing low or high demand cognitive tasks under unattended conditions. In Experiment 1, 35 subjects performed low (judging the structure of Chinese words) and high (judging the tone of Chinese words) cognitive load tasks while exposed to unattended pictures of fearful, neutral, or happy faces. The results revealed that the reaction time was slower and the performance accuracy was higher while performing the low cognitive load task than while performing the high cognitive load task. Exposure to fearful faces resulted in significantly longer reaction times and lower accuracy than exposure to neutral faces on the low cognitive load task. In Experiment 2, 26 subjects performed the same word judgment tasks and their brain event-related potentials (ERPs) were measured for a period of 800 ms after the onset of the task stimulus. The amplitudes of the early component of ERP around 176 ms (P2) elicited by unattended fearful faces over frontal-central-parietal recording sites was significantly larger than those elicited by unattended neutral faces while performing the word structure judgment task. Together, the findings of the two experiments indicated that unattended fearful faces captured significantly more attention resources than unattended neutral faces on a low cognitive load task, but not on a high cognitive load task. It was concluded that fearful faces could automatically capture attention if residues of attention resources were available under the unattended condition.


This study was aimed to examine the role of iron in causing periventricular white matter (PWM) damage following a hypoxic injury in the developing brain. Along with iron, the expression of iron regulatory proteins (IRPs) and transferrin receptor (TfR), which are involved in iron acquisition, was also examined in the PWM by subjecting 1-d-old Wistar rats to hypoxia. Apart from an increase in iron levels in PWM, Perls' iron staining showed an increase of intracellular iron in the preponderant amoeboid microglial cells (AMCs) in the tissue. In response to hypoxia, the protein levels of IRP1, IRP2, and TfR in PWM and AMCs were significantly increased. In primary microglial cultures, administration of iron chelator deferoxamine reduced the generation of iron-induced reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-1β. Primary oligodendrocytes treated with conditioned medium from hypoxic microglia exhibited reduced glutathione levels, increased lipid peroxidation, upregulated caspase-3 expression, and reduced proliferation. This was reversed to control levels on treatment with conditioned medium from deferoxamine treated hypoxic microglia; also, there was reduction in apoptosis of oligodendrocytes. The present results suggest that excess iron derived primarily from AMCs might be a mediator of oligodendrocyte cell death in PWM following hypoxia in the neonatal brain.


Understanding the maintenance of high tropical tree species diversity requires disentangling the effects of habitat vs. geographic distance. Using floristic, topographic, and soil nutrient data from 105 0.6-ha plots in mixed dipterocarp forest throughout Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, we explore the degree to which floristic patterns are habitat-driven from local to landscape scales. We assess how the floristic influence of geographic distance vs. abiotic factors varies from local to regional scales. We employ several multivariate analytical techniques and perform a hierarchical clustering of the research plots using the Steinhaus index of floristic dissimilarity, as well as Mantel analyses on matrices of floristic, habitat, and geographic distance. These analyses indicate that floristic variation is more strongly correlated with habitat than with geographic distance on the regional scale. On the local- landscape to community scale, we find evidence of a resource threshold above which habitat effects weaken; that is, below the resource threshold floristic similarity between sites is dominated by habitat effects, while above the threshold floristic similarity between sites is dominated by geographic-distance effects. We also find evidence that topography and soil nutrients correlate in part independently with floristics. These results, together with previous studies in the Neotropics, emphasize that tree species distribution and community com- position are variously influenced by the interplay of both habitat and dispersal-driven effects.


The dynamics of three competitive species are analysed through a mass action kinetic scheme derived from the Lotka-Volterra model. It is demonstrated that in a neighbourhood of bifurcation criticality, or crisis known as the explosive route to chaos, the system exhibits both nearly conservative and strongly dissipative solutions. The behaviour depends on the selection of initial conditions. All dissipative solutions are attracted to a fractal torus that produces a bead-like structure and supports chaotic solutions. In contrast, the enclosed bead interior constrains for a short time nearly conservative periodic orbits which promote formation of a nested tori family in the three-dimensional space. The long-time behaviour, however, exhibits either slowly contracting or slowly expanding scroll solutions. The model possesses qualitative and topological features found in medicine, neurobiology, chemistry, and fluid dynamics. Among these are examples such as oscillatory behaviour of the Belousov-Zhabotinskii chemical reaction and fluid dynamic properties of the Taylor-Couette flow.


We analyze the entanglement dynamics of a system composed by a pair of neutral two-level atoms that are initially entangled, and the electromagnetic field, initially in the vacuum state, within the formalism of perturbative quantum field theory up to the second order. We show that entanglement sudden death and revival can occur while the atoms remain spacelike separated and therefore cannot be related with photon exchange between the atoms. We interpret these phenomena as the consequence of a transfer of atom-atom entanglement to atom-field entanglement and vice versa. We also consider the different bipartitions of the system, finding similar relationships between their entanglement evolutions.


We discuss uncertainty quantification in multisensor data integration and analysis, including estimation methods and the role of uncertainty in decision making and trust in automated analytics. The challenges associated with automatically aggregating information across multiple images, identifying subtle contextual cues, and detecting small changes in noisy activity patterns are well-established in the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) community. In practice, such questions cannot be adequately addressed with discrete counting, hard classifications, or yes/no answers. For a variety of reasons ranging from data quality to modeling assumptions to inadequate definitions of what constitutes "interesting" activity, variability is inherent in the output of automated analytics, yet it is rarely reported. Consideration of these uncertainties can provide nuance to automated analyses and engender trust in their results. In this work, we assert the importance of uncertainty quantification for automated data analytics and outline a research agenda. We begin by defining uncertainty in the context of machine learning and statistical data analysis, identify its sources, and motivate the importance and impact of its quantification. We then illustrate these issues and discuss methods for data-driven uncertainty quantification in the context of a multi- source image analysis example. We conclude by identifying several specific research issues and by discussing the potential long-term implications of uncertainty quantification for data analytics, including sensor tasking and analyst trust in automated analytics.


Linear and nonlinear thermomechanical response of the functionally graded (metal-ceramic) plates subjected to static and dynamic loads is studied. The third-order plate theory of Reddy with the von Karman geometric nonlinearity is used for the kinematic and kinetic descriptions, and two constitutent power-law distribution through the plate thickness is employed. A displacement finite element model is developed with the Newmark time integration scheme, and the Newton-Raphson iterative procedure is used for the solution of nonlinear algebraic equations. While the model is general enough to be used for any boundary conditions, the simply supported and clamped boundary conditions are used to study the parametric effect of the power-law index and surface temperatures and mechanical loads on the thermomechanical response. The most significant finding of this study is that the deflection response does not fall intermediate to those of the metal or ceramic plates. This is due to the nonlinear coupling of mechanical and thermal contributions.


BACKGROUND: Amino acids are important for proliferation and maintenance of tumor cells. Breast cancer patients were found to have significant changes in the number of amino acids, which are assumed to be correlated with the molecular subtypes of breast cancer. Therefore, current study was conducted to analyze plasma amino acids in breast cancer patients with luminal A and B subtypes.METHODS: Breast cancer and control subjects were recruited, and venous blood was collected for the measurement of plasma amino acids. Total 19 plasma amino acids were measured using reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with C18 column. Mean comparison for normally distributed and homogeneous data was further analzyed using independent sample T-test, with p<0.05 was considered as significant.RESULTS: From total 19 amino acids, only 7 amino acids; cysteine, glutamic acid, histidine, ornithine, threonine, tyrosine, valine, were statistically different between the healthy control and breast cancer subjects. Eventhough no amino acids was found to be statistically different between breast cancer subjects with luminal A and B subtypes, but some amino acids were found to be significantly different when correlated to various breast cancer risk factors.CONCLUSION: Amino acid profile of patients with Luminal A and B subtypes of breast cancer differs compared to healthy controls and is also correlated with breast cancer risk factors. Increase in cysteine level in Luminal A subtype patients and decrease of alanine and leucine in Luminal B subtype patients can be used as a biomarker.KEYWORDS: amino acid, plasma, breast cancer, risk factor, biomarker


The study investigated some anticoccidial resistance for Amprol, Toltrazuril and sulfaclozine in experimental infected broiler. Eimeria identification depended on necropsy and coproscopic examination. 140 day-old chicks allotted into 7 groups and infected with Eimeria in 2nd day of age. G1: neither infected nor treated (negative control), G2: infected but not treated (positive control), Infected and treated with toltrazuril (G3), or with Amprol+Allicin (G4), or with Amprol+ethobabate (G5), or with Amprol (G6) or with Sulfaclozine (G7). Eimeria infection caused decrease in body gain, total protein, albumin but increase in FCR, ALT, AST, Uric acid, Creatinine. Treatment decreased the harmful effect of infection but some significant differences were between infected treated groups and non infected non-treated one.


The aims of this research were to analyze the presence of cyberviolence in young couples, to explore the associations between cyberviolence, emotional dependence, empathy, and filioparental relationships, and to identify predictors of cyberviolence. For this purpose, a convenience sample consisting of 469 university students was selected. They completed the following measures: The Adolescent Social Network Partner Violence Scale, the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Dating Emotional Dependence in Youth and Adolescents, and the Basic Empathy Scale. 51.9% of the sample admitted to having suffered cyber-violence, and 56.6% admitted to having perpetrated it. Boys scored higher than girls on cyberviolence and cybervictimization. It was found that the higher the level of education, the lower level of cyberviolence and the higher the number of partners, the greater the possibility of suffering cyberviolence. The scarce empirical evidence about the factors related to cyberviolence points to the need of further research on individual and family variables.


Abstract Four new cyprinid species of the Rasbora trifasciata-group, Rasbora api, R. nodulosa, R. kluetensis, and R. truncata, are described from northwestern Sumatra, Indonesia. Rasbora api is distinguished from its congeners in the R. trifasciata-group by an anteriorly tapering black midlateral stripe extending posteriorly along the flank from the first lateral-line scale system and terminating at a slightly wider black basicaudal spot on the caudal-fin base, and stout conical cephalic tubercles with basal portion bearing microgranules (Type A tubercles). Rasbora nodulosa is distinguished from its congeners in the species group by having nodular and smaller cephalic tubercles (Type D tubercles). Rasbora kluetensis is distinguished from its congeners in the species group by the conical cephalic tubercles with a somewhat protruded base bearing microridges (Type E tubercles). Rasbora truncata differs from its congeners in the species group by a combination of meristic, pigmentary, and tuberculation features, and details of the lateral line system. Other members of the R. trifasciata-group in the region, Rasbora meinkeni and R. tobana, are redescribed. Rasbora tobana is resurrected. Three new areas of endemism in northwestern Sumatra are proposed based on the distributions of three new endemic species: the Tripa District represented by R. nodulosa, the Kluet District represented by R. kluetensis, and the Alas District represented by R. truncata.


Because the brucellosis eradication program uses slaughter and quarantine as control measures, it would benefit from faster methods of bacterial identification. Distinguishing vaccine strains from strains that cause infections among vaccinated herds in the field is essential. To accomplish this, our PCR-based, species-specific assay (B. J. Bricker and S. M. Halling, J. Clin. Microbiol. 32:2660-2666, 1994) was updated to identify Brucella abortus vaccine strains S19 and RB51. Three new oligonucleotide primers were added to the five-primer multiplex Brucella AMOS PCR assay. Identification is based on the number and sizes of six products amplified by PCR.


: The Rapid Intensi fi cation Deterministic Ensemble (RIDE) is an operational method used to estimate the probability of tropical cyclone rapid intensi fi cation in the Joint Typhoon Warning Center ' s area of responsibility. Inputs to RIDE are current intensity, storm latitude, intensity change forecasts from seven routinely available operational deterministic models of intensity change, and the number of those models exceeding their individual 90th percentile of intensity change. Deterministic model inputs come from four numerical weather prediction models, two statistical – dynamical models, and one purely statistical model. In RIDE, logistic regression combines the deterministic inputs to form a probabilistic rapid intensi fi cation forecast model. RIDE then also generates deterministic intensity forecasts from these probabilistic forecasts that serve as forecaster guidance and as input to intensity consensus aids. Results based on a year of independent veri fi cation suggest good reliability and discrimination with a general tendency to underpredict rapid intensi fi cation events, but with few false alarms.


Abstract : We present a new document retrieval approach combining relevance feedback, pseudo-relevance feedback, and Markov random field modeling of term interaction. Overall effectiveness of our combined model and the relative contribution from each component is evaluated on the GOV2 webpage collection. Given 0-5 feedback documents, we find each component contributes unique value to the overall ensemble, achieving significant improvement individually and in combination. Comparative evaluation in the 2008 TREC Relevance Feedback track further shows our complete system typically performs as well or better than peer systems.


This work presents 3-D mixed-mode simulation results of single event transients (SET) in SiGe HBT emitter followers. The impact of circuit design parameters, including biasing current and resistance are detailed. A simple increase of biasing emitter current is shown to be ineffective for hardening. Instead, during SET, the emitter voltage upset simply follows the base voltage upset due to the inherent nature of the emitter follower topology during circuit operation. The duration and the peak value of the base voltage upset are determined by the impedance and electric field between collector and base. As a result, the use of a smaller base biasing resistance is desirable for reducing SETs in emitter followers.


Metal patterning via additive manufacturing has been phasing‐in to broad applications in many medical, electronics, aerospace, and automotive industries. While previous efforts have produced various promising metal‐patterning strategies, their complexity and high cost have limited their practical application in rapid production and prototyping. Herein, a one‐step gold printing technique based on anion‐assisted photochemical deposition (APD), which can directly print highly conductive gold patterns (1.08 × 107 S m−1) under ambient conditions without post‐annealing treatment, is introduced. Uniquely, the APD uses specific ion effects with projection lithography to pattern Au nanoparticles and simultaneously sinter them into tunable porous gold structures. The significant influence of kosmotropic or chaotropic anions in the precursor ink on tuning the morphologies and conductivities of the printed patterns by employing a series of different ions, including Cl− ions, in the printing process is presented. Additionally, the resistance stabilities and the electrochemical properties of the APD‐printed gold patterns are carefully investigated. The high conductivity and excellent conformability of the printed Au electrodes are demonstrated with reliable performance in electrophysiological signal delivery and acquisition for biomedical applications. This work exploits the potential of photochemical‐deposition‐based metal patterning in flexible electronic manufacturing.


This article contains a brief review of the contemporary empirical pattern of 1/f noise in conducting systems and of attempts of its theoretical interpretation. It is noted that a spectrum of the form ~ 1/f can be explained either as a consequence of the continuous hierarchy of macroscopically long relaxation times, or, on the contrary, as a result of absence of long-lived correlations and a characteristic time macroscale ("scaleless" 1/f noise). Theories of 1/f noise (fluctuation models of the number of charge carriers, temperature fluctuations, and "degradation" models) are traditionally directed toward the first type, and restrict the treatment to specific types of systems. The second type makes it possible to detect universal features of 1/f noise and, concealed in the formal fluctuation models of mobility carriers, it allows for a uniform and successful description of many situations. An explanation was recently suggested for the nature of mobility fluctuations, the diffusion coefficient, and other kinetic quantitites. It is noted that the current values of kinetic quantities are quite uncertain. Empirically this uncertainty is perceived in the form of "scaleless", flickering fluctuations of flowing kinetic quantitites. It also implies that real Brownian motion of carriers is characterized by non- Gaussian statistics. Analysis of the statistics leads to a spectrum of precisely 1/f type and to expressions for 1/f noise levels (depending only on microscopic space-time interaction scales of carriers with the medium) in satisfactory agreement with experiment.


Objective: To assess the impact of air pollution and ozone on morbidity due to
respiratory diseases among children from 2005 to 2008. Methods: The database was
composed by daily reports on visits by children with respiratory diseases in
health units of the Unified Health System (SUS) in the municipality of Campo
Grande, MS, Brazil, by daily levels of ozone concentration measured by the
Department of Physics, Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul, and by daily
measurements of temperature and relative humidity provided by the Agricultural
Research Corporation-EMBRAPA Gado de Corte-MS. The relationship between
respiratory diseases and ozone concentration was investigated through
Generalized Linear Models (GLM) using the multiple Poisson regression model.
The significance level α = 5% was
adopted for all tests. Results: It was observed that
the association between ozone (lagged by three time-steps) and attendance for
respiratory diseases in children was statistically significant. The
bio-meteorological variable Wind-adjusted Effective Temperature (lagged by four
time-steps) was also significantly associated with diseases. Conclusions: The results suggest
that the surface ozone concentration promotes adverse effects on children's
health even when pollutant levels are below the amounts permitted by law.


Fatty acid methyl esters can be obtained from the synthesis of vegetable oil with methanol using a base catalyst. Vegetable oil has potential as biodiesel feedstock, the methyl ester character of various vegetable oils is different, for example from sunflower seed oil and olive oil. The synthesis of methyl esters by conventional transesterification reactions generally takes 1-2 hours. The purpose of this study was to synthesize methyl esters from sunflower seed oil and olive oil with a KOH catalyst and to determine the yield and its characteristics. This research is a type of laboratory experimental research. The research was carried out in 3 stages which included (1) determination of the free fatty acid content (ALB) of the oil, (2) transesterification of the oil with methanol and potassium hydroxide as a catalyst, and (3) characterization of the synthesized methyl ester which included density, viscosity, and number. acid. The results showed that the yield of methyl esters synthesized by transesterification reaction of sunflower seed oil was 95.61% and the yield of methyl esters synthesized by transesterification reaction of olive oil was 95.09.%. The methyl ester characters synthesized from sunflower seed oil are, density of 0.906 g/mL, viscosity of 5.035 cSt, acid number of 1.21 g KOH/g. The methyl ester characters synthesized from olive oil by transesterification reaction are density of 0.909 g/mL, viscosity of 12.203 cSt, acid number of 0.629 g KOH/g.


The environmental price of fashion has been heavily scrutinised in recent years. Slow fashion, with its emphasis on quality, design, sustainability, ethicality and local craft heritage, represents an alternative to the harmful environmental and social impact of fast fashion. Equally important, some initial evidence from qualitative research suggests that slow fashion could enhance consumers' well-being. The present study aims to quantitatively evaluate the relationships that fast and slow fashion may have with different domains of well-being, utilising Seligmen's influential PERMA model from positive psychology. In addition, it explores characteristics from slow fashion that may enhance garment lifetimes. An online questionnaire successfully surveyed 763 urban Chinese consumers. Results showed that consumption of slow fashion, in particular 'customised/bespoke clothing' that allows consumers to be actively involved in the creation process, positively predicted three well-being domains—engagement, meaning and achievement. Fast fashion, on the other hand, negatively predicted these domains. Classic/timeless design, ease of maintenance and ease of matching with other clothes emerged as the three most important characteristics that may encourage consumers' long-term use of fashion items. Implications of the findings are discussed in the context of promoting slow fashion to enhance sustainability.


Mentions of commercial products are common in hip hop and R&B lyrics, relative to other genres of popular music, although the potential impacts of this are not wellunderstood. Since these songs reach millions of people daily, it is pertinent to study the nature of these product mentions – in turn facilitating further research on their effects. In order to provide an overview of the product mentions that are present in hip hop and R&B lyrics between 1990 and 2017, we undertook a large-scale content analysis (N = 2,650 song lyrics). Mentions of products were frequent, and the types of products being mentioned remained mostly consistent (predominantly cars, fashion and alcohol), although the rate increased dramatically over time. Most mentions were of high-end brands and were framed neutrally. Overall, lyrics mentioning products contained more diverse vocabulary and were much more likely to mention money. These findings are interpreted in relation to prior research and the music business in general.


In the present paper first by introducing the inherent requirements of electronic voting and comparing them with the ones provided by researchers until the present time, a formal definition of privacy in electronic voting was given. Then by taking into consideration the privacy, developments in providing electronic voting protocols were investigated. Then results of the investigations were given and the methods of providing privacy in the protocols were introduced. In the end these methods were examined and compared and the homomorphic encryption was proposed as the best method. Keywords: electronic voting; privacy; homomorphic encryption; blind signature


Experiments on nanostructure formation on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surfaces irradiated by slow highly charged Xeq+ (q = 23-29) ions have been carried out at a new experimental terminal for surface physics on the 320 kV ECR platform at the Institute of Modern Physics (IMP). In the tapping mode atomic force microscope (AFM) image, the nano-sized hillocks protruding from the surfaces are probed. The height and diameter of the nanostructures increase with the projectile charge state. The present results reveal a similarity between the nanostructure formation produced by slow highly charged ions and the track formation induced by swift heavy ions.


Abstract Measurements of longshore sand transport, wave breaker height, longshore current velocity, and water temperature and salinity were carred out on a subarctic beach under varying water temperature conditions during summer and fall. Water temperature during summer varied from 9°C to 17°C, while temperature ranged from −1.75°C to 1.25°C during the fall experiments. During periods with low water temperatures, considerably higher rates in both bedload and suspended sediment transport were observed compared with the results obtained during summer with similar wave heights and current velocities. The increase in suspended sediment transport associated with low water temperatures is likely due to lower sediment fall velocities resulting from significant increases in fluid kinematic viscosity, which ranged from 1.1 to 1.37 × 10−6 m2 s−1 in summer and from 1.74 to 1.92 × 10−6 m2 s−1 in the fall. Less but still significant increase in bedload sediment transport in cold water is interpreted to be the result of temperature-induced variations in fluid viscosity that affect turbulence and boundary layer dynamics as well as bed configuration. Frazil ice occurred on some occasions during the fall experiments, but with the small number of samples collected when frazil ice crystals were present in the water column, it was not possible to establish a relationship between sediment transport rates and the presence or absence of ice. Our results nevertheless indicate that in cold climate regions extremely low water temperatures may cause a substantial increase of coastal sediment transport.


Two methods for fostering collaborative behavior are compared: a feedback-mechanism to scaffold collaborative behavior, and use of distributed learning resources. Based on recent research on what constitutes effective collaboration behavior, we developed a coding scheme to categorize learner-learner interaction as collaboration. In a collaboration environment for learner dyads specifically implemented to test our hypotheses, a human observer identified, in parallel with students' interactions, instances of real collaboration, and gave online feedback. In the same two-factorial design, we varied the resources available to the partners. The influence of these interventions on outcomes related to knowledge acquisition, problem-solving, group climate and collaborative behavior was tested. Results suggest there are benefits in providing a feedback approach in fostering collaboration and enhancing problem-solving quality.


This study of rockclimbers and outdoor leisure consumers, manufacturers and retailers, sets out to discover the nature and outcomes of the consumer/producer relationship centred around the retail setting. Initial theoretical views on the self, participant role, performance and communitas are explored as a background to the discussion. Data collection involved participant observation, in‐depth interviews and a study of both commercially and consumer generated secondary materials (climbing club literature for example). The researchers identified an environment in which temporary leisure identities were supported and at times modified by the retail relationships and were embedded in a rich sub‐cultural narrative. Postmodern concepts pertaining to the consumption of place and space corresponded with the observational data, to the extent that recommendations for retailers are less overtly managerial, and more about facilitating the consumer's ownership of the spaces and relationships within them.


Abstract Data from a Doppler SOund Detection And Ranging (SODAR) device, twice–daily radiosondes, 33 surface meteorological and four aerosol sites were used to assess the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting model inline coupled with a chemistry package (WRF/Chem) to capture atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) characteristics in Interior Alaska during low solar irradiation (11–01–2005 to 02–28–2006). Biases determined based on all available data from the 33 sites over the entire episode are 1.6 K, 1.8 K, 1.85 m/s, –5 o , and 1.2 hPa for temperature, dewpoint temperature, wind–speed, wind–direction, and sea–level pressure, respectively. The SODAR–data reveal that WRF/Chem over/under–estimates wind–speed in the lower (upper) atmospheric boundary layer. WRF/Chem captures the frequency of low–level jets well, but overestimates the strength of moderate low–level jets. Data from the four aerosol sites suggest large underestimation of PM 10 , and NO 3 at the remote sites and PM 2.5 at the polluted site. Difficulty in capturing the temporal evolution of aerosol concentrations coincides with difficulty in capturing sudden temperature changes, underestimation of inversion–strengths and timing of frontal passages. Errors in PM 2.5 concentrations strongly relate to temperature errors.


A high prevalence and incidence of sexual dysfunctions as well as the availability of orally effective medications cause a rising interest in professional help. In diagnosing and treating sexual disorders, a holistic, biopsychosocial understanding of sexuality and a thorough analysis of the specific needs of the couple are of the utmost importance. Furthermore, the typical physician-patient relationship has to be transformed into a physician-couple relationship wherever possible. Sex therapy, then, focuses on the universal psychosocial fundamental needs and their relevance for the complaints of the couple. In this way the main focus of attention is shifted from the sexual dysfunction to the communicative meaning of sexuality within the relationship and to the quality of the partnership as a whole. Thus the sexual problem is put into a new perspective and sexual functions are relieved from the pressure of performance anxiety. Simultaneously intimacy and mutual satisfaction are promoted. The possibility of obtaining an additional qualification in sexual medicine (since 1997 in postgraduate, curricular trainings) is offering new opportunities for urologists to integrate aspects of sexual medicine into their clinical practice and thus to propose a more extensive form of therapy to their patients. This paper reflects the process of this integration, illustrating it with respective case reports; it stresses the necessity of a holistic approach to the treatment of sexual dysfunctions, also in regard to the economic advantages of a biopsychosocially oriented sex therapy.


Abstract Spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) was used to study left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and its dynamic change after the interventions with Telmisartan and Amlodipine. The results showed that the expression of TRPC1, CaN and NFATC3 increased gradually with the pathogenesis and progression of LVH. Telmisartan reduced blood pressure and LVH, and down-regulated the expression of TRPC1, CaN and NFATC3 in left ventricle of SHR. Amlodipine reduced the blood pressure in SHR but had no impact on the hypertrophy and expression of above factors. Our data suggest that the pathogenesis and progression of LVH in SHR are related to upregulation of TRPC1, CaN and NFATC3 signaling pathway.


A search for Dark Matter particles directly produced in pairs at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. The search is performed using the full LHC Run-I dataset recorded with the CMS and ATLAS detectors in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. Dark matter production is searched for by looking for an excess of events with a large missing transverse momentum in association with energetic light or heavy flavour quark production, or in association with energetic leptons. The search is interpreted within the framework of an effective field theory, as well as of simplified models. No deviation from Standard Model background expectation is found and exclusion limits on Dark Matter production cross section are obtained. Presented at LHCP2015 The 3rd Conference on Large Hadron Collider Physics Dark Matter Searches at the Large Hadron Collider Annapaola de Cosa on behalf of the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations1,a) 1Physik Institut, Universität Zürich, Witerthurerstrasse 190, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland a)Corresponding author: email@example.com Abstract. A search for Dark Matter particles directly produced in pair at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. The search is performed using the full LHC Run-I dataset recorded with the CMS and ATLAS detectors in proton-proton collisions at a centerof-mass energy of 8 TeV. Dark Matter production is searched for looking for an excess of events with a large missing transverse momentum in association with energetic light or heavy flavour quark production, or in association with energetic leptons. The search is interpreted within the framework of an effective field theory, as well as of simplified models. No deviation from standard model background expectation is found and exclusion limits on Dark Matter production cross section are obtained. A search for Dark Matter particles directly produced in pair at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. The search is performed using the full LHC Run-I dataset recorded with the CMS and ATLAS detectors in proton-proton collisions at a centerof-mass energy of 8 TeV. Dark Matter production is searched for looking for an excess of events with a large missing transverse momentum in association with energetic light or heavy flavour quark production, or in association with energetic leptons. The search is interpreted within the framework of an effective field theory, as well as of simplified models. No deviation from standard model background expectation is found and exclusion limits on Dark Matter production cross section are obtained.


This paper examines the discrepancies in the finance of public education across the United States in order to determine how particular funding schemes affect the quality and efficiency of education. Local governments have been the principal provider of funds for education in the past, but debate over equitable schooling for all students has led to several changes in the structure of education finance. In order to construct an encompassing measure of educational quality, a model based on Morgan and Morgan (2006) is used to assign each state a quality rating. Regression analysis helps establish the effect of various monetary variables on educational quality. There are clear patterns in the data which suggest that both the total amount of funds provided and the proportion of funds provided by each level of the government influence the quality of education. In addition, personal income and the percent of the population living below the poverty line prove to be key determinants of educational quality. It is my hope that this paper contributes to the work on the finance of public education and the work that aims to improve the quality of education in the United States.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the relative prevalence of marijuana and tobacco use among low-income post-partum women, using self-report, urine, and hair testing data; and to further explore perceptions of the substances among postpartum women by evaluating perceived risk and monetary cost of prenatal marijuana versus tobacco use.

METHODS
Data from two studies were available for a total of 100 (Study 1) and 50 (Study 2) low-income, primarily African-American post-partum women. Study 1 participants completed brief self-report measures of substance use as well as urine and hair samples; study 2 participants completed a brief opinion survey regarding the risks and monetary costs of prenatal marijuana use.

RESULTS
In Study 1, the self-reported prevalence of any tobacco or marijuana use in the past three months was 17% and 11%, respectively. However, objectively-defined marijuana use was more prevalent than self-reported tobacco use: 14% tested positive for marijuana by urinalysis, and 28% by hair analysis. Study 2 participants were more likely to believe that there is a safe level of marijuana use during pregnancy, and nearly half believed that using marijuana during pregnancy was less expensive than smoking cigarettes.

CONCLUSION
Marijuana use may be as or more prevalent than tobacco use among low-income, African-American pregnant women. These findings may in part be attributable to perceptions of roughly equivalent cost and the lack of a clear public health message regarding prenatal marijuana use, combined with growing pro-marijuana advocacy. A broader public health response to address prenatal marijuana use, along with other substances of abuse, is needed.


The most established way to inspect machined surfaces is measuring with profilometers. Roughness measurements by these methods take plenty of time and an on-line integration in production facilities is not feasible due to different reasons. Over two decades ago, Goodman and Parry discovered the correlation between laser speckles of different light wavelengths and surface roughness. Since then several authors have been working on this topic. Nevertheless, industrial sensors based on the speckle correlation phenomenon measuring a roughness value are not available yet. In this article a new method is described, which is suitable for measuring the roughness of surfaces online under production conditions. The surface which is to be inspected is illuminated by a dichromatic laser beam. The scattered light is converted by lenses, and the far field speckles are detected in the Fourier plane of the lenses by a separate CCD-array for each wavelength. The CCD-data are captured by a frame grabber and stored for evaluation. A digital computer processes the data by calculating 2D-cross correlation functions of the two related speckle patterns for the different light wavelengths. The maximum values of the cross correlation function represents the correlation coefficient, which can then be translated into the root mean square of the surface heights of the workpiece. The main benefit of the method described is the feasibility of measuring roughness during processing. This is achieved by a time synchronous detection of speckle patterns of two different wavelengths, which are used to determine the roughness of a surface. The basic measuring time is determined by the shutter speed of the cameras, which is in the pilot project 1/10000 s. Therefore, only vibration frequencies above 1 kHz disturb the measuring results. A further reduction of the measuring time will be no major problem. Thus any realtime roughness measuring problem can be solved this way. This article describes the state of the art and the state of the experimental investigations measuring roughness by means of this new measuring process.


We report a novel coaxial antenna for hepatic microwave ablation. This device uses a floating sleeve, that is, a metal conductor electrically isolated from the outer connector of the antenna coaxial body, to achieve a highly localized specific absorption rate pattern that is independent of insertion depth. This floating sleeve coaxial dipole antenna has low power reflection in the 2.4-GHz IMS band. Ex vivo experiments confirm our numerical simulation results.


The problem of estimating covariance matrices is central to statistical analysis and is extensively addressed when data are vectors. This paper studies a novel Kronecker-structured approach for estimating such matrices when data are matrices and arrays. Focusing on matrix-variate data, we present simple approaches to estimate the row and the column correlation matrices, formulated separately via convex optimization. We also discuss simple thresholding estimators motivated by the recent development in the literature. Non-asymptotic results show that the proposed method greatly outperforms methods that ignore the matrix structure of the data. In particular, our framework allows the dimensionality of data to be arbitrary order even for fixed sample size, and works for flexible distributions beyond normality. Simulations and data analysis further confirm the competitiveness of the method. An extension to general array-data is also outlined.


Summary Pequi is a native fruit from the Brazilian Cerrado with a great diversity in its physical and chemical characteristics. Studies with fruits from different environments of the Cerrado are scarce. The objective of this study was to analyze, physically and nutritionally, pequi fruits from Tocantins (TO), Goias (GO) and Minas Gerais (MG) States. The physical analysis of 30 pequi fruits, randomly selected by region, was carried out, and the chemical composition of their pulps was determined. The pequi fruits from MG showed high values of commercially important physical characteristics, as fruit mass, pulp mass and seed (almond) yield. However, fruits from GO showed high pulp yield. Low lipid contents (8 g.100g –1 ) were observed in the fruits from TO, on the contrary of the fruits from GO and MG (24 and 26 g.100g –1 , respectively). Regarding the mineral content, the pequi pulp from the three regions is a source of iron, zinc, phosphorus and magnesium, and the pequi pulp from TO showed considerable contents of calcium (107 mg.100g–1 ). The native region of the fruits infl uences their physical and chemical characteristics, mainly the pulp yield, moisture and lipid contents, energy density and calcium amount of the pequi pulp. These results indicate the necessity of characterization of the native region and the pequi species for commercial use of the fruits and for utilization of the pulp as a nutritious raw material, in different food systems.


AIM
To study characteristics of a skialogical picture of pulmonary parenchyma and roentgenomorphological signs of inflammatory changes before and after bone marrow transplantation (BMT); relationship between the data of high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) and clinical data.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
HRCT (computer tomograph of the third generation "Somatom CR-3") was made in fever, changes in physical examination in patients (n = 28) after BMT from November 2001 to January 2003. BMT was made in myelomic disease, lymphogranulomatosis, acute leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia, lymphosarcoma, autoimmune hemolytic anemia.

RESULTS
Twenty four patients were examined before BMT. Of them, 18 patients had roentgenomorphological changes of the parenchyma, primarily, diffuse. Three patients were examined during conditioning, two cases had signs of toxic pulmonitis. One day after allo-BMT all the patients exhibited lowering of densitometric values of pulmonary tissue by 70 HU vs the baseline. Infectious affection of the lungs was diagnosed in 13 cases during day 0-100. From day 100 after allo-BMT 7 recipients were observed. In 6 cases the changes resulted from transplant against host reaction. Infectious affection of pulmonary tissue was observed in 1 case. Characteristic x-ray picture of pulmonary stroma in secondary disease was determined.

CONCLUSION
For early diagnosis of pneumonia in myelotoxic agranulocytosis it is necessary to make examination by HRCT before BMT. HRCT of the chest is indicated in even minor changes in the clinical picture. It is necessary to perform a control over water-electrolyte balance and active respiratory exercise in the course of conditioning. Viral pneumonias show the picture of metainflammatory changes for a long time. Fungal pneumonias tend to recurrence at "previous site". HRCT examination of the pulmonary tissue provides more information about pulmonary tissue in patients with secondary disease.


A content analysis of The Chicago Tribune's sports page from 1900 to 1975 provides an empirical base for assessing the changing nature of organized sport in American life. The findings show that there has been an expansion of the sports page relative to the rest of the newspaper; there has been remarkable stability in the coverage of the dominant sports of baseball and football; and there has been a progressive shift from amateur to professional, from local or regional events to national ones, and from individual to team sporting activity. This expanded role for sport is part of a more general trend to be expected in a leisure oriented society.


Physical properties of extracellular matrix, including elasticity and microstructure, have been considered as important factors inducing stem cell differentiation. This study developed a novel type of liquid crystal-based matrix by combining the elastic property of polyurethane with viscoelastic liquid crystal to generate a soft elastic response resembling physical microenvironment of stem cell niche, and explored the mechano-driving cell behaviors. Addition of varying liquid crystal concentration (10 wt%, 30 wt% and 50 wt%) had great effects on surface morphology and elastic modulus of liquid crystal/ polyurethane composite substrates. Changes in microstructure and elastic modulus of the substrates could cause intense cell responses that influenced cell properties, including proliferation, adhesion, and osteogenic differentiation. Human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) cultured on both liquid crystal-10/polyurethane and liquid crystal-30/polyurethane substrates exhibited higher viability, more actin filament, and larger spreading area while liquid crystal-50/polyurethane substrates seemed not to favor cell attachment and spreading. Alkaline phosphatase activity and calcium deposition were significantly improved with hUC-MSCs on both liquid crystal-10/ polyurethane and liquid crystal-30/ polyurethane substrates, and the maximal alkaline phosphatase activity was observed in liquid crystal-10/ polyurethane while the lowest in liquid crystal-50/ polyurethane. Osteopontin was upregulated to a high level in both liquid crystal-10/ polyurethane and liquid crystal-30/ polyurethane groups after 14 days culturing; the maximal expression of osteocalcin and related transcription factor 2 were found in liquid crystal-10/ polyurethane group on day 21. Our findings revealed that hUC-MSCs could intensely sense the bioactive patterns and soft-matter feature of liquid crystal domains and subsequently modulated cell behaviors, which may prove useful in the development of new class of biomaterials for applications in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.


This letter highlights a key problem that arises when frame aggregation, a popular method for boosting VoIP capacity, is used in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLANs) that employ asynchronous power save mode (PSM). Specifically, it shows how the PSM proposed by the Wi-Fi Alliance renders frame aggregation ineffective. It then proposes a novel opportunistic scheduler that restores the benefits of frame aggregation whilst ensuring stations have minimal energy expenditure.


Noma (cancrum oris) is an infectious disease which destroys the oro-facial tissues and other neighboring structures in its fulminating course. It affects predominantly children aged 2-16 years in sub-Saharan Africa where the estimated frequency in some communities may vary from one to seven cases per 1000 children. The key risk factors are poverty, malnutrition, poor oral hygiene, deplorable environmental sanitation, close residential proximity to livestock, and infectious diseases, particularly measles. Malnutrition acts synergistically with endemic infections in promoting an immunodeficient state, and noma results from the interaction of general and local factors with a weakened immune system as the common denominator. Acute necrotizing gingivitis (ANG) is considered the antecedent lesion. Current studies suggest that evolution of ANG to noma requires infection by a consortium of microorganisms with Fusobacterium necrophorum and Prevotella intermedia as the suspected key players. Without appropriate treatment, mortality rate is 70-90%. Survivors suffer the two-fold affliction of oro-facial disfigurement and functional impairment. Reconstructive surgery of the resulting deformity is time-consuming and financially prohibitive for the victims who are poor.


In recent years, the power of the Supreme Court of Israel has been greatly expanded--without any coincident confining of the living space available to the Court. The debate on the expansion of the power of the Supreme Court in Israel has centered on the issue of whether this expansion is justified, and most commentators agree that it is. The debate has not addressed the question of whether it is necessary to constrain the Supreme Court's exercise of its newly found powers. This Article addresses that question, taking the expansion of the Court's power as a given, either because it is a positive development or because it is an irreversible one. It then examines whether the expansion should be accompanied by development of greater constraints on the Court's exercise of its powers. The constraints that operate on the Israeli Supreme Court are examined and compared to the much more extensive constraints that operate on the United States Supreme Court. The magnitude of difference revealed by this comparison indicates the need to question the adequacy of the constraints that operate on the increasingly powerful Israeli Supreme Court. (Marcia Gelpe, Constraints on Supreme Court Authority in Israel and the United States: Phenomenal Cosmic Powers; Itty Bitty Living Space, 13 EMORY INT'L L. REV. 493 (1999))


Using panel data from Rural Peru we explore the role of institutional thickness on furthering the effects of key infrastructure investments on pro-poor growth. Institutional thickness is characterised here as the result of a combination of four interrelated characteristics: (a) the presence of organisations signalling collective action; (b) the degree of productive asset inequality; (c) the degree of inequality of opportunities and (d) the degree of political fragmentation. The paper shows that institutionally thick environments do contribute to amplify the effects of public infrastructure on income growth for those belonging to the poorest tercile, allowing poverty to be more responsive to growth. Copyright (C) 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In this demonstration, we experimentally investigate a dual-ring fiber laser architecture to achieve dual-wavelength-tunable by utilizing the self-injected Fabry–Perot laser diode (FP-LD) mechanism. Here, two tunable bandpass filters (TBFs) are utilized in the proposed laser structure to obtain the dual-wavelength with single-longitudinal-mode (SLM). The different mode-spacing of the proposed dual-wavelength fiber laser can also be tuned between 20.8 and 1.3 nm, due to the effective gain amplification of FP-LD. Moreover, we can employ the different FP-LDs with various gain distributions to achieve wide wavelength range tuning.


The arthrosis of the wrist is a degenerative, traumatic or idiopathic process, which cause problem for patient characterized by pain, loss of mobility, swelling and deformity of the affected wrist. A surgical alternative is proximal row carpectomy, which consists of resection of the lunate, scaphoid and triquetrum, forming a new joint between the radius and the distal row carpus. Material and methods: Observational, descriptive, case series. 15 patients were evaluated who underwent proximal row carpectomy during the period January 2007-August 2009, with clinical follow-up until august 2010 through mayo and DASH scores, measuring strength. Range of motion and pain. 80% of patients were between 35 and 64 years. The predominant sex was male in 67%. The result was satisfactory in 73%, according to the scale of Mayo. The DASH scale in the postoperative period also improves. Conclusions: The proximal carpectomy is a surgical alternative, it preserves some joint mobility, reduced pain and improved disability of the limb.


Utilization of the NI Multisim application is useful for designing a circuit, starting with designing schematic circuits and analyzing and simulating. Increasing the use of technology so that it is very much needed in physics learning at the Polytechnic of Maritime Sciences on electrical circuit material. This study aims to measure and characterize I-V currents in an electrical circuit by comparison with laboratories and multisim applications. Research activities were carried out using the I-V Current and Voltage comparison analysis method using theory in the manual formula, practice with the circuit kit, and NI Multisim simulation by building a circuit scheme on circuit composition namely resistance, voltage source, and using voltage measuring instruments and current measuring instruments which are all regulated in such a way concerning the theory of electric circuits. The results of this study are that there is a difference in the total resistance value between the values in the circuit kit module practice with the use of Multisim. But the difference is very slight with an error of about 1% for series circuits, and about 4.4% for parallel circuits. Voltage values in series circuits using NI Multisim circuit kits and applications have differences with errors ranging from 0 to 3.3 %. The comparison of the voltage values in direct measurements of the circuit kit and the NI Multisim simulation has the lowest error of 0% and the highest of 20% at the 6V source in R2.


Moraxella catarrhalis respiratory infection was clinically studied. Subjects were 32 patients with M. catarrhalis respiratory infection who were treated in Kawasaki Hospital, Kawasaki Medical School from January 2006 to December 2010. The clinical features of these cases have been retrospectively reviewed. The results showed that: (1) There was not only acute exacerbation of chronic lower respiratory tract infection (in 11) and community- acquired pneumonia (in 18), but also hospital-acquired pneumonia (in 3); (2) There was frequent occurrence in elderly male patients with chronic respiratory disease or malignant tumor as an underlying disease; (3) Most patients were mild or moderate, and rarely severe; (4) Although there are many bacteria resistant to ABPC and ST, sensitivity remains against third- and fourth- generation cephem, carbapenem, and new quinolone; (5) Mixed infections with S. pneumoniae , or H. influenzae were observed; (6) Prognosis is good when the third- or fourth-generation cephem, carbapenem, or new quinolone is administered (clinical efficacy rate 100 percent, and eradication rate 100 percent).


A brief review of the results obtained in Vilnius while developing the graphical methods of quantum angular momentum theory is presented. Numerous modifications and extensions of the original method proposed by A. Jucys, J. Levinson, and V. Vanagas are discussed. The application of the graphical method to the study of one-, two-electron as well as the effective operators and their matrix elements in the coordinate and second quantization representation is surveyed.


The focus of this research is to analyze the activity on Twitter, during the campaign for the 2015 general elections in Spain, of the leaders of the main Spanish political parties: Mariano Rajoy (PP), Pedro Sánchez (PSOE), Pablo Iglesias (Podemos) and Albert Rivera (Ciudadanos). That means: how many messages and what types of messages are published; what topics they focus on; and the main features of using Twitter: to spread political messages, reference candidate activities in the media or on the campaign trail or emphasize personal aspects. The methodological approach establishes three complementary areas: a) a quantitative analysis of the tweets published by the four candidates throughout the election campaign, focused on establishing the percentage of responses and retweets; b) a content analysis to determine the issue agenda of each candidate; and c) a qualitative analysis that allows us to provide an overview of the communication preferences and profile of each candidate. The combined results of this triple methodological approach show that candidates from emerging parties tend to send messages to mobilize their supporters to campaign and to make generic announcements regarding their future victory and the arrival of political change, while the leaders of PP and PSOE tend to publish more messages with specific policy proposals.


Purpose
This paper aims to narrate the success story of Tekena Tamuno Library by harnessing the multi-dimensional advantages of digital repository management, including multiple access to documents, simultaneous use by multiple patrons and effective space management, to address the tug of war that used to ensue between students and circulation staff over retrieval and use of past examinations question papers in the library.

Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyzes and reports the situation before and after the creation of Redeemers University e-question bank.

Findings
Interpersonal conflicts that often accompanied manual management and circulation of past question papers in the library were removed by the intervention. The circulation area that was often rowdy and noisy prior to digitization is now neat, quiet and alluring to visitors. Patrons now have a good perception of the library and its staff, thereby giving the library good reputation within and outside the university community.

Social implications
The paper shows that digitization could help to resolve interpersonal conflicts often created by manual management of paper documents in academic libraries.

Originality/value
There is a dearth of literary evidence on how Nigerian libraries digitized past examination question papers. This paper has addressed this gap to some extent.


Background: A contradictory tendency between occurrence of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and serum club cell protein 16 (CC16) level, However, renal dysfunction (RD) separately raised serum CC16 in our current observation. The purpose of this study was to find the limitation caused by renal dysfunction in the diagnostic performance of CC16 on ARDS in intensive care unit (ICU) patients. Method: We measured serum CC16 in 479 ICU patients. Patients were divided into six subgroups: control, acute kidney injury (AKI), chronic kidney dysfunction (CKD), ARDS, ARDS+AKI, and ARDS+CKD. The cutoff value, sensitivity and specificity of serum CC16 were assessed by receiver operating characteristic curves. Result: Serum CC16 increased among the ARDS group when compared to the control group, which helps identify ARDS and predicts the outcome in patients with normal renal function. However, level of serum CC16 was similar among ARDS+AKI, ARDS+CKD, AIK and CKD groups. Consequently, when compare to AKI and CKD, specificity for diagnosing whether ARDS or ARDS with renal failure decreased from 86.62% to 2.82% or 81.70% to 2.12%. Consistently, a cutoff value of 11.57 ng/mL was overturned from previously at 32.77 ng/mL or 33.72 ng/mL. Moreover, its predictive value for mortality is prohibited before 7 day but works after 28 day. Conclusion: Renal dysfunction limits the specificity, cutoff point, and predictive value at 7-day mortality of CC16 in diagnosing ARDS among ICU patients.


Pancreatic tumors are uncommon in children and rarely result in biliary obstruction. Primary pancreatic Burkitt's lymphoma is an exceptionally rare entity with only a few cases described in the literature. We present a case of a bifocal primary pancreatic Burkitt's lymphoma in a 4‐year‐old child presenting with jaundice. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 45:171–174, 2017


Objective: To investigate the relationship between left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and coronary artery disease in the very elderly (over 80 years old) patients with hypertension. Methods: One hundred twenty cases of very elderly patients with hypertension admitted to our hospital from March 2018 to December 2020 were selected and divided into two groups: the LVH group and the non-LVH group, all of whom were older aged over 80 years, including 62 patients in the LVH group and 58 patients in the non-LVH group. All patients underwent cardiac color Doppler ultrasound examination, 24-hour dynamic ECG examination, and coronary angiography or coronary CTA examination. The clinical data of the two groups were analyzed statistically. Results: There were significant differences in the number of diseased vessels, degree of coronary stenosis and vascular calcification between the two groups (P<0.05). Moreover, the results of risk factors for the degree of coronary artery disease in the two groups showed that the history of diabetes, 2hPG and LVH were independent risk factors for the three-vessel disease, while the history of LVH, FPG and alcohol intake were independent risk factors for diffuse lesions, but there was no statistical difference in the correlation between them and the degree of coronary stenosis. Conclusion: LVH is an independent risk factor for coronary artery stenosis and calcification in the very elderly patients with hypertension, but there is no statistical difference in the correlation between LVH and the degree of coronary stenosis.


Abstract Cornelius Castoriadis (1987: 147) argues that all societies have a central imaginary in order to consider basic questions about their identity. Imaginary specifications provide an answer to these questions, while they assemble, adjust, fabricate and construct a society. In all this, language plays a crucial role. As Castoriadis points out, it is through language that these social imaginary significations become manifest and do their constitutive work. In the spirit of these claims and the assumption that identities are constructed discursively (Tekin 2010: 4), the present article uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to investigate the construction of the identity of the Troika – the common support mechanism for Greece in the wake of its sovereign debt crisis and threat of a disorderly default in 2010 consisting of the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission. The aim is to determine how the different political parties construct the identity of the troika. Since identity necessarily concerns a relation to the Self and the Other, and othering is an important activity in the construction of identity, the paper studies the strategies of othering used in the Greek Parliament by the different political parties across all political affiliations during the parliamentary debate preceding the vote on the second bailout loan on 12 February, 2012. The paper also seeks to identify the social imaginary of Greek society and determine whether it is one of social division and dissimulation or one of unity and accord.


Separase, a known oncogene, is widely overexpressed in numerous human tumors of breast, bone, brain, blood, and prostate. Separase is an emerging target for cancer therapy, and separase enzymatic inhibitors such as sepin-1 are currently being developed to treat separase-overexpressed tumors. Drug metabolism plays a critical role in the efficacy and safety of drug development, as well as possible drug–drug interactions. In this study, we investigated the in vitro metabolism of sepin-1 in human, mouse, and rat liver microsomes (RLM) using metabolomic approaches. In human liver microsomes (HLM), we identified seven metabolites including one cysteine–sepin-1 adduct and one glutathione–sepin-1 adduct. All the sepin-1 metabolites in HLM were also found in both mouse and RLM. Using recombinant CYP450 isoenzymes, we demonstrated that multiple enzymes contributed to the metabolism of sepin-1, including CYP2D6 and CYP3A4 as the major metabolizing enzymes. Inhibitory effects of sepin-1 on seven major CYP450s were also evaluated using the corresponding substrates recommended by the US Food and Drug Administration. Our studies indicated that sepin-1 moderately inhibits CYP1A2, CYP2C19, and CYP3A4 with IC50 < 10 μM but weakly inhibits CYP2B6, CYP2C8/9, and CYP2D6 with IC50 > 10 μM. This information can be used to optimize the structures of sepin-1 for more suitable pharmacological properties and to predict the possible sepin-1 interactions with other chemotherapeutic drugs.


Multi-language Source Code Management systems have been largely used to collaboratively manage software development projects. These systems represent a fundamental step in order to fully use communication enhancements by producing concrete value on the way people collaborate to produce more reliable computational systems. These systems evaluate results of analyses in order to organise and optimise source code. These analyses are strongly dependent on technologies (i.e. framework, programming language, libraries) each of them with their own characteristics and syntactic structure. To overcome such limitation, source code classification is an essential preprocessing step to identify which analyses should be evaluated. This paper introduces a new approach for generating content-based classifiers by using Evolutionary Algorithms. Experiments were performed on real world source code collected from more than 200 different open source projects. Results show us that our approach can be successfully used for creating more accurate source code classifiers. The resulting classifier is also expansible and flexible to new classification scenarios (opening perspectives for new technologies).


This article challenges claims to neutrality and impartiality of aid interventions in Afghanistan, arguing that the war on terror intrudes on postconflict peace building and reconstruction interventions in Afghanistan, specifically in the southern and eastern parts of the country where a virulent insurgency has reemerged. In these regions, aid interventions are deeply entangled in active insurgent and counterinsurgent politics as aid settings are often used to wage ideological, cultural, and political campaigns over Afghans in order to demonstrate victory. This article argues that Afghan women are caught on the frontlines of this "aid battlefield," both as "nation builders" celebrated by the U.S. administration as examples of liberal-imperial victory and as "nation betrayers" of their culture and traditions for their participation in internationally facilitated programs. I suggest that feminists need to be aware and wary of the ways that aid projects are co-opted by foreign and local militarized masculinities that collectively perpetuate insecurity and violence against Afghan women.


This study was aimed to evaluate the fungal microflora in Meju samples fermented using single and/or multiple additions of ethanolic extracts from plants, including Nelumbo nucifera leaves, Ginkgo biloba leaves, and Allium sativum cloves, at different concentrations (1 and 10%) and mixtures of these extracts at a 1:1:1 ratio. Fungal species were grouped based on morphological characteristics, and selected fungal strains were identified based on DNA sequence analysis. Aspergillus species were the dominant microflora in Meju samples. A total of 10 fungal strains isolated from the tested Meju products resulted in the identification of five genera, including Agaricaceae, Aspergillus (synonym: Eurotium), Mucor, Penicillium, and Paecilomyces. Further, Meju samples fermented with selected individual and/or multiple ethanolic extracts resulted in the occurence of various fungal strains, including Aspergillus, Mucor, Paecilomyces, and Penicillium chrysogenum. Conversely, Meju samples fermented without ethanolic extracts as a control resulted in the isolation of Aspergillus ruber, which might be capable of producing aflatoxin B1 and ochratoxin A. The outcome of this study confirms that fermentation of Meju using plant extracts may significantly influence fungal microflora, leading to improved quality of Meju production, because of diminishing effects of the extracts against toxin producing fungal pathogens.

Practical applications
For decades, fermented foods have been used traditionally as health beneficial products in Asian countries including Korea. Contamination of fermented food starter culture, such as soybean-based Meju, by pathogenic fungi or toxin producing fungi, such as Aspergillus species, has been reported as a severe concern to consumers. Medicinal plants have shown remarkable efficacy to control a number of pathogenic microbes including fungi. In this study, Nelumbo nucifera leaves, Ginkgo biloba leaves, and Allium sativum cloves exhibited significant potential to diminish the growth of toxin producing fungi, suggesting potential application of medicinal plants for the improved quality of Meju production.


Objective: Many tissues contained resident mesenchymal stromal/stem cells (MSCs) that facilitated tissue hemostasis and repair. However, there is no typical marker to identify the resident cardiac MSCs. We aimed to determine if CD51 could be an optimal marker of cardiac MSCs and assess their therapeutic potential for mice with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Methods: Cardiac-derived CD51+CD31–CD45–Ter119– cells (named CD51+cMSCs) were isolated from C57BL/6 mice(7-day-old) by flow cytometry. The CD51+cMSCs were characterized by proliferation capacity, multi-differentiation potential, and expression of typical MSC-related markers. Adult C57BL/6 mice (12-week-old) were utilized for an AMI model via permanently ligating the left anterior descending coronary artery. The therapeutic efficacy of CD51+cMSCs was estimated by echocardiography and pathological staining. To determine the underlying mechanism, lentiviruses were utilized to knock down gene (stem cell factor [SCF]) expression of CD51+cMSCs. Results: In this study, CD51 was expressed in the entire layers of the cardiac wall in mice, including endocardium, epicardium, and myocardium, and its expression was decreased with age. Importantly, the CD51+cMSCs possessed potent self-renewal potential and multi-lineage differentiation capacity in vitro and also expressed typical MSC-related surface proteins. Furthermore, CD51+cMSC transplantation significantly improved cardiac function and attenuated cardiac fibrosis through pro-angiogenesis activity after myocardial infarction in mice. Moreover, SCF secreted by CD51+cMSCs played an important role in angiogenesis both in vivo and in vitro. Conclusions: Collectively, CD51 is a novel marker of cardiac resident MSCs, and CD51+cMSC therapy enhances cardiac repair at least partly through SCF-mediated angiogenesis.


The quantification of uncertainty is important for the adoption of machine learning, especially to reject out-of-distribution (OOD) data back to human experts for review. Yet progress has been slow, as a balance must be struck between computational efficiency and the quality of uncertainty estimates. For this reason many use deep ensembles of neural networks or Monte Carlo dropout for reasonable uncertainty estimates at relatively minimal compute and memory. Surprisingly, when we focus on the real-world applicable constraint of $\leq 1\%$ false positive rate (FPR), prior methods fail to reliably detect OOD samples as such. Notably, even Gaussian random noise fails to trigger these popular OOD techniques. We help to alleviate this problem by devising a simple adversarial training scheme that incorporates an attack of the epistemic uncertainty predicted by the dropout ensemble. We demonstrate this method improves OOD detection performance on standard data (i.e., not adversarially crafted), and improves the standardized partial AUC from near-random guessing performance to $\geq 0.75$.


Housing and settlements are some of the human's necessities that have great influence in the shaping of nation's character. The residential development is one of the crucial factors in developing the regional strategy which in line with broad aspects in demography and strictly related to the economic and social life development for the goal of strengthening the national security. Cities contribute an important role to the region in all aspects. It is stated in the Ministry of Public Works Regulation that city is the region in which its spatial planning is the priority since it plays a crucial role in economy, social, culture and/or environment. Therefore, a well planning which covers the three important aspects regarding a simultaneous development is indeed required. One of the functions of spatial planning is to be used as the guideline for the regency in designing and executing the five year government program and annual program. The Indication of the development program is the description of the policy and the spatial planning development that has been set within the development program. The five-year program shall be identified within twenty years Raflis, Suwardi Lubis, Rujiman, Dwira Nirfalini AuliaThe Formulation of Rented Flat Housing (Rusun) Policy on Medan Regional Planning Indonesia EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. III, Issue 12 / March 2016 13017 to realise the Spatial Planning Detailed Design. The following programs are basically indicative in which are expected to be useful in organising the sectored development program as well as regional development on prioritised regions within the first five-year or the second and so forth.


We study long-term and intergenerational effects of the 1970's Indonesian school construction program. Exploiting variation across birth cohorts and districts in number of schools built suggests that 43 years later men are more likely to work formally, outside agriculture, and migrate, and men and women have better marriage market outcomes. Households with exposed women have higher living standards and pay more taxes. Mother's program exposure leads to increased schooling for her children, with larger effects in secondary and tertiary education. Cost-benefit analyses indicate school construction leads to higher tax revenues and improved living standards offsetting construction costs within 18–54 years.


Objective To compare the C-reactive protein (CRP) levels with the delivered dose of dialysis in terms of index of hemodialysis adequacy (Kt/V) in patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (HD). Background According to different studies, the target Kt/V should be 1.2 per session, while weekly Kt/V should be 4.5 for thrice-weekly HD patients to maintain adequate HD. Patients and methods This is a comparative, cross-sectional survey study. Patients who fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled in the present study. The delivered dose of HD, Kt/V was assessed by online clearance module (OCM) in Fresenius machines at the end of every session of dialysis and the weekly Kt/V was determined by adding all the three Kt/V values. On the other hand, serum CRP was determined after each session of HD. Both weekly Kt/V and CRP values were entered in a predesigned proforma. Results Of 30 patients on maintenance HD, high serum CRP level (>6 mg/dl) was found in nine patients. When the Kt/V was compared with the CRP level, there was a negative correlation between the two parameters (r = −0.4, P < 0.001). Low Kt/V means dialysis inadequacy, which is associated with CKD state, resulting in high CRP levels. Conclusion Low Kt/V means dialysis inadequacy, and is associated with chronic inflammatory state resulting in high CRP levels. To reduce the rate of morbidity and mortality, we concluded that the quality of life of dialysis patients can be improved by offering an adequate dose of HD reflected by Kt/V of at least 4.5 per week in all patients with end-stage renal disease.


In various fields of applications such as capital allocation, sensitivity analysis, and systemic risk evaluation, one often needs to compute or estimate the expectation of a random variable, given that another random variable is equal to its quantile at some prespecified probability level. A primary example of such an application is the Euler capital allocation formula for the quantile (often called the value‐at‐risk), which is of crucial importance in financial risk management. It is well known that classic nonparametric estimation for the above quantile allocation problem has a slower rate of convergence than the standard rate. In this paper, we propose an alternative approach to the quantile allocation problem via adjusting the probability level in connection with an expected shortfall. The asymptotic distribution of the proposed nonparametric estimator of the new capital allocation is derived for dependent data under the setup of a mixing sequence. In order to assess the performance of the proposed nonparametric estimator, AR‐GARCH models are proposed to fit each risk variable, and further, a bootstrap method based on residuals is employed to quantify the estimation uncertainty. A simulation study is conducted to examine the finite sample performance of the proposed inference. Finally, the proposed methodology of quantile capital allocation is illustrated for a financial data set.


As a youth, every Iroquois male is taught the arts of war, so that he'll be ready to defend his country and his people. This makes it unnecessary for the Iroquois government to have an expensive War Department with its high-salaried military echelon of officers of various degrees and ranks. It makes a standing army unnecessary who have nothing to do but sit around waiting for an order to go somewhere and kill some people.- Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall, Warrior Manifesto, 1983 (2014)The warrior society is the true power and heartbeat of the nation and willing to die for their people.- Statement from Mi'kmaq Warrior Society, October 2013The shale gas protests near Rexton in Kent County, New Brunswick, Canada during the summer and autumn of 2013 are a case study in not only the presence but also the importance of warriors in Indigenous resistance and protest action. Since the 1990 Oka crisis, warriors and warrior societies have become one of the primary means through which Indigenous resistance and decolonization efforts are organized and manifested. This has been traced to the tendency in Indigenous resistance to utilize the tool of the blockade (Repin, 2012, p.166), but in recent years, and in their conflicts with Canada, warriors have become much more of a multi-dimensional player. No longer simply a physical manifestation of resistance to colonialism, nor a one-dimensional reflection of the Red Power movement of the 1960s-1980s, the Indigenous warrior is a significant political force in contemporary relations between Indigenous peoples and the Canadian state.Despite this shift, however, warriors and warrior societies face difficult challenges to their claims of being the legitimate and traditional sacred protectors of Indigenous interests. This essay suggests that these challenges are gendered and hinge on problematic notions of hyperviolent masculinity imposed upon Indigenous communities by a Canadian state determined to dilute the decolonizing potential embodied in the role of the warrior. This imposition of a colonial version of masculine identity is accomplished through a strategy which manipulates the false binary of the noble and peaceful savage, and the wild and wanton warrior.Informed by sociologist Raewyn Connell's concept of hegemonic masculinity, and against the backdrop of Rexton, here we peer through the lens of critical masculinity studies in order to comprehend this dilemma more fully and consider what might be done about it. We begin with a look at the role of the Mi'kmaq warriors during the 2013 shale gas resistance at Rexton NB with an eye to making visible how the role of warrior in decolonization and resistance is changing. We then move on to uncover the rich complexity of the role of Indigenous warrior though an analysis of the warrior's role as established in the Great Law of Peace, and later expanded upon by leaders of the Red Power movement such as Louis Hall. After becoming familiar with the traditional role of the warrior, a historical narrative from the western expansion of the Canadian state, known as The Frog Lake Massacre, demonstrates how a dominant colonial version of history can undergird the manipulation of Indigenous masculine gender identity politics and undermine the political legitimacy of the warrior. Finally, we conclude with summarizing what is currently being done to address this dilemma, and what might be done in the future.The Warrior Politics of the Shale Gas ProtestsBefore embarking on our exposition of how the traditional role of the warrior has been manipulated by the Canadian state through masculine gender identity politics, we will linger on some of the actions taken by warriors during the Rexton shale gas protests as a way to highlight their distinctly political character. Here we raise just two examples. The first is the example of the Mi'kmaq Warrior Society's illfated attempt to seek the protection of the Canadian military (Barrera, 2013). …


The present investigation was an exploratory attempt to examine daily activity profile and the well- being of children of employed and non-employed mothers. A representative sample of 180 mothers (90 employed mothers and 90 non-employed mothers, having eldest child of 6-9 years) belonging to nuclear families of Udaipur, Rajasthan were selected. Data were collected using self-structured Interview schedule (Child's after-school activity schedule). The results of the study revealed that the employed mothers' children's major part of after school time was devoted to skill classes, academics and watching TV and least time was given to interaction with persons, parents and play. In comparison to this, non-employed mothers' children's, major portion of after school time is devoted to TV watching, academics, skill classes and playing videogames. In both the cases, less time is given to play during after school hours. In employed mothers children, more than 80% mothers reported that their children are facing well- being problems "always" whereas in case of non-employed mothers', approximately 55% reported "sometimes, regarding well-being problems. Thus, it is evident that children are having no time during after school hours for play and available free time is devoted to sedentary activities like TV watching and playing videogames instead of playing freely. The results of the study revealed that highly significant difference was found between employed and non- employed mothers' children in their after school hours as well as well-being of children


A CPW-fed ultra-wideband antenna with dual band-notch characteristics is realized experimentally and numerically. Two notched frequency bands are obtained by utilizing a tuning stub between the fork-like radiation element and a rectangle slot in the CPW ground plane. The two notched bands can be controlled by adjusting the length of the tuning stub and the length of the rectangle slot. Experimental and numerical antenna shows that the proposed antenna, with compact size of 21×28mm2, has an impedance bandwidth ranging from 3.1GHz to 10.6GHz for voltage standing-wave ratio less than 2, expect two notch band frequency 5GHz-6GHz for WLAN and 7.7GHz-8.5GHz for X-band for satellite and military applications.


The author draws a general picture of the Iron Age and 7th c. B.C. settlement pattern of the Attic region, based on an up-to-date list of the archaeological sites and a chronological table referring to the whole period. The geographical features of the region are also examinated, being regarded as an important factor in the formation of the populated landscapes emerging from the mapping of the sites. The latter are classified according to their main function (cult and/or settlement) and chronology. The author then observes continuity and discontinuity in the general contex of the settlement/cult indicators. Their clustering in a number of settlement areas indicates the main Attic local district. This contextual approach highlights the connection of the many hilltop cult sites with the settlement area of their district, which they overlooked. In these open-air small sanctuaries (the Acropolis of Athens also falls under this category), the inhabitants of the Attic proto-demes celebrated acrifices to Zeus. Once they were estabilished, these cults went on until the end of the period under examination, apparently offering a constant point of reference to people living both in permanent settlements and in ephemeral dwellings. The communal framework of these high-altitude sanctuaries is thus the settlement area extending below them, and their social function needs to be studied with a renewed approach, taking into account the possibility of wide social participation in the cults. Finally, a count of the sites according to the chronological grid is a good way to test the hypothesis of a general fall in the number of the sites in the 7th century B.C. The increase of the cult sites and a slight decrease in the number of settlement indicators, after the major Late Geometric take off, can be better understood in the context of the various settlement area, where district central places seem to flourish.
The author sees Athens as one (the main amd leading one, but first of all one among the others) of these Attic districts. It is still flourishing in the 7th c. B.C., when the archaeological evidence indicates the transformation of the network of discrete hamlets around the Acropolis into main settlement sites. At the beginning of the same century, the clearing up of the central area of the new Agora from burials marks a shift from private to public use, and the distribution of the pits turns out to be widley comparable to that of the 6th century B.C., when the first political buildings appear on the west edge. The "birth f the polis" now affects the former topographical order.
The author also deals with some problems concerning the distribution and the function of Protoattic pottery in Attic sites, and reviews some recent papers on the subject.


Out-of-plane failure is one of the most important mechanisms for unreinforced ma-sonry (URM) structures to be prevented in the seismic areas. The one-way out-of-plane bend-ing failure mechanism has been studied by several authors. The two-way bending failure mechanism has received much less attention and only few formulations for specific cases are available in standards and in the literature. In order to investigate the two-way bending failure mechanism, four full-scale URM walls were tested quasi-statically. Both calcium silicate and clay brick masonry typical of Dutch building were tested. In comparison with the experimental results, a critical evaluation of the available analytical models proposed by Eurocode 6, the Australian standards and the simpli-fied macroblock approach by Vaculik and Griffith is presented. Despite some limitation in its application and the underestimation in the results, the most promising analytical formulation is the one provided by the Australian standards. In order to provide a basis for the develop-ment of an improved formulation for two-way bending, a parametric study on the Australian standard formulation is presented. The parameters that mostly influence the prediction of the bending capacity of the wall are the flexural strength of masonry, the vertical edges rotation-al restrain coefficient, the aspect ratio, and the wall thickness. On the contrary, the paramet-ric study also shows that variations of the overburden do not lead to variation in terms of capacity.


The excitation of quasi-particles near the extrema of the electronic band structure is a gateway to electronic phase transitions in condensed matter. In a many-body system, quasi-particle dynamics are strongly influenced by the electronic single-particle structure and have been extensively studied in the weak optical excitation regime. Yet, under strong optical excitation, where light fields coherently drive carriers, the dynamics of many-body interactions that can lead to new quantum phases remain largely unresolved. Here, we induce such a highly non-equilibrium many-body state through strong optical excitation of charge carriers near the van Hove singularity in graphite. We investigate the system's evolution into a strongly-driven photo-excited state with attosecond soft X-ray core-level spectroscopy. Surprisingly, we find an enhancement of the optical conductivity of nearly ten times the quantum conductivity and pinpoint it to carrier excitations in flat bands. This interaction regime is robust against carrier-carrier interaction with coherent optical phonons acting as an attractive force reminiscent of superconductivity. The strongly-driven non-equilibrium state is markedly different from the single-particle structure and macroscopic conductivity and is a consequence of the non-adiabatic many-body state.


: Background: It is believed that adolescents suffer from dysmenorrhea but premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is not a common and prevalent disorder. Recently, some studies indicated that PMS and premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) were common problems among students and prevalence of premenstrual symptoms reported differently due to socio-cultural characteristics. The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of PMS and PMDD in a group of Iranian adolescent students. Materials and Method: In this descriptive study, 142 students (aged 14-18years) from high schools of Zahedan (southeast of Iran) were selected and asked to complete the PMS questionnaire, including symptoms of PMS and demographic characteristics. Results: The findings of current study showed that 142 participants 83.1% (n=118) of them had PMS and about 57.7% (n=82) met the criteria for DSM-IV for MDD. Also, 28.2% of participants with PMS and 26.8% of those with PMDD reported that severity of symptoms interfered with their function and adjustment. Most common symptoms were breast pain (100%), gastric pain (53.5%), tiredness or lethargic (51.4%), backache (47.2%) and joint or muscle pain (38.7%). Mean of severity of symptoms was higher in students aged 16 (p=0.05). Conclusion: The prevalence of PMS and PMDD were common among the adolescents, thus systematic and well designed programs and interventions for prevention and management of PMS was highly recommended.


Importance: 20-25% of patients with early stage HER2-positive breast cancer develop tumor relapse after adjuvant trastuzumab. Identification of such patients is a key goal for clinical management decisions. Objective: To assess molecular heterogeneity among early stage HER2-positive patients using the Prosigna™ algorithm, to define intrinsic subtypes, and to determine the clinical significance of such heterogeneity. Design: The NanoString® platform was used to measure the abundance of the PAM50 subtype signature transcripts. Samples from the NCCTG (Alliance) N9831 trial were analyzed using the Prosigna™ algorithm to define intrinsic subtype and risk scores. Subtypes were evaluated for recurrence-free survival following chemotherapy with or without trastuzumab. Setting: Samples were obtained from a multi-center randomized phase III trial of chemotherapy versus chemotherapy plus trastuzumab. Participants: All tumors were centrally evaluated for HER2 positivity, defined as IHC 3+ and/or FISH >2.0; 1392 patients were evaluated for molecular subtype. Intervention(s): Patients received adjuvant chemotherapy (doxorubicin plus cyclophosphamide followed by paclitaxel) (n=484) or chemotherapy plus trastuzumab (n=908). Main Outcome Measure(s): The primary outcome was recurrence-free survival as a function of subtype and treatment. Results: Patients with HER2-positive tumors with HER2-enriched features comprised about 70% of the sample cohort, and these individuals received significant benefit from adjuvant trastuzumab (HR=0.68, 95%CI: 0.52, 0.89, p=0.005), as did the relatively fewer patients (291/1392) with Luminal-type tumors (HR=0.52, 95%CI: 0.32, 0.85, p=0.01). The sample cohort contained a small number of patients with tumors having Basal-like features (97/1392), and the data suggest that these individuals may have received less benefit from trastuzumab, beyond that received from chemotherapy alone (HR=1.06, 95%CI:0.53,2.13, p=0.87). Conclusions: The majority of HER2-positive tumors are classified as HER2-enriched or Luminal using the Prosigna algorithm, and patients with such tumors benefit from adjuvant trastuzumab. About 10% of HER2-positive tumors exhibit Basal-like genomic features, and such tumors appear to recur at fairly similar frequency irrespective of treatment with chemotherapy or chemotherapy plus trastuzumab. Patients with HER2-positive/Basal-like tumors may represent a cohort that should be considered for enrollment in trials to evaluate emerging novel HER2-targeted agents, other targeted therapies, or combinations of both approaches. Support provided in part by CA129949 and CA15083. Citation Format: Perez EA, Ballman KV, Mashadi-Hossein A, Tenner KS, Kachergus JM, Norton N, Necela BM, Carr JM, Ferree S, Perou CM, Cheang MCU, Thompson EA. Intrinsic subtype and therapeutic response among early stage HER2-positive breast tumors from the North Central cancer treatment group (Alliance) N9831 trial. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Eighth Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2015 Dec 8-12; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-07-04.


In Europe, meat inspection procedures have been established in the course of the last century. Techniques at that time available were used. This traditional approach has been taken over with the regularisation in the EEC. However, in order to scrutinise this approach as well as to specify modern tasks of meat inspection, a scientific and more basic approach is required and could read as follows: Pointing out the tasks of meat inspection as wanted by the specific society (human health, animal health and welfare as well as a certain quality level of the product). Collecting of particular criteria in order to ensure every task mentioned above. This could be addressed by use of a system based on the principles of Risk Analysis (identification and characterisation of a hazard (or unwanted item), consumer's exposure assessment). Having deduced the required criteria, for each of them an appropriate method must be available. Only then an overall system might be suggested, and only then particular techniques might be discussed. From examples is concluded, that the technical performance of meat inspection must be re-evaluated. Presently a total concept is not available.


Viral protein cages, with their regular and programmable architectures, are excellent platforms for the development of functional nanomaterials. The ability to transform a virus into a material with intended structure and function relies on the existence of a well-understood model system, a noninfectious virus-like particle (VLP) counterpart. Here, we study the factors important to the ability of P22 VLP to retain or release various protein cargo molecules depending on the nature of the cargo, the capsid morphology, and the environmental conditions. Because the interaction between the internalized scaffold protein (SP) and the capsid coat protein (CP) is noncovalent, we have studied the efficiency with which a range of SP variants can dissociate from the interior of different P22 VLP morphologies and exit by traversing the porous capsid. Understanding the types of cargos that are either retained or released from the P22 VLP will aid in the rational design of functional nanomaterials.