Abstract Rationale: The evidence for outpatient pulmonary embolism (PE) management apart from hospitalization is expanding. The availability and ease of direct oral anticoagulants have facilitated this transition. The literature, however, is sparse on the topic of comprehensive management of pulmonary embolism in the primary care clinic setting. As such, the role of the primary care physician in the complete diagnosis, risk stratification for outpatient eligibility, and initiation of treatment is unclear. Case presentations: Case 1: A 33-year-old man with known heterozygous Factor V Leiden mutation and a remote history of deep vein thrombosis presented to his primary care physician's office with 2 days of mild pleuritic chest pain and a dry cough after a recent transcontinental flight. Case 2: A 48-year-old man with a complex medical history including recent transverse myelitis presented to his primary care family physician with dyspnea and pleuritic chest pain for 6 days. Diagnosis: Case 1: Computed tomographic pulmonary angiography that same afternoon showed multiple bilateral segmental and subsegmental emboli as well as several small pulmonary infarcts. Case 2: The patient's D-dimer was elevated at 1148 ng/mL. His physician ordered a computed tomographic pulmonary angiography, performed that evening, which showed segmental and subsegmental PE. Interventions: Both patients were contacted by their respective physicians shortly after their diagnoses and, in shared decision-making, opted for treatment at home with 5 days of enoxaparin followed by dabigatran. Outcomes: Neither patient developed recurrence nor complications in the subsequent 3 months. Lessons: These cases, stratified as low risk using the American College of Chest Physicians criteria and the PE Severity Index, are among the first in the literature to illustrate comprehensive primary care-based outpatient PE management. Care was provided within an integrated delivery system with ready, timely access to laboratory, advanced radiology, and allied health services. This report sets the stage for investigating the public health implications of comprehensive primary care-based PE management, including cost-savings as well as enhanced patient follow-up and patient satisfaction.


Thiamethoxam and chlorantraniliprole insecticides have been important tools for controlling pests in rice. However, food safety issues related to pesticide residues are important to consider with a food crop such as rice. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyze thiamethoxam and chlorantraniliprole residues in rice hull, bran, and polished rice grains. The study was conducted during the 2012 cropping season at the Texas A&M Agrilife Research, David R. Wintermann Rice Research Station, near Eagle Lake, TX, USA. Rice was planted on May 5, 2012, using the cultivar 'Presidio'. Pesticide applications were performed at 5, 15, 25, and 35 days after flowering (DAF) using 1 and 2 times the recommended rate of 30 g active ingredient (ai) ha(-1) for thiamethoxam and 30 g ai ha(-1) for chlorantraniliprole. Sequentially, two treatments using the insecticides at recommended rate were applied at 5 and 25 DAF and at 5, 25, and 35 DAF. Insecticide residues were analyzed in different sample fractions: rice hull, bran, and polished rice grains. The samples were subjected to extraction using an accelerated solvent extraction (ASE) technique. Sample aliquots were analyzed using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS), with a limit of quantification (LOQ) of 5 × 10(-5) mg kg(-1). Residues of thiamethoxam and chlorantraniliprole were detected in rice hull, bran, and polished rice grains, and the quantified values were greater in hull and in rice bran.


Electro-magnetic (EM) wave amplifiers by utilizing traveling electron beam in vacuum come to have attention as devices covering over extremely wide frequency range from the microwave to the X-ray regions. We point out that two different amplification mechanisms should exist according to the relation between the EM wavelength and the electron size. The first model is named as coherent electron wave (CEW) model. Another one is named as localized electron (LE) model. The boundary of these two models is locating in the THz region.


Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main etiologic agent of lower genital tract cancers. The natural history
of HPV infection and the immune response to HIV/HPV co-infection, particularly in the anal mucosa, is poorly understood.
The aim was evaluate the in situ immune response in anorectal biopsies from HIV-infected patients. A total of
114 biopsies were analyzed by Tissue Micro-Array: 15 were from HIV-negative individuals with normal squamous epithelium
and 99 from HIV-positive individuals (21 normal squamous epithelium, 39 with anal intra-epithelial lesion
grade 1 and 39 with anal intra-epithelial lesion grade 2/3). PCR and sequencing were used to identify HPV DNA.
Staining for CD4, CD8, Foxp3+, T-bet and IL-10 were analyzed via immunohistochemistry. HIV-positive patients with
AIN 2/3 showed a lower number of CD4+ cells (< 50 cells/mm3) compared to HIV negative subjects (P = 0.01). HIV
infected individuals showed a higher expression of FoxP3+ and IL-10 that correlated with the severity of the lesion
(P = 0.002). A positive coefficient correlation was found between FoxP3+ and IL-10 (r = 0.34; P = 0.027). HPV DNA
was detected in 93.4% (101/107) of the samples and the most common types were HPV 16 (26.9%), followed by
HPV 6 (15.7%), HPV 59 (13%) and HPV 18 (10.2%). Our results showed a strong association between the increased
T-reg cells and IL-10 expression in HIV-positive patients with AIN 2/3. HPV 16 was the most prevalent type. Our study
suggests that the immune regulatory in situ profile may favor HPV persistence in HIV-positive individuals. Further in
situ studies should be done in order to elucidate the development of anal cancer in HPV/HIV co-infected individuals.


Algorithms for the control of quantum mechanical systems are presented which are based on decompositions of Lie groups. The derived control laws drive the state of two and four level systems to any desired final configuration. The algorithms for the two-level case allow the use of an arbitrarily bounded control.


Although sexual interests in institutionalized elderly patients have long been recognized (Comfort, 1974; Wasow & Loeb, 1974), guidelines to help determine patients' competencies to participate in intimate relationships are not delineated in the literature. This paper describes the assessment technique used by an interdisciplinary staff on a coed Alzheimer's disease unit. Two case studies are presented to highlight how the assessment led to the treatment decisions.


In this work, we investigate the effect of anti-site disorder on the half-metallic properties of a Mn2FeAl Heusler alloy thin film. The film was grown on TiN-buffered MgO 001 substrates via magnetron sputtering. A detailed structural characterization using x-ray diffraction (XRD) and anomalous XRD showed that the film crystallizes in the partially disordered L21 B structure with 33% disorder between the Mn(B) and Al(D) sites. We measure a positive anisotropic magnetoresistance in the film, which is an indication of non-half metallic behaviour. Our x-ray magnetic circular dichroism sum rules analysis shows that Mn carries the magnetic moment in the film, with a positive Fe moment. Experimentally determined moments correspond most closely with those found by density functional calculated for the L21 B structure with Mn(B) and Al(D) site disorder, matching the experimental structural analysis. We thus attribute the deviation from half-metallic behaviour to the formation of the L21 B structure. To realize a half-metallic Mn2FeAl film it is important that the inverse Heusler XA structure is stabilized with minimal anti-site atomic disorder.


The inspection of high voltage power lines is an important task in order to prevent failure of the transmission system. In this work, we present a novel approach to detect insulators in aerial images and to analyze them automatically for possible faults. Our detection algorithm is based on discriminative training of local gradient-based descriptors and a subsequent voting scheme for localization. Further, we introduce an automatic extraction of the individual insulator caps and check them for faults by using a descriptor with elliptical spatial support. We demonstrate our approach on an evaluation set of 400 real-world insulator images captured from a helicopter and evaluate our results with respect to a manually created ground-truth. The performance of our insulator detector is comparable to other state-of-the-art object detectors and our insulator fault detection outperforms existing methods.


Multicellular species use gametes for their propagation. Gametes are formed from primordial germ cells (PGCs), which develop during embryogenesis. In some species, PGCs are specified by the inheritance of a RNA granule known as germ plasm. During germ cell specification, the germ plasm conveys a unique set of properties, e.g. the germ cell specific meiotic cell cycle to the PGCs. Germ plasm assembly is controlled by independently evolving organizer proteins like Oskar in Drosophila or Bucky ball in zebrafish. These organizers are intrinsically disordered proteins, which rapidly changed their amino acid sequence during evolution. A common recipe has emerged by studies on organizer proteins for animals that use germ plasm to specify their germline. Investigating the nature of these organizers might therefore provide a clue to germ cell specification in other species, which are less accessible to molecular-genetic and embryological approaches. Moreover, we might understand how the first metazoans modified their existing cellular structures from unicellular eukaryotes to ensure their reproduction.


The main goal of this research is to present the legal framework that determines the manner and scope of exploitation of natural resources in the Caspian region. This goal was achieved by analyzing the relevant international agreements applied in this geographical area, using the historical method. Then, the relevant international agreements and customs that are applied to the status issues of the sea and lakes, which are important for defining the legal regime of reference for regulating the use of these waters and their resources, are analyzed. In this part of the analysis, a comparative method was mostly used, which compared the provisions contained in universal international treaties with the provisions contained in regional international treaties. The main results of the research, in the part related to the status determination of the Caspian water basin, is that none of the known concepts for determining the status can be fully applied to it, that it contains elements of the closed sea, and elements of the border lake and elements condominium, and that all this together potentially represents elements of a new unique concept. In the part of the paper that refers to the legal framework of exploitation of the observed area, the main conclusion is that the most reference norms for its determination are contained in regional instruments that regulate the issue of environmental protection because they direct the manner and scope of economic exploitation. The limitations of this research are first of all that of several aspects of the status determination of the observed area, it is limited only to the legal aspect, and that it is limited to the analysis of the impact of environmental norms on the subject of research.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to test the validity of a modified clinical performance examination (CPX) for preclinical students in nursing.

METHOD
70 nursing students in their second semester of the junior year at C University participated in CPX. Scenarios and checklists were developed by our research team from September to October 2005. Six stations were organized. Evaluation included physical examination of a patient with lung cancer, education on usage of a metered dosage inhaler, and lobectomy postoperative care. Students were randomly assigned to a station.

RESULT
There was a difference in the CPX scores according to stations. The agreement of scoring between trained faculty members and SPs was more than moderate (r=.647). The correlation between the CPX score and the average grade in the previous semester and between the CPX score and the average grade of a paper and pen test of the pulmonary system of adults was low (r=.276; r=.048).

CONCLUSION
Traditional CPX is generally recommended, however, modified CPX is appropriate for preclinical students in the current Korean Nursing school setting if there are additional scoring systems to balance the testing level at each station.


This paper examines the EU's usage of conditionality for democracy promotion within the European Neighbourhood Policy and its conditions, possibilities and limitations. In doing so, I will first develop a theoretical framework for analysing mechanisms of democracy promotion in general and conditionality as a state-centred, rational-choice mechanism in particular. I will show that, apart from the attractiveness of the incentives, there are other variables crucial for a successful use of conditionality. Furthermore, conditionality might be used as a promising strategy for the formal implementation of democratic institutions. However, in completing the consolidation of democracy, conditionality is highly limited. The empirical part of the paper will focus on EU democracy promotion in Ukraine and the incentives the EU offers to Ukraine instead of a membership perspective. With the help of this case study it will be discussed whether these elements of flexible integration are suitable for promoting democracy. Examples of such incentives are a visa-free regime, a new enhanced agreement, or a free trade area.


Mouse models show that congenital neural tube defects (NTDs) can occur as a result of mutations in the platelet-derived growth factor receptor-alpha gene (PDGFRalpha). Mice heterozygous for the PDGFRalpha-mutation Patch, and at the same time homozygous for the undulated mutation in the Pax1 gene, exhibit a high incidence of lumbar spina bifida occulta, suggesting a functional relation between PDGFRalpha and Pax1. Using the human PDGFRalpha promoter linked to a luciferase reporter, we show in the present paper that Pax1 acts as a transcriptional activator of the PDGFRalpha gene in differentiated Tera-2 human embryonal carcinoma cells. Two mutant Pax1 proteins carrying either the undulated-mutation or the Gln --> His mutation previously identified by us in the PAX1 gene of a patient with spina bifida, were not or less effective, respectively. Surprisingly, Pax1 mutant proteins appear to have opposing transcriptional activities in undifferentiated Tera-2 cells as well as in the U-2 OS osteosarcoma cell line. In these cells, the mutant Pax1 proteins enhance PDGFRalpha-promoter activity whereas the wild-type protein does not. The apparent up-regulation of PDGFRalpha expression in these cells clearly demonstrates a gain-of-function phenomenon associated with mutations in Pax genes. The altered transcriptional activation properties correlate with altered protein-DNA interaction in band-shift assays. Our data provide additional evidence that mutations in Pax1 can act as a risk factor for NTDs and suggest that the PDGFRalpha gene is a direct target of Pax1. In addition, the results support the hypothesis that deregulated PDGFRalpha expression may be causally related to NTDs.


A discrete control system, with stringent hardware constraints, is effectively an embedded real-time system and hence requires a rigorous methodology to develop the software involved. The development methodology proposed in this paper adapts agile principles and patterns to support the building of embedded control systems, focusing on the issues relating to a system's constraints and safety. Strong unit testing, to ensure correctness, including the satisfaction of timing constraints, is the foundation of the proposed methodology. A platform-based design approach is used to balance costs and time-to-market in relation to performance and functionality constraints. It is concluded that the proposed methodology significantly reduces design time and costs, as well as leading to better software modularity and reliability.


Sugarcane (Saccharum sp.) with 2n = ca. 112 chromosomes was crossed with diploid (2n = 20) sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench), and their hybrids were backcrossed twice with diploid and twice with tetraploid (2n = 40) sorghum. The BC2 individuals, so obtained, were selfed twice to produce a recovered tetraploid sorghum population (BC4F3). Fifty-one BC4F3 individuals, sugarcane and the sorghum parents, were studied cytologically and morphologically. Irregular cytological behavior of recovered sorghum plants, characterized by an increase in bivalent formation and decrease in tetravalent formation at diakinesis (in comparison to their tetraploid 'Rio' sorghum parent) indicated that the sorghum chromosomes may be contaminated with sugarcane genetic material. Morphological data were analyzed by cluster analysis, principal component analysis, univariate analysis of variance, F-test, and t-test to study the variability in the hybrid populations and to test the significance of morphological differences among groups. Modified recovered tetraploid sorghums had various combinations of Saccharum characteristics superimposed on a basic Sorghum morphology. Sixteen of 26 plant characters studied were influenced by sugarcane genetic material to varying degrees and frequencies. The presence of these sugarcane characters in recovered sorghums indicated intergenomic genetic exchange.


The environment experienced by females can have long-lasting effects on offspring phenotype. The objective of this study was to determine if maternal stress-induced behaviour reprogramming in offspring is found in brook char and to test whether cortisol is the main mediator, by separating the potential effects of cortisol from that of other potential maternal factors. We exposed female brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) to different parallel treatments during the oogenesis period: undisturbed as controls (1) fed cortisol through food (2) or physically stressed by handling once a week (3). Additionally, we exposed half of the control eggs to a cortisol suspension before fertilisation (4). Cortisol consumption and handling did not elevate either maternal plasma or egg cortisol, although egg cortisol level was significantly increased when eggs were bathed in the suspension. We measured spatial learning and memory, boldness and neophobia in 6 month-old offspring and found no effects of treatments on learning, memory or behaviour. Our results suggest that the relationship between maternal stress, circulating and egg cortisol levels, other maternal factors, and behavioural reprogramming is context and species-specific.


Among the large variety of two-dimensional (2D) materials discovered to date, elemental monolayers that host superconductivity are very rare. Using ab initio calculations we show that recently synthesized gallium monolayers, coined gallenene, are intrinsically superconducting through electron-phonon coupling. We reveal that Ga-100 gallenene, a planar monolayer isostructural with graphene, is the structurally simplest 2D superconductor to date, furthermore hosting topological edge states due to its honeycomb structure. Our anisotropic Eliashberg calculations show distinctly three-gap superconductivity in Ga-100, in contrast to the alternative buckled Ga-010 gallenene which presents a single anisotropic superconducting gap. Strikingly, the critical temperature ($T_c$) of gallenene is in the range of $7-10$ K, exceeding the $T_c$ of bulk gallium from which it is exfoliated. Finally we explore chemical functionalization of gallenene with hydrogen, and report induced multigap superconductivity with an enhanced $T_c$ in the resulting gallenane compound.


Few investigations have studied the long-term fate of bone formed following the technique of guided tissue regeneration. The aim of the present study was to evaluate bone fill around implant fixtures with dehiscence defects and to study its response to loading. Ten patients were treated with overdentures supported by 2 fixtures ad modum Brånemark. A third 7 mm x 3.75 mm diameter fixture was placed for the purposes of the study in the most anterior part of the mandible with a dehiscence defect of 4 to 5 mm on the buccal aspect (and 3 to 4 threads exposed) which was covered with a Gore-Tex membrane and buried beneath the mucosa. Fixtures were exposed after 5 months (stage 2), ball abutments connected and loaded through an overdenture for 1 year. Nine fixtures were functioning well after 1 year of loading, 6 of which were retrieved with a trephine for histological examination and compared with 6 unloaded fixtures retrieved in our previously reported study. The bone area filling the thread profiles (BA%) and the bone to metal contact (BMC%) were measured in the 3 most apical and 3 most coronal thread profiles on the buccal and lingual surfaces. Statistically significant higher BMC% (P < 0.01) were observed in loaded fixtures in the apical regions (buccal: loaded 51%, unloaded 25%; lingual: loaded 49%, unloaded 24%). Differences approached significance for the regeneration site (loaded 22%, unloaded 6%) but were no different for the coronal lingual region (loaded 28%, unloaded 20%). There were no differences for BA%. This study confirms that there is an increase in bone to metal contact with time and following fixture loading and that this may also occur with bone regenerated under Gore-Tex membranes.


The kinematics of six species of Heteroptera in free flight are analysed and compared.

1
Using nested analysis of variance techniques, statistically significant variation was detected between species for several of the flight parameters measured: mean angular velocity; pronation/supination ratio; upstroke/downstroke ratio; and wing beat frequency. In each case this is discussed in terms of variation in flight behaviour.

2
Beneficial aerodynamic forces are generated during the upstroke and the downstroke, in both fast forward and rising flight.

3
When the insects change from level, forward flight to near vertical, rising flight, the following parameters are altered in most of the sequences analysed:

(a).
the stroke plane angle becomes steeply, negatively inclined, associated with an increase in body angle;

(b).
the stroke amplitude is reduced;

(c).
wing beat frequency is lowered, associated with a drop in mean angular velocity;

(d).
the speed of stroke reversal (rotational velocity) is increased. This may be associated with increased wing torsion and tip flexion which in turn could improve any beneficial unsteady aerodynamic effects generated at stroke reversal.

The reasons for this change in flight performance and the deviations from that seen in other insects are discussed.

It is shown that Heteroptera may make use of wing drag in flight, particularly during rising flight.


The deformation and toughness of amorphous polymers is discussed in terms of their mol. network structure and morphol. Both neat and (nonadhering) core-shell-rubber modified thermoplastics and thermosets are analyzed. The thermoplastic model system consists of miscible blends of polystyrene (I) and poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene ether) in different vol. ratios (consequently with different entanglement densities). The thermosetting system is based on epoxides with various degrees of crosslink d. Toughness is mainly detd. by the max. macroscopic strain at break since the yield stress of all polymers is approx. const. (50-80 MPa). The theor. max. draw ratio can be derived from the max. (entanglement or crosslink) network deformation. Brittle polymers, like I, suffer from catastrophic localization of strain and macroscopically show a strain to break far below this theor. max. However, below a certain dimension of the microstructure, expressed by the crit. matrix ligament thickness between added nonadhering core-shell rubbery particles (holes), the max. network extension can be reached on a macroscopic level. The crit. thickness depends on the mol. structure: with increasing network d. the value of the crit. ligament thickness increases from 0.05 mm for I (high mol. wt. between entanglements: Me = 19.1 kg mole-1) via 0.18 mm for the I blends contg. 40 wt. I (Me = 6.7 kg mole-1) to 0.3 mm for an epoxide having a mol. wt. between crosslinks, Mc, of approx. 4.4 kg mole-1


Recently, the European Union (EU) conducted a public consultation on a possible revision of Council Regulation European Economic Community (EEC) 95/93 on common rules for the allocation of slots at Community airports. While open skies agreements are developing rapidly and the Single European Sky (SES) takes shape, airport slot allocation in the EU is based on a regulation that remained nearly unchanged for the last twenty years. The EU could, however, profit from the variety of experiences made in the United States, where secondary slot trading was introduced as early as 1985. Since 2008, slot auctions have moved back into the US spotlight, when the Bush Administration proposed new Congestion Management Rules. Facing a possible capacity crunch in Europe, the question arises: Quo vadis, EU? This article was drafted as a contribution to the 2011 International Air Transport Association (IATA) Legal Writing Award, which was generously sponsored by Jones Day. There is nothing like competition as a goad to efficiency. - Alfred Kahn


Uric acid concentration in human bodily fluids is an important marker for disorders such as gout, pre‐eclamsia or cardiovascular disease. However, currently used methods for its detection either lack sensitivity or require sophisticated, bulky and expensive equipment. In this work, we show that by using surface‐enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy (SERS) on dried Ag colloidal drops and with 1064 nm excitation, concentrations of uric acid in aqueous solutions down to 10−6 M can be detected. Such sensitivity is sufficient for medical applications as concentration of uric acid in various bodily fluids are in the range of 10−3–10−4 M. Drying of the colloidal drops is known to result in the formation of 'coffee‐ring' structures that allow obtaining high enhancements but poor reproducibility. Here, the formation of the structures was avoided by choosing aluminum oxide as a base substrate and by controlling environment conditions. Despite the fact that variations of signal enhancement from sample to sample prevent quantitative analysis from being performed, the results of this work imply that strict control of sample preparation conditions could lead to obtaining reproducible SERS enhancements. Results of density functional theory calculations of uric acid tautomer – five‐atom silver cluster complexes performed for the first time show that the differences between Raman and SERS spectra of uric acid can be mainly explained by tautomerization of the molecule and its bonding to the silver surface. Assignment of spectral bands is important for correct SERS signal interpretation and detection of uric acid in biological fluids in the future studies. (Less)


A general framework for the study of outsourcing is introduced that incorporates dynamics and heterogeneity among both upstream and downstream producers to mimic an exit approach (Hirschman, 1970) to building vertical relations. The environment is one of search friction and incomplete contracts, where final-good producers require a specialized input and, upon matching with a supplier, can only contract the quantity of input. The results imply an assorted matching between producers and suppliers, so that more productive producers pair with more productive suppliers in the long run. It is shown that most efficient producers have some propensity to outsource, but only when there is a thick enough density of highly productive suppliers. Average employment in this model might increase or decrease with outsourcing, which is an observed pattern in the data. Some other diversities in plant-level behavior are also present in the results.


The artist and principal author has been creating art works in multimedia through the semantic association of ideas into concepts, as a means of exploring the efficacy of hypermedia for a conceptual art practice. This is particularly evident in the developments apparent in the ongoing 'Deconstructing Duchamp' project, where 'flocking' behaviours have been applied to Duchampian digitised items to observe the familial relations within, and key to his work, at play. Following this project, a second work 'Shift-Life' has proceeded to further develop the idea of allotting animal-like behaviours to electronic data items giving them the appearance of possessing a basic intelligence. By then observing their response to our physical interactions we can glean a clearer understanding, from their inter-relationships, of a complex conceptual framework. While Marcel Duchamp offered the art world one of the most complex and formative pieces of art ever, initiating the shift of values from aesthetics to idea, Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution, the 'big' idea of survivability through adaptation. Shift-Life was created as part of the national Darwin 200 project for the international bicentenary in 2009. It is a complex system of virtual life-forms struggling to survive in an environment made volatile through human interaction. Central to this installation work is the artificial life ecosystem as a self-sustaining, self-reproducing equilibrium of creatures and plants living in it. The general behaviour of each organism was more sophisticated than for the Duchampian creatures in that they were equipped for survival strategies and the reproduction of progenies. An exposition of the Shift-Life program is therefore presented followed by reflection on both projects and future directions for this collaborative research where potential emergent behaviours are concerned.


The phenomenon of 'new dance' has received little sustained study, either in terms of its own history or in terms of its efforts to reconstruct the representation of gender in dance. This study assesses the extent to which representations of masculinity in the work of British new dance artists have differed significantly from the ways in which masculinity has been represented in mainstream theatre dance. A theoretical framework is developed for analyzing dance which takes account of theories already in existence and examines them critically from an ideological perspective. Whereas almost all existing dance theories confine their examination of dance as art to an analysis of its formal and aesthetic properties, the framework developed in this study takes account of the social and historical conditions of production and reception of the dance. While there has been recent work on images of women, issues relating to the representation of masculinity in dance have not received attention. This study therefore examines the relationship between the social construction of masculinity and the conventions and traditions through which masculinity is represented in cultural forms including theatre dance. This extends existing theories of the social and historical construction of the male body. In order to establish the context and antecedents of British new dance, representations of masculinity within theatre dance are examined from specific periods between 1840 and the present. An analysis of selected pieces of choreography by new dance artists identifies the ways through which these artists have been critical of, and challenged, dominant norms of representing masculinity in cultural forms. By critically dismantling mainstream dance conventions and problematizing technical virtuosity in male dance, new dance artists brought about a situation in which a new relationship was defined between the dancer's body and the meaning of dance movement. In some cases new dance pieces challenge the spectator to reassess aspects of masculine identity and experience that are generally denied or rendered invisible in mainstream cultural forms.


A 35-year-old woman underwent bilateral lung transplantation for primary ciliary dyskinesia and developed vascular tumors over a slow time course. Initial presentation of non-specific vascular tumors in the lungs and liver for up to 6 years after transplantation evolved toward bilateral ovarian angiosarcoma. Tumor analysis by haplotyping and human leukocyte antigen typing showed mixed donor chimerism, proving donor origin of the tumoral lesions. In retrospect, the donor became brain dead following neurosurgical complications for a previously biopsy-proven cerebral hemangioma, which is believed to have been a precursor lesion of the vascular malignancy in the recipient. Donor-transmitted tumors should always be suspected in solid organ transplant recipients in case of uncommon disease course or histology, and proper tissue-based diagnosis using sensitive techniques should be pursued.


To provide video streaming of user-generated contents (UGCs) with high quality and at low cost by maximizing the effect of content delivery network (CDN), CDN providers are required to adequately design CDN cache servers by accurately estimating the UGC view-count distribution. To achieve this goal in a practical time frame, we need to construct a simple time-series model that captures the transition of UGC popularity. Therefore, in this paper, we first analyze the daily view count (DVC) of YouTube videos over nine months and find that the DVC of YouTube videos obeys a lognormal distribution. As a simple time-series model of the DVC of each YouTube video, we propose the grouped MPP (gMPP), extending the multiplicative process (MPP) which is widely known as a simple time-series model generating a lognormal distribution. We also propose reproducing the DVC distribution of YouTube videos by using a superposed gMPP (SgMPP) that aggregates multiple gMPPs. The SgMPP can accurately reproduce the DVC distribution of YouTube videos with a low computational overhead, so we can expect to use the SgMPP as the input for computer simulations for designing various network components that require the popularity distribution of UGC, e.g., cache capacities. Through numerical evaluation, we confirm that we can adequately design the storage capacity of a cache server with the average error rate of several percent against the target cache hit ratio.


The Acute neurology unit (ANU), located at the Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield is a regional centre for a population of approximately 1.5 million. We are unusual, as our neurologists manage both hyperacute stroke and hyperacute neurology. HASU is located within our ANU. We had 4026 neurology ward admissions, 3265 emergency cases and 761 elective cases last year. We receive acute admissions from Trust A and E, direct admissions from general practitioners and urgent transfers from DGHs. We provide 24 hour stroke thrombolysis and a weekday working hours thrombectomy service. Overnight thrombolysis is supervised through a regional 'Telemedicine' system. A 2 week survey in July 2017 showed that only 59% patients, who were referred with suspected stroke, had stroke/TIA. Neurological conditions, such as migraine, seizure, syncope, acute vestibulopathy, Bell's palsy and medically unexplained symptoms were common 'stroke mimics'. 46% of patients with 'stroke mimic' were discharged on the day of admission. Average length of stay was 3 days. A separate survey of acute neurology referrals showed that 58% of patients did not require admission and were managed through an ambulatory care pathway. Patient satisfaction regarding their rapid assessment and diagnosis was high. Co-location of ANU and HASU allows rapid and effective management of 'stroke mimics'.


Relative contribution of genetic and environmental risk factors in complex disorders is widely explored through discordant identical twins. Multiple sclerosis is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system in which the interplay of genetic and environmental risk factors define the disease pathogenicity. Robust epidemiological studies in different populations suggested that active levels of serum vitamin D and viral load implicate in MS pathogenicity and severity. In order to refine non-shared components of susceptibility factors in MS, we investigated the role of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and viral infection in a pair of identical twins remained discordant for MS during the course of 5 years follow up. Here we report serological finding regarding the viral load and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D level in a pair of discordant monozygotic twins. Based on our observation, lower levels of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D and higher anti-viral IgG titre was consistent with the disease statues in the affected sib.


As a common foreign body in children, magnet ingestion has been a widespread health issue. Unlike single magnet, ingestion of multiple magnets, especially those high-powered like Buckyballs could cause significant GI injury, e.g., perforation and fistula. Hereby we present a "push-and-pull" trick for management of a rare circumstance of Buckyballs ingestion.


In this work, we describe our recent efforts aimed at determining the mechanism of signal change for a diffraction-based sensor (DBS) system. The DBS detects analyte-binding events by monitoring the change in diffraction efficiency that takes place when analyte molecules adsorb to target molecules that have been patterned onto a surface. The exact parameters that affect the intensity of the diffraction intensity are currently not well understood. In this work, the formalism used to describe the behaviour of volume-phase holography is used to understand the parameters that effect the diffraction intensity. It is hypothesized that the major factors that effect the diffraction intensity are the differences in optical path length between the wave trains that reflect off the diffraction grating and those that reflect off the substrate surface. Also key is the difference in refractive index between the two media. Two approaches were developed to investigate this hypothesis; the first was to develop a series of gratings of varying thickness using polyelectrolyte multilayers. The indices of refraction of these gratings were adjusted by the incorporation of charged gold nanoparticles. Since DBS systems operate by monitoring the binding of analyte molecules, a second series of experiments were developed to investigate the changes in diffraction intensity as 2 μm carboxylated beads were loaded onto an avidin grating. The first aspect that was investigated was the effect of adding more particles onto the grating surface on diffraction intensity. Second, the extent to which the particles reduced the periodicity of the diffraction grating, and the effect on the observed intensity of the diffraction signal were also investigated. Finally, this work shows the first use of a DBS system to extract the rate of and the maximum surface coverage of a specific binding reaction.


Abstract In this paper, an integrated life-cycle model is presented for use in software maintenance environment. This model, which represents information about the development and maintenance of software systems, emphasizing relationships between different phases of the software life cycle, provides the basis for automated tools to assist maintenance personnel in making changes to existing software systems. This model is independent of particular specification, design and programming languages because it represents only certain "basic" semantic properties of software systems: control flow, data flow, and data structure. The software development processes by which one phase of the software life cycle is derived from another are represented by graph rewriting rules, which indicate how various components of a software system have been implemented. This approach permits analysis of the basic properties of a software system throughout the software life cycle. Examples are given to illustrate the integrated software life-cycle model during evolution.


RATIONALE
Alterations in human microcirculation occur in many disease states leading to morbidity and mortality, however assessing the microcirculation is not standard clinical practice. Standard microcirculation analysis using semi-automated analysis is expensive, time consuming, and expertise dependent making it unfeasible. We proposed a novel visual scoring system (microVAS) for the analysis of microcirculation videos that can be performed at the patient bedside in real time.

OBJECTIVE
Validate our microVAS score by training health professionals unfamiliar with the microcirculation field to use our microVAS score and compare their scores to the standard method of semi-automated analysis using AVA3 software.

METHODS
Using a prospective double-blind study design, we recruited and trained 20 participants to use our microVAS score. Participants scored 40 videos (from 22 healthy and 18 septic patients) for MFI and PPV. The same 40 videos were analysed by an expert using the gold standard semi-automated method of analysis. The results of the participants and the expert were analysed by Pearson's linear regression. Krippendorff's alpha was used to assess inter-rater reliability of the participants.

RESULTS
Overall correlation of MFI was r = 0.33 (95% CI 0.27-0.39), p <  0.05; overall correlation of PPV was r = -0.11 (95% CI -0.18 to -0.04), p <  0.05. The Krippendorff's alpha for MFI was 0.56 (healthy videos: α= 0.34, sepsis videos: α= 0.31). For PPV Krippendorff's alpha was 0.43 (healthy videos: α= 0.56, sepsis videos: α= 0.17).

CONCLUSIONS
Overall for both MFI and PPV, there was a small correlation between our microVAS score and AVA 3 scores. Regarding inter-rater reliability both MFI and PPV showed fair agreement between raters. Going forward multiple improvements to the microVAS scoring system as well as the training program are suggested to improve reliability and consistency.


Social changes in indigenous Maya communities in Chiapas, Mexico toward increasing levels of formal education, commercialization, and urbanization are transforming traditional Maya developmental pathways toward adulthood. This mixed-methods study is based on interviews with a sample of 14 first-generation Maya university students who have also undergone a transition from a rural to an urban environment, either with their families or as part of their educational process. Greenfield's theory of social change and human development suggests that formal education and urbanization shift developmental pathways in the direction of increasing values for individual autonomy. This study supports Greenfield's theory: students perceive they are departing from traditional values by endorsing notions of choice, exploration, self-fulfillment, expanded norms for behavior, and gender equality. However, change is a gradual process of negotiating a pathway through old and new values. Qualitative analyses of interviews reveal how Maya university students are working to harmonize new values of independence, self-fulfillment, and gender equality with the traditional values of respect for elders and family obligation. The study concludes that formal education and urbanization are forces that create conditions for changes in developmental pathways toward adulthood consistent with the characteristics of emerging adulthood. This study adds to a growing body of literature documenting particular manifestations of emerging adulthood in developing countries around the world and shows how emerging adulthood may be a key developmental period connected to the socialization of individualistic values.


The contribution is focused on the role of knowledge economy in terms of regional development. It tries to test assumption about the important role of University in a frame of regional development. University could serve as a good potential for competitive advantage of region as a source of high educated people. The article is based on data set from two questionnaire survey from Spring and Summer 2011. Our analysis of questionnaire surveys has revealed some weaknesses that exist in communication between University and business sector within the South Bohemian region. We also tried to mark some way as of possible improvement of communication and better using the innovative potential of region which is based on University existence.


The rural development of China is undergoing transformation. The arable land is transforming from in support into limited. The peasant living is transforming from survival into comparatively well off. The economic institution is transforming from planning into market. The manner of land use is transforming from extensive into intensive. The rural and agriculture are transforming from exploitation into support by urbanization and industrialization. The relationship between rural and urban is transforming from difference into harmony. The agricultural economy is transforming from closed smallholder towards globalization. Therefore, demand for cropland will further increase, but the development of marginal arable land is limited. The shortage of cropland and the situation of food security will be further serious in the future. Among various factors threatening the sustainability of cropland, occupation on cropland by urbanization and industrialization is outstanding. This has made Chinese government and society heavyhearted. Therefore, the central government has paid great attention to cropland conservation and regarded it as a basic national policy. However, this basic national policy has not been implemented thoroughly in practice because the mechanisms of cropland conservation have not been established. The lower comparative benefit of agricultural land use is the major reason why cropland has continuously been occupied by urban development. Therefore the comparative benefit of agricultural land use must be raised in order to conserve cropland. The mechanisms of cropland conservation also include strengthening the role of government in cropland conservation, regulating land administrative behavior of government, identifying land administrative objects of government instead of market object, and implementing objects of government by means of land use planning in legislation manner. The development of urbanization and industrialization should be towards internal land development rather than external land expansion, and stress the intensive utilization of stock land in cities.


In this paper, we address the problem of simultaneously detecting and estimating the speech short-time spectral amplitude (STSA) through combinations of the Neyman-Pearson and Bayesian approaches for speech enhancement. The main idea is that a non-continuous cost function, which depends on the absence/presence of speech, is applied to optimal joint detection and estimation for improving performance of mean square error estimators. Furthermore, our proposed method based on the square error of the logarithmic STSA makes it possible for us to reduce much more the background noise without introducing severe signal distortion. Preliminary experimental results demonstrate the advantage of our method in terms of speech quality and intelligibility.


Over the last two decades the need for a financially literate population has grown in importance. In Australia the introduction of a compulsory superannuation scheme in 1992 signaled to Australians that retirement needs would now need to be self funded rather than relying on government funded social security. Hence in Australia it is imperative that individuals possess both the financial knowledge and capability to make sound financial decisions. The whole issue of financial literacy has been compounded by the fact that consumers are now required to make decisions in relation to an ever increasing range of complex products and services. As a means to navigate through this financial maze, there is a consensus as to the importance and need for individuals to be financially literate. Both the government and the private sector have encouraged the development of financial education programs as an important tool in remedying the current financial literacy deficient reported in the results of all the several ANZ Surveys from 2003 to 2010. The Rudd Labor Government in an effort to centralize initiatives and to improve financial literacy programs transferred responsibility for financial literacy from the Financial Literacy Foundation to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC). ASIC has strongly promoted the need to develop confident and informed consumers and investors by providing quality financial education. This focus was recently reiterated in the ASIC Report 229 in March 2011 setting out the strategy for the development and delivery of initiatives to improve financial literacy levels in Australia (ASIC, 2011).This National Financial Literacy Strategy focuses on education through established education and training pathways as the cornerstone of bringing about long-term generational change in financial knowledge, attitudes and behavior (ASIC, 2011). Accordingly the government has emphasized the need for financial literacy education to begin in schools through the use of the State Education Departments mandatory curriculum. In particular this National Strategy has been developed to improve the level of financial literacy among Australian students, with a focus on incorporating financial education through the existing school curriculum beginning in kindergarten and through to year 12 students. The USA through the efforts of the Jump$tart Coalition has possibly contributed to the most comprehensive long term study on students and financial literacy outcomes. The Jump$tart Coalition has been measuring financial literacy among High School Students since 1997 and has become one of the most widely referenced resources in understanding what young people know - and don't know - about personal finance (Jump$tart Coalition, 2011). In recent reports the coalition has found a declining level of competency in respect of financial literacy despite an increase in emphasis and coverage of financial topics in school curriculums. The reports suggest a lack of motivation and relevance to the student's current situation may provide a reason for this recent decline.The aim of this research paper is to compare the government's financial literacy initiatives in schools in Australia to that undertaken in both the USA and to a limited extent in Europe. The paper reports on the outcomes of these programs and suggests possible reasons for their success or failure and discusses the varied approaches used in schools when it comes to financial literacy curriculum. The paper further reviews the results of surveys undertaken evaluating such programs and seeks to comment as to whether there is a measurable improvement in financial knowledge, attitudes and behavior directly related to imbedding financial literacy in school education curriculum.


A new approach to designing CAD packages for PWM-controlled inverter systems is presented which involves an extremely powerful graphical user interface (GUI). This GUI facility allows the designer virtually instantaneous interaction with the PWM simulator CAD package, which can be used for PWM inverter system analysis, or for developing more complex single-phase and three-phase inverter systems. The whole CAD package can be run on a desktop PC or laptop computer in virtual real-time interactive mode. The accuracy of the computer modelling techniques used in the PWM CAD package is confirmed using experimental results from a microprocessor-controlled experimental inverter system.


Spinocerebellar ataxia type 3 (SCA3) is a rare inherited autosomal dominant progressive neurological disorder, which results from a CAG‑repeat expansion in the gene encoding the deubiquitinating enzyme, ataxin‑3. At present, no effective treatment is available for this fatal disorder; however, certain studies have suggested that reducing the levels of mutant ataxin‑3 protein may reverse or halt the progression of disease in patients with SCA3. In the present study, clinical examinations were performed on a patient with SCA3 who exhibited disease features including coughing, expectoration and was bedridden with mobility limitation. CAG repetitions at SCA‑associated genes were detected in the patient's family by performing standard polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and triple‑repeat primed PCR. The numbers of CAG‑repeats within the two alleles of the gene of interest in the patient were 15 and 78. Notably, the patient's brother, who harbored 76 CAG‑repeats in one allele of the gene of interest, did not exhibit severe disease symptoms. These results suggest that the number of CAG‑repeats is a critical for determination of SCA3 disease severity and time of onset. In addition, the defined phenotypic characteristics of the patient in the present study provide useful insight for more accurate clinical diagnosis and genotyping of future patients.


This paper presents the development of an automatic voltage regulator (AVR) for synchronous generator in industries applications. The AVR operates as a voltage stabilizer and controller because the output voltage is controlled and regulated through a power electronic system. It is observed that the automatic voltage regulator managed to achieve up to 2% voltage regulation at full load operation of 500 W. A thyristor controller is used to control the excitation voltage. The design also includes protection such as noise suppressor, radio frequency interference (RFI), surge protection, current limiter and electronic control system.


The current study was designed for the assessment of lead, cadmium and chromium and some physicochemical properties of soils collected from an open dumpsite in Yenagoa, Nigeria. Surface soil samples at two depths (0-10 and 10-20 cm) were randomly collected at the dump field and control site, and were analyzed for physicochemical parameters and contamination by lead, chromium and cadmium using standard analytical methods. The results show that the main dumpsite had higher sand (>80.0%) and lower clay and silt contents than the control site. Soil mean pH varied between 4.89±0.05 in the control and 7.60±0.02 in the dump. Total nitrogen (N) content of the dump soils ranged from 0.06±0.07 to 0.24±0.09% and is slightly higher than that of the control soil. This is reflected in the high value of organic matter (4.71±0.85%) in dump soils. Available P was quite high ranging from 35.00±1.01 to 84.20±1.02 mg/kg. Cation exchange capacity (CEC) varied between 12.98±0.31 and 91.07±0.11 cmol kg −1 . ECEC levels were moderate to high ranging from 14.10±0.10 to 91.47±0.11 cmol/kg. All the soil samples had very high base saturation (>90.0%) and exchangeable Ca, Mg, K and Na, far above the critical levels set by FAO for agricultural soil. Average levels of Pb ranged from 14.75±0.05 to 16.14±0.04 mg/kg in the dump and 8.35±0.05 to 8.78±0.07 mg/kg in the control. Mean concentration of Cr in the dump soil varied between 0.05±0.01 and 0.06±0.01 mg/kg, and is slightly higher than the control (0.005±0.01 mg/kg), while Cd was found in trace amounts (<0.0001±0.01 mg/kg). These values are all far below the maximum tolerable levels set by FAO and WHO for agricultural soil. It is suggested that the dumpsite and the control area with their adequate soil nutrients and low levels of metals should eventually be converted to agricultural farmland. No remediation is needed at this time. Keywords : Dump waste soil, heavy metal, soil fertility.


Recommender Systems have become a fundamental part of various applications supporting users when searching for items they could be interested in,at a given moment. However, the majority of Recommender Systems generate isolate item recommendations based mainly on user-item interactions, without taking into account other important information about the recommendation moment, able to deliver users a more complete experience. In this paper, a hybrid Case-based Reasoning model generating recommendations of sets of music items, based on the underlying structures found in previous playlists, is proposed. Furthermore, the described system takes into account the similarity of the basic contextual information of the current and the past recommendation moments. The initial evaluation shows that the proposed approach may deliver recommendations of equal and higher accuracy than some of the widely used techniques.


Abstract We observed Mexican Jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina) and Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) from June 2000 to March 2001, recording interspecific associations and inter-actions. Flickers were seen with jays only once in summer, but they were observed together 62 times in winter, in mixed flocks of up to 20 jays and 12 flickers, while jays were alone only 4 times, and flickers were alone 31 times. Jays always initiated flock movement, and flickers followed. Flickers were more likely to forage when they accompanied jays than when they were alone. While jays searched under and around oaks for acorns and grasshoppers, flick-ers probed for subterranean ants. We found no evidence that flickers attempted to rob the jays' acorn caches, and we observed no agonistic encounters between the two species. Avian predators approached mixed flocks on six occasions, and in each case flickers responded to jay alarm calls by flying with the jays into oak foliage. All predation attempts were unsuccessful. We conclude that Northern Flickers most likely were associated with Mexican Jays in winter because of increased security from predation, and not because of shared resources.


Born in Geneva in 1920, Yvette Z'Graggen published her first novel in 1944 and over the course of the following sixty years (her most recent work appeared in 2003) has written more than fifteen books. She has carved out for herself a position as one of the most popular and successful writers in French-speaking Switzerland; several of her books have been translated into German, and she has won a number of prestigious literary prizes. In spite of this success, because of inherent difficulties in being a Swiss writer published in Switzerland, Z'Graggen is not well-known outside her native country. Previous studies of Z'Graggen (in French) appeared in 1987 and 1997, the latter being a series of interviews with Z'Graggen. This study examines Z'Graggen's work in its entirety and provides an overview of the themes she has developed, renewed and reworked over the course of her career. By adopting a thematic approach, the book demonstrates how these themes recur and interlink, enabling the reader to reach conclusions about the importance of Z'Graggen within la literature romande. Given the considerable interest in recent years in both women's writing and Francophone literature, it is fitting that a writer of Z'Graggen's stature should be studied in detail and become better known outside Switzerland.


Dihydrodinophysistoxin-1 (dihydro-DTX1, (M-H)− m/z 819.5), described previously from a marine sponge but never identified as to its biological source or described in shellfish, was detected in multiple species of commercial shellfish collected from the central coast of the Gulf of Maine, USA in 2016 and in 2018 during blooms of the dinoflagellate Dinophysis norvegica. Toxin screening by protein phosphatase inhibition (PPIA) first detected the presence of diarrhetic shellfish poisoning-like bioactivity; however, confirmatory analysis using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) failed to detect okadaic acid (OA, (M-H)− m/z 803.5), dinophysistoxin-1 (DTX1, (M-H)− m/z 817.5), or dinophysistoxin-2 (DTX2, (M-H)− m/z 803.5) in samples collected during the bloom. Bioactivity-guided fractionation followed by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) tentatively identified dihydro-DTX1 in the PPIA active fraction. LC-MS/MS measurements showed an absence of OA, DTX1, and DTX2, but confirmed the presence of dihydro-DTX1 in shellfish during blooms of D. norvegica in both years, with results correlating well with PPIA testing. Two laboratory cultures of D. norvegica isolated from the 2018 bloom were found to produce dihydro-DTX1 as the sole DSP toxin, confirming the source of this compound in shellfish. Estimated concentrations of dihydro-DTX1 were >0.16 ppm in multiple shellfish species (max. 1.1 ppm) during the blooms in 2016 and 2018. Assuming an equivalent potency and molar response to DTX1, the authority initiated precautionary shellfish harvesting closures in both years. To date, no illnesses have been associated with the presence of dihydro-DTX1 in shellfish in the Gulf of Maine region and studies are underway to determine the potency of this new toxin relative to the currently regulated DSP toxins in order to develop appropriate management guidance.


This article describes a new method which we have used for computing matrix-vector products. Matrix-vector multiplication is the core of black-box algorithm, which is effective when we analyze the properties of sparse or structured matrix. Hence it is very useful to optimize the calculation. Here we design an algorithm for large-sized sparse zero-one matrix-vector products based on the theory of cache, whose advantage is that it can reduce cache misses to the minimum. We divide the matrix M into several vertical strips and vector x is stripped by system in the corresponding way. Then we calculate the products of all stripped matrix and the vector, and add all the results together to obtain the Zo matrix-vector product. We use C++ language to implement the algorithm in Windows XP and have experiments to compare the time costs between the Zo and stripped matrix-vector products of various blocking schemes. After many experiments, we find the most appropriate blocking scheme to suit the cache size.


A new approach to the design of a low-power cascadable analogue filter for applications such as silicon cochlea implants is described. One section of a possible silicon cochlea based on a second-order continuous-time filter employing MOS technology operating in weak inversion is presented. The idea is based on the recently proposed log-domain filter approach used previously in bipolar technology.


In this paper, we propose multiple tree construction schemes and routing protocols for video streaming over wireless ad hoc networks. The basic idea is to split the video into multiple parts and send each part over a different tree, which are constructed to be disjoint with each other so as to increase robustness to loss and other transmission degradations. Specifically, we propose two novel multiple tree multicast protocols. Our first scheme constructs two disjoint multicast trees in a serial, but distributed fashion, and is referred to as serial multiple disjoint tree multicast routing protocol. It achieves reasonable tree connectivity while maintaining disjointness of two trees. In order to reduce routing overhead and construction delay, we further propose parallel multiple nearly-disjoint multicast trees protocol, which is also shown to achieve reasonable tree connectivity. Simulations show that resulting video quality for either scheme is significantly higher than that of single tree multicast, with similar routing overhead and forwarding efficiency


Objectives To determine the incidence and presentation of sex cord stromal and germ cell ovarian cancers in various racial groups. Methods Data was obtained from the United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) and National Cancer Database (NCDB) national databases from 2004–2016. Chi squared was used for statistical analysis. Results Of 8,917 women, 48.2% were diagnosed with sex cord stromal and 52.5% with germ cell ovarian cancer. Between 2004 and 2016, the age-adjusted incidence of sex cord stromal was 0.50 (per 100,000) in Blacks compared to 0.23 in Whites and 0.14 in Asians. The incidence for germ cell tumors was 0.40 (per 100,000) in Whites, 0.46 in Blacks, and 0.44 in Asians. Based on the NCDB data, the proportion of sex cord stromal tumor was 5.6% in Blacks compared to 1.5% Whites and 1.6% in Asians. Of the sex cord stromal tumors, the most common histology was granulosa cell at 85%, 84%, and 77.5% for Black, White, and Asian participants, respectively. The proportion of germ cell tumors in Blacks was 4.4% vs. 2.0% in Whites and 3.9% in Asians. Of germ cell tumors, the most common histology was dysgerminoma for Whites at 22.3%, immature teratoma in Blacks at 28.0%, and immature teratoma at 26.9% for Asians. Conclusions Our data suggest that Black women are more likely to be diagnosed with sex cord stromal tumors compared to White and Asian women. Black and Asian women also had more germ cell cancer than White women.


Acacia baileyana F.Muell. is a native environmental weed which has invaded bush areas of south-eastern Australia from ornamental plantings. There are two main colour forms, the typical green-leaf form and the variety `purpurea', which has purple new growth. Only the green form appears to have invaded natural bush. The weed potential of A. baileyana was investigated in terms of its breeding system and seed production. It was found that the purple form is as reproductively efficient as the green form. Both forms were outcrossing, highly self-incompatible, grew very rapidly and flowered by two years of age. For open, natural pollination, final pod set was low-less than 0.41%. However, seed production was high due to the high number of flowers present. Maximum flower production for a 2-year-old plant was over 300 000, resulting in more than 8000 seeds. Precocity and high flower numbers appear to be the reasons for the weed status of A. baileyana. Given the similarity in reproductive efficiency between both forms, it is postulated that the absence of the purple form as a weed could be due to it being a relatively new horticultural variety, or to the purple colour being a recessive trait.


For the purpose of creating new musical instruments, chaotic dynamical systems can be simulated in real time to synthesize complex sounds. This work investigates a series of discrete-time chaotic maps, which have the potential to generate intriguing sounds when they are adjusted to be on the edge of chaos. With these chaotic maps as studied historically, the edge of chaos tends to be razor-thin, which can make it difficult to employ them for making new musical instruments. The authors therefore suggest connecting chaotic maps with digital waveguides, which (1) make it easier to synthesize harmonic tones and (2) make it harder to fall off of the edge of chaos while playing a musical instrument. The authors argue therefore that this technique widens the razor-thin edge of chaos into a musical highway.


"Complexity," in science, can be linked to the need of using, in parallel, not reducible models (= the coexistence of non-equivalent descriptive domains required) for a useful representation of a certain phenomenon. This is always the case, when dealing with: (1) nested hierarchical systems (= in which relevant patterns are detectable only on different space-time scales); and (2) socioeconomic systems (= in which agents are not only non-equivalent observers, but also reflexive).


In the actual study, starting from the international experience, we revealed the role that should be taken by the Assets and Liabilities Committee (ALCO) within the Romanian commercial banks. ALCO became one of the tools used by the executive management of the banks to take decisions regarding the future policy of assets and liabilities management, relying on the synthetic information prepared by well trained technicians but without voting right (usually middle management staff). We consider that the implementation of an assets and liabilities management strategy cannot be done without an appropriate corporate governance structure, even though the bank is having highly specialized staff. Models of some western banking institutions may be considered as benchmarks by the Romanian banks.


To address the effects of increasing homeless populations, planners must understand the size and distribution of their homeless populations, as well as how information and resources are diffused throughout homeless communities. Currently, there is limited publicly available information on the homeless population, e.g. the estimates of the homeless, gathered annually by the US Housing & Urban Development point in time survey. While it is theorized in the literature that the networks of homeless individuals provide access to important information for planners in areas such as health (e.g. needle exchanges) or access (e.g. information diffusion about the location of new shelters), it is almost never measured, and if measured, only at a very small scale. This research addresses the question of how planners can leverage publicly available data on the homeless to better understand their own homeless networks (e.g. relations among the homeless themselves) in a cost-effective and reliable way. To this end, we provide a method for simulating realistic networks of a social relation among the homeless population and perform a diffusion analysis over the resultant homeless-to-homeless networks, and also over a simulated homeless youth Facebook network. We validate the former through novel use of historical data, while the latter is based on recent work that demonstrated that the homeless youth have similar size Facebook networks and usage. We see much stronger spatial hopping and quicker diffusion over the youth network, i.e. we expect information to pass among the youth network much faster than the homeless-to-homeless network. This finding implies that non-government organizations and public health efforts that seek to provide information, goods or services to the homeless should start with the homeless youth, given the potential for faster diffusion when homeless youth are the initial transmitters. Overall, these methods and analysis provide a unique opportunity for visualizing, characterizing and inferring information for large-scale and hard to measure social networks.


Caenorhabditis elegans egg laying is a two-state behavior modulated by sensory input. Feedback of egg accumulation in the uterus drives activity of the serotonergic HSN command neurons to promote the active state, but how aversive sensory stimuli signal to inhibit egg laying is not well understood. We find the Pertussis Toxin-sensitive G protein, Gαo, signals in HSN to inhibit circuit activity and prolong the inactive behavior state. Gαo signaling hyperpolarizes HSN, reducing Ca2+ activity and input into the postsynaptic vulval muscles. Loss of inhibitory Gαo signaling uncouples presynaptic HSN activity from a postsynaptic, stretch-dependent homeostat, causing precocious entry into the egg-laying active state. NLP-7 neuropeptides signal to reduce egg laying both by inhibiting HSN and by activating Gαo in cells other than HSN. Thus, Gαo integrates diverse signals to maintain a bi-stable state of electrical excitability that dynamically controls circuit activity and behavior output in response to a changing environment.


Epidemiologic studies in children suggest that chronic inhalation of carbonaceous particulate matter < or = 10 pm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) attenuates the normal growth of lung function. However, the relation between markers of PM10 exposure and the quantity of particles entering the pediatric airway is unclear. Experimental studies have shown that particles entering the lower airway remain visible in the cytoplasm of airway macrophages (AMs) for several months. We hypothesized that particle loading of AMs, detected as black-pigmented material, reflects individual exposure of healthy children to PM10. In this study, we aimed to establish the relation between the median area of black material in AMs (measured as the two-dimensional area of black material ["black area"] per AM per child) and (1) lung function, and (2) level of primary PM10 at the child's home address as estimated by dispersion modeling (referred to as "modeled primary PM10"). We also performed a series of exploratory analyses assessing the association between the median black area in AMs and (1) variables that could modify individual exposure, and (2) airway inflammation. To achieve these aims, AMs were sampled using induced sputum from children in Leicestershire, United Kingdom, and lung function was determined by spirometry. Data from 64 of 116 children who provided adequate induced sputum samples were analyzed. The area of the black material in AMs was determined by an analysis of digitized light-microscopic images of 100 randomly chosen AMs per child. There was a significant inverse association between size of black area in AMs and lung function: each 1.0-microm2 increase in the area of the black material in AMs was associated with a 17.0% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.6 to 28.4) reduction in forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), a 12.9% (95% CI, 0.9 to 24.8) reduction in forced vital capacity (FVC), and a 34.7% (95% CI, 11.3 to 58.1) reduction in forced expiratory flow between 25% and 75% of forced vital capacity (FEF25%-75%). These associations were not affected by bronchodilator treatment. There was also an association between modeled exposure to primary PM10 and area of black material in AMs: each 1.0-microg/m3 increase in primary PM10 was associated with an increase of 0.10 microm2 (95% CI, 0.01 to 0.18) in black area in AMs. There was no significant association between the median black area in AMs and age, height, weight, sex, activity level, and levels of neutrophilic airway inflammation in the induced sputum. We conclude that the median area of black material in AMs in children is a promising marker of individual exposure to carbonaceous PM10 and that our data strengthen the epidemiologic data suggesting that PM10 impairs the growth of lung function in children.


In November 1958, John Cassavetes premiered
his revolutionary independent film Shadows in a
series of midnight screenings at the Paris Theater
in New York City. Village Voice critic Jonas Mekas
immediately proclaimed it a work of genius, calling
it "the most frontier-breaking American feature in at
least a decade." Most audience members, including
Cassavetes, hated it.Cassavetes reassembled his cast
and crew and shot extensive new footage, modifying
old scenes and adding new ones. The final version
premiered at Amos Vogel's legendary Cinema 16 on
November 11, 1959, and was an overnight critical
sensation.One of the myths that propelled Shadows to
instant notoriety was its improvisational origins.
It's considered by many to be the first "true"
cinematic jazz narrative, both for its racially
charged subject and its unconventional, unscripted
making in the streets of Manhattan.4 It's been
further celebrated for an original score by one
of the all-time jazz greats, Charles Mingus.
However much of the legend is deceptive. Little of
Mingus's music appears in the final film. Actual jazz
scenes are conspicuously absent. And recent writingsby Ray Carney, Tom Charity and others have attempted
to debunk or clarify much of the improvisation myth.


This guide provides information about various products and services supported by BUL for grant finding. Special focus is given to Pivot/CoS.


A walker is a droplet of liquid that self-propels on the free surface of an oscillating bath of the same liquid through feedback between the droplet and its wave field. We have studied walking droplets in the presence of two driving frequencies and have observed a new class of walking droplets, which we coin superwalkers. Superwalkers may be more than double the size of the largest walkers, may travel at more than triple the speed of the fastest ones, and enable a plethora of novel multidroplet behaviors.


We report the design of a holey plasmonic vortex lens (PVL) structure able to couple circularly polarized impinging light to a plasmonic vortex in the form of the fundamental TM mode of a metal-insulator-metal plasmonic waveguide. The field transmitted through the hole milled at the center of the second metal layer of the structure is characterized by a well-defined spiral harmonic, entirely determined by the spin of impinging light and by the chirality of the PVL structure. Scattering finite elements simulations are presented for single layer standard PVLs and for bilayer ones, comparing the spiral spectra of the transmitted field and the efficiencies of the architectures.


Purpose

Personal branding becomes a new in-demand skill for all professionals today. To be well-known helps to achieve success in the networked business environment. Personal relationships and a good reputation in the reality of network economy help young artists and art designers move up the career ladder. This paper aims to discuss a problem of artists who often find it difficult to define their artistic and self-distinction identities. The concept of personal brand and branding seems quite irrelevant, especially in reference to their own selves. People usually associate branding with marketing, which in our minds is usually the same as "pushy" and aggressive sales practices. Their find problematic to promote themselves. The purpose of this paper is to highlight that, based on existing theories, artistic identity creation in connection with the skill of personal branding is crucial for personal success in the profession of today's young artists and art designers.

Design/methodology/approach

The study was conducted based on the data originally collected among artists, designers, architecture professionals and students. The data have been analyzed with the equal structural equation modeling method.

Findings

This paper presents empirical evidence that if artists view themselves as personal brands, it affects their personal performance in a positive way.

Practical implications

Authors claim that a teaching curriculum for young adult artists should include a personal branding program, to help them find and support their artistic identity and express their personal values and self-brand distinction, and leverage them to build their professional career.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to quantify the self-brand performance of young art designers as a benefit of being self-brand oriented.


In the IEEE 802.16e/m standard, three power saving classes (PSCs) are defined to save the energy of a mobile sub-scriber station (MSS). However, how to set the parameters of PSCs to maximize the power saving and guarantee the quality of service is not specified in the standard. Thus, many algorithms were proposed to set the PSCs in IEEE 802.16 networks. However, most of the proposed algorithms consider only the power saving for a single MSS. In the algorithms designed for multiple MSSs, the sleep state, which is set for activation of state transition overhead power, is not considered. The PSC setting for real-time connections in multiple MSSs with consideration of the state transition overhead is studied. The problem is non-deterministic polynomial time hard (NP-hard), and a suboptimal algorithm for the problem is proposed. Simulation results demonstrate that the energy saving of the proposed algorithm is higher than that of state-of-the-art algorithms and approaches the optimum limit.


Introduction: Sturge-Weber syndrome (SWS) is a rare condition characterized by facial capillary malformation, involves ocular, neurological, and cutaneous alterations. Associated with unilateral characteristic port-wine stains, gingival growth and purple-red coloration. Aim: his case aims to report dental treatment challenges in patients with SWS and importance of oral health maintenance in these individuals. Case report: a 20-year-old woman with an established diagnosis of SWS, presented bad breath and spontaneous gingival bleeding, with gingival growth and reddish-purple spots spread to labial and alveolar mucosa, tongue, and palate. Conditioning of the patient's oral environment by supra and subgingival scraping, dental unit extraction was performed. A conservative treatment plan was adopted for management adequacy of oral environment owing to possible complications inherent to the condition. Conclusion: it is important to emphasize the importance of dental surgeon's performance in relation to a multidisciplinary health team, as well as cooperation of patient, to obtain better results from the proposed therapy.


The benefits of a Complex Segment representation for palatals have been considered in the light of gliding processes which turn these consonants into glides. Gliding processes have sometimes been described as «destridentization» and «delateralization». But this view gives no explanation of why vocalization is restricted to sorne segments, and plain stridents and laterals do not suffer from it. I have examined gliding processes affecting stridents and laterals to show that a solution based on Feature Geometry is required. The crucial observation is that every speech sound must have a major articulator, and that this constraint applies along the phonological derivation. Since Coronal is the unmarked specification for Place, its presence crucially depends on that of its subordinate features, Strident and Lateral. In this way, if a rule removes Strident or Lateral from the representation, Coronal will also be lost. Consequently, the remaining Dorsal articulator is interpreted as Primary, resulting in a glide. My paper has focused on two cases that involve the delinking of a dependent of Coronal in Majorcan Catalan.


(cid:0)3D contour tool path can improve the efficiency and quality of numerical control (NC) machining. Harmonic map method is an important approach for 3D contour tool path generation. However, the starting locations of the tool paths are not located in the expected point and the tool paths are non-uniform in most cases. A generation algorithm of 3D contour tool path based on methodology of improved harmonic map is proposed. Experimental results show that this algorithm can solve the problems that the start of the tool paths are not located in the expected point and that the tool paths are non-uniform and can guarantee all the CC points are lying on the edges of machined surface.


Individualizing drug therapy by the use of pharmacogenomics offers the opportunity to improve drug efficacy, reduce adverse side effects, and provide cost-effective pharmaceutical care. 6-mercaptopurine (6-MP), 6-thioguanine (6-TG) and azathioprine (AZA) are widely prescribed cytotoxic and immunosuppressive drugs used in the therapy of acute leukaemia, inflammatory bowel diseases, allograft rejections and others.


This study discusses the links between land access, property rights, and economic development, analyzing the results and limitations of a public intervention- Land Titling and Registration- that constitutes one of the main instruments for contemporary land policy in Peru. It starts with a global perspective, and then develops a meso (or regional) and micro level approach for the study of the Peruvian Land Tilting and Registration Program (PETT). The study attempts to provide a comprehensive analysis and discussion of the importance of institutions, like land property rights, in the context of market liberalization reforms. In operational terms, this means verifying whether land titling constitutes a necessary and/or sufficient condition to promote investments and increase land values. To accomplish this objective, we use information at two different levels. We assembled a country-level panel dataset for the macro perspective, and rely on household's surveys collected during the year 2004 as part of the evaluation of the PETT Program for the micro approach of this study. Our findings reveal that titling and registration can be considered as a necessary condition to improve investment opportunities when its implementation procedure is based on the recognition of previous informal land rights and community networks, because its effect on the reduction of transaction costs at a regional level improves the dynamics of land markets and facilitates the entrance of formal financial institutions. A decentralized program is more likely to understand and correctly assess local conditions, as well as to concentrate its work on poorer farmers confronting stronger limitations to acquire tenure security by other means. Targeting must be applied also at the regional level, identifying less-developed areas that can benefit from the externality effects provided by increased levels of titling density. However, the presence of other limitations that constrain the participation of small farmers in the formal credit market, and the inability of titling to solve them by itself, makes it difficult to consider this policy as a sufficient condition to improve the livelihood of poorer farmers.


Background: Leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) has been frequently reported as a method to improve happiness. However, the effects of LTPA sufficiency and age differences are less discussed in the literature. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between LTPA sufficiency and happiness based on an age stratification perspective. Methods: A total of 16,412 data from the national physical activity survey was used for this study. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were applied to examine the odds ratio of LTPA sufficient population on happiness. Results: LTPA sufficient young adults (25-29 years old) performed 2.5 to 3 times the odds on the happiness while compare to insufficient group. However, an unexpected result indicated the negative association between sufficient LTPA and happiness in 35-39 years old men. Intrapersonal differences (e.g. achievement goals and motivational level) and the environment (social context) might play a fundamental role in the LPTA-happiness relationship. Conclusions: The present study argued that the context of LTPA and psychological status should be clearly addressed in terms of its benefit on happiness. Trial registration: This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Chung Shan Medical University Hospital (CRREC-104-015), registered on 18th Oct. 2016.


Water supply systems in three urban poor areas of Addis Ababa namely Teklehaimanot, Merkato and Biheretsige were evaluated based on a field survey of 105 randomly selected households and interviews with other major stakeholders. Private taps, yard taps, public taps, water kiosks and water vendors are the primary sources of water in these areas. The average water consumption of more than 75% of the sampled households was less than 20 litres per person per day. Most of the households pay a relatively high price for drinking water with the average cost of ETB 6.2/m 3 (US$ 0.74/m 3 ). Although many households are willing to have private or yard taps, they can not afford the one time connection fee payment of about ETB 412. An innovative financing and cost recovery mechanism is required, specifically for the initial connection fees, in order to increase the coverage of safe water supply at an affordable price in these areas to meet the Millennium Development Goals.


We study renormalization-group flows by deforming a class of conformal sigma-models. We consider overall scale factor perturbation of Einstein spaces as well as more general anisotropic deformations of three-spheres. At leading order in α', renormalization-group equations turn out to be Ricci flows. In the three-sphere background, the latter is the Halphen system, which is exactly solvable in terms of modular forms. We also analyze time-dependent deformations of these systems supplemented with an extra time coordinate and time-dependent dilaton. In some regimes time evolution is identified with renormalization-group flow and time coordinate can appear as Liouville field. The resulting space-time interpretation is that of a homogeneous isotropic Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe in axion-dilaton cosmology. We find as general behaviour the superposition of a big-bang (polynomial) expansion with a finite number of oscillations at early times. Any initial anisotropy disappears during the evolution.


In this paper we present the design and implementation, as well as a use case, of a tool for workflow analysis. The tool provides an assistant for the specification of properties of a workflow model. The specification language for property description is Fluent Linear Time Temporal Logic. Fluents provide an adequate flexibility for capturing properties of workflows. Both the model and the properties are encoded, in an automated way, as Labelled Transition Systems, and the analysis is reduced to model checking.


For more than a century, a partnership position in a large corporate law firm has almost universally been held out as the singular mark of success for those with a law degree. We find that despite significant transformations in the profession, including dramatic expansion in size and the opening of corporate law positions to women, minorities, and the graduates of lower-ranked schools, the powerful and prestigious positions of corporate law partners remain largely reserved for those with the most elite credentials and other characteristics—male, white, wife at home—that defined law firm partners before the great period of change. By examining the continuity and change in the sorting of legal elites, we find evidence that the experience of a position in a corporate law firm now bestows advantages even for those who do not make partner. What was once deemed a failure—not making partner—is now a source of valued capital that leads to careers in in-house positions, boutique firms, the federal government, and a host of nonequity partner positions. We draw on thirteen years of lawyers' career histories from the After the JD study, using the techniques of sequence analysis and qualitative interviews.


The paper addresses the multiple forms of representation that human gesture takes at different levels for human computer interaction, ranging from ges- ture acquisition to mathematical model for analysis, pattern for recognition, record for database up to end-level application event triggers. A mathematical model for gesture as command is presented. We equally identify and provide particular models for four different types of gestures by considering both posture information and underlying motion trajectories. The problem of constructing gesture dictiona- ries is further addressed by taking into account similarity measures and dictionary discriminative features.


Filtering out the effect of large floods Large floods should seemingly influence the depth and width of rivers. Phillips and Jerolmack, however, suggest that the self-organization of bedrock river channels blunts the impact of extreme rainfall events. River channel geometries from a wide range of course-grained rivers across the United States show that larger floods have very limited additional impact on channel geometry. River channel sculpting does increase as flood size increases, but the effect is most pronounced for moderate floods. This relationship may explain the long-term stability of rivers across shifts in climate. Science, this issue p. 694 A wide-ranging assessment of rivers in the United States suggests that erosion and climate become decoupled during large rainfall events. Spatial and temporal variations in rainfall are hypothesized to influence landscape evolution through erosion and sediment transport by rivers. However, determining the relation between rainfall and river dynamics requires a greater understanding of the feedbacks between flooding and a river's capacity to transport sediment. We analyzed channel geometry and stream-flow records from 186 coarse-grained rivers across the United States. We found that channels adjust their shape so that floods slightly exceed the critical shear velocity needed to transport bed sediment, independently of climatic, tectonic, and bedrock controls. The distribution of fluid shear velocity associated with floods is universal, indicating that self-organization of near-critical channels filters the climate signal evident in discharge. This effect blunts the impact of extreme rainfall events on landscape evolution.


BACKGROUND
A main challenge for targeting chronic kidney disease (CKD) is the heterogeneity of its causes, co-morbidities and outcomes. Patients under nephrological care represent an important reference population, but knowledge about their characteristics is limited.

METHODS
We enrolled 5217 carefully phenotyped patients with moderate CKD [estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) 30-60 mL/min per 1.73 m(2) or overt proteinuria at higher eGFR] under routine care of nephrologists into the German Chronic Kidney Disease (GCKD) study, thereby establishing the currently worldwide largest CKD cohort.

RESULTS
The cohort has 60% men, a mean age (±SD) of 60 ± 12 years, a mean eGFR of 47 ± 17 mL/min per 1.73 m(2) and a median (IQR) urinary albumin/creatinine ratio of 51 (9-392) mg/g. Assessment of causes of CKD revealed a high degree of uncertainty, with the leading cause unknown in 20% and frequent suspicion of multifactorial pathogenesis. Thirty-five per cent of patients had diabetes, but only 15% were considered to have diabetic nephropathy. Cardiovascular disease prevalence was high (32%, excluding hypertension); prevalent risk factors included smoking (59% current or former smokers) and obesity (43% with BMI >30). Despite widespread use of anti-hypertensive medication, only 52% of the cohort had an office blood pressure <140/90 mmHg. Family histories for cardiovascular events (39%) and renal disease (28%) suggest familial aggregation.

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with moderate CKD under specialist care have a high disease burden. Improved diagnostic accuracy, rigorous management of risk factors and unravelling of the genetic predisposition may represent strategies for improving prognosis.


PVC hose for gas is used widely in many of places which is used for connector between combustor and gas cock. In this study, it is collected by 5 regional area as Gyeonggi, Jeonnam, Gyeongbuk, Jeju and Gangwon and tested in leakage, hardness, anti-low temperature. As a result, the color on it is started to change rapidly when it is installed. Some of specimen are broken in bending test after keeping in , 24hours. It's hardness has a tendency to increase gradually. If hardness of hose is increased, PVC hose is separated easily from cock or combustor so that LP gas or city gas can be escaped. For prevention of gas leakage accidents of PVC hose, the available period of it should be presented.


Background: The leaves of Alpinia zerumbet var. excelsa (alpinia) are used to prepare traditional food items and folk medicines. Objective: This study was designed with a view to explore the anti-inflammatory and anti-melanogenic potentials of major components of alpinia leaves. Materials and Methods: Anti-inflammatory effects of leaf-derived compounds were primarily assessed with protein denaturation and proteinase assay. Their inhibitory effects on nitrite accumulation and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) production in lipopolysaccharide-induced RAW 264.7 cells were also evaluated. For anti-melanogenic assays, all the compounds were tested on α-melanocyte-stimulating hormone-stimulated B16F10 cells and on mushroom tyrosinase in vitro. Their cytotoxicity was evaluated using fibroblast cell line 3T3 L-1 and brine shrimps. Results: Five compounds, 5,6-dehydrokawain, dihydro-5,6-dehydrokawain, (E)-5-methoxy-8-(4-methoxy-2-oxo-2H-pyran-6-yl)-7-phenyl-1-styryl-2-oxabicyclo[4.2.0]oct-4-en-3-one (AS-2), kaempferol 3-O-β-D-glucuronide (KOG), and quercetin 3-O-β-D-glucuronide (QOG) were purified from the leaves. Of which, AS-2 and QOG were purified for the first time. All compounds significantly inhibited albumin denaturation and proteinase activity. AS-2, KOG, and QOG remarkably inhibited nitric oxide formation with IC50 values of 8.2, 13.3, and 12.6 μM, respectively, in RAW 264.7 cells. They also inhibited PGE2 production with IC50 values 19.8-23.7 μM. They showed anti-melanogenic effects reducing tyrosinase activity (IC50 values 29.6-112.5 μM) and melanin formation (IC50 values 30.8–164.4 μM) in B16F10 cells, and inhibiting mushroom tyrosinase (IC50 values 61.5-456.4 μg/ml). Conclusion: Taken together, major components of alpinia leaf could be utilized as a potent herbal drug and food supplement with therapeutic prospects against inflammatory disorders and hyperpigmentation. Abbreviations used: HPLC: High performance liquid chromatography; DK: 5,6-dehydrokawain; DDK: Dihydro-5,6-dehydrokawain; AS-2: (E)-5-methoxy-8-(4-methoxy-2-oxo-2H-pyran-6-yl)-7-phenyl-1-styryl-2-oxabicyclo[4.2.0]oct-4-en-3-one; KOG: Kaempferol 3-O-β-D-glucuronide; QOG: Quercetin 3-O-β-D-glucuronide; PGE2: Prostaglandin E2; PAK1: RAC/CDC42-activated kinase 1; UV: Ultra violet; α-MSH: α-Melanocyte-stimulating hormone; COX-2: Cyclooxygenase-2; iNOS: Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase; PDGF: Platelet Derived Growth Factor; MITF: Microphthalmia-Associated Transcription Factor; TRP: Tyrosinase Related Protein; ATCC: American Type Culture Collection; DMEM: Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium; FBS: Fetal bovine serum; CS: Newborn calf serum; MTT: 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium bromide; DMSO: Dimethyl sulfoxide; NO: Nitric oxide; LPS: Lipopolysaccharide; DMRT: Duncan's multiple range test; SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.