Analyzing large cryptographic protocol implementations can be challenging since their implementations do not perfectly match the standard [6]. The popular, highly configurable remote login method, Secure Shell (SSH) is such an example. In this thesis, we researched the fuzzing methodologies for SSH implementations. Three tools (Backfuzz, Paramiko-sshfuzz and Protocol state fuzzing) were implemented to explore their capabilities and to determine the most effective one. The protocol state fuzzing technique resulted to be the most promising approach since it is well-developed and has recently revealed a few abnormal behaviours of SSH [6], moreover it is also actively used in several cryptographic protocol implementations (i.e. TLS). Consequently, we applied this method on an real SSH implementation, the OpenSSH library (OpenSSH6.7-p1). The results are analyzed against the source code and RFC standards. To solve the readability problem of the results caused by the complex architecture of the SSH protocol, we combined the obtained SSH state machine with D3.js data visualization technique. As a result, we developed a tool for debugging SSH implementations based on the protocol state fuzzing, code review and D3.js. Lastly, the utility tool is evaluated in a survey and future works are presented.


A usable software system is one that supports the effective and efficient completion of tasks in a given work context. In most cases of the design and development of commercial software, usability is not dealt with at the same level as other aspects of software engineering (e.g., clear usability objectives are not set, resources for appropriate activities are not given priority by project management). One common consequence is the assignment of responsibility for usability to people who do not have appropriate training, or who are trained in behavioral sciences rather than in more productoriented fields such as design or engineering. Relying on our experiences in industrial settings, we make personal suggestions of activities for the realistic and practical alternative of training development team members as usability advocates. Our suggestions help meet the needs specified in the recent Strong et al. [21] report on humancomputer interaction education, research, and practice.


We present an improved matrix—matrix multiplication routine (General Matrix Multiply [GEMM]) in the MAGMA BLAS library that targets the NVIDIA Fermi graphics processing units (GPUs) using Compute Unified Data Architecture (CUDA). We show how to modify the previous MAGMA GEMM kernels in order to make a more efficient use of the Fermi's new architectural features, most notably their extended memory hierarchy and memory sizes. The improved kernels run at up to 300 GFlop/s in double precision and up to 645 GFlop/s in single precision arithmetic (on a C2050), which is correspondingly 58% and 63% of the theoretical peak. We compare the improved kernels with the currently available version in CUBLAS 3.1. Further, we show the effect of the new kernels on higher-level dense linear algebra (DLA) routines such as the one-sided matrix factorizations, and compare their performances with corresponding, currently available routines running on homogeneous multicore systems.


The open loop experiment of composition dynamic in a 10 L mixing tank has been successfully done in laboratory. A 10 L tank was designed for mixing of water (as a stream-1) and salt solution (as a stream-2 with salt concentration, c2 constant). An electric stirrer was employed to obtain uniform composition in tank. In order to keep the liquid volume constant, the system was designed overflow. In this work, 2 composition control configurations have been proposed; they are Alternative-1 and Alternative-2. For Alternative-1, the volumetric-rate of stream-1 was chosen as a manipulated variable, while the volumetric-rate of stream-2 was chosen as a manipulated variable for Alternative- 2. The composition control parameters for both alternatives have been tuned experimentally. The volumetric-rate of manipulated variable was changed based on step function. The outlet stream's composition response (c3) to a change in the input volumetric-rate has been investigated. This experiment gave Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) control parameters. The gain controllers Kc [cm6/(gr.sec)] for Alternative-1 and Alternative-2 are -34200 and 40459 respectively. Integral time constant ( t I) and Derivative time constant (tD) for both alternatives are the same, i.e. t I = 16 second, and tD = 4 second. Furthermore, closed loop dynamic simulation using computer programming was also done to evaluate the resulted tuning parameters. The developed mathematical model of composition control system in a mixing tank was solved numerically. Such mathematical model was rigorously examined in Scilab software environment. The results showed that closed loop responses in PID control were faster than those in P and PI controls.


Sirtuins (SIRTs) belong to the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+)-dependent class III histone deacetylase family. They are key regulators of cellular and physiological processes, such as cell survival, senescence, differentiation, DNA damage and stress response, cellular metabolism, and aging. SIRTs also influence carcinogenesis, making them potential targets for anticancer therapeutic strategies. In this study, we investigated the anticancer properties and underlying molecular mechanisms of a novel SIRT1 inhibitor, MHY2251, in human colorectal cancer (CRC) cells. MHY2251 reduced the viability of various human CRC cell lines, especially those with wild-type TP53. MHY2251 inhibited SIRT1 activity and SIRT1/2 protein expression, while promoting p53 acetylation, which is a target of SIRT1 in HCT116 cells. MHY2251 treatment triggered apoptosis in HCT116 cells. It increased the percentage of late apoptotic cells and the sub-G1 fraction (as detected by flow cytometric analysis) and induced DNA fragmentation. In addition, MHY2251 upregulated the expression of FasL and Fas, altered the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2, downregulated the levels of pro-caspase-8, -9, and -3 proteins, and induced subsequent poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase cleavage. The induction of apoptosis by MHY2251 was related to the activation of the caspase cascade, which was significantly attenuated by pre-treatment with Z-VAD-FMK, a pan-caspase inhibitor. Furthermore, MHY2251 stimulated the phosphorylation of c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and MHY2251-triggered apoptosis was blocked by pre-treatment with SP600125, a JNK inhibitor. This finding indicated the specific involvement of JNK in MHY2251-induced apoptosis. MHY2251 shows considerable potential as a therapeutic agent for targeting human CRC via the inhibition of SIRT1 and activation of JNK/p53 pathway.


A male Navy recruit had hearing loss and bilateral otitis media. Meningeal signs, not initially present, developed approximately 48 hours after admission to the hospital. Type Y meningococcus was isolated from blood cultures drawn after two days of ampicillin administered orally. Permanent, bilateral, vestibular and auditory loss resulted, in spite of adequate doses of penicillin. This unusual presentation of bilateral eighth nerve involvement was thought to be due to a localized, bilateral meningococcal labyrinthitis.


The experimental investigation of the decays of proton-rich light nuclei has provided a wealth of spectroscopic information. This includes details of energy levels, spins, isospins, masses, half-lives and other decay properties. In light nuclei, total beta decay energies rapidly increase as one moves away from the valley of beta-stable nuclides towards the proton drip line. This opens up decay modes, such as beta-delayed proton and beta-delayed alpha emission, which are very sensitive probes of nuclear structure. There have been several recent articles that review the decay properties of proton drip-line nuclei. The beta decays of proton-rich light nuclei (with T{sub z} {le} -1/2) are characterized by two general features. The first is a fast superallowed Fermi transition to the isobaric analog state (IAS) in the beta daughter. If the IAS is above the proton separation energy, the beta-decaying precursor nuclide is classified as a strong beta-delayed proton emitter. The A = 4n+1, T{sub z}=-3/2 series of nuclei from {sup 17}Ne to {sup 73}Sr (with the exception of the unobserved member {sup 69}Kr), are all strong {Beta}p emitters. In contrast, the A = 4n, T{sub z}=-1 series of nuclei, from {sup 24}Al to {sup 48}Mn are designated as weak {Beta}p emitters since the IAS in the beta daughters is bound with respect to proton emission.


Summary
•We explored whether mechanical or ethological differences provide pollinator-mediated floral isolation capable of reinforcing existing species barriers among sympatric Asclepias with divergent floral morphologies: A. incarnata, A. verticiallata and A. syriaca.
•In a common garden, we quantified pollinator visitation and flight patterns, differences in corporal attachment of pollinia to insects, and the potential outcome of putative floral barriers for interspecific pollination and fruit set.
•We detected significant variation in the importance, constancy, and behavior of major pollinators on sympatric asclepiads, including Bombus, Xylocopa and large sphecid wasps. Pollinia attach differentially to the arolium on insect legs for A. syriaca, but to the tarsal hairs in other asclepiads. Fruit-set was lower in mixed than unispecific patches of Asclepias.
•We detected mechanical isolation between A. syriaca and its congeners and a tendency toward wasp pollination in A. verticillata. All three species appear to show some specialization for long-tongued hymenoptera and lepidopterans. Pre–mating barriers provide a potentially effective means of reducing interspecific pollination, but more study is needed in species visited by generalists.


The paper suggests that the debate on sustainable development and sustainable innovation could profit from the concept of frugal innovation, because both concepts acknowledge the limitations of a resource-constrained world. The complex relationship between frugal innovation and sustainable innovation is explored in conceptual terms and results in criteria which denote potential overlaps between both concepts. Furthermore, the paper analyses world trade data of green technologies to demonstrate the increasing relevance of south-south and north-south trade and to derive implications for frugal innovation. Moreover, case studies of frugal and sustainable innovations are analysed in order to highlight their requirements and implications. Maybe the most important conclusion stemming from the considerations in this article is that the integration of frugal and sustainable innovation principles can breathe new life into the discussion about sustainable innovation and sustainable development in general.


General theoretical approaches to the content of the concept of multi-channel marketing have been generalized. It is proved that multi-channel marketing differs from multi-channel communications and is a modern and global technology of integration of all components of the marketing complex in the process of interaction with the consumer. It is substantiated that the level of possession of mobile devices in Ukraine and their penetration among the population creates a background for widespread using of Internet channels by service providers. The special relevance of the use of multi-channel marketing takes on the market of banking services because it allows personalizing the contact with the consumer and take into account his or her requirements in terms of access points and convenient time. The data about the increase of non-contact payments in the domestic market and stability of this trend has been displayed in this article. At the same time, the reduction of traditional branches of banks is not always justified, as the consumer must have their own choice as to the convenience of using one or another channel. The expert assessment proved that despite the high cost of maintaining the liaison office has relatively high efficiency among the clients of advanced age. Therefore, against the background of reduction of unprofitable branches, there should be processes of modernization of those that remain on the market from the point of view of conversion into financial service centers. The article proposes a method of constructing a system of multi-channel marketing of a banking institution, which consists of four stages: analysis of large amounts of data on consumer behavior, their preferences regarding the ways and means of connecting to banking services, products and services, the volume, timing and regularity of provision; segmentation of the market and the definition of target segments depending on the level of ownership of mobile devices and information technology, age, income and social activity; optimization of the set of channels from the point of view of maximization of profit and minimization of expenses for their maintenance in the context of each target segment; evaluate the effectiveness of multi-channel interaction and adjustment of the configuration of the channels. It is proved that the main feature of segmentation of consumers in the construction of multi-channel marketing should be the level of ownership and frequency of use of electronic devices. The results of the study may be useful for banking institutions that are trying to build a system of multi-channel marketing.


INTRODUCTION The empty tests of dead foraminifera behave as sedimentary particles and are subject to transport, although their different shapes and effectively low density means that their hydraulic equivalence is greater than that of spherical quartz grains (see Haake, 1962). Their estimated traction velocities range from c. 4 cm s−1 to c. 13 cm s−1 (Snyder et al., 1999). The presence of calcareous foraminiferal tests in a fossil sedimentary deposit would normally be taken as an indication of deposition in a marine environment. However, it has long been known that wind can transport tests from a carbonate beach into adjacent carbonate dunes as in Dogs Bay, Connemara, Eire (Murray, 1973) and Abu Dhabi, Persian Gulf (Murray, 1970). The purpose of this Notebook is to provide some details of the Dogs Bay occurrence and to comment on how such deposits might be recognized in the rock record. In western Ireland the coastal geology consists of hard rocks, yet the beaches are commonly composed primarily of calcareous bioclastic sands (Guilcher & King, 1961; Keary, 1967). Dogs Bay (Lat. 53° 24′ N Long. 9° 58′ W) lies on the west-facing side of a tombola which is approximately 200 m wide and 400 m long. The tombola is made up of sand dunes that are mainly vegetated except along the margins adjacent to the beaches. Dogs Bay is exposed to Atlantic storms and the surface layer of the beach is reworked on each tidal cycle. Both the beach and the dunes are composed of …


Introductions: Cognitive models of social anxiety disorder (SAD), such as that developed by Clark & Wells, conceptualize the attention to, and misinterpretation of, internal information as a key maintaining factor. Social skills training (SST), a frequently used cognitive therapy (CT) technique for various mental disorders, is often justified according to a skills-deficit model of SAD, which assumes that anxiety arises from inadequate social interaction skills. However, the evidence largely suggests little to no skills deficit in this patient group, indicating that SST is not necessarily a technique to be used in CT for most SAD patients. In this study, we present a patient with SAD who negatively perceived her social skills abilities, and who benefitted from SST. We also discuss the role of brief SST in CT treatment. Presentation of Case: The patient was a Japanese female with excessive fear of social interactions who negatively perceived her own social skills. Cognitive therapy mainly consisted of case formulation, behavioral experiments, and opinion surveying based on the Clark & Wells model. As the patient felt too anxious to attempt behavioral experiments, due to her negative perception of her own social skills, SST was briefly employed in the course of CT. Discussion and Conclusion: As the patient's actual social skills abilities were never Case Study British Journal of Medicine & Medical Research, 4(3): 905-913, 2014 906 formally assessed, it is impossible to know if she had any social skills deficits prior to treatment, and, if so, if they were improved by the SST provided. However, SST encouraged the patient to try challenging tasks, notably behavioral experiments and homework centering on feared social situations. Although SST should not necessarily be included in CT for SAD patients, SST can help patients to decrease their excessive fear of being negatively perceived due to poor social skills, making it easier for them to try challenging behavioral experiments in feared social situations.


Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is perhaps the most significant worldwide health issue. While open-heart surgery remains the predominant treatment, significant advancements have been made in minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and minimally invasive robot-assisted (MIRA) surgery. MIRA techniques offer many advantages over open-heart procedures and have extended the capabilities of MIS. However, these benefits come at the cost of increased operating times due to time spent tying knots. The additional bypass time limits patient access and is the most significant barrier to the adoption of MIRA techniques. This research seeks to overcome this barrier by designing a device for MIRA cardiac procedures that automates the knotting of sutures. If this task can be automated while ensuring the delivery of high-quality knots, great progress can be made in transforming the field. MIRA cardiac procedures can move from novel procedures performed by a select group of surgeons on a limited pool of patients to a viable alternative available to the majority of patients with CVD. In this research we propose a design for a self-contained device that delivers a locking knot. Results suggest that consistent knots can be delivered at a time savings of 12.5% and 26.4% over manual knots for trained and untrained users of a surgical robot, respectively.


We consider the evolution of the genealogy of the population currently alive in a Feller branching diffusion model. In contrast to the approach via labeled trees in the continuum random tree world, the genealogies are modeled as equivalence classes of ultrametric measure spaces, the elements of the space $\mathbb{U}$. This space is Polish and has a rich semigroup structure for the genealogy. We focus on the evolution of the genealogy in time and the large time asymptotics conditioned both on survival up to present time and on survival forever. We prove existence, uniqueness and Feller property of solutions of the martingale problem for this genealogy valued, i.e., $\mathbb{U}$-valued Feller diffusion. We give the precise relation to the time-inhomogeneous $\mathbb{U}_1$-valued Fleming-Viot process. The uniqueness is shown via Feynman-Kac duality with the distance matrix augmented Kingman coalescent. Using a semigroup operation on $\mathbb{U}$, called concatenation, together with the branching property we obtain a L\'evy-Khintchine formula for $\mathbb{U}$-valued Feller diffusion and we determine explicitly the L\'evy measure on $\mathbb{U}\setminus\{0\}$. From this we obtain for $h>0$ the decomposition into depth-$h$ subfamilies, a representation of the process as concatenation of a Cox point process of genealogies of single ancestor subfamilies. Furthermore, we will identify the $\mathbb{U}$-valued process conditioned to survive until a finite time $T$. We study long time asymptotics, such as generalized quasi-equilibrium and Kolmogorov-Yaglom limit law on the level of ultrametric measure spaces. We also obtain various representations of the long time limits.


Erectile dysfunction (ED) was explored to improve the clinical efficacy in terms of disease identification and syndrome typing, macroscopic and microscopic combination, complementary therapy of Chinese medicine (CM) and Western medicine (WM), and evidence-based medicine (EBM) research methods. And the advantages and disadvantages of CM and WM in treatment of ED were briefly analyzed. How to treat ED by integrative medicine was also addressed


ABSTRACT Currently, CO2 emission is the main cause of climate change and its various related environmental impacts. Therefore, we have as a prime the development of clean sources of energy. The hydrogen economy is very attractive in this regard, however, when generated from the methane reform, there are also large-scale CO2 emissions. Thus, this research aims to develop and characterize bismuth and iron niobate-based photoanodes for hydrogen production via water photoelectrolysis. Bi2FexNbO7 films were synthesized by the sol-gel method and deposited on FTO coated glass plates by dip-coating technique. The influence of heat treatment (400, 500 and 600°C) and amount of iron on the structure (Bi2FexNbO7, x = 0, 0.8, 1, 1.2) were evaluated. Optical, structural and morphological properties were performed, as well as photoanode efficiency in photocurrent assays. The results indicate that the increase of temperature as well as the amount of iron leads to a higher absorption capacity and hence to lower band gap values. Regarding the structural properties, it was possible to observe the BFNO phase in the samples treated at 500 and 600°C. The films heat-treated at 400°C had a heterogeneous texture and a good covering. At 600°C there were some cracks in films surface. Therefore, samples with more iron and treated at 400°C showed better responses in photocurrent assays. It can be concluded that bismuth-iron niobate has a great potential to be applied in photoelectrolysis hydrogen production. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


The goal of this article is to propose a dialectical model representing gender discourse in families. A brief review of literature in sociology, psychology, and gender studies focuses on three dialectical issues: nature versus culture, similarity versus difference, and stability versus fluidity. Deconstructing gender theories from a postmodern feminist perspective, the authors discuss agency and context in families' gender discourse. Narrative excerpts from interviews with an adolescent daughter and her mother illustrate three emergent themes in the social construction of gender: body, identity, and sexuality. The article concludes with recommendations for family researchers.


Purpose: To establish a CT protocol management program based on quantitative measurement of clinical Image Quality. Methods: After reviewing images of routine adult brains and abdomens for 12 system scanners, we established a target Image Noise range. The scanners are of different vendors, models and configurations. For instance, only 4 have iterative reconstruction capability. For this reason it is problematic to rely on dose alone as a standardization metric.We then instituted quarterly review of clinical images. A set of 10 images is randomly selected, and reviewed to determine if the target noise range is being achieved. This is done for both routine adult brains and abdomens. Outliers are studied to determine if further action is needed, e.g. protocol revision. The performance of the sample as a whole is also examined. Results: The program was implemented spring of 2014. To date, it has successfully identified situations where Image Noise systematically exceeded the target range. Interventions were made in each one of these cases, successfully adjusting the Image noise to within desired limits. In addition, the program is used as a Measure of Effectiveness for proposed protocol revisions, producing an objective performance measure. Conclusion: Measuring and monitoring clinical image noise is a simple, effective, quantitative tool for managing CT protocols.


Abstract Background The COVID-19 pandemic has a secondary impact on the health of patients with chronic liver disease (CLD). Our objective was to study this impact on care provision, telemedicine, and health behaviours in CLD patients. Methods CLD patients of an urban gastroenterology clinic who attended a telemedicine appointment between March 17, 2020 and September 17, 2020, completed an online survey on care delays, health behaviours, and experience with telemedicine. Chart review was conducted in 400 randomly selected patients: 200 charts from during the pandemic were compared to 200 charts the previous year. Data were extracted for clinicodemographic variables, laboratory investigations, and clinical outcomes. Results Of 399 patients invited to participate, 135 (34%) completed the online survey. Fifty (39%) patients reported 83 care delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the majority (71%) of delays persisting beyond 2 months. Ninety-five (75%) patients were satisfied with telemedicine appointments. There was a longer delay between lab work and appointments in patients seen during the pandemic compared to 2019 (P = 0.01). Compared to the year prior, during the COVID pandemic, there was a similar number of cases of cirrhosis decompensation (n = 26, 13% versus n = 22, 11%) and hospitalization (n = 12, 6% versus n = 5, 3%). Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic has led to care delays for CLD outpatients, with most delays on the scale of months. These patient-reported experiences and clinical observations can direct optimization of CLD care as effects from the pandemic evolve.


The attenuation at X band caused by the melting layer of stratiform precipitation is derived by comparing long‐term average reflectivity profiles from collocated X‐band and UHF vertically pointing radars. The total attenuation caused by the bright band is equivalent to the attenuation across approximately 10 km of rain that is present below it. This bright band attenuation is still 3–5 times the "rain equivalent" attenuation, the latter being obtained by integrating the specific attenuation deduced from the entire reflectivity profile across the bright band as if the reflectivity were due to rain. This suggests that in most stratiform rain cases, the total attenuation due to the melting layer exceeds that of the rain below it.


Cobalt oxide doped in polyaniline nanocomposite were prepared with various weight percentages by in situ polymerization method and thin films by solvent casting method,for preparation of composite using aniline, ammonium per sulfate, and Cobalt oxide as starting materials. The temperature dependent conductivity behavior of PANI/ Cobalt oxide composites have been studied. The formation of PANI and PANI/ Cobalt oxide composites with regards to the structural and microstructural properties of the materials were investigated by SEM techniques. The conductivity of Pure PANI and its composites have been measured.


Osteoporosis is a worldwide health problem with a high prevalence that affects many aged people.OPG/RANK/RANKL system has attributed a decisive role in regulating bone remodeling and their dramatic role in bone disease was largely unexpected.The system has been targeted as a new strategy for the treatment of osteoporosis.Therefore,deep research on this system will make positive effect on expound-ing the mechanisms in normal and pathological conditions,and preventing bone disease.


In the current study we are investigating the effects of PTEN-deficient myeloid cells on tumor immune surveillance. We could previously show that hyper-activation of the PI3K signaling cascade by genetic knock-out of the counteracting phosphatase PTEN induced an anti-inflammatory phenotype in myeloid cells. This resulted in protection of conditional knock-out mice in models of acute infection and inflammation. A reduction in pro-inflammatory responses could however increase tumor burden. To address this question we induced colitis associated colon cancer in conditional PTEN-KO mice and found an increase in tumor burden and a reduction in survival in male KO mice. This was accompanied by increased numbers of splenic antigen-presenting cells (APC) expressing the immune checkpoint regulators PD-L1 and PD-L2. Furthermore, transcriptome analysis in these cells revealed a shift towards gene expression profiles found in professional APCs capable of cross-presentation. As expected, ex-vivo stimulated T-cells from KO-mice showed a reduction in proliferative capacity. These findings were further substantiated by findings in a second tumor model using implanted B16 melanoma cells. In this model myeloid PTEN-deficient mice showed a decrease in T-cell activation and a reduction in melanoma cell killing capacity. Taken together, our findings show that genetic deletion of PTEN in cells of myeloid origin increases splenic APCs expressing immune checkpoint regulators resulting in a decrease in tumor immune surveillance. Our study shows that PI3K-inhibitors which are currently tested as anti-cancer drugs might have additional beneficial effects on immune cells by shifting their inflammatory phenotype. Citation Format: Mario Kuttke, Emine Sahin, Julia Pisoni, Sophie Percig, Andrea Vogel, Daniel Kraemmer, Leslie Hanzl, Julia Stefanie Brunner, Hannah Paar, Klara Soukup, Angela Halfmann, Alexander Dohnal, Carl-Walter Steiner, Stephan Bluml, Jose Basilio, Bernhard Hochreiter, Manuel Salzmann, Bastian Hoesel, Gunther Lametschwandtner, Robert Eferl, Johannes Schmid, Gernot Schabbauer. Myeloid PTEN deficiency impairs tumor immune surveillance via immune checkpoint inhibition. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 527.


Diagnostics and therapy of a case of cervical dystonia (spasmodic torticollis), a brain-based movement disorder, are presented as an example of a functional neurological approach with techniques of neuromuscular functional assessment (NFA). The diagnostic tools are exclusively simple clinical neurological tests; the therapy uses chiropractic and functional rehabilitative techniques. Carrick [5] presented a study on this disorder in the literature of applied kinesiology before. This case study demonstrates that the application of functional neurological models used in chiropractic neurology provides rewarding results. Therefore emphasis should be laid on the verification of these models by means of modern techniques of neuroscience (fMRI, SPECT, etc.). Altered sensorimotor integration with cervical spine manipulation. Taylor HH, Murphy B. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2008 Feb;31(2):115-26. OBJECTIVE: This study investigates changes in the intrinsic inhibitory and facilitatory interactions within the sensorimotor cortex subsequent to a single session of cervical spine manipulation using singleand paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation protocols. METHOD: Twelve subjects with a history of reoccurring neck pain participated in this study. Short interval intracortical inhibition, short interval intracortical facilitation (SICF), motor evoked potentials, and cortical silent periods (CSPs) were recorded from the abductor pollicis brevis and the extensor indices proprios muscles of the dominant limb after singleand pairedpulse transcranial magnetic stimulation of the contralateral motor cortex. The experimental measures were recorded before and after spinal manipulation of dysfunctional cervical joints, and on a different day after passive head movement. To assess spinal excitability, F wave persistence and amplitudes were recorded after median nerve stimulation at the wrist. RESULTS: After cervical manipulations, there was an increase in SICF, a decrease in short interval intracortical inhibition, and a shortening of the CSP in abductor pollicis brevis. The opposite effect was observed in extensor indices proprios, with a decrease in SICF and a lengthening of the CSP. No motor evoked potentials or F wave response alterations were observed, and no changes were observed after the control condition. CONCLUSION: Spinal manipulation of dysfunctional cervical joints may alter specific central corticomotor facilitatory and inhibitory neural processing and cortical motor control of 2 upper limb muscles in a muscle-specific manner. This suggests that spinal manipulation may alter sensorimotor integration. These findings may help elucidate mechanisms responsible for the effective relief of pain and restoration of functional ability documented after spinal manipulation. Comment: From its inception AK chiropractic methods have been discovering specific muscle-joint dysfunctions, the correction of which has resulted in immediate muscular response. Neck flexor muscle fatigue in adolescents with headache An electromyographic study. Oksanen A, Pöyhönen T, Metsähonkala L, Anttila P, Hiekkanen H, Laimi K, Salminen JJ. Eur J Pain. 2007 Oct;11(7):764-72. Epub 2007 Feb 8. BACKGROUND: Muscular disorders of the neck region may be of importance for the etiology of tension-type headache. However, in adolescents, there are no data on the association between neck muscle fatigue and headache. AIM: To study differences in fatigue characteristics of the neck flexor muscles in adolescents with and without headache. METHODS: A population-based sample of 17-year-old adolescents with migraine-type headache (N=30), tension-type headache (N=29) and healthy controls without headache (N=30) was examined. Surface EMG data were recorded from the sternocleidomastoid (SCM) muscles bilaterally during an isometric neck flexor endurance test. The spectral median frequency (MF) change during the total endurance time (TMF) and the initial time of 30s (IMF) was calculated. The intensity of discomfort in the neck area was assessed with the visual analogue scale (VAS). RESULTS: The rate of decline in TMF of both SCM muscles was significantly increased in the tension-type headache group compared with controls (right SCM, P=0.030, OR 2.0, 95% 1.2-3.7; left SCM, P=0.009, OR 2.5, 95% 1.4-4.9), while no significant differences were found between controls and subjects with migraine. The rate of decline in IMF, the total endurance time (P=0.050), and VAS did not differ significantly among the study groups. CONCLUSIONS: This preliminary finding shows that increased neck flexor muscle fatigue in adolescents seems to be associated with tension-type headache. Comment: In AK, the purpose of identifying muscle imbalances and weakness is to discover how to correct this problem in patients with (in this case) headache. The MMT allows this to be done with specificity. Chiropractic care for a patient with spasmodic dysphonia associated with cervical spine trauma, Waddell RK. Journal Chiro Med, Winter 2005;4(1):19-24. Objective: To discuss the diagnosis and response to treatment of spasmodic dysphonia in a 25year-old female vocalist following an auto accident. Clinical features: The voice disorder and neck pain appeared after the traumatic incident. Examination of the cervical spine revealed moderate pain, muscle spasm and restricted joint motion at C-1 and C-5 on the left side. Cervical range of motion was reduced on left rotation. Bilateral manual muscle testing of the trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles, which share innervation with the laryngeal muscles by way of the spinal accessory nerve, were weak on the left side. Pre and post accident voice range profiles (phonetograms) that measure singing voice quality were examined. The preand post-accident phonetograms revealed significant reduction in voice intensity and fundamental frequency as measured in decibels and hertz. Intervention and outcome: Low-force chiropractic spinal manipulative therapy to C-1 and C-5 was employed. Following a course of care, the patient's singing voice returned to normal, as well as a resolution of her musculoskeletal complaints. Conclusion: It appears that in certain cases, the singing voice can be adversely affected if neck or head trauma is severe enough. This case proposes that trauma with irritation to the cervical spine nerve roots as they communicate with the spinal accessory, and in turn the laryngeal nerves, may be contributory to some functional voice disorders or muscle tension dysphonia. Comment: This case report examines the result of testing bilaterally, the trapezius and sternocleidomastoid muscles, as a diagnostic indicator for possible laryngeal nerve and muscle involvement in a case of muscle tension dysphonia due to their shared nerve supply. When cervical spine subluxations were corrected, the SCM and trapezius muscles were strengthened and this correlated with resolution in the voice dysfunction. Cervical muscles weakness in chronic whiplash patients. Prushansky T, Gepstein R, Gordon C, Dvir Z. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2005 Oct;20(8):794-8. BACKGROUND: Isometric cervical strength has been used for assessing the severity of cervical spine pathologies. However there is a conspicuous dearth of information relating to cervical strength data in patients suffering from chronic whiplash. Therefore the objective of this study was to compare absolute and ratio-based isometric cervical strength scores in chronic whiplash patients with reported corresponding scores in healthy subjects. METHODS: Isometric cervical strength was measured in the directions of flexion, extension, right and left lateral flexion in 97 patients, 51 women and 46 men, using a wall-mounted dynamometer. FINDINGS: Compared to published values of normal subjects, whiplash patients suffered sharp reductions of about 90% in both genders and in all directions. The consistency of the isometric cervical strength scores as indicated by the mean coefficient of variation was relatively low, 17% and 20% in men and women respectively. The flexion/extension strength ratio ranged 0.8--0.9, slightly higher than the reported range for normal subjects. This ratio was highly correlated (r=0.91, P=0.01) with the mean coefficient of variation in a subgroup of 9 patients. INTERPRETATION: In the absence of an obvious reason such as severe atrophy or grossly dysfunctional neurological control the indicated weakness of the cervical muscles may be associated with learned pain avoidance behavior which is typical among this group of patients. Comment: This paper demonstrates what AK physicians find consistently: impairment of neck flexor muscle strength in patients with neck and head pain, or with a history of neck or head injury. Another common finding in the AK setting is that muscles that test weak during the MMT are often painful for the patient. The "construct validity" of the manual muscle test in the evaluation of patients with cervical syndromes is presented in this report. Neck flexor muscle fatigue is side specific in patients with unilateral neck pain, Falla D, Jull G, Rainoldi A, Merletti R. Eur J Pain. 2004 Feb;8(1):71-7. Abstract: Despite the evidence of greater fatigability of the cervical flexor muscles in neck pain patients, the effect of unilaterality of neck pain on muscle fatigue has not been investigated. This study compared myoelectric manifestations of sternocleidomastoid (SCM) and anterior scalene (AS) muscle fatigue between the painful and non-painful sides in patients Despite the evidence of greater fatigability of the cervical flexor muscles in neck pain patients, the effect of unilaterality of neck pain on muscle fatigue has not been investigated. This study compared myoelectric manifestations of sternocleidomastoid (SCM) and anterior scalene (AS) muscle fatigue between the painful and non-painful sides in patients with chronic unilateral neck pain. Myoelectric signals were recorded from the sternal he


Hierarchical Bayesian methods enable information sharing across multiple related regression problems. While standard practice is to model regression parameters (effects) as (1) exchangeable across datasets and (2) correlated to differing degrees across covariates, we show that this approach exhibits poor statistical performance when the number of covariates exceeds the number of datasets. For instance, in statistical genetics, we might regress dozens of traits (defining datasets) for thousands of individuals (responses) on up to millions of genetic variants (covariates). When an analyst has more covariates than datasets, we argue that it is often more natural to instead model effects as (1) exchangeable across covariates and (2) correlated to differing degrees across datasets. To this end, we propose a hierarchical model expressing our alternative perspective. We devise an empirical Bayes estimator for learning the degree of correlation between datasets. We develop theory that demonstrates that our method outperforms the classic approach when the number of covariates dominates the number of datasets, and corroborate this result empirically on several high-dimensional multiple regression and classification problems.


The VA-ADHC Evaluation included a detailed assessment of the cost of the VA-ADHC programs and an evaluation of their effect on patients' utilization and costs of other health care services. Although each VA-ADHC program had little variation in its program costs over the 3 years of the study, there were large variations between the programs in total costs, their costs per patient day, and in some cost components. The 3 most important factors in determining the level of program costs were: the way patients were transported to and from ADHC, the availability of space to house the program, and the staff-to-patient ratio. The total cost of health care for patients randomly assigned to VA-ADHC was significantly (15.5%) higher than those assigned to customary care. Although ADHC care did substitute for certain other forms of care (i.e., home care and clinic visits), there was not enough of a substitution effect to offset the additional costs of ADHC services.


Protein kinases are known for their highly conserved adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding site, rendering the discovery of selective inhibitors a major challenge. In theory, allosteric inhibitors can achieve high selectivity by targeting less conserved regions of the kinases, often with an added benefit of retaining efficacy under high physiological ATP concentration. Although often overlooked in favor of ATP-site directed approaches, performing a screen at high ATP concentration or stringent hit triaging with high ATP concentration offers conceptually simple methods of identifying inhibitors that bind outside the ATP pocket. Here, we applied the latter approach to the With-No-Lysine (K) (WNK) kinases to discover lead molecules for a next-generation antihypertensive that requires a stringent safety profile. This strategy yielded several ATP noncompetitive WNK1-4 kinase inhibitors, the optimization of which enabled cocrystallization with WNK1, revealing an allosteric binding mode consistent with the observed exquisite specificity for WNK1-4 kinases. The optimized compound inhibited rubidium uptake by sodium chloride cotransporter 1 (NKCC1) in HT29 cells, consistent with the reported physiology of WNK kinases in renal electrolyte handling.


To facilitate the cytosolic delivery of larger molecules such as proteins, we developed a new cell-penetrating peptide sequence, named Pas2r12, consisting of a repeated Pas sequence (FFLIG-FFLIG) and d-dodeca-arginine (r12). This peptide significantly enhanced the cellular uptake and cytosolic release of enhanced green fluorescent protein and immunoglobulin G as cargos. We found that simply mixing Pas2r12 with cargos could generate cytosolic introducible forms. The cytosolic delivery of cargos by Pas2r12 was found to be an energy-requiring process, to rely on actin polymerization, and to be suppressed by caveolae-mediated endocytosis inhibitors (genistein and methyl-β-cyclodextrin) and small interfering RNA against caveolin-1. These results suggest that Pas2r12 enhances membrane penetration of cargos without the need for cross-linking and that caveolae-mediated endocytosis may be the route by which cytosolic delivery is enhanced.


Moulinec and Suquet introduced FFT-based homogenization in 1994, and twenty years later, their approach is still effective for evaluating the homogenized properties arising from the periodic cell problem. This paper builds on the author's (2013) variational reformulation approximated by trigonometric polynomials establishing two numerical schemes: Galerkin approximation (Ga) and a version with numerical integration (GaNi). The latter approach, fully equivalent to the original Moulinec-Suquet algorithm, was used to evaluate guaranteed upper-lower bounds on homogenized coefficients incorporating a closed-form double grid quadrature. Here, these concepts, based on the primal and the dual formulations, are employed for the Ga scheme. For the same computational effort, the Ga outperforms the GaNi with more accurate guaranteed bounds and more predictable numerical behaviors. Quadrature technique leading to block-sparse linear systems is extended here to materials defined via high-resolution images in a way which allows for effective treatment using the FFT. Memory demands are reduced by a reformulation of the double to the original grid scheme using FFT shifts. Minimization of the bounds during iterations of conjugate gradients is effective, particularly when incorporating a solution from a coarser grid. The methodology presented here for the scalar linear elliptic problem could be extended to more complex frameworks.


Once oil plumes such as those originating from underwater blowouts reach the ocean mixed layer (OML), their near-surface dispersion is influenced heavily by wind and wave-generated Langmuir turbulence. In this study, the complex oil spill dispersion process is modeled using large-eddy simulation (LES). The mean plume dispersion is characterized by performing statistical analysis of the resulting fields from the LES data. Although the instantaneous oil concentration exhibits high intermittency with complex spatial patterns such as Langmuir-induced striations, it is found that the time-averaged oil distribution can still be described quite well by smooth Gaussian-type plumes. LES results show that the competition between droplet rise velocity and vertical turbulent diffusion due to Langmuir turbulence is crucial in determining both the dilution rate and overall direction of transport of oil plumes in the OML. The smoothness of the mean plume makes it feasible to aim at modeling the oil dispersion using Reynolds-averaged type formulations, such as the K-profile parameterization (KPP) with sufficient vertical resolution to capture vertical profiles in the OML. Using LES data, we evaluate the eddy viscosity and eddy diffusivity following the KPP framework. We assess the performance of previous KPP models for pure shear turbulence and Langmuir turbulence by comparing them with the LES data. Based on the assessment a modified KPP model is proposed, which shows improved overall agreement with the LES results for both the eddy viscosity and the eddy diffusivity of the oil dispersion under a variety of flow conditions and droplet sizes.


This book is very important guide to all textile interests who are working in ECO-TEX labs, Textile industries and their allied fields. This book is a state of the arts studies the subject "Eco-Tex In Relation to World Textile Market" and clarifies the benefits of applying Oeko-Tex or Eco label requirements to customer, producers and retailers of textiles. Fiber origin, Dyeing, Printing, Finishing, Effluent treatment, Nanotechnology, biotechnology and Metrology developments can easily solve most of hazardous to human and environmental pollution problems associated with textile industries. At the end of this book most of labels give image on the ecofriendly product used worldwide and may help customer to make his decision to compare and evaluate what he needs especially for textiles products (clothes, intermediates, accessories….etc). Finally a diagram for the way to "Eco-friendly" Production, Processing, Marketing, Selection, Use and Care of Textiles was shown.


Abstract: How well are our schools preparing students to become global citizens who can communicate in languages other than English? To answer this question, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 5,000 U.S. public and private elementary and secondary schools. Results identify current patterns and shifts over time in five key areas of K–12 foreign language education: amount of language instruction; languages and program types offered; curriculum and instruction; teacher certification, professional development, and teacher shortages; and the effects of education reform. Results reveal that despite some positive developments, overall foreign language instruction has decreased over the past decade and the achievement gap has widened. The article concludes with recommendations on how to progress toward achieving foreign language proficiency for all students.


Background Expression of selected cytokines in children with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections has shown some association with severity of symptoms, yet these associations are not always strong or reproducible. Objective Analyse whether distinct cytokine "patterns", rather than single cytokines, can discriminate (and thus predict) infants with different severity of RSV-induced respiratory illness. Methods 186 children ⩽2 years of age with symptoms of respiratory infections were enrolled. Nasopharyngeal secretions were analysed for viral pathogens and 27 cytokines by bead-based multiplex panel. Children were assigned a clinical diagnosis of upper respiratory infection (URI) alone or bronchiolitis, with or without hypoxia. Analysis of variance and Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to compare cytokine concentrations between groups and hierarchical clustering to reveal natural patterns in cytokine data. Supervised analysis (classification using decision trees and regression trees) was used to identify features that best predicted disease severity. Results 71 children diagnosed with RSV infections clustered into three major groups with low and high cytokines. A decision tree classifier based on IL-17 and macrophage inflammatory protein 1beta was able to discriminate URI from bronchiolitis (81% accuracy) and one based on IL-17 alone to classify children with bronchiolitis without or with hypoxia (80% accuracy). A logistic regression analysis that included IL-17 was equally accurate in discriminating bronchiolitis cases without hypoxia from those with hypoxia. Conclusions Our study provides proof of concept that informative patterns of cytokines can be detected and interpreted in nasopharyngeal secretions from patients with respiratory viral infection and may contribute to more objective classification of disease severity/type.


This article examines the rationale for the establishment of the defunct Ethiopian Reconciliation Commission (the Commission) and the challenges it faced in its efforts to help end impunity, restore the ruptured social fabric, and ensure democratic transition. To this end, the article relies on analysis of relevant literature, comparative case studies, and interviews with experts. Ethiopia is a deeply divided society, one characterised by ethnic division, cycles of violence, a pervasive culture of impunity for heinous crimes, competing historical narratives, and polarised political discourse. The Commission was bestowed with ambitious mandates and functions. Among its formidable challenges were a legitimacy deficit; the prevalence of competing narratives; vaguely defined mandates; and the complexity of the reconciliation process. Ultimately, the Commission failed to deliver on any of its promises.


Aim: Intrauterine inseminations (IUI) are commonly used in the treatment of infertile couples. The effectiveness of IUI depends on many factors, including sperm quality. Normal semen quality is usually verified with the use of the World Health Organization (WHO) criteria, but these criteria have little prognostic value in IUI, as pregnancy rates after IUI are acceptable even below the WHO thresholds for normal semen quality. Materials and Method: In this study we retrospectively evaluated 379 couples with idiopatic or male factor infertility, who had been treated with IUI after controlled ovarian hyperstimulation in infertility department of Dr. Zekai Tahir Burak Hospital during the time period between January 2002 and June 2004. Results: A total of 379 women underwent 631 cycles of IUI during a 29-months period. Mean age was 27.5 ± 5.37 years and mean infertility duration was 4.28 ± 3.02 years. Fifty nine (93.7%) out of 63 pregnancies were obtained in the first three treatment cycles. Pregnancy rate per cycle was 9.98%, and pregnancy rate per couple was 16.62%. A younger age of the female partner, shorter duration of infertility, and the presence of secondary infertility were significantly associated with enhanced success rates with IUI, but the method of ovulation induction did not have an impact on the likelihood of pregnancy. Patients with total motile sperm count (TMSC) <10x106 had 3 pregnancies in 323 cycles (0.9%), and patients with TMSC ≥10x106 had 60 pregnancies in 308 cycles (19.5%). Conclusion: Although Kruger's strict criterias were not related with IUI success, TMSC ≥ 10x106 were significantly associated with higher pregnancy rates after IUI.


The encroachment of protected areas for agricultural and livestock production is an important challenge for nature conservation in developing countries. The driving forces of encroachment are debated - major arguments focus on (1) the need of local people to cultivate land inside protected areas due to poverty, (2) commercial interests of cultivating inside protected areas, which indicates free-riding ("greed"), and (3) resistance against protected areas caused by disregard of customary rights. Understanding the role of these factors is important for designing appropriate conservation and development strategies. The paper contributes to this understanding by analyzing the encroachment of a National Park in Sulawesi, Indonesia. The analysis is guided by a theoretical framework which acknowledges that most individuals are neither purely altruistic nor entirely self-interested. The empirical analysis combines data from a village-level survey in 80 villages with information from a sate llite image and other spatial data. The following factors had a significant influence on the extent of encroachment: (1) population density in the area, which is related to needs, (2) the availability of suitable land inside the Park, which indicates "temptation", and (3) the extent of land that was already cultivated before the Park was established, which points to customary rights. Community agreements on conservation are discussed as a policy approach that can address all three factors.


This paper 1 investigates the sources of representations on the communist period and the type of engagement with the past in an experiential museum, in the context of the National Network of Romanian Museums' project for a laboratory-museum of Romanian Communism. Our analysis of focus-groups in October-November 2012 explores the public's expectations in terms of museum experience and engagement with objects and the potential of an experiential museum to facilitate deliberation about the past. We use the conceptual framework of recent studies on postmemory (Hirsch, 2008) and prosthetic memory (Landsberg, 2004, 2009) to focus on ways of building the experiential archive needed to produce prosthetic memory. We consider that such an analysis is relevant for two interconnected problems: the bidirectional relationship between a projected museum of communism and a prospective public, and the methodological insights available for investigating this relation. With regard to the first problem, this paper makes a case for treating museums as a memory device rather than a lieu de memoire and analyses the role of the museum in relation to cultural memory. With regard to the second problem, it offers an example of conducting research on prospective publics which departs from traditional marketing approaches, adopting theoretical insights and analytical categories from specific conceptualizations in the field of memory studies.


A micromechanical oscillator can only be described with quantum mechanics after it is entangled with microwave fields. [Also see Report by Palomaki et al.] Quantum theory describes the physical cosmos at atomic and smaller scales, but can we apply quantum mechanics to large, distributed mechanical structures? Several recent experiments have shown that we can observe quantum dynamics of nano- and micromechanical oscillators. On page 710 of this issue, Palomaki et al. (1) report the controlled generation and verification of quantum entanglement of a mesoscopic mechanical device (a mechanical oscillator) with an electromagnetic microwave field. Entanglement is considered to be the distinguishing feature that separates quantum from classical physics. Only the properties of the entire system have precise values, and the mechanical resonator and the microwave field must be described by one compound quantum-mechanical wave function. No such wave functions can be assigned to either of the subsystems separately.


Adipose tissue is one of the major tissues in body regulating glucose and energy homeostasis. White adipose tissue (iWAT) serves as primary site of energy storage while brown (BAT) and beige AT play a major role in energy expenditure. AT also exerts endocrine effects by secreting various adipokines/batokines regulating whole body glucose metabolism. Diverse G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are expressed in adipocytes and thus have emerged as potential targets for novel antidiabetic drugs. P2Y purinergic receptors are a class of GPCRs activated by nucleotides and nucleotide sugars. The purinergic P2Y14 receptor (P2Y14R) is natively activated by UDP-glucose. P2Y14R is expressed in white as well as brown adipocytes, and receptor mRNA levels was increased in iWAT due to high fat feeding. The potential role of P2Y14R in AT with respect to maintaining whole body glucose homeostasis remains unexplored. To this end, we generated a knockout mouse model lacking P2Y14R selectively in adipocytes (Ad-P2Y14-KO) using Cre/loxP technology. Interestingly, Ad-P2Y14-KO consuming a high fat diet gained less weight than the control mice. Body composition revealed that the decrease in body weight gain in Ad-P2Y14-KO was due to a decrease in fat mass. Decreased body weight resulted in improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in Ad-P2Y14-KO. Moreover, fasting blood glucose and fed plasma insulin levels were decreased in Ad-P2Y14-KO. Circulating levels of adipokines such as leptin were decreased in knockout mice, indicating increased sensitivity to leptin in Ad-P2Y14-KO. Interestingly, a lack of P2Y14R signaling increased lipolysis in adipocytes, as plasma free fatty acids levels was elevated in Ad-P2Y14-KO in the fasting state. Liver weight was decreased in Ad-P2Y14-KO indicating a lack of ectopic deposition of fat due to enhanced lipolysis. Mechanistic studies are underway to link the observed phenotype with P2Y14R signaling in adipocytes. Disclosure S. Jain: None. K.A. Jacobson: None.


The chemical design of a polymer can be tailored by a random or a block sequence of the comonomers in order to influence the properties of the final material. In this work, two sequences, PCPDTBT and F8BT (F8), were polymerized to form a block or a random copolymer. Differences between the various polymers were examined by exploring the surface topography and charge carrier mobility. A distinct surface texture and a higher charge carrier mobility was found for the block copolymer with respect to the other materials. Solar cells were prepared with polymer:PC71BM blend active layers and the best performance of up to 2% was found for the block copolymer, which was a direct result of the fill factor. Overall, the sequences of different copolymers for solar cell applications were varied and a positive impact on efficiency was found when the block copolymer structure was utilized. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2012


In this paper, we propose a novel emotion recognition method to reflect affect salient information using acoustic and lexical features. The acoustic features are extracted from the speech signal by applying statistical functionals of emotionally high-level features derived from Deep Neural Network (DNN). These acoustic features are early fused with two types of lexical features extracted from the text transcription of the speech signal, which are the distributed representation and affective lexicon-based dimensions. The fused features are fed to another DNN for utterance-level emotion classification. Experimental results on the Interactive Emotional Dyadic Motion Capture (IEMOCAP) multimodal dataset showed 75.5% in unweighted accuracy recall, which outperformed the best results reported previously in the multimodal emotion recognition using acoustic and lexical features.


Electrical effects can impart a cross-stream component to drop motion in a pressure-driven flow, due to either an asymmetric charge distribution or shape deformation. However, surfactant-mediated alterations in such migration characteristics remain unexplored. By accounting for three-dimensionality in the drop motion, we analytically demonstrate here a non-trivial switching of drop migration with the aid of a surfactant coating on its surface. We establish this phenomenon as controllable by exploiting an interconnected interplay between the hydrodynamic stress, electrical stress and Marangoni stress, manifested so as to achieve a net interfacial force balance. Our results reveal that under different combinations of electrical conductivity and permittivity ratios, the relative strength of the electric stress with respect to the hydrodynamic stress, the applied electric field direction and the surfactants alter the longitudinal and cross-stream velocity components of the droplets differently. The effect of drop deformation on its speed is found to be altered with the increased sensitivity of the surface tension to the surfactant concentration, depending on the competing effects of the electrohydrodynamic flow modification and the tip stretching phenomenon. Further, with a suitable choice of electrical property ratios, the Marangoni effects can be exploited to direct the drop in reaching a final transverse position towards or away from the channel centreline. These results may turn out to be of immense consequence in providing an insight to the underlying complex physical mechanisms dictating an intricate control on the drop motion in different directions.


We present a vascular segmentation and quantification method based on the right generalized cylinder state model (RGC-sm). The RGC-sm model includes a curvilinear axis associated to a stack of contours. The axis is described by a state vector (local curvature, torsion and rotation). The contours are described by a Fourier series decomposition. The challenge is to automatically adjust this model to 3D vascular data (segmentation). By fitting the synthetic model to the actual medical data, it is possible to get the state model parameters and quantification measures. We present quantitative results on a set of calibrated phantoms and qualitative results on clinical datasets (carotid 3D-CTA and aortic 3D-MRA).


Technological advances have led to new offerings in home heating systems and to a market that is becoming saturated with variants of "smart" thermostats. But does this seemingly growing market have a growing audience? In this talk I will present quantitative and qualitative data from a large scale survey (N=1007) that investigates the appeal of smart thermostats to prospective consumers. Findings from the survey indicate confusion about what "smart" means and a general apathy for smart thermostats. Survey respondents expressed displeasure towards the idea of "technology for technology's sake" and were reluctant to part with cash for something they failed to see the benefit of. Given this luke-warm reception I conclude by using insights from the data to derive marketing strategies that may prove effective in bolstering the allure of smart thermostats.


27. SALTMAN, P., G. M. KUNITAKE, AND C. STIrr. 1956. The dark fixation of CO2 by succulent leaves. The first products. Plant Physiol. 31: 464-68. 28. SANTARIUS, K. A., V. HEBER, W. ULLRICH, AND W. URBACH. 1964. Intracellular translocation of ATP, ADP and inorganic phosphate in leaf cells of Elodea densa in relation to photosynthesis. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 15: 139-46. 29. SCOTT, G. C. AND H. R. HAYWARD. 1953. Metabolic factors influencing sodium and potassium distribution in UTlva lactuca. J. Gen. Physiol. 36: 659-71. 30. SMILIE, R. M. AND R. C. FULLER. 1959. Ribulose 1-5-diphosphate carboxylase activity in relation to photosynthesis by intact leaves and isolated chloroplasts. Plant Physiol. 34: 651-56. 31. WANG, C. H. Metabolism studies by radiorespirometry. In: Advances in Trace Methodology. S. Rothchild, ed. Plenum Press, New York, 1961. Vol 1, p 274-90. 32. WHATLEY, F. R., M. B. ALLEN, AND D. I. ARNON. 1959. Photosynthesis by isolated chloroplasts. VII. Vitamin K and riboflavin phosphate as cofactors of photosynthetic phosphorylation. Biochim. Biophys. Acta 32: 32-46. 33. WHATLEY, F. R., M. B. ALLEN, A. V. TREBST, AND D. I. ARNON. 1960. Photosynthesis by isolated chloroplasts. IX. Photosynthetic phosphorylation and CO2 assimilation in different species. Plant Physiol. 35: 188-93. 34. ZUCKER, M. AND H. T. STINSON. 1962. Chloroplasts as the major protein bearing structures in oenothera leaves. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 96: 637-44.


Abstract We retrospectively reviewed outcomes of treatment with VIP (combination of etoposide, ifosfamide, and cisplatin) in patients with previously treated soft tissue sarcoma (STS). We analyzed the medical records of patients with advanced or relapsed STS who had undergone VIP treatment as second-line or more chemotherapy between January 2000 and December 2015. The patients were treated with a combination of etoposide (100 mg/m2 for 5 days), ifosfamide (2000 mg/m2 for 2 days), and cisplatin (20 mg/m2 for 5 days) once every 4 weeks. Treatment response, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS) were analyzed in all patients and between responder and nonresponder groups (responders showed a tumor response to any prior systemic chemotherapy before VIP). Twenty-four patients with a median age of 50 years (range: 20–68 years) were treated with VIP. Eleven (45.8%) patients were male and 7 (29.2%) received 2 or more chemotherapy regimens before VIP. Median PFS was 3.7 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3–6.1 months) and median OS was 10.0 months (95% CI, 6.6–13.5). The overall response rate was 37.5%, and the disease control rate was 50%. The responder group showed better PFS (7.7 months vs 3.0 months; P = 0.101) and significantly improved OS (11.0 months vs 8.8 months; P = 0.039) compared to those of nonresponders. All patients reported some grade of hematological toxicity. The most frequently encountered hematological toxicity was neutropenia (any grade, 77.7%; grade 3 or 4, 74.0%). VIP might be effective in patients with previously treated STS.


Abstract. In the present work, we performed chassis dynamometer experiments to
investigate the emissions and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation
potential of intermediate-volatility organic compounds (IVOCs) from an
on-road Chinese gasoline vehicle. High IVOC emission factors (EFs) and
distinct volatility distribution were recognized. The IVOC EFs for the
China V vehicle ranged from 12.1 to 226.3 mg per kilogram fuel, with
a median value of 83.7 mg per kilogram fuel, which was higher than
that from US vehicles. Besides, a large discrepancy in volatility distribution
and chemical composition of IVOCs from Chinese gasoline vehicle exhaust was
discovered, with larger contributions of B14–B16 compounds
(retention time bins corresponding to C14-C16 n-alkanes) and a higher
percentage of n-alkanes. Further we investigated the possible reasons that
influence the IVOC EFs and volatility distribution and found that fuel
type, starting mode, operating cycles and acceleration rates did have an
impact on the IVOC EF. When using E10 (ethanol volume ratio of 10 %, v/v)
as fuel, the IVOC EF of the tested vehicle was lower than that using
commercial China standard V fuel. The average IVOC-to-THC (total hydrocarbon) ratios for
gasoline-fueled and E10-fueled gasoline vehicles were 0.07±0.01 and
0.11±0.02, respectively. Cold-start operation had higher IVOC EFs
than hot-start operation. The China Light-Duty Vehicle Test Cycle (CLTC) produced
70 % higher IVOCs than those from the Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicles
Test Cycle (WLTC). We found that the tested vehicle emitted more IVOCs at
lower acceleration rates, which leads to high EFs under CLTC. The only
factor that may influence the volatility distribution and compound
composition is the engine aftertreatment system, which has compound and
volatility selectivity in exhaust purification. These distinct
characteristics in EFs and volatility may result in higher SOA formation
potential in China. Using published yield data and a surrogate equivalent
method, we estimated SOA formation under different OA (organic aerosol) loading and NOx
conditions. Results showed that under low- and high-NOx conditions at
different OA loadings, IVOCs contributed more than 80 % of the predicted
SOA. Furthermore, we built up a parameterization method to simply estimate
the vehicular SOA based on our bottom-up measurement of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and IVOCs,
which would provide another dimension of information when considering the
vehicular contribution to the ambient OA. Our results indicate that
vehicular IVOCs contribute significantly to SOA, implying the
importance of reducing IVOCs when making air pollution controlling policies
in urban areas of China.


A young woman with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy had recurrent attacks of myoclonic status epilepticus related to a long history of limited compliance and irregular sleep. The diagnosis of this clinical pattern is based mainly on clinical description. A home video captured an attack. © 2002 Movement Disorder Society.


The effect of 3α,20β-pregnanediol and other steroids on bilirubin conjugation was examined using liver tissue from human and four other species. Neither 3α,20β-pregnanediol nor 3α,20β-pregnanediol inhibited conjugation by human liver slices or by solubilized human liver microsomes. 3α,20β-pregnanediol is unlikely to be the inhibitor causing breast milk jaundice. Oestriol inhibited conjugation by human liver slices. A comparison of species indicated that the response of the human liver slice system to steroids resembles that of the rabbit and guinea-pig rather than the rat or mouse.


Supplemental digital content is available in the text. Background The percentage of Black registered nurses (RN) is disproportionate to Black residents in the population, particularly in Southern states. Purpose This study's purpose was to identify the potential admission barriers for Black students in RN education in the South versus Midwest, Northeast, and West. Methods A cross-sectional design was used to compare admission criteria for 1597 accredited associate degree in nursing and bachelor of science in nursing programs by geographic region. Results Southern programs required a significantly higher count of academic metric criteria (multiple grade point average, standardized tests) and nonacademic criteria (proof of health insurance, background checks). Southern programs had a significantly lower count of holistic admissions review criteria (references, essays, volunteer work). Conclusion Approximately 50% of programs used academic metrics exclusively, and most programs using some holistic criteria assigned greatest weight to academic metrics despite evidence that this disadvantages qualified, underrepresented students. Access to RN education must be improved. Recommendations are discussed for transition to holistic admissions review.


The recent emergence of a mixed focus of Schislosonlcr h ~ ~ e f l l ~ f l o b ~ l f ~ t ~ ~ ~ h ~ S f ~ S ~ f l l ~ ~ fllClfUO!li, in the lower delta of the Senegal river, requires adapted control programmes. A mass treatment with praziquantel was organised in April 1994 by local authorities in three villages where populations had been examined. A total o f 2042 subjects participated. In Savoigne S. h o e ~ ~ i c r ~ o b i u ~ ~ i prevailed (53% for prevalence), in Diagambaly S. hae~ncr~obirott (64%) and S. n~crr~soni (7G'X)) were both abundant, and in Boundoum S. J ~ ~ N J I S O I I ~ prevailed (53%). Therapeutic coverage (80%) was assessed on a representative sample. A cohort of 968 treated subjects were followed-up 40, 100, 200 and 300 days after treatment. Six weeks after treatment, the average of egg excretion decrcased by 95% ror S. hcrc.r~~e~rohi~~~~?, ranging from 23 to one egg(s)/lO ml a t Savoigne and from 14 to one egg(s)/l0 ml at Diagambal. Conversely, egg excretion only decreased by 75% for s. fncr~ t so~~i , from 23 to six eggs/g a t Boundoum and from 69 to 16 eggs/g at Diagambal, showing evidence of the low susceptibility of S. Illcriwoni local strain to praziquantel. Ten months a n e r treiitmellt, reinfections with S. Iicieniritobiu~~z remained weak a t Savoiglle (two eggdl0 ml) while those with S. unson so ni c_ * Corresponding author. Present address: CERMES, B.P. 10887, Niamey, Niger. Fax: + 227-75-31E-mail address: email@example.com (J.-C. Emould) 80. 0001-706X/99/$ see front matter O 1999 Elsevier Science U.V. All rights reserved. PII: soool .7o6x(99)oool3-3


The effect of TiN crystallization on the solidification structure of Ti-added ferritic stainless steel were studied in Ti/Mg, Ti/Ca, Ti/Mg/Al, Ti/Ca/Al, Al/Ti/Ca and Ti/Mg(Ca)/Ca(Mg) deoxidations carried out at 1 600°C using an Fe–17.5(11)%Cr–0.25%Mn–0.20%Si–0.2 to 0.3%Ti–0.01%C–0.003 to 0.04% N alloy on a mass percent basis. Compositional analysis of the oxide particles and TiN layers generated during the deoxidation using scanning electron microscopy in conjunction with an electron probe microanalyzer, coupled with observation of the morphology and homogeneity of complex TiN+oxide particles, revealed that the TiN layers were formed through the postulated mechanism of the co-crystallization of TiN and oxide. Ti/Mg and Ti/Mg/Al deoxidations performed in an Al2O3 crucible yielded a very fine solidification structure at high N contents (>200 ppm) because of the presence of complex particles consisting of the TiN layer with a small amount of oxide phases. In the Ti/Ca, Ti/Ca/Al and Al/Ti/Ca deoxidations using an Al2O3 crucible, a relatively fine solidification structure was observed when a low oxide content was present in the TiN layer. Ti/Ca/A and Al/Ti/Ca deoxidations carried out using an MgO crucible in the presence or absence of MgO–CaO–Al2O3 slag gave rise to solidification structures that were relatively finer in comparison with those obtained using an Al2O3 crucible. Very fine structures were observed at low N contents (36 to 80 ppm) in the Ti/Mg/Ca and Ti/Ca/Mg deoxidations using an Al2O3 crucible because of the effective surface composition of the oxide particles for δ -phase solidification.


We present two comparable diachronic corpora of scientific English and German from the Late Modern Period (17th c.–19th c.) annotated with Universal Dependencies. We describe several steps of data pre-processing and evaluate the resulting parsing accuracy showing how our pre-processing steps significantly improve output quality. As a sanity check for the representativity of our data, we conduct a case study comparing previously gained insights on grammatical change in the scientific genre with our data. Our results reflect the often reported trend of English scientific discourse towards heavy noun phrases and a simplification of the sentence structure (Halliday, 1988; Halliday and Martin, 1993; Biber and Gray, 2011; Biber and Gray, 2016). We also show that this trend applies to German scientific discourse as well. The presented corpora are valuable resources suitable for the contrastive analysis of syntactic diachronic change in the scientific genre between 1650 and 1900. The presented pre-processing procedures and their evaluations are applicable to other languages and can be useful for a variety of Natural Language Processing tasks such as syntactic parsing.


Thirteen of 64 emus on a commercial emu farm in Ohio exhibited neurological signs that included backward staggering, incoordination, generalized weakness, and sitting on their hocks with head retracted backward. Eight of the birds showing such signs were found dead. Two of these emus were necropsied, and no significant gross lesions were observed. Major histopathological lesions were found in the cerebellum and included multiple malacic foci in association with neuropil rarefaction and astrogliosis within the white matter of folia. In addition, the hepatic vitamin E level of one emu was determined at the Michigan State University Animal Health Diagnostic Laboratory (MSU-AHDL) to be 14.61 micrograms/g dry weight. This vitamin E level was in the lower percentile (35%) of 30 emu liver samples examined at MSU-AHDL. A diagnosis of vitamin E-associated encephalomalacia was made based on clinical signs, gross and histological lesions, and liver vitamin E levels.


Integrating the entire system on a chip (SoC) is one of the main challenges for many researchers all over the world. One of the major breakthroughs toward achieving this goal has been the ability to manufacture multiple gate oxides for different requirements on the same chip. The most attractive of the techniques currently in the literature is the implantation of nitrogen in silicon, which can be used to achieve the goal of multiple gate oxide thickness. The rate of oxidation depends on the amount of nitrogen incorporated at the silicon/silicon oxide interface. By modulating the amount of nitrogen incorporated at the interface, the rate of oxidation and hence the oxide thickness can be moderated. This paper reviews the diffusion, oxidation, and device issues pertaining to the use of nitrogen implants in silicon and also compares it to other implant-based techniques related to the achievement of multiple oxide thickness across the chip for SoC integration.


Purpose Band erosion is a well-known complication of laparoscopic adjustable gastric band placement. We gained experience with laparoscopic removal of an eroded gastric band. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the operative log of our obesity surgery unit to identify all operations performed for band erosion from March 2009 to May 2011. Results During the study period, a total of six of 96 patients (6.3%), five females and one male, were diagnosed with band erosion and underwent surgical removal of the band system. The median time interval from the initial gastric band placement to the diagnosis of band erosion was 8.5 months (range, 7 to 22 months), with most band erosion occurring within the first year (5/6, 83%). The median body mass index at band removal was 28.4 kg/m2. Upper abdominal pain was the most common symptom (5/6, 83%), and other signs and symptoms were port site infection (3/6, 50%) and loss of restriction and weight regain (1/6, 17%). All eroded bands were removed using laparoscopy. Further complications after laparoscopic removal of the band system were observed in three cases. One patient showed multiple intra-abdominal abscesses requiring insertion of a pigtail catheter for drainage. The other two patients experienced sepsis with localized peritonitis, eventually requiring laparoscopic washout and drainage. Conclusion Gastric band erosion requires the removal of the gastric band. Laparoscopic removal is technically achievable in the majority of patients with eroded gastric band. The method can be challenging, has potential postoperative complications (fistula, abscess), and should be attempted only by experienced surgeons.


Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been associated with many neurological complications affecting the central nervous system. Purpose: Our aim was to describe a case of COVID-19 associated with a probable variant of acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE). Results: A 60-year-old man who presented with a 3-day history of dyspnea, fever, and cough tested positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome–coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Five days following his admission, the patient was intubated secondary to respiratory failure. Following his extubation 16 days later, he was found to have a left-sided weakness. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain showed hemorrhagic rim-enhancing lesions involving the right thalamus, left hippocampus, and left parahippocampal gyrus. These lesions showed decreased relative cerebral blood flow on MR perfusion and restricted on diffusion-weighted imaging. These neuroimaging findings were consistent with ANE. The left-sided weakness gradually improved over the subsequent weeks. Conclusions: We concluded that COVID-19 can be associated with ANE, a condition believed to be the result of an immune-mediated process with activation of the innate immune system. Future studies must address whether biological drugs targeting the pro-inflammatory cytokines could prevent the development of this condition.


While every American school child knows about President Thomas Jefferson, few know about his wife. Virginia Scarf's intimate look at the "Women Jefferson Loved" added to Jefferson's biography and seems on the surface to be a revelation of the degradation even wealthy white women lived with during the late 18th century. But what Scarf's text really does is to provide a panoramic view of the repetitions of family patterns and then brings under the microscope the details of how we relive the painful stories of our ancestors. The authors of this paper chose to examine these patterns in Jefferson's family history and observe them through systemic constellation theory as a way to understand that Mrs. Jefferson could do or be little else than what she was. Systemic constellation theory allows us to move past the history into the deepest cavern of the ancestral mind who, we believe, is like the proverbial archaeologist, determined to bring to the surface our most destructive patterns and entanglements for completion.


A wide aperture (7×7 cm2), high output energy (5 J in KrF and 13.8 J in XeC1), UV preionized excimer laser is described. A self‐breakdown rail gap was employed as an output switch with the maximum voltage and current up to 230 kV and 300 kA, respectively. To solve the switching jitter problem associated with the self‐breakdown, an electrical triggering was investigated. The measured minimum switching time delay and gap closing time were 40 and 10 ns, respectively. The number of channels up to 50 was observed with a uniform distribution over the 80‐cm electrode length. The triggering jitter was measured to be less than a nanosecond. The maximum operation voltage of the triggered rail gap was 200 kV. The successful trigger operation was obtained in the range 30%–98% of the self‐breakdown voltage.


Liquid biopsies using cell-free DNA (cfDNA) enable non-invasive detection and characterization of disease. Advances in sequencing methods have significantly improved the performance of liquid biopsies. Yet, despite these advances, sensitivity remains a fundamental challenge. In oncology, circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) screening tests only detect 20-40% of stage I tumors and tests for minimal residual disease have only 25-50% sensitivity after surgery. The major barrier to better sensitivity is the intrinsic low level of ctDNA in plasma. Physical absence of tumor DNA molecules in a blood draw from a patient with low disease burden will result in a negative test, no matter the sensitivity of the ex vivo detection platform. To overcome this barrier, here we report a first-in-class intravenous DNA-binding priming agent that is given 2 hours prior to a blood draw to recover more ctDNA, boosting the detection of tumor mutations in plasma by 19-fold and increasing sensitivity from 6% to 84%. Given the rapid clearance of cfDNA from circulation, we reasoned that a priming agent that could bind and protect cfDNA from clearance could increase the tumor DNA recovered from plasma. We selected monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) as the class of molecules to use as cfDNA protectors given their persistence in circulation and ease of engineering. We identify a mAb that binds double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) and find on electrophoretic mobility shift assays that it binds both free and histone-bound dsDNA, the constituent components of cfDNA. We then demonstrate that this mAb can delay the clearance of dsDNA from plasma in vivo through co-injection of the mAb with free- and histone-bound dsDNA in mice. We further identify interactions with Fc-gamma-receptors as a key mediator of early clearance of dsDNA bound to the priming mAb. To address this early clearance and limit potential immune interactions, we engineer the mAb to abrogate its Fc effector function. The engineered variant decreases clearance of injected dsDNA by over 150-fold at one hour post-injection compared to dsDNA alone. We next evaluate the effect of our priming mAb on cancer detection. We use a targeted panel against 1,822 mutations in the MC26 murine colon carcinoma cell line to detect tumor mutations in the plasma of tumor bearing mice. The priming mAb results in 19-fold higher recovery of tumor DNA molecules compared to a control mAb. This improved recovery leads to detection of 77% of targeted sites in plasma compared to only 15% in the control group. In sensitivity analyses, higher recovery of mutant molecules improves sensitivity for cancer detection from 6% to 84% at 0.001% tumor fraction. In summary, we demonstrate an approach to overcome a key barrier in liquid biopsies. We envision that similar to contrast agents in clinical imaging, priming agents could significantly boost the diagnostic sensitivity of liquid biopsies and enable further applications across biomedicine.
 Citation Format: Shervin Tabrizi, Carmen Martin-Alonso, Kan Xiong, Timothy Blewett, Sainetra Sridhar, Zhenyi An, Sahil Patel, Sergio Rodriguez-Aponte, Christopher Naranjo, Douglas Shea, Todd Golub, Sangeeta N. Bhatia, Viktor A. Adalsteinsson, J. Christopher Love. A DNA-binding priming agent protects cell-free DNA and improves the sensitivity of liquid biopsies [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 3371.


This paper is devoted with two analytical methods; Homotopy perturbation method (HPM) and Adomian decomposition method(ADM). We display an efficient application of the ADM and HPM methods to the nonlinear fractional quadratic integral equations of Erdelyi-kober type. The existence and uniqueness of the solution and convergence will be discussed. In particular, the well-known Chandrasekhar integral equation also belong to this class, recent will be discussed. Finally, two numerical examples demonstrate the efficiency of the method.


Neural networks are processing devices which are either algorithms or actual hard wares. Their designs are motivated by the design and functioning of human brains and components thereof. Neural networks provide improved performance over conventional technologies in the areas of machine vision, robust pattern detection, signal filtering, virtual reality, data segmentation, data compression, data mining, text mining, artificial life, adaptive control, optimization and scheduling, complex mapping and many more. In this book the fundamental simulation methodologies of the neural networks - McCulloch Pitts neuron model, Hebb's network, perceptron network, ADALINE neuron model, MADALINE neurons model, hetero associative memory network, auto associative memory network, bidirectional associative memory network, discrete Hopfield network, back propagation network, self organizing map network, learning vector quantization network, max net, mexican hat network, hamming net and counter propagation network are described and illustrated with the help of algorithms, MATLAB source codes and outputs.


Mauritius had originally inherited its laws from its two successive colonial administrators, France and Great  Britain. The Mauritian legal system, however, is neither civilian nor common law, although possessing  characteristics of both. By a kind of osmosis, the system has blended the elements of its inherited traditions  and, in their fusion, has developed a distinct corpus of Mauritian law. This article examines the historical developments during the colonial period which lead to the emergence of the Mauritian Legal System as a mixed or hybrid legal system: how the blend occurred, why it did so. Key Words : Mauritian legal system; mixed or hybrid legal system; civilian and common law origins; distinct corpus of Mauritian law.


In this paper a transformerless Static Synchronous Series Compensator (SSSC) to increase the power capacity of a 230 kV transmission line is proposed. In order to eliminate the transformer, a 15-level cascade H Bridge (CHB) inverter is employed within the proposed compensator structure to inject reactive power to the transmission line. The theory of instantaneous p-q power using in the compensator is in such a way that allows for the system to be controlled in one phase. However, this method is used with three-phase systems. The proposed control method is also able to balance the voltage of dc-link capacitors at a desirable level. Modulation technique used by the inverter is Phase-Shifted PWM. In order to validate the proposed compensator's application, a three-phase transmission line is tested by MATLAB software. The transmitted active power of this transmission line is equal to 160 MW. The results obtained from a dynamic simulation are presented. Simulation results indicated 39% increase in the transmitted active power of the line.


Abstract Plasma triglyceride (TG) levels were determined before and after a test meal of 2 g neutral fat per kg b.w. in 32 children with different malabsorption syndromes, 8 children with transient growth retardation without demonstrable disease and in 29 controls. The increase of plasma TG 120 min after the test meal was found to discriminate between children with malabsorption syndromes and controls during the studied age period, 1 month – 3 years. In this respect it was superior to faecal fat determination. Children with transient growth retardation who later spontaneously regained satisfactory growth, although along a lower SD score than the initial one, showed a TG increase after the test meal comparable to that of the controls.


Web-based creation of speech resources is a new paradigm for producing spoken language resources. It is particularly suited for less resourced languages, i.e. languages for which no read-ily available speech resources exist. This paper maps the speech resource creation tasks to the client-server architecture of the WWW. It presents two tools that have been developed for web-based speech resource creation, and it demonstrates the effec-tiveness of this approach by three use cases: 1) high bandwidth recordings of new speaker populations in geographically distributed locations, 2) recordings in adverse recording environ-ments, e.g. hospitals, and 3) field recordings of endangered languages. The only infrastructure requirements are electricity for the equipment and an Internet connection.


: Formation of phospholipase A2 stable complexes with nucleic acid fragments was observed upon the isolation of the enzyme from pig pancreas. This complex could be disrupted by neither DNA precipitation with protamine chloride and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide nor chromatography on DEAE-cellulose and CM-cellulose or hydroxyapatite. The treatment of the complexes with 1 M acetic acid followed by gel-chromatography on Sephadex G-75 in 1 M acetic acid resulted in complete separation of active phospholipase A2 from DNA fragments.


The researchers studied the interplay between architecture and fashion and highlighted the common ground between architecture and fashion design. To enhance visual communication and interest. The study consisted of four chapters, the first of which focused on its methodological framework, in which its problem was determined by the following question: And what's the relationship between them? The purpose of the study was to uncover the relationship between architecture and fashion design and their mutual influence. The second focused on the relationship between fashion design and architectural design characteristics, while the third concerned fashion designers affected by architecture in their work either. (Research procedures) The research methods adopted by the researchers included: By describing the forms of architecture and analyzing the relationship between architecture and fashion design, being a suitable methodology for studying them and completing the study, the researchers identified a set of results that were consistent with the importance, purpose and purpose of the study. 1. The characteristics of architecture and costumes, whether parallel or interrelated or based on a mutual relationship, were originally established for the comfort and beauty of man depending on the dimensions of his body. The study was then concluded with conclusions, recommendations and a list of sources.


Sickle cell disease (SCD) is caused by an abnormal hemoglobin (HbS), which results mainly in sickling and hemolysis of RBC. However, the platelets and the polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) are also involved in the pathophysiology of the disease. Similar to the findings in thalassemia, some patients develop thromboembolic phenomena with hypercoagulable state, which is due in part to platelet activation. In addition, a growing body of evidence suggests that WBC, particularly PMN, are abnormal; their number is elevated during painful crises and the severity of the disease increases with their number. Several aspects of the changes in the three blood lineages are thought to result from oxidative stress, which represents the imbalance between enhanced generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and a low cellular content of antioxidants such as reduced glutathione (GSH), the major intracellular scavenger of ROS. In SCD, oxidative stress results primarily from the premature precipitation of the unstable HbS and the accumulation of excess iron, a catalyst in the formation of ROS. Accumulation of ROS may result in hemolysis of RBC, activation of platelets and a respiratory burst of PMN. We developed flow cytometry techniques for measuring oxidative-state markers, ROS generation and GSH content, simultaneously in RBC, platelets and PMN. Peripheral blood samples obtained from 15 normal donors, 10 patients with SCD and 5 SCD/beta-thalassemia patients (two with the IVS2-1 mutation and 3 with the IVS1-6 mutation) were studied. Out of the 15 SCD patients, 5 were splenectomized, and all were treated with folic acid, except one who was treated with hydroxyurea. The blood was mixed with 3% gelatin, and following 30 min. incubation the upper layer, containing RBC, platelets and WBC, was collected. ROS and GSH were measured by FACS analysis following staining with 2′, 7′-dichlorofuoresceine (DCF) and mercury orange, respectively. Cells were gated on the basis of size and granularity to include platelets, RBC or PMN, exclusively. The cells in each gate were analyzed for green (DCF) or orange (mercury orange) fluorescence and the Mean Fluorescence Channel (MFC) was calculated. The results showed that ROS production increased by 10 to 30-fold in RBC, platelets and PMN from SCD patients compared with that of their normal counterparts. Concomitantly, the GSH content decreased by 20–50% in the SCD cells. It was possible to modulate the oxidative status of cells from both normal donors and SCD patients: Exposure of the cells to oxidants such as hydrogen peroxide (2 mM), hemin (0.1 mM) or iron (ferric ammonium citrate - 0.1 mM) increased the oxidative status in all cell types, while antioxidants such as N-acetyl cysteine, vitamin C (both at 1 mM) and vitamin E (0.2 mM) significantly decreased the oxidative stress. Our results indicate that similar to the findings in thalassemia, in SCD, RBC and platelets, as well as PMN, are in a state of oxidative stress, which could in part account for the clinical manifestations. Addition of antioxidants, which reduced the ROS and enhanced the GSH content of the cells, could protect against oxidative damage. The flow cytometry techniques we developed may prove useful for studying the effects of various antioxidants and for monitoring the patient's oxidative status during therapy thereby providing an objective, quantitative evaluation of their efficacy.


Project Synopsis While the effect of large-scale topography, such as that found on Hispaniola, on the overall structure of a hurricane passing over such topography is reasonably well understood, forecasters at the Tropical Prediction Centre/National Hurricane Centre (TPC/NHC) currently have no means available to them to assess the impact of smallscale topography on surface wind speeds in hurricanes making landfall over such terrain. This project uses the MS-Micro linear model for boundary layer flow over small-scale topography, described by Walmsley et al. (1982), Taylor et al. (1983), and Walmsley et al. (1986), in combination with the US Geological Survey's National Elevation Dataset (NED) to map the effects of topography on surface wind speeds at a height of 10 m for Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. The intended primary outcome of the project is a set of maps showing contours of speed-up factors that can then be used by a forecaster to assess the effects of topography on maximum sustained surface wind speeds in hurricanes making landfall in Puerto Rico or the US Virgin Islands. It is anticipated that a successful conclusion to the project would lead to an improved ability to forecast maximum sustained surface wind speeds in areas with significant topography as identified in TPC/NHC hurricane forecaster priority TPC-6.