1Department of Geriatrics, University Hospital, Nantes, France; 2Department of Cardiology, Institut du Thorax, University Hospital, Nantes, France; 3Department of Radiology, University Hospital, Nantes, France; 4Université de Nantes, CHU Nantes, CNRS, INSERM, Institut du Thorax, Nantes, F-44000, France Background: Transcatheter aortic-valve replacement (TAVR) reduces mortality and improves quality of life in patients with severe aortic valve stenosis. One third of patients have no benefit one year after TAVR. Sarcopenia, an age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass, is associated with increased physical disability and mortality. The main purpose was to evaluate the impact of severe sarcopenia on rehospitalization one year after TAVR in older patients. Methods: All patients aged ≥75 referred for a TAVR in 2018 were included. Severe sarcopenia was defined by a loss of skeletal muscle mass defined on CT-scan measurement associated with a gait speed ≤0.8m/s. The main outcome was rehospitalization one year after TAVR. Results: Median age of the 182 included patients was 84, and 35% had an unplanned hospitalization at one year. Severe sarcopenia was diagnosed in 9 patients (4.9%). Univariable analysis showed that gait speed was a factor associated with readmission [HR=0.32, 95% CI (0.10–0.97), p=0.04] but not severe sarcopenia. In multivariable analysis, only diabetes was significantly associated with rehospitalization [HR=2.06, 95% CI (1.11– 3.84), p=0.02]. Prevalence of severe sarcopenia varied according to different thresholds of skeletal muscle mass on CT-scan. Conclusion: Even though severe sarcopenia was not correlated with rehospitalization and mortality at one year after TAVR, our results emphasize the changes in the prevalence according to cutoff used. It highlights the need to define standardized methods and international threshold for sarcopenia diagnosis by CT-scan measurements, in general population and for patients with valvular heart disease.


Many pollutants, even when present in the water in concentrations well below lethal levels, may cause marked changes in the physiology and behaviour of fish. The work reported deals mainly with salmonids. The responses to insecticides are particularly interesting. Of fundamental interest is the suggestion that DDT seems to act by interfering with the normal thermal acclimation mechanism(s), probably within the central nervous system. The results are not without practical significance. Some responses, including those induced by heavy metal ions from mining wastes, may cause long-term ecological changes of consequence.


BACKGROUND
Sensitivity of the myofascial trigger point (MTrP) can be inhibited by electrical stimulation of remote site. However, it remains unclear whether remote pain control of the MTrP occurs in the same spinal segment or in the supraspinal system.

OBJECTIVES
The aims of this study were to identify whether the remote pain control occurs in the spinal segment corresponding to the MTrP or in the supraspinal system.

METHODS
Test subjects (n = 10) received transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation for 5 minutes, whereas control subjects (n = 10) received no intervention. The threshold for tactile sensory modulation at the lateral elbow was assessed using Von Frey filaments. The pressure sensitivities of MTrPs in both the infraspinatus and upper trapezius muscles were quantified by algometry. Measurements were performed at baseline and 1 and 15 minutes after the intervention.

RESULTS
Increases of the tactile threshold at the remote site decreased the sensitivity of the MTrP innervated by same spinal segment. However, no changes were observed at MTrP sites innervated by contralateral fibers or those from different spinal segment.

CONCLUSION
MTrP sensitivity is more strongly affected by interventions at remote ipsilateral sites in the same spinal segment than by stimulation of extra-segmental sites.


Hourly and six-minute interval models were developed to stochastically generate sequences of rainfall depths. The models were applied to data recorded at twelve rainfall stations in Australia,including several from the arid zone. At each station, several replicates of rainfall sequences of length equal to the historical record were generated. Based on a range of parameters covering short rainfall bursts up to annual totals, the models were shown to be performing satisfactorily.


The preparations of interferon or virus-inhibiting factor produced in L cell (L-IF) and mouse brain (MB-IF) enhanced the killing of Staphylococcus aureus (S.a.) by the mouse peritoneal macrophage. The L-IF, heat-inactivated at 80 degrees or 60 degrees for 30 min., and mock L-IF could not enhance the killing of S.a. The heterologous human and rabbit interferon preparations didn't enhance the bactericidal activity of macrophage. The L-IF didn't have any effect on the release of lysozyme from the macrophages.


This paper describes a transient heat and mass transfer model of residential attics. The model is used to predict hourly ceiling heat gain/loss in residences with the purpose of estimating reductions in cooling and heating loads produced by radiant barriers. The model accounts for transient conduction, convection and radiation and incorporates moisture and air transport across the attic. Environmental variables such as solar loads on outer attic surfaces and sky temperatures are also estimated. The model is driven by hourly weather data which include: time, outdoor dry bulb air temperature, horizontal solar and sky radiation, wind speed and direction, relative humidity (or dew point), and cloud cover data. The output of the model includes ceiling heat fluxes, inner and outer heat fluxes from all surfaces, inner and outer surface temperatures and attic dry bulb air temperatures. The calculated fluxes have been compared to experimental data of side-by-side testing of attics retrofit with radiant barriers. The model predicts ceiling heat flows within 10 percent for most cases.


This paper is to determine the slab schedule on parallel hot rolling lines with consideration of chain precedence constraints, which restricts the slabs belonging to a chain to be successively processed without interruption in one production line. Moreover, energy loss increases as its waiting time before being processed increases, since the slabs dynamically arrive with high temperature. The objective of the problem is to minimize the total energy loss costs. Two kinds of energy loss cost that are linearly and nonlinearly dependent of its waiting time are concerned. The strongly NP-hard feature of the problem stimulates us to develop branch-and-pricing algorithm to solve it. Firstly, the model is formulated as a set partitioning model. For the strongly NP-hard sub-problem, dynamic programming based on state-space relaxation method is derived to tackle it. A branch-and-bound procedure is applied for the case that the solution obtained at the root node is not integral. The whole algorithm is implemented by C language on a Pentium IV 3.0 GHz PC. Results on 25 different problem scenarios demonstrate that the proposed algorithm can solve the instances up to 120 slabs optimally within a reasonable computation time. The gaps between optimal solution and lower bound are no more than 0.0395% for the linear case and 0.0315% for the nonlinear case, respectively.


Optimisation problems in Healthcare have received considerable attention for more than three decades. More recently, however, with decreasing birth rates in nearly all of the developed countries and increasing average longevity globally, optimisation issues in Healthcare have become noticeably important and attract keen interest from the Operations Research community. Over the years, attention has gradually expanded from resource allocation and strategic planning to include operational issues such as resource scheduling and treatment planning.

This paper surveys several applications of Operations Research in the domain of Healthcare. In particular, the paper reviews key contributions addressing contemporary optimisation issues in this area. It highlights current research activities, focusing on a variety of optimisation problems as well as solution techniques used for solving the optimisation problems.


Purpose Researchers increasingly recognise emotional challenges can emerge when studying emotionally sensitive topics such as violence. This exploratory study examined emotional challenges research staff (research assistants/interviewers/study clinicians) experienced while working on violence-related research studies and identified supports that helped staff deal with emotionally-charged content. Methods Semi-structured qualitative interviews (n=34; Mean=48 min; sd=7 min) were conducted with a purposefully selected sample of research staff recruited through web-based searches (NIH RePorter, clinicaltrials.gov) and expert recommendations. Participants were between 20–67 years old; 77% women; 62.9% white, 14.3% Latino, 11.4% African-American, and 11.4% other races/ethnicities). A quarter reported personal histories of physical/sexual victimisation (25.7% as adult and 22.9% as child). A thematic approach for qualitative data analysis was used. We began with deductive codes developed from prior research/theory and then used Erickson's (1986) method of analytic induction. This iterative procedure was used to develop and test empirical assertions for this qualitative study. Results There was tremendous diversity in the emotional reactions to experienced by research staff. Although participants noted positive aspects of their work (e.g., feeling inspired), they also reported emotional challenges including difficult thoughts, feelings (e.g., exhaustion, overwhelmed) and behaviours (e.g., short temper, bad dreams/nightmares). Helpful supports included clinical supervision and informal supports (e.g. peer-debriefing, self-care activities, social supports). Participants identified barriers that prevented the utilisation of formal supports (e.g., difficulty accessing supervisors, not wanting supervisors to think less of them) and how supports could be more helpful (e.g., consistent clinical supervision, in-person supervision, supervisors discussing their reactions). Conclusions and Significance Findings suggest that emotional challenges are an important and often overlooked aspect of violence research. Emotional challenges need to be taken into account by investigators planning research on violence and emotionally sensitive topics. Resources need to be budgeted to provide adequate emotional support for the research staff.


autologous reconstruction as compared with tissue expander reconstruction (4.5 percent versus 2.1 percent; p<0.001). There were significantly more debridements performed in cases where ICG was used (5.6 percent versus 3.2 percent; p<0.001). Use of ICG added a mean charge of $9,080 per reconstruction ($79,242 vs. $70,162; p<0.001); however, it also resulted in a decreased LOS (2.37 days versus 2.47 days; p<0.001).


The hydrological modeling community is aware that the validation of distributed hydrological models has to move beyond aggregated performance measures, like hydrograph assessment by means of Nash‐Suitcliffe efficiency toward a true spatial model validation. Remote sensing facilitates continuous data and can be measured on a similar spatial scale as the predictive scale of the hydrological model thereby it can serve as suitable data for the spatial validation. The human perception is often described as a very reliable and well‐trained source for pattern comparison, which this study wants to exploit. A web‐based survey that is interpreted based on approximately 200 replies reflects the consensus of the human perception on map comparisons of a reference map and 12 synthetic perturbations. The resulting similarity ranking can be used as a reference to benchmark various spatial performance metrics. This study promotes Fuzzy theory as a suitable approach because it considers uncertainties related to both location and value in the simulated map. Additionally, an EOF‐analysis (Empirical Orthogonal Function) is conducted to decompose the map comparison into its similarities and dissimilarities. A modeling case study serves to further examine the metrics capability to assess the goodness of fit between simulated and observed land surface temperature maps. The EOF‐analysis unambiguously identifies a systematic depth to groundwater table‐related model deficiency. Kappa statistic extended by Fuzziness is a suitable and commonly applied measure for map comparison. However, its apparent bias sensitivity limits it's capability as a diagnostic tool to detect the distinct deficiency.


Phosphatase and tensin homolog (PTEN) germline mutations are associated with cancer syndromes (PTEN hamartoma tumor syndrome; PHTS) and in pediatric patients with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and macrocephaly. The exact prevalence of PTEN mutations in patients with ASD and macrocephaly is uncertain; with prevalence rates ranging from 1% to 17%. Most studies are retrospective and contain more adult than pediatric patients, there is a need for more prospective pediatric studies.


The individual - in terms of its different social functions and its roles as the owner - is a constituent part of wider social environment (society), which, on the one side, gives him a guarantee for clearly defined rights and, on the other, obtains the owner´s promise of meeting certain obligations. According to the growth of accumulated wealth, the number of feasible (admissible) variants of behaviour of individuals increases, thus giving rise to the real freedom of an individual with the consequent requirement of enlarging its social duties and responsibilities. In order to be implemented, the responsibility postulate has to be operationalized however. The author therefore examines various alternatives of operalitonalization including the most flagrant cases of breaking the owner´s social responsibility producing serious social upheavals and ownership transformations in the past, and evaluates various corrective methodes applied in the Czech history. In conclusion of his paper the author suggests his proposal of prospective solution of the problem.


Osteoarticular infections are challenging and difficult to treat. The use of innovative technologies like 3D printing already employed in other types of surgeries and pathologies can suppose a great asset to tackle the problem and improve functional results. We present a case of an osteoarticular infection of an ankle treated with a custom-made titanium talus made with 3D metal printing technology: A 63-year-old patient, with chronic infection of the ankle. A 2-staged surgery was performed, with a hand-made cement spacer used during the first stage and the implantation of a custom-made titanium talus with an arthrodesis nail in the second stage. After a 2-year follow-up, a good clinical evolution was achieved, with no signs of reactivation of the infection, no pain, good skin condition and optimal functionality: functional gait pattern without pain and any external aids.


The purpose of the study is to classify and disclose the content of forms of international cooperation in the field of covert investigations, as well as to develop ways to improve the legal regulation of such forms and the practice of their application. Methodology. Methodological tools are selected taking into account the purpose, specifics of the object and subject of research. It is based on a general dialectical method of scientific knowledge of real phenomena, as well as their connections with the practical activities of operational units and pre-trial investigation bodies. These methods were comprehensively used in the systematic processing of: statistical materials on the state of crime and the results of the investigative bodies of Ukraine and Interpol; international treaties and national legislation of a number of states; materials for the practical implementation of these agreements; the results of research on combating international crime; provisions of scientific works on the use by law enforcement agencies of different countries of covert methods of obtaining information necessary to combat crime; materials of operative-search cases and criminal proceedings, during the investigation of which measures of international cooperation and measures of secret receipt of information were applied. Scientific novelty. According to the results of the study, proposals were made to increase the effectiveness of the practice of international cooperation in the field of covert investigations (criminal intelligence, operational and investigative activities). Based on the proposed author's approach to the classification of forms of international cooperation in the field of covert investigations, the directions of improving international law and harmonization of national laws of different countries in terms of using covert methods to obtain information necessary to combat international crime. Conclusions. Forms of international cooperation in the field of covert investigations (criminal intelligence, operational and investigative activities) include: 1) exchange between states of information necessary for covert investigations and information obtained in the course of such investigations; 2) exchange on mutually beneficial terms of special equipment, objects and substances necessary for use in the process of covert investigation; 3) involvement of foreign specialists for their participation in covert investigations or in some covert investigative actions; 4) conducting certain covert investigative actions (covert police operations, intelligence activities in a criminal environment) at the request of another country; 5) conducting a set of covert investigative actions (covert police operations, intelligence activities in a criminal environment) at the request of another state (within one case); 6) conducting joint cross-border covert police operations (covert investigative actions) by law enforcement agencies of two or more countries; 7) conducting a covert investigation (criminal intelligence, operational and investigative activities) at the request of law enforcement agencies of another state; 8) simultaneous conduct of a covert investigation in a particular case in the territories of two or more states by their law enforcement agencies in cooperation. These forms differ in their complexity. Simpler ones may be included in the content of more complex ones. The wider the range of forms used and the more complex they are, the more effective the fight against international crime will be.
Keywords: crime; covert investigations; investigative actions; operational and investigative measures; crime investigation; international cooperation; police.


Recent advancements in wireless communications and electronics have caused the emergence of a new type of networks called Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). WSNs have some unique features such as autonomy, low cost, tiny size, simple and fast deployment and high scalability, and many applications have been forecasted for them. In recent years, many WSN-based applications were proposed for Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). In this paper, UTOSPF-Urban Traffic Open Shortest Path First-a novel distributed system based on WSNs and Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) protocol is proposed that collects the real-time traffic information from roads, and based on this information, the optimal routes for every destination will be found and drivers will be informed via Variable Message Signs (VMS) or special transceivers. Fast and low cost deployment, high scalability, autonomy and distributed processing are main features of this system that make it suitable for using in urban environments. Simulation results showed that UTOSPF improve the average speed of vehicles up to 40% as compared to random routes in the simulated scenario.


Abstract Objectives: To determine the incidence of gentamicin vestibulotoxicity with current dosing regimens, and to evaluate the feasibility of routine video-oculography on all patients given gentamicin. Materials and methods: In this prospective incidence study serial horizontal vestibulo-ocular reflex (HVOR) gain measurements were recorded using video-oculography on adult inpatients receiving intravenous gentamicin. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients developing impairment of their HVOR gain. Results: After exclusions, 42 patients were included in the analysis. Three patients (7.1%) developed asymptomatic vestibulotoxicity, exact 95% confidence interval 1.5–19.5%. In two of these patients the deficit resolved within several hours. No patients developed symptomatic vestibulotoxicity. There was no evidence for a generalised reduction in group HVOR gain with time. HVOR gain was not associated with total gentamicin dose, dynamic visual acuity or subjective imbalance. Conclusions and significance: Gentamicin may cause reversible, asymptomatic vestibulotoxicity. Video-oculography may be useful to monitor for vestibulotoxicity in patients treated with gentamcin; however, testing all patients routinely may be challenging.


Climate change and global warming impacts are manifesting on a daily basis all over the world. Reports of catastrophic weather events are always being aired in the news, showing huge and massive destruction to property and life. Carbon emissions by both industrialised and non-industrialised countries are the main causes of global warming and climate change. While the developed nations are making frantic efforts through innovations and technologies to adapt to the changes in the climate, the developing countries do not have the capacity to develop such technologies, hence unable to adapt to the changes, leaving them with mitigation options. Against this backdrop, South African Government has put in place various interventions to curb the surge of global climate change. However, it is pertinent to point out that till date, there is no single law passed by the parliament specifically on global climate change. This notwithstanding, in view of the fact that global climate change is caused by emissions of harmful gases to the atmosphere and the environment, South Africa has ample laws controlling and regulating the environment. Therefore, the paper seeks to advance a compelling argument on implementation and enforcement of policy and law on carbon emissions reduction and how the law can be strengthened as part of mitigation strategy. As the issues surrounding global climate change relate and strictly pertain to the environment, the relevant environmental laws that are in place could be used to control and reduce emissions of all sorts and also enforce compliance. One of such pieces of legislation is the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act 39 of 2004. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n23p2709


Destruction of intact cellular proteins is largely orchestrated by ATP-dependent ubiquitination and subsequent degradation by the 26S proteasome. The REG-20S proteasome, however, only degrades short peptides. In this issue of Cell, challenge this notion by revealing that the proteasomal activator REGgamma directs degradation of the steroid receptor coactivator SRC-3 by the 20S proteasome in an ATP- and ubiquitin-independent manner.


Developing low-cost, high-durability and high-performance electrocatalytic materials are needed for hydrogen/oxygen evolution (HER/OER) and oxygen reduction reactions (ORR) which are crucial steps for regenerative fuel cells. Although Pt-based, RuO2 and IrO2 materials are widely used for these purposes, other alternative materials are required with desired properties. In this regard, we studied the electrochemical properties of lanthanum-based perovskites which were synthesized by sol-gel method. We investigated the addition of 10% Dy and 30% Sr into the A site and a small amount of Bi (x: 0, 0.03 and 0.1) added into the B site of La0.60Dy0.10Sr0.30Mn(1-x)BixO3 perovskites on HER, OER and ORR in 1 M KOH alkaline media at room temperature. While the addition of 0% and 3% Bi exhibited poor HER activities, the effect of 10% Bi in the structure enhanced HER activities by lowering onset potential from -1.389 V to -1.036 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) and increasing specific current density at -1.4 V from -13.3 mA cm-2 to -121.8 mA cm-2. Similarly, OER activity was also improved due to 10% Bi and onset potential and specific current density was found to be 0.758 V and 88.3 mA cm-2, respectively. The large Tafel slopes indicate that the ORR mechanism is possible in the structure but at a slow rate. The addition of 10% Bi in the structure resulted in a very high resistance of 19.3 kΩ and it reduced to a desired value of 3.5 kΩ due to ion conducting paths developed in the catalysts.


A field effect transistor (FET) using single InGaAs quasi-quantum-wire (quasi-QWR) as a channel has been fabricated. The quasi-QWR structures were fabricated by selective growth using molecular beam epitaxy on non-planar InP substrate. The width and thickness of the quasi-QWR are 200 nm and 7 nm, respectively. The FET demonstrated good saturation characteristics and its maximum transconductance (gm) was 105 mS/mm at a drain voltage of 0.6 V.


High time cost is the bottle-neck of video scene segmentation. In this paper we use a heuristic method called sort-merge feature selection to construct automatically a hierarchy of small subsets of features that are progressively more useful for segmentation. A novel combination of fastmap for dimensionality reduction and Mahalanobis distance for likelihood determination is used as induction algorithm. Because these induced feature sets from a hierarchy with increasing classification accuracy, video segments can be segmented and categorized simultaneously in a coarse-fine manner that efficiently and progressively detects and refines their temporal boundaries. We analyze the performance of these methods, and demonstrate them in the domain of long (75 minute) instructional video.


Background Pancreatic enzyme supplements for the treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) in dogs can be uncoated or enteric coated. Enteric coated supplements might be advantageous. Hypothesis/Objectives Enteric coated enzyme supplements are superior to uncoated supplements in dogs with clinical EPI. Animals Eleven dogs with naturally occurring EPI that were apparently free from other diseases. Methods Randomized, blinded, controlled cross‐over clinical trial comparing a novel micro‐encapsulated enteric coated enzyme supplement to a commercially available uncoated product in dogs with clinical EPI. Search of serum canine serum trypsin‐like immunoreactivity concentration ≤ 2.5 µg/L in the Gastrointestinal Laboratory database was used to identify dogs with EPI. Results There was no difference −4.46% (95% CI: −7.97%‐–0.96%; P = .15) in the % acid hydrolysis fecal fat (primary outcome) between the enteric coated formulation (median: 11.8%; range 6.4%‐17.0%) and the uncoated pancreatic enzyme replacement product (median: 17.5%; range: 5.2%‐24.9%) in the 11 dogs that completed the study. Other variables did not differ between treatments. Conclusions and Clinical Importance This study, which had low statistical power, did not detect a difference between formulations.


Mitochondrial outer membrane proteins are synthesized without a cleavable presequence but instead contain segments responsible for mitochondrial targeting and membrane integration within the molecule: the transmembrane segment (TMS) and N- or C-terminal flanking segment. We analyzed targeting and integration of Tom5, a C-tail anchor protein associated with the preprotein translocase of the outer membrane, to the yeast mitochondrial outer membrane in vivo using green fluorescent protein as the reporter and compared the signal with other signals for proteins dispersed in the membrane. The functional assembly of Tom5 into the TOM complex was assessed by blue native PAGE and complementation of temperature-sensitive Δtom5 cells. Correct targeting and assembly required (i) an appropriate length TMS rather than hydrophobicity, (ii) a proline residue located at correct position in the TMS and specific residues near the proline, and (iii) that, in contrast to proteins dispersed in the outer membrane, the positive C-terminal segment was dispensable. Based on these findings, we constructed green fluorescent protein fusions with a C-terminal TMS in which the deduced sequences (minimum: Ser-Pro-Met) were inserted at an appropriate position within artificial Leu-Ala repeats. They were targeted to mitochondria and complemented the temperature-sensitive growth phenotype of Δtom5 yeast cells. The membrane-targeting mechanism of Tom5 appears to be distinct from that for proteins that are dispersed in the outer membrane.


LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After reading this article (part II of II), the participant should be able to: 1. Describe the anatomy and function of the median and ulnar nerves in the forearm and hand. 2. Describe the clinical deficits associated with injury to each nerve. 3. Describe the indications, benefits, and drawbacks for various tendon transfer procedures used to treat median and ulnar nerve palsy. 4. Describe the treatment of combined nerve injuries. 5. Describe postoperative care and possible complications associated with these tendon transfer procedures.

SUMMARY
This article discusses the use of tendon transfer procedures for treatment of median and ulnar nerve palsy and combined nerve palsies. Postoperative management and potential complications are also discussed.


The use of wireless networks has widely increased beyond simple text and data transmission. With the increasing need for transmission of audio and video data across networks (wired and wireless alike), the need to enhance the Quality of Service (QoS) of multimedia transmission has also increased. Wireless networks offer the benefits of increased productivity, easier network expansion, flexibility, and lower the cost of ownership. On the other hand, wireless data networks present a more constrained communication environment compared to wired networks. Because of fundamental limitations of power, available spectrum and mobility, wireless data networks tend to have
less bandwidth, more latency, less connection stability, and less predictable availability. While fundamentals of communication and security of wired and wireless networks are largely similar, the limitations of WLANs impose more constraints on the quality of service and security of wireless networks. The deployment of VoIP over WLANs however poses significant challenges and may raise several deployment issues. In this paper, two different experimental scenarios have been considered and various observations have been made during the course of simulation. These two experimental scenarios are based on horizontal and vertical handoff. These two scenarios have been simulated using OPNET simulator.


Studies on the growth sequence of follicles in mature mice four to six months old were conducted by giving three injections of 16 μCi tritiated thymidine (3H‐T) / gm body weight at four hour intervals over a period of eight hours. Subsequent radioautographic analysis on ovaries obtained 1, 3, 5, 9 and 17 days after the last injection showed an overall follicle growth time of 17 to 19 days. The duration of the different follicle stage times were also estimated from radioautographic data. Intense 3H‐T incorporation was noted in the developing antra and zona pellucida of follicles of animals sacrificed one and three days after treatment suggesting that these areas serve as precursor storage sites during development. Oocytes of follicles in early antrum formation also showed juxtanucleolar 3H‐T incorporation concomitantly with rapid and massive oocyte and follicular growth. The findings further indicate that the earliest follicular cells surrounding the oocyte originate at some distance from the developing primordial follicle.


Phasor measurement unit (PMU) is the basic unit in wide area protection (WAP) in power system. At present, development of PMU based on American GPS (Global Positioning System) is very common. However, because GPS is developed and held by American independently and some other reasons, PMU based on GPS exists unavoidable potential security hazard. Therefore, research and development of PMU based on satellite navigation system developed by our own country is both inevitable and necessary. This paper analyzes the importance and feasibility of PMU based on "Beidou I" satellite navigation system, which is developed by China and has been put into civil use. "Beidou I" satellite navigation system's service area satisfies the interconnection requirement throughout the whole country's power grids. The one way time transmission accuracy is up to 100 ns, which can already meets the PMU requirement for synchronous signals. The price performance ratio is relatively higher than PMU based on GPS. Therefore the paper introduces a PMU design scheme based on "Beidou I" satellite navigation system. The technology shall be of great use for the future development of China's wide area protection system.


Oral implantology is the branch of dentistry focused on the reconstruction of missing teeth and their supporting structures with natural or synthetic substitutes. Conventional instruments used during oral implantation exhibit severe operational limitations, especially in the presence of limited surgical access, anatomically delicate bone structures, and proximity to soft tissues, because of the high risk of injury. This paper illustrates the design and performance characteristics of two novel ultrasonic devices developed to improve the implantation process. The working frequency of both systems is in the 25 to 26 kHz range and the acoustic power is modulated in line with the specific operations. The first tuned device presented in this work relies on a planar vibration at its tip to drill holes in bone. The second exploits a longitudinal-flexural composite vibration mode which facilitates the insertion of dental implants into the jawbone. The vibration characteristics of the proposed systems are investigated using finite element (FE) models subsequently validated by experimental modal analysis (EMA). Ultimately, the operational benefits of the investigated devices are supported by clinical evidence.


The decline in gonadal hormones during menopause gives rise to a wide range of physiological and psychological changes with the potential to significantly impact a woman's health and quality of life. Most notable among these are menopausal vasomotor symptoms, hot flushes and night sweats, along with mood and sleep disturbances. Given the biological and social significance of menopause, it is remarkable that the language used to describe this event and its associated symptoms is inconsistent. This review traces the history of Western medical writing about menopause-associated vasomotor symptoms and considers how terminology has contributed to the current confusion regarding symptoms and symptom reporting. Although hormone therapy is the only treatment for menopausal symptoms currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, other forms of therapy are under evaluation. Agreement about the definition of menopause and its associated symptoms is critically important for the design and evaluation of new therapies and for the optimal treatment of women during this important phase of their lives.


BACKGROUND
For stent-retriever (SR) thrombectomy, technical developments such as the Push and Fluff technique (PFT) appear to have a significant impact on procedural success. This study aimed to (1) quantify the enhancement in clot traction when using PFT as compared to the standard unsheathing technique (SUT) and (2) to evaluate the performance of PFT in new versus established users of the technique.

METHODS
Operators were divided between established PFT and SUT users. Each experiment was labeled according to the SR size, utilized technique, and operator experience. A three-dimensional-printed chamber with a clot simulant was used. After each retriever deployment, the SR wire was connected to a force gauge. Tension was applied by pulling the gauge until clot disengagement. The maximal force was recorded.

RESULTS
A total of 167 experiments were performed. The median overall force to disengage the clot was 1.11 pounds for PFT and 0.70 pounds for SUT (an overall 59.1% increment with PFT; p < 0.001). The PFT effect was consistent across different retriever sizes (69% enhancement with the 3  ×  32mm device, 52% with the 4  ×  28mm, 65% with the 4  ×  41mm, 47% with the 6  ×  37mm). The ratio of tension required for clot disengagement with PFT versus SUT was comparable between physicians who were PFT versus SUT operators (1.595 [0.844] vs. 1.448 [1.021]; p: 0.424). The PFT/SUT traction ratio remained consistent from passes 1 to 4 of each technique in SUT users.

CONCLUSION
PFT led to reproduceable improvement in clot engagement with an average ∼60% increase in clot traction in this model and was found not to have a significant learning curve.


Chronic intermittent hypoxia (CIH) in rats produces changes in the central regulation of cardiovascular and respiratory systems by unknown mechanisms. We hypothesized that CIH (6% O2 for 40 s, every 9 min, 8 h day−1) for 10 days alters the central respiratory modulation of sympathetic activity. After CIH, awake rats (n= 14) exhibited higher levels of mean arterial pressure than controls (101 ± 3 versus 89 ± 3 mmHg, n= 15, P < 0.01). Recordings of phrenic, thoracic sympathetic, cervical vagus and abdominal nerves were performed in the in situ working heart–brainstem preparations of control and CIH juvenile rats. The data obtained in CIH rats revealed that: (i) abdominal (Abd) nerves exhibited an additional burst discharge in late expiration; (ii) thoracic sympathetic nerve activity (tSNA) was greater during late expiration than in controls (52 ± 5 versus 40 ± 3%; n= 11, P < 0.05; values expressed according to the maximal activity observed during inspiration and the noise level recorded at the end of each experiment), which was not dependent on peripheral chemoreceptors; (iii) the additional late expiratory activity in the Abd nerve correlated with the increased tSNA; (iv) the enhanced late expiratory activity in the Abd nerve unique to CIH rats was accompanied by reduced post‐inspiratory activity in cervical vagus nerve compared to controls. The data indicate that CIH rats present an altered pattern of central sympathetic–respiratory coupling, with increased tSNA that correlates with enhanced late expiratory discharge in the Abd nerve. Thus, CIH alters the coupling between the central respiratory generator and sympathetic networks that may contribute to the induced hypertension in this experimental model.


Objective: High dietary sodium (Na), low dietary potassium (K) intakes and high Na/K ratio are associated with adverse blood pressure levels and excess risks of cardiovascular diseases. Handy urinary Na/K ratio measurement device provides feedback in several ten seconds with far lower patient burden as compared to conventional methods. Since there is no report on diurnal variation of casual urinary Na/K ratio, we clarified it under free living conditions in Japanese participants. Figure. No caption available. Design and method: This study is a cross sectional study. A total of 122 normotensve and hypertensive individuals (ages 25–69 years) were recruited. Participants were instructed to collect all casual urine samples in aliquot tubes (10 mL), and to report urine volume and the time at each voiding under free living conditions for 10 to 22 days. Urinary sodium and potassium concentration was measured by ion-specific electrodes, and Na/K ratio was calculated. 13,277 specimens were collected and classified into hourly data from 00:00 hours to 23:00 hours on the hour. Diurnal pattern of urinary Na/K ratio, urinary concentrations and excretions of sodium and potassium, and urine volume were evaluated. Results: Mean value of 24-hr urinary Na/K ratio were 4.37 and 3.43 in normotensive and hypertensive individuals, respectively. Of the individuals on anti-hypertensive medications, 14 participants, 9 participants, 15 participants and 5 participants were taking calcium channel blockers (CCB), angiotensin 2 receptor blockers (ARB), both CCB and ARB, and other drugs, respectively. Overall mean value of urinary Na/K ratio was highest (4.1–5.0) in the early morning, lower (3.3–3.8) in daytime and higher (4.0–4.4) toward evening hours. Mean urinary sodium and potassium concentration was lowest (90–110mmol/L, 24–32mmol/L, respectively) in the early morning, and higher (110–140mmol/L, 35–43mmol/L, respectively) after second voiding. Diurnal variability ratio of potassium concentration was larger than sodium concentration. In subgroup analysis, diurnal patterns of mean urinary Na/K ratio were comparable between normotensive and hypertensive individuals. Conclusions: We identified a diurnal pattern in urinary Na/K ratio under free living conditions. This fluctuation of urinary Na/K ratio was 1 to 1.5, and its variation is not likely to be explained by postprandial surges.


The study described in this report used mathematical modeling to estimate health risks from exposure to depleted uranium (DU) during the 1991 Gulf War for both U.S. troops and nearby Iraqi civilians. The analysis found that the risks of DU-induced leukemia or birth defects are far too small to result in an observable increase in these health effects among exposed veterans or Iraqi civilians. Only a few veterans in vehicles accidentally struck by U.S. DU munitions are predicted to have inhaled sufficient quantities of DU particulate to incur any significant health risk (i.e., the possibility of temporary kidney damage from the chemical toxicity of uranium and about a 1% chance of fatal lung cancer). The health risk to all downwind civilians is predicted to be extremely small. Recommendations for monitoring are made for certain exposed groups. Although the study found fairly large calculational uncertainties, the models developed and used are generally valid. The analysis was also used to assess potential uranium health hazards for workers in the weapons complex. No illnesses are projected for uranium workers following standard guidelines; nonetheless, some research suggests that more conservative guidelines should be considered.


Adaptation to context is likely to be a key element in ensuring that pervasive devices make the most efficient use of the limited resources available to them. This adaptation can occur on different timescales: from very rapid adaptation to network congestion, through software component discovery and loading to allow for the addition of new functionality, to longer-term component update and patching. In the latter two cases, dynamic code loading introduces security problems, particularly because it may be from untrusted sources with whom pervasive devices happen to be networked at the time of need. As a consequence, we propose a local decision-making process that aims at producing better-informed decisions for pervasive devices when they contemplate whether or not to load software from other devices. This process has three key elements: (i) explicit identification of potential risks, given the device's context and the type of application; (ii) computation of likelihoods with which the risks will occur, based on trust mechanisms; (iii) integration of the risk attitude of the user of the device, through customisable elementary utility functions.


189 Abstract— Titania supported MgO catalyst samples (10 and 20 wt. % MgO loading) were prepared by incipient wetness impregnation method and characterized using FTIR, XRF, BET, and XRD techniques. These materials were tested as catalyst for the conversion of waste vegetable oil to biodiesel in presence of methanol. The effects of reaction temperature, reaction time and MgO loading on the waste vegetable oil conversion have been established. It has been observed that the oil conversion increases with the increase in reaction temperature and reaction time. The effect of MgO loading on the waste oil conversion was found to depend on the operating temperature.


We demonstrate by experiment, simulation, and a simple analytical model that superradiance can be observed in a planar array of nanoantennas, with a linewidth that scales linearly with the number of nanoantennas within a square wavelength.


This method can be complete by three step. First, Find the main cycle through FFT. Second, decide the embedding dimension. Third, forecast by using the chaos model. According the characteristic of road traffic flow and the evidence showed that the prediction is effectively. So it is able to being used in actual prediction.


Resume: It is shawn tbat the simple percentage of vocabutary which a common reference text cavers in varions other texts is an insufficient measure of vocabulary overlaps, sinee il depends heavily on text lengths. A good measure is the expected vocabuhiry overlap size and its standard deviation-computed on the hypothesis that the texts compared are random extracts from a larger corpus sucb as the effective vocabulary of an aulber. Fonnulae for the overlap size of two and morc lexIs are derived according both to the replacement and the non replacement model (based on the sequence Vh V2, ... , i.e. on the number of lemmata which occur exactly once, twice etc. in the underlying corpus). The fonnulae are compared with the results of simulated text extraction from the common corpus of Letters and Speeches of the Greek rhetorieian Libanios. The correspondence offonnulae and simulatiQn is almost perfee!. Of the two models, the non-replacement model is adequate for simple vocabulary sizes, but for overlap sizes the replacement model is better, although a large basic corpus is required. An application to Libanios shows that Letters and Speeches differ in vocabulary at a very high significance level.


Background. Current state of knowledge regarding occupational therapy's contribution to chronic pain (CP) management has evolved over the past decade. Yet, has this been transferred to clinical practice? Purpose. Describe the current state of practice of CP management-specific occupational therapy. Method. An online survey was sent to occupational therapists working with CP patients. Findings. Of the 90 respondents (11.9%), 42.2% worked in primary care and 52.2% in secondary care. They reported that their primary role aimed at enabling occupation and providing vocational rehabilitation. The Canadian Model of Occupational Performance and Engagement (CMOP-E) (87.8%), semi-structured interview (86.7%), and education on energy conservation (65.6%) and postural hygiene (60.0%) were the most frequently reported conceptual model, assessment, and intervention methods. Implications. Results illustrate the diversity of current occupational therapy practice in CP management and suggest opportunities for improvement to ensure best practices are adopted, by emphasizing an occupation-based vision of health and well-being.


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS, PREFACE, PROLOGUE 1. ASIA What is Asia? One Asia The Nation as Museum Implicit Hierarchies The Awakening of the East Encountering Nivedita Problematizing the Postcolonial The Complication of Beauty 2. NATIONALISM The Enigma of Silence Swadeshi Samaj Gora's Bharatbarsha Negotiating 'Nothingness' Against Nationalism Reorienting the Orient Crisis in 'Civilization' Grounds of Misunderstanding Discriminating the Modern Homage to the West 'Our History' Countering Tagore 3. COSMOPOLITANISM Asian Cosmopolitans? Reclaiming Cosmopolitanism The Subaltern 'Cosmopolitan' Negotiating Privilege Cultural Property, or Loot? Cosmopolitics of Dress and Language The Cosmopolitan in Exile 4. FRIENDSHIP The Intertexts of Love Beyond Masculinity Homosociality in Context Modalities of Friendship Foreign Friends War and Friendship Epilogue, Notes , References, Index


PURPOSE
This prospective cohort study evaluates the 10-year survival and incidence of peri-implant disease at implant and patient level of sandblasted, large grid, and acid-etched titanium dental implants (Straumann, soft tissue level, SLA surface) in fully and partially edentulous patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Patients who had dental implant surgery in the period between November 1997 and June 2001, with a follow-up of at least 10 years, were investigated for clinical and radiological examination. Among the 506 inserted dental implants in 250 patients, 10-year data regarding the outcome of implants were available for 374 dental implants in 177 patients. In the current study, peri-implantitis was defined as advanced bone loss (≧1.5 mm. postloading) in combination with bleeding on probing.

RESULTS
At 10-year follow-up, only one implant was lost (0.3%) 2 months after implant surgery due to insufficient osseointegration. The average bone loss at 10 year postloading was 0.52 mm. Advanced bone loss at 10-year follow-up was present in 35 dental implants (9.8%). Seven percent of the observed dental implants showed bleeding on probing in combination with advanced bone loss and 4.2% when setting the threshold for advanced bone loss at 2.0 mm. Advanced bone loss without bleeding on probing was present in 2.8% of all implants.

CONCLUSION
In this prospective study, the 10-year survival rate at implant and patient level was 99.7% and 99.4%, respectively. Peri-implantitis was present in 7% of the observed dental implants according to the above-mentioned definition of peri-implantitis. This study shows that SLA implants offer predictable long-term results as support in the treatment of fully and partially edentulous patients.


Study Objective: Fractures in children may not be visible in the result of initial radiography, and undertreatment and overtreatment of such fractures routinely occur. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential cost of implementing limited magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at initial encounter, when radiographs are unrevealing. Methods: This was a retrospective review of 204 emergency department pediatric patients presenting between January 1, 2005 and February 28, 2006 with appendicular trauma, with initially negative radiographic result and follow-up. Emergency department treatment categorization of (1) no treatment, (2) ACE wrap, (3) brace, (4) splint, or (5) casting was evaluated. Final determination of presence or absence of fracture was based on follow-up. Patients with fractures were considered undertreated when they received categories 1 to 3 care; patients without fractures were considered overtreated when they received categories 4 and 5 care. The percentage of patients undertreated or overtreated and direct and total costs were determined and analyzed in conjunction with the cost of a limited MRI at initial encounter. Total costs include direct and indirect costs (lost wages for each day off work for the parent). Cost estimates assume patients determined to be without fractures at follow-up will not return for follow-up clinical care or obtain additional imaging after MRI at initial encounter. Results: Twenty-eight (13.7%) of the 204 patients had fractures at follow-up. Fifty one percent of patients without fractures were overtreated; 29% with fractures were undertreated. Mean direct cost for all patients and cost estimation with limited MRI protocol were $843.81 and $891.79, respectively (P = 0.365). However, mean total cost for all patients and cost estimation with limited MRI protocol was $1059.49 and $929.10, respectively (P = 0.02). Conclusions: Based on clinical grounds and initially negative radiographic results, slightly more than half of patients without fractures can be overtreated, and nearly one third of patients with fractures can be undertreated. Instituting a protocol that includes limited trauma MRI lowers the total cost of care without increasing direct cost, and appropriate care may be instituted at the outset.


Building the Natural Language Understanding (NLU) modules of task-oriented Spoken Dialogue Systems (SDS) involves a definition of intents and entities, collection of task-relevant data, annotating the data with intents and entities, and then repeating the same process over and over again for adding any functionality/enhancement to the SDS. In this work, we showcase an Intent Bulk Labeling system where SDS developers can interactively label and augment training data from unlabeled utterance corpora using advanced clustering and visual labeling methods. We extend the Deep Aligned Clustering work with a better backbone BERT model, explore techniques to select the seed data for labeling, and develop a data balancing method using an oversampling technique that utilizes paraphrasing models. We also look at the effect of data augmentation on the clustering process. Our results show that we can achieve over 10% gain in clustering accuracy on some datasets using the combination of the above techniques. Finally, we extract utterance embeddings from the clustering model and plot the data to interactively bulk label the samples, reducing the time and effort for data labeling of the whole dataset significantly.


Higher education institutions are pressured to use data for university rankings, accreditation, decision making, and technical support of students and faculty. However, these organizations also experience barriers and resistance to such data-driven aspirations. Rather than simply focusing on the whole organization, this research attends to variations in organizational subunits and asks what processes help and hinder data use. It pays attention to the puzzle of how data use variation can lead to effective subunits just as data fragmentation contributes to ineffective systems. Although universities may create centralized coordinating bodies, the structural and cultural bases of loosely coupled university subunits may upset these efforts. Using the case of a university attempting to centralize its data systems, we employ in-depth interviews of senior and mid-level administrators to understand why technical changes happen within specific subunits even as only ceremonial changes happen for the larger organization. This suggests new insights for interrogating how loose and tight coupling can co-exist in the same organization.


Deffated corn germ is a subproduct in the production of raw or precooked corn flour and of corn oil. This subproduct is used only in the production of animal feed because it is a heterogeneous material with a lot of bran. The principal obstacle for direct use of deffated corn germ in the formulation of foods is the presence of fragments of hull fiber. These fragments modifies the sensorial and functional characteristics of the product. In order to avoid this problem, the deffated corn germ was processed to eliminate the fragments of fiber and to increase the protein concentration. The extractable material (ME) high in oil and the industrial deffated corn germ were fractionated by separation with sieves, aspiration, and milling. The yield of the deffated fractions of corn germ flour in the laboratory (GD1) and at the industrial level (GD2) were 44.70% and 78.02% respectively. Fiber content was reduced by 18.45% and 41.61% and protein content was increased by 7.40% and 19.56% respectively. Protein quality determined as PER (protein efficient ratio) increased from 2.57 to 2.84. Protein efficient ratio was 16 times higher than that of endosperm corn flour (PER 0.16). Apparent digestibility of both fractions were higher than 86%. Results suggests that fractioning is a simple technology that could improve the protein quality of germ as well as its color, index of solubility and water absortion.


ABSTRACT Objectives: 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), parathyroid hormone (PTH) and bone alkaline phosphatase (BALP) are biomarkers of calcium/phosphate metabolism and bone turnover. Although vitamin D deficiency is a well-known cause of secondary hyperparathyroidism, few studies have considered vitamin D status when establishing reference ranges. In this study, we report PTH levels according to the vitamin D status and BALP levels in a large cohort of 1200 children. Additionally, we provide PTH pediatric reference values according to 25(OH)D status as well as BALP pediatric reference ranges. Methods: Serum samples from 1200 children (equally distributed from 5 months to 20 years old) who underwent blood sampling for allergy exploration were used to quantify 25(OH)D, PTH and BALP. Results: The percentage of vitamin D deficient children (<20 ng/ml) progressively increased during childhood starting from 7% in the 0 to 2 year-old subgroup to a mean of at least 50% among teenagers. PTH levels inversely mirrored 25(OH)D concentrations for all age and gender subgroups, and 25(OH)D deficient subgroups presented higher PTH levels than their non-deficient counterparts. In the non-deficient 25(OH)D population, PTH levels were the highest at 11 years old for girls and 14 years old for boys. BALP results were slightly increased during childhood and showed a constant decrease during teenage years starting from 12 years old for girls and 14 years old for boys. Conclusion: Our results highlight the inverse relationship between PTH and 25(OH)D in children and the need for a well characterized 25(OH)D population to establish pediatric reference ranges for PTH.


Objective—T cells from patients with SLE express increased amounts of PP2Ac which contribute to decreased production of IL-2. Because IL-2 is important in the regulation of several aspects of the immune response, it has been proposed that PP2Ac contributes to the expression of SLE. This study was designed to determine whether genetic variants of PPP2AC are linked to the expression of SLE and specific clinical manifestations and account for the increased expression of PP2Ac. Methods—We conducted a trans-ethnic study consisting of 8,695 SLE cases and 7,308 controls from four different ancestries. Eighteen single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) across the PPP2CA were genotyped using an Illumina custom array. PPP2CA expression in SLE and control T cells was analyzed by real-time PCR. Results—A 32-kb haplotype comprised of multiple SNPs of PPP2CA showed significant association with SLE in Hispanic Americans (HA), European Americans (EA) and Asians but not in African-Americans (AA). Conditional analyses revealed that SNP rs7704116 in intron 1 showed consistently strong association with SLE across Asian, EA and HA populations (pmeta=3.8×10, OR=1.3[1.14–1.31]). In EA, the largest ethnic dataset, the risk A allele of rs7704116 was associated with the presence of renal disease, anti-dsDNA and anti-RNP antibodies. PPP2CA expression was approximately 2-fold higher in SLE patients carrying the rs7704116 AG genotype than those carrying GG genotype (p = 0.008). Conclusion—Our data provide the first evidence for an association between PPP2CA polymorphisms and elevated PP2Ac transcript levels in T cells, which implicates a new molecular pathway for SLE susceptibility in EA, HA and Asians.


Research has indicated that childhood cancer may lead to posttraumatic growth (PTG), given cancer's association with posttraumatic stress. PTG may be associated with family/home and health care dynamics, as well as parental resilience, distress, and coping. This cross-sectional study investigated the associations of psychosocial factors of the patient, family, and health care team with PTG and illness-related burden (IRB) in childhood cancer survivors. The sample comprised 61 children and adolescents (7-18 years of age), their parents, and their nurses. Respondents completed their assessment an average of 1.73 years after the end of treatment for the child's disease, which was either leukemia, a solid tumor, or lymphoma. Regression analyses showed that PTG was positively associated with the patients' posttraumatic stress symptoms. It was also positively associated with the parents' religious coping, and with measures of stronger family and oncologist relationships (R2 = .32). IRB was positively associated with patient-reported posttraumatic stress symptoms, negatively associated with the nurse's trust in the family, and positively associated with parent-reported mental distress, lower family socioeconomic status, and female gender (R2 = .53). There was no significant association with parenting style or parent-reported posttraumatic stress symptoms in the child. The findings suggested that the young cancer patient's psychosocial and resource milieu (e.g., financial) may be instrumental in PTG and IRB. Psychosocial interventions with high-risk families and their health care teams could increase growth and reduce burden.


The objective of this longitudinal retrospective study was to evaluate differences of the fetal growth and fetal organ growth among singleton small for gestational age (S-SGA), singleton appropriate for gestational age (S-AGA), twin (Tw-AGA), and triplet (Tri-AGA) infants. Ultrasonographic examinations were performed on 35 S-AGA, 18 S-SGA, 52 Tw-AGA and 12 Tri-AGA fetuses. Circumferences of head (HC), abdomen (AC), spleen (SC) and adrenal gland (AGC) and lengths of femur diaphysis (FDL), liver (LL), estimated weight (EWT) were measured every 2 weeks after 15 weeks of menstrual age until delivery. There was no significant difference in predicted HC values in S-AGA, Tw-AGA and Tri-AGA fetuses; these values were lowest in S-SGA fetuses. As the number of fetuses in the uterus increased with advancing menstrual age, the slope of the growth curve for predicted AC value became lower, but there was no significant difference between Tri-AGA and S-SGA fetuses. There was no significant difference in predicted FDL values among Tw-AGA, Tri-AGA and S-SGA fetuses; those values were significantly lower than that in S-AGA fetuses. There was no significant difference in predicted EWT value between Tw-AGA and Tri-AGA fetuses, which were intermediate between those for S-AGA and S-SGA fetuses. There were no significant differences in predicted SC and AGC values between S-AGA and Tw-AGA fetuses, respectively. However, in S-SGA fetuses, the slopes of the growth curve for SC and AGC were lower than those in the other two groups with advancing menstrual age. There were slight differences in predicted LL values between S-AGA, S-SGA and Tw-AGA fetuses. These results suggest that in AGA fetuses, there was a slight difference in growth pattern among singleton, twin, and triplet pregnancies.


The ability to routinely genetically modify insect species holds great promise for fundamental research that explores the functional activity of genomic sequences, and the use of this information to control the viability, fitness, and behaviour of both beneficial and pest insects. Currently, almost all insect genetic modifications rely on the use of transposon vector systems, and a detailed understanding of the mechanisms that result in mobility is critical to applications that require optimal or maximum frequencies of transposition, and to applications where immobilization is necessary for vector stabilization. Great progress has been made in understanding the biophysical mechanisms and interactions between the transposase enzyme for the Hermes and Mos1 transposons and their respective ITR sequence substrates, but the relevance of this knowledge to other transposon vectors can only be speculated upon. It is clear, however, that mutations in the transposon sequence can result in their hyperactivity, and an effective means of screening for these mutations should improve our understanding and applied use of all the available vectors. Progress also has been made in testing recombinant-based constructs for their ability to diminish the vectorial capacity of mosquito disease vectors, but the ability to drive these transgenes into an endemic population is largely unknown. Genetic drive systems, such as autonomous vectors or meiotic drive, have been speculated upon, but serious testing in targeted species remains to be done. Development of transgenic strains for biocontrol has also been initiated, especially for tephritid fruit flies, and conditional lethality systems may supersede current programmes such as SIT. To do so, nearly complete, if not complete lethality will be needed at a consistent level, and model systems have yet to achieve this. To develop such strains, repetitive introductions of transgene vectors into a host genome may be required, but a difficulty in comparing efficacy is the varying influence of different insertion sites on transgene expression and host fitness. A prospective problem for transposon-mediated vector insertions is the potential re-mobilization of the vector by an unintended source of transposase. The development of a new class of vectors that allow genomic targeting by RMCE, and transposon immobilization by ITR deletion, should have a significant impact on the efficient creation and testing of new transgenic strains, as well as minimizing the ecological risk of their release into the environment.


33 anorectic patients between the ages of 9 and 18 were treated from 1975 and 1980 as in-patients at the University clinic of neuro-psychiatry for children and juveniles. Familial criteria such as personal relationships; role allocation according to the Richter system and family structure were used as parameters. Sequence of siblings, age of parents and social factors were also taken into consideration.


Summary Objective: To compare the effects of bandaging on immediate postoperative swelling using a modified Robert-Jones bandage after tibial plateau levelling osteotomy (TPLO) in dogs. Study design: Prospective case series. Methods: Dogs undergoing a TPLO were randomly placed into two groups. Group 1 received a modified Robert-Jones bandage postoperatively for a 24 hour period and Group 2 was not bandaged. Hindlimb circumference was measured at the level of the mid-patella, the distal aspect of the tibial crest, the midpoint of the tibial diaphysis and the hock. Measurements were recorded and compared in each group preoperatively and at 24 hours and 48 hours post-operatively. Interobserver variability was compared between the two observers. Results: There was no significant difference in postoperative swelling, as measured by the percentage change in circumference, between bandaged and unbandaged operated limbs after the TPLO at 24 and 48 hours at any site. Some significant differences in measurement at particular sites were observed between the two different observers, but there was a significant linear correlation at all sites between observers. The observer with the least experience consistently had slightly higher measurements at these sites. Clinical relevance: The use of a modified Robert-Jones bandage after TPLO did not prevent statistically significant postoperative swelling, and thus may not be indicated for this purpose. Postoperative bandages placed to control swelling after other small animal orthopaedic procedures should be evaluated individually for efficacy.


Abstract: During the 13th Central European Auchenorrhnycha meeting in the Swiss Alps (Alp Flix, Grisons) in August 2006 a total of 75 Auchenorrhyncha species, 29 species of Psylloidea, 2 Pipunculidae (Diptera) species and 1 species of Strepsiptera have been collected. Together with two excursions in 2002 and 2006 a total of 86 Auchenorrhyncha species are reported from the area of Alp Flix. The four auchenorrhynchous species Kelisia sima Ribaut, Muellerianella extrusa (Scott), Aphrodes diminuta Ribaut and Zygina rubrovittata (Lethierry) are recorded here for the first time for Switzerland. One species, viz. Sonronius dahlbomi (Zetterstedt) was rediscovered after a period of more than 100 years. On exkursions in 1978, 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 additional psyllids were collected giving a total of 47 species recorded for Alp Flix. Key words: Hemiptera, Auchenorrhyncha, Psylloidea, Diptera, Pipunculidae, Swiss Alps, Grisons, new records.


Surgical simulation is an increasingly important element of surgical education. Using simulation can be a means to address some of the significant challenges in developing surgical skills with limited time and resources. The photo-realistic fidelity of simulations is a key feature that can improve the experience and transfer ratio of trainees. In this paper, we demonstrate how we can enhance the visual fidelity of existing surgical simulation by performing style transfer of multi-class labels from real surgical video onto synthetic content. We demonstrate our approach on simulations of cataract surgery using real data labels from an existing public dataset. Our results highlight the feasibility of the approach and also the powerful possibility to extend this technique to incorporate additional temporal constraints and to different applications.


Survivin is a member of the inhibitor-of-apoptosis proteins (IAPs) family; its overexpression has been widely demonstrated to occur in various types of cancer. Overexpression of survivin also correlates with tumor progression and induces anticancer drug resistance. Interestingly, recent studies reveal that survivin exhibits multiple pro-mitotic and anti-apoptotic functions; the differential functions of survivin seem to be caused by differential subcellular localization, phosphorylation, and acetylation of this molecule. In this review, the complex expression regulations and post-translational modifications of survivin are discussed. This review also discusses how recent discoveries improve our understanding of survivin biology and also create opportunities for developing differential-functioned survivin-targeted therapy. Databases such as PubMed, Scopus® (Elsevier, New York, NY, USA), and SciFinder® (CAS, Columbus, OH, USA) were used to search for literature in the preparation of this review.


Bayesian inference is often used in cosmology and astrophysics to derive constraints on model parameters from observations. This approach relies on the ability to compute the likelihood of the data given a choice of model parameters. In many practical situations, the likelihood function may however be unavailable or intractable due to non-gaussian errors, non-linear measurements processes, or complex data formats such as catalogs and maps. In these cases, the simulation of mock data sets can often be made through forward modeling. We discuss how Approximate Bayesian Computation (ABC) can be used in these cases to derive an approximation to the posterior constraints using simulated data sets. This technique relies on the sampling of the parameter set, a distance metric to quantify the difference between the observation and the simulations and summary statistics to compress the information in the data. We first review the principles of ABC and discuss its implementation using a Population Monte-Carlo (PMC) algorithm and the Mahalanobis distance metric. We test the performance of the implementation using a Gaussian toy model. We then apply the ABC technique to the practical case of the calibration of image simulations for wide field cosmological surveys. We find that the ABC analysis is able to provide reliable parameter constraints for this problem and is therefore a promising technique for other applications in cosmology and astrophysics. Our implementation of the ABC PMC method is made available via a public code release.


A capillary electrophoresis‐acid barrage stacking online enrichment method has been established to detect the four isoflavones which are Daidzein, Genistein, Formononetin, and Biochanin A. The proposed method was optimized using a single factor alternative method, and the optimal conditions obtained from the optimization were: the BGE was 25 mM borax and 2 mM β‐cyclodextrin, the applied separation voltage was 20 kV, and the detection wavelength was 260 nm. The time ratio of the injection of sample and the injection of acid was 150 s:20 s, and the acid used was 250 mM acetic acid. The sample solvent used was 60% v/v acetonitrile. The established method had the enrichment factor of these four isoflavones at 24.5, 32.0, 29.2, and 33.7, respectively, LOD and LOQ are as low as nanograms per milliliter. Finally, the CE‐acid barrage stacking method was successfully applied to the determination of four isoflavones in rat plasma and red clover extract, verifying the applicability and feasibility of the method.


Genome sequencing studies of nonhuman primate (NHP) pedigree and population samples are discovering variants on a large and rapidly growing scale. These studies are increasing the utility of several NHP species as model systems for human disease. In particular, by identifying homozygous protein truncating variants (hPTVs) in genes hypothesized to play a role in causing human diseases, it may be possible to elucidate mechanisms for the phenotypic impact of such variants through investigations that are infeasible in humans. The Caribbean vervet (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) is uniquely valuable for this purpose, as the dramatic expansion of its population following severe bottlenecks has enabled PTVs that passed through the bottleneck to attain a relatively high frequency. Using whole genome sequence (WGS) data from 719 monkeys of the Vervet Research Colony (VRC) extended pedigree, we found 2,802 protein-truncating alleles in 1,747 protein-coding genes present in homozygous state in at least one monkey. Polymorphic sites for 923 SNV hPTVs were also observed in natural Caribbean populations from which the VRC descends. The vervet genome browser (VGB) includes information on these PTVs, together with a catalog of phenotypes and biological samples available for monkeys who carry them. We describe initial explorations of the possible impact of vervet PTVs on early infant mortality.


We study the problem of augmenting online algorithms with machine learned (ML) predictions. In particular, we consider the \emph{multi-shop ski rental} (MSSR) problem, which is a generalization of the classical ski rental problem. In MSSR, each shop has different prices for buying and renting a pair of skis, and a skier has to make decisions on when and where to buy. We obtain both deterministic and randomized online algorithms with provably improved performance when either a single or multiple ML predictions are used to make decisions. These online algorithms have no knowledge about the quality or the prediction error type of the ML predictions. The performance of these online algorithms are robust to the poor performance of the predictors, but improve with better predictions. We numerically evaluate the performance of our proposed online algorithms in practice.


Continuing to study the inhibition of corrosion, 5,5-diphenyl-2-thioxoimidazolidin-4-one (PTI) has been tested as a corrosion inhibitor for mild steel (MS) in an aggressive 1 M HCl solution by chemical and electrochemical techniques: weight loss, potentiodynamic polarization (PDP), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, UV-Visible. Inhibitory efficacy increases with increasing inhibitor concentration and decreases with increasing temperature. The studied inhibitor is more efficient (99.2%) at 298 K at an optimal concentration of 1mM. The PDP study revealed that PTI behaved as mixed type of inhibitor. In addition, the PTI inhibitor obeys the single layer adsorption isotherm of Langmuir. The quantum chemical calculations, molecular dynamic (MD) simulation studies fairly well agreed with the experimental measurements.


An analysis of the influence of the staged construction on the overall network condition was performed. It investigates the relations between strategies concerning the sequence of rehabilitation works for one-step and staged construction. The road network pavement deterioration and repair were described by means of a controlled nonhomogeneous Markov process. The influence of initial network condition on final condition and users' costs for both one-step and staged construction was studied. It was concluded that the basic relations between strategies for one-step construction remained unchanged in the case of staged construction. Also, there was no difference between the effects considered (backlog, extra users' costs and extra routine maintenance costs) of two types of construction in the first 15 years of a 20-year design period. No reason has been found to improve a greater part of network by measures of shorter service life instead of improving a minor part of network by measures of longer service life.


Background: Students entering four year engineering programs often have core first year courses that cover mostly fundamental mathematics, generic skills and engineering principles. Many students entering second and sometimes even third year of their engineering program are still na ve to the projects, roles and responsibilities of engineers within their discipline. There is often little 'big picture' context provided at the start of their engineering program, as to why they need to learn a range of theoretical concepts and generic skills, often leaving them disengaged with their chosen engineering discipline. In some cases, students leave their program due to a lack of motivation stemming from a lost sense of purpose and career conceptualisation. Similarly to the workplace, the most effective people are those that are engaged in what they are doing. Through exposing engineering students to 'real world' projects coupled with passionate and successful engineering professionals showcasing such projects, goes a long way to cement student learning engagement and a sense of purpose. Purpose: This study sought to ascertain students' satisfaction with a 2nd year civil engineering course that included a number of embedded case study presentations by experienced engineering professionals serving as guest lecturers. The survey also sought to identify whether students felt they were getting sufficient exposure to authentic professional practice experiences through project-based learning, case studies, guest lecturers, site visits, etc. in the early part of their engineering program. The primary goal of the study was to identify the extent of deficiency in exposure to professional practice in the early years of the engineering program and the resulting diminished benefits that such exposure could have derived in terms of learning engagement, discipline contextualisation and career purpose. Design/Method: Data for this study was collected through a questionnaire survey of 83 second year undergraduate students completing the 'Construction Engineering' course in the Bachelor of Civil Engineering Program offered by Griffith University. The questionnaire was comprised of three main sections: Part A collected basic demographic information; Part B was designed to elicit the undergraduate engineering students' perceptions on the extent to which the case studies presented by the guest lecturers helped to improve their learning and engagement with the course and degree program; Part C requested students to provide their opinion on the extent of professional practice exposure in the early years of their program (i.e. year 1 and 2). Descriptive statistics and paired sample t-test statistical techniques were applied to achieve project aims. Results: The findings are consistent with anecdotal evidence that engineering students felt that early exposure to engineering practice assisted them to contextualise and engage with their engineering discipline better. Further, the results confirmed that there is room for improving the current level of professional practice exposure in the early years of the civil engineering degree program. Conclusions Industry exposure through guest lectures, site visits and current case studies needs to be intertwined into modern engineering programs to improve student engagement, purpose and retention.


Soft elastomers are critical to a broad range of existing and emerging technologies. One major limitation of soft elastomers is the large friction of coefficient (COF) due to inherently large adhesion and internal loss. In applications where lubrication is not applicable, such as soft robotics, wearable electronics, and biomedical devices, elastomers with inherently low dry COF are required. Inspired by the low COF of snakeskins atop soft bodies, this study reports the development of elastomers with low dry COF by growing a hybrid skin layer with a strong interface with a large stiffness gradient. Using a solid-liquid interfacial polymerization (SLIP) process, hybrid skin layers are imparted onto elastomers, which reduces the COF of the elastomers from 1.6 to 0.1, without sacrificing the bulk compliance and ductility of elastomer. Compared with existing surface modification methods, the SLIP process offers spatial control and ability to modify flat, prepatterned, curved, and inner surfaces, which is essential to engineer multifunctional skin layers for emerging applications.


Principal component analysis and cluster analysis of morphometric data divide specimens of Reinhardtia into six groups, corresponding to the six species recognized in the most recent revisions. Discriminant analysis classifies specimens into these six species with 100% success. Five species occur in lowland to montane moist forests in Central America, from Mexico to Panama, and just reach Colombia; one species occurs in montane moist forests in Hispaniola. Three species have large stems and are rare, patchily distributed, and seldom collected. The other three species have small stems, are common and frequently collected, but also patchily distributed. One species of small plants, R. gracilis, exhibits considerable variability. Within this species, seven distinct groups can be recognized, although sample size is limited. Among species, there is a phyletic decrease in size of plants, from the basal species with large stems to derived species with small stems. For leaves and inflorescences there is also an associated decrease in size, but one species does not follow this trend. In this species, R. latisecta, there is evidence of a large ontogenetic change in leaf development. Phyletic decrease in size corresponds to a latitudinal and elevational gradient suggesting speciation has taken place from north to south and from high to low elevation. However, this pattern is obscured disjunct distributions in some species.


Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is a choice that must be made between the return of life and the end of life. It is still a matter of controversy when and where cardiopulmonary resuscitation will be implemented, and this discussion has brought the "Do Not Resuscitate" order to the agenda. For this reason, "Resuscitation" and "Do Not Resuscitate" order lead to many ethical and legal dilemmas. The "Do Not Resuscitate" order, which is a difficult decision to make, becomes more difficult in the old age when ethical problems are frequent. Because of chronic diseases and deterioration in cognitive functions, the ability to make decisions about health practices of elderly individuals who are becoming increasingly dependent in terms of physical and psychosocial dimensions are also diminishing. In addition, lack of awareness, sensory/emotional barriers and communication deficits prevent elderly people from participating in health care decisions; it makes difficult to determine care target among the elderly and health professionals. Especially to be adequate to the needs of nursing care for the elderly, the problems related to "Do Not Resuscitate" instruction which is an important part of end-of-life maintenance need to be solved. For this purpose, the "Do Not Resuscitate" order should be handled by health professionals and lawyers in a versatile manner and necessary legal arrangements should be made.


Summary We investigated the roles of the endothelial nitric oxide and cyclo‐oxygenase pathways in mediating the vasoactivity of prilocaine in the skin. We injected prilocaine 1% intradermally into forearm skin of 10 healthy, male subjects. Nitric oxide synthesis was inhibited at a second site by co‐injecting prilocaine with l‐NAME 1%. We then repeated the injections while blocking the cyclo‐oxygenase pathway with aspirin (4 × 600 mg). We measured blood flow responses to the injections using laser Doppler imaging. We found that, after the traumatic effects of injection had subsided, l‐NAME reduced the vascular response to prilocaine by a third (p = 0.012), indicating an influence specifically on the drug response. Aspirin had no effect on the response (p = 0.588). We conclude that the vasoactive effects of prilocaine in human skin are mediated partly through the release of endothelial nitric oxide and, although other mechanisms might also be involved, the cyclo‐oxygenase pathway does not appear to play a role.


Alscholarines A and B (1 and 2), two unprecedented rearranged monoterpene indole alkaloids, were isolated from Alstonia scholaris. Alscholarine A (1) features an imidazole ring fused with a rearranged vallesamine-type alkaloid possessing an unparalleled 6/5/6/6 tetracyclic skeleton through an unprecedented C7-C-19 connectivity. Alscholarine B (2), incorporating an unusual 7-oxa-1-azabicyclo[3.2.1]octane moiety, represents a unique rearranged vallesamine-type alkaloid with a 6/5/6/6/5 ring system via an unprecedented C-6-C-20 connectivity. Their structures were established by spectroscopic analysis, X-ray crystallography, and quantum-chemical calculations. Their plausible biosynthetic pathways were proposed. The vasorelaxant and anti-inflammatory activities of them were also evaluated. Compounds 1-3 showed moderate vasorelaxant activities.


U.S. Science PolicyToo much sex. Not enough money. That potent combination led the U.S. House of Representatives last week to reject legislation aimed at boosting research and education spending at three federal agencies. The 292-to-126 vote against the America COMPETES Act was fueled by concerns about the trillion-dollar federal deficit, a sentiment that could threaten the Administration's plans to double the research budgets of the three agencies over 10 years. But the lopsided defeat was also the result of a stealth attack by Republicans against a Democratic priority, using as a tool the National Science Foundation's handling of employees who trafficked in electronic pornography at work.


The static elastic constants (C11, C12 and C44), pressure derivative of elastic constants, pressure derivative of bulk modulus, propagation velocities of longitudinal and transverse waves in [100], [110] and [111] directions and Young modulus are investigated through computations using the higher-order perturbation theory based on pseudopotential formalism, in which we have applied our own proposed model potential for GaP, GaAs and GaSb semiconductor compounds. In the present calculations, two local-field correction functions are employed to consider exchange and correlation effects. The numerical values of the aforesaid properties are found to be sensitive to the selection of the local-field correction function and showing a significant variation with the change in the function. The presently investigated numerical data is found to have, in general, good agreement with the available experiment data and other such theoretical values.


In this work, synthesis of activated carbon-Fe3O4 composites using activated carbon and iron benzoate/oxalate precursors by simple pyrolytic method and its utility for the removal of acid yellow dye from water are presented. Iron carboxylates held up into the pores of carbon dissociate at their decomposition temperatures form dispersed Fe3O4 nanoparticles in carbon matrix. The composites were characterized by FTIR, PXRD, SEM, TEM, EDX and magnetization measurements. The size of the nano iron oxides are in the range of 21-33 nm formed from iron benzoate precursor and 6-11 nm from iron oxalate precursor. The oxides are magnetic and their saturation magnetization in the range of 0.08-0.16 emu/g and Coercivity (H(c)) 474-600, being lower and higher than that of bare bulk Fe3O4 are due to the nano size of oxides. Composites find application in the removal of acid yellow dye 17 from the synthetic aqueous solution at pH 5. The adsorption data are found to fit well for Langmuir adsorption isotherm. Kinetics data of adsorption of dyes indicate that the adsorption follows pseudo-second order kinetic model.


By the Green's function method, we investigate spin transport properties of a zigzag graphene nanoribbon super-lattice (ZGNS) under a ferromagnetic insulator and edge effect. The exchange splitting induced by the ferromagnetic insulator eliminates the spin degeneracy, which leads to spin-polarized transport in structure. Spin-dependent minibands and minigaps are exhibited in the conductance profile near the Fermi energy. The location and width of the miniband are associated with the geometry of the ZGNS. In the optimal structure, the spin-up and spin-down minibands can be separated completely near the Fermi energy. Therefore, a wide, perfect spin polarization with clear stepwise pattern is observed, i.e., the perfect spin-polarized transport can be tuned from spin up to spin down by varying the electron energy.


To investigate the effect of a novel p21-modulating protein WISp39 on proliferation, apoptosis and cell cycle of leukemia cells, the plasmid pLenti6/V5-WISp39 was constructed and transfected into the human myelocytic leukemia cell line-U937 cells. The expression of WISp39 was detected by real-time PCR at 48 hours after transfection, proliferation of U937 cells assayed by CCK-8, apoptosis and cell cycle were determined by flow cytometry. The results showed that plasmid pLenti6/V5-WISp39 could readily enhance the expression of WISp39 in U937 cells. A significant growth inhibition (37.6%) was observed in cells tranfected with pLenti6/V5-WISp39, while the control plasmid pLenti6/V5-lacZ showed little effect on U937 growth. Further analysis revealed that pLenti6/V5-WISp39 did not show obvious apoptosis induction effect, but it could really regulate U937 proliferation via cell cycle modulation. Compared with pLenti6/V5-lacZ, pLenti6/V5-WISp39 resulted in increase of cells in G(0)/G(1) phase by 10% at 48 hours after transfection. It is concluded that the WISp39 gene has no significant apoptosis induction effect on leukemic cells, but it can increase cells at G(0)/G(1) phase via effect on cell cycle, thus inhibiting the U937 proliferation. This result means WISp39 gene can act as a negative modulator on tumour cells.


We prospectively recruited five patients with CT evidence of intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH), having excluded trauma, a history of phaeochromocytoma (PHEO) and sympathomimetics/antihypertensives capable of increasing catecholamines (CATS)/metanephrines (METS). Informed consent was obtained from the next of kin. Plasma METS are superior to plasma CATS, although both are unavailable locally. Urinary CATS/METS, which integrate CATS/METS secretion and has greater sensitivity than plasma CATS in the absence of PHEO spells, was used.1 24 h urinary CATS/METS were sampled on days 1 and 7 and before discharge. Catheterised urine was transferred into bottles containing 10 ml 6 N HCl, and analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC)–electrochemical detection. Patients with increases in CATS/METS underwent abdominal CT. ICH volume was estimated from CT. This research was ethically approved …


Humans exhibit incredibly high levels of multi-modal understanding - combining visual cues with read, or heard knowledge comes easy to us and allows for very accurate interaction with the surrounding environment. Various simulation environments focus on providing data for tasks related to scene understanding, question answering, space exploration, visual navigation. In this work, we are providing a solution to encompass both, visual and behavioural aspects of simulation in a new environment for learning interactive reasoning in manipulation setup. SAMPLE-HD environment allows to generate various scenes composed of small household objects, to procedurally generate language instructions for manipulation, and to generate ground truth paths serving as training data.


This paper describes our submission (team name: Ideas Lab @ UT) to the Sussex-Huawei Locomotion-Transportation (SHL) recognition challenge. The SHL recognition challenge considers the problem of human activity recognition from inertial sensor data collected at 100 Hz from an Android smartphone. Our data analysis pipeline contains three stages: a pre-processing stage, a classification stage, and a time stabilization stage. Our main finding is that performing classification on "raw" data features (i.e. without feature extraction) over extremely short time windows (e.g. 0.1 seconds of data) and then stabilizing the activity predictions over longer time windows (e.g. 15 seconds) results in much higher accuracy than directly performing classification on the longer windows. Our submitted model uses a random forest classifier and attains a mean F1 score over all activities of 0.973 on a 10% hold-out sample of the training data, suggesting that activity recognition can be performed quite accurately on the SHL dataset.


The vibrations in the azide, N3, asymmetric stretching region and nitrile, CN, symmetric stretching region of 2'-azido-5-cyano-2'-deoxyuridine (N3CNdU) are examined by two-dimensional infrared (2D IR) spectroscopy. At earlier waiting times, the 2D IR spectrum shows the presence of both vibrational transitions along the diagonal and off-diagonal cross peaks indicating vibrational coupling. The coupling strength is determined from the off-diagonal anharmonicity to be 66 cm(-1) for the intramolecular distance of ∼7.9 Å, based on a structural map generated for this model system. In addition, the frequency-frequency correlation decay is detected, monitoring the solvent dynamics around each individual probe position. Overall, these vibrational reporters can be utilized in tandem to simultaneously track global structural information and fast structural fluctuations.


All-pass Polyphase Networks (APN) are particularly attractive for Acoustical Echo Cancellation (AEC) .arranged in sub-bands. They provide lower inter-band aliasing, delay and computational complexity than their FIR counterparts. Moreover, APNs achieve higher Echo Return Loss Enhancement (ERLE) performance and faster convergence than full-band processing. In this paper, the finite precision implementation of APNs is addressed. A procedure is presented for re-optimising the all-pass coefficienls of the prototype low-pass filter for finite precision operation. Robust finite precision implementation of a prototype low-pass filter is discussed. The results of a set of AEC experiments are reported with full and 16-bit precision implementation.


Wireless Mesh Networks (WMNs) have emerged as low-cost alternative for broadband access networks in metropolitan area. In this paper, we revisit power control as a network layer problem in design of WMNs. Specifically, we show that increasing power levels of nodes in WMNs actually results into throughput improvements in node-to-gateway traffic pattern. It is proven that WMNs can achieve per node throughput of O(1=δn) where δ is factor dependent on hop-radius of the network, which in turn is reliant on power control. Also, it is shown that in case of multiple gateways, increasing power levels of nodes is more cost-effective because it results into increased throughput with fewer number of gateways.


Robust output tracking control of a linear brushless DC motor for transportation within a manufacturing system is presented. System identification for a linear motor with a driver is performed by a dynamic signal analyser, thus providing a linearised model for the motor. External disturbances corrupting the driver and modelling uncertainties due to payload variations and identification errors are considered. A tracking control scheme with a guaranteed H∞ tracking performance is proposed. It is shown that a state feedback control law achieving the desired objective can be obtained by solving a Riccati matrix equation. Computer simulation and experimental implementation are completed and compared. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed scheme for output tracking control of the linear brushless DC motor, and also confirm the feasibility of its implementation in industrial applications.


In this short note we show that the Bruhat cells in real normal forms of semisimple Lie algebras enjoy the same property as their complex analogs: \textit{for any two elements $w,w'$ in the Weyl group $W(\mathfrak g)$, the corresponding real Bruhat cell $X_w$ intersects with the dual Bruhat cell $Y_{w'}$ iff $w\prec w'$ in the weak Bruhat order on $W(\mathfrak g)$}. Here $\mathfrak g$ is a normal real form of a semisimple complex Lie algebra $\mathfrak g_\mathbb C$. Our reasoning is based on the properties of the Toda flows, rather than on the analysis of the Weyl group action and geometric considerations.


In this paper, we show that data streams can sometimes usefully be studied as random permutations. This simple observation allows a wealth of classical and recent results from combinatorics to be recycled, with minimal effort, as estimators for various statistics over data streams. We illustrate this by introducing RECORDINALITY, an algorithm which estimates the number of distinct elements in a stream by counting the number of $k$-records occurring in it. The algorithm has a score of interesting properties, such as providing a random sample of the set underlying the stream. To the best of our knowledge, a modified version of RECORDINALITY is the first cardinality estimation algorithm which, in the random-order model, uses neither sampling nor hashing.


Air brake system has been widely used in heavy trucks and intercity buses for its great superiority over other brake system. The practical performance of air brake system may be greatly different from if we analyze it with static theory. Thus, it is necessary to build an integrate air brake system model to simulate the process of brake accurately. However, the dynamic mathematic model of air brake system is very complicate, which makes the model hard to be solved. In this paper, the components of air brake system are decomposed to several basic standard pneumatic components, and then build the system based on these basic standard pneumatic components. The standard pneumatic components which are built in the softwareMWorks based on Modelica language include cylinder, nozzle, air reservoir, volume, and air pipe. An air brake system which contains brake valve, relay valve, brake chambers and pipelines is made based on the standard pneumatic components. The simulation results show the dynamic characteristics of air brake system.