Adorno makes the notion of truth content into the central category for conceptualizing the function of art and critiquing specific artworks. He writes in the draft introduction to Aesthetic Theory: "All aesthetic questions terminate in those of the truth content of the works: is the spirit that a specific work objectively bears in its form true?"1 Even some of Adorno's most vigorous defenders and creative readers have stopped short of following this demand to work out a theory of aesthetic truth departing from the objective form of artworks. Since the notion of aesthetic truth represents an emphatic and not merely negative concept, it places his aesthetics in tension with post-modern interpretations that emphasize the negativity of the aesthetic.2 On the other hand, since this demand associates truth with a form of experience that is non-discursive, riddle-laden and reticent to communication, it places his aesthetics in tension with later strands of critical theory that depart from the ideal of communicative rationality.3 Adorno's conception of aesthetic truth seems to be an 'untimely thought,' because it challenges our assumptions on many levels:4 first, it challenges philosophy to think of truth in a different way, but more fundamentally, it challenges the public to value art in a different and new way, and most of all, it challenges us to think about ourselves, and what is political in ourselves, in a new and critical way.Most readers of Adorno's aesthetic theory will quickly realize that his conception of aesthetic truth does not have much to do with how we use the notion of truth in common speech or even in philosophical epistemology. If art has truth content, then it is not in the manner of propositional knowledge, which has something to say about a state of affairs.5 Indeed, any way of articulating the truth of art that reduces it to some propositional content, to a message or statement about the world, would by this very gesture make the artwork superfluous and eliminate its distinctive mode of being. Such a correspondence theory of truth would make the artwork heteronomous in relation to either nature or culture. Instead, Adorno will develop the ontology of the aesthetic monad, in which the artwork is both independent from the world outside of it, and yet also related to the world in the organization of its internal coherence. As Adorno makes clear, truth resides not in the relation to objectivity outside of the artwork, but in the artwork's own internal, objective form, in the way that it organizes feeling and thought, not in the message or propositional content that critique can draw from it. But how can we understand the form as being true or untrue? The form of the artwork is the way in which it organizes itself in time and space, the way in which it presents relations between sensations and thoughts. While Adorno considers the form of the artwork as its 'objectivity,' not reducible to the subjective intention behind its creation or a thought gleaned from interpreting the work, he also believes that this objectivity is only meaningful when subjectively mediated through the experience of the audience.6 Thus I will argue in this paper that the form of the artwork has to be understood as a form that consciousness takes in the creation and experience of the work, and that this form of consciousness can be understood as true or false only in relation to the larger problem of true or false consciousness. The form of an artwork can best be understood as 'true' in relation to other forms of thought and feeling that exist in society. The artwork is true to the extent that it takes up by way of mimesis what is false in society and so renders consciousness capable of transforming or escaping the spell of false consciousness.In what follows, I analyze Adorno's theory of aesthetic truth in three stages: first I explain how Adorno understands it as different than the kind of discursive truth aspired to in philosophical epistemology; in the second section, I argue that such aesthetic truth is mimetic in its ontology, as opposed to the representational ontology of discursive knowledge, and I further explain that he views the mimesis particular to modern art as an imitation of social rationality; in the third section, I examine Adorno's notion of false consciousness as a variation on the Marxist notion, and show how art both imitates and transforms false consciousness in its formal nature. …


The main aim of this thesis is the analysis of the legal provisions, such as techniques and reference architecture of different filters in order to reduce or resolve the problem faced daily users of email, with the advent of unsolicited and not unsolicited commercial communications. Unsolicited and not requested advertising known as Spam has always been a fairly serious problem of emails and has now reached a point where it creates a major problem in the development of electronic commerce and information society. Today it is estimated that a sizable percentage of e-mails are Spam. However, because of the difficulty and complexity of the problem, the issue of implementation and enforcement in a global environment has not been resolved. The present thesis provides an overview of e-commerce and the various laws concerning the problem of Spamming also compare the anti-spam legislation in the United States and the European Union (EU) and other countries.


We develop a linear ranking function for ordering bipolar fuzzy numbers and study its properties. Using this ranking function, we solve a bipolar fuzzy linear programing problem. Then, we present the dual of the problem and establish several duality results. Also, we presented an application of bipolar fuzzy number in real life problem.


Cascading chains of events are a salient feature of many real-world social, biological, and financial networks. In social networks, social reciprocity accounts for retaliations in gang interactions, proxy wars in nation-state conflicts, or the Internet memes shared via social media. Neuron spikes stimulate or inhibit spike activity in other neurons. Stock market shocks can trigger a contagion of volatility throughout a financial network. In these and other examples, only individual events associated with network nodes are observed, usually without the knowledge of the underlying dynamic relationships between nodes. This paper addresses the challenge of tracking how events within such networks stimulate or influence future events. The proposed approach is an online learning framework well-suited to streaming data, using a multivariate Hawkes point process model to encapsulate autoregressive features of observed events within the social network. Recent work on online learning in dynamic environments is leveraged not only to exploit the dynamics within the underlying network, but also to track the network structure as it evolves. Regret bounds and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method performs nearly as well as an oracle or batch algorithm.


A racemic liquid of opposite enantiomers usually crystallizes as a racemic compound (racemate), rarely as a conglomerate, and even more rarely as a solid solution. We discovered a Type II solid solution (mixed crystal) of the enantiomers of the chiral drug tazofelone (TZF) by seeding its racemic liquid with enantiomerically pure crystals (enantiomorphs). Without seeding, the racemic liquid crystallized as a racemic compound. The crystal structure of this solid solution resembles that of the enantiomorph but has static disorder arising from the random substitution of enantiomers. This solid solution is a kinetic product of crystallization made possible by its faster growth rate compared to that of the competing racemate (by 4- to 40-fold between 80 and 146 degrees C). The free energy of the solid solution continuously varies with the enantiomeric composition between those of the conglomerate and the racemates. The existence of the TZF solid solution explains the absence of eutectic melting between crystals of different enantiomeric compositions. The ability of TZF to simultaneously form racemate and solid solution originates from its conformational flexibility. Similar solid solutions of enantiomers may exist in other systems and may be discovered in similar ways. The study demonstrates the use of cross-nucleation for discovering and engineering crystalline materials to optimize physical properties.


Polytechnics in Ghana are part of the higher institutional network responsible for training high quality multi-skilled units of human capacity relevant to the national need of the Ghana. This paper empirically examines the management, delivery and the challenges of polytechnics in Ghana. A cross-section design was used as well as multi-stage sampling technique. In addition, both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collections and analysis were also used. The study showed that the governing council is the highest decision making body of the polytechnics which derives its authority from the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC Law 32. Amended by Parliamentary Act 745 2007) and the rectors are the heads of administration responsible for the efficient utilization of the polytechnic resources. The rectors are supported by the vice rectors, registrars, faculty deans, heads of departments, finance officers, librarian, internal auditors, the planning officers and the students representative council. The study further revealed that all polytechnics operates the semester system and inadequate funding, inadequate staffing, high staff turnover, high enrolment, lack of effective industrial linkages, outdated curriculum delivery and unstable academic environment are some of the challenges the study has found out. Adequate funding by the government, recruitment of qualified lecturers, provision of adequate facilities by the government and revisions of outdated curriculums' can go a long way to make the polytechnics a better place for middle man power training in Ghana and also to meet the target of the Millennium Development Goals.


Bertolini-Darmon and Mok proved a formula of the second derivative of the two-variable $p$-adic $L$-function of a modular elliptic curve over a totally real field along the Hida family in terms of the image of a global point by some $p$-adic logarithm map. The theory of $p$-adic indefinite integrals and $p$-adic multiplicative integrals on $p$-adic upper half planes plays an important role in their work. In this paper, we generalize these integrals for $p$-adic measures which are not necessarily $\mathbf{Z}$-valued, and prove a formula of the second derivative of the two-variable $p$-adic $L$-function of an abelian variety of ${\rm GL}(2)$-type associated to a Hilbert modular form of weight 2.


A W-band, cascaded constructive wave amplifier realizes high gain and bandwidth in a 0.12 μm SiGe BiCMOS process. The amplifier achieves 37.5 dB gain at 90 GHz with a 3 dB bandwidth of 14.6 GHz. Consequently, this amplifier demonstrates a gain-bandwidth product as high as 1,095 GHz. At nominal bias condition, input and output return losses are better than 11 dB over the entire 3 dB bandwidth and the output-referred P1 dB is -5.5 dBm. The amplifier consumes 65 mW from a 1.8 V at a nominal bias condition and 130 mW from a 2 V at a high-gain bias condition. The chip occupies an area of 0.39 mm2 including the pads.


In recent years, the demand for high performance low cost optical interconnect components has accelerated. An promising solution has been found with the vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL). Attractive features include low threshold current, high efficiency, large modulation bandwidth, and surface emission that enables array integration and contributes to a low fabrication cost. However, in some cases its employment is hampered by limited transverse mode control. In particular, high power emission in the fundamental mode is desired for applications such as high bit rate data transmission in optical networks, optical interconnects, and laser printing. In addition, if some kind of elaborate beam shaping is required, e.g. a combination of beam splitting and focussing (optical fan-out), the VCSEL has to be supplemented with additional optics. It would be beneficial to avoid complex external optical systems since alignment is costly.
The aim of this work has been to improve the optical properties of the VCSEL in terms of transverse mode behaviour and to provide VCSELs with diffractive optical elements (DOEs) for advanced beam shaping.
Mode control has been achieved by developing a technique for selecting and stabilizing transverse modes by etching a shallow surface relief in the top mirror of the VCSEL. A rigorous numerical model was also developed to study the influence of different design and process parameters. The results show a greatly reduced divergence angle for large area devices, single mode power up to 2.2 mW for devices optimized for single mode emission, and reduced nonlinear distortion during analogue modulation.
Advanced beam shaping (optical fan-out) has been achieved by integrating VCSELs with DOEs, both monolithically and in a hybrid configuration. The results show diffraction efficiencies over 50 % and uniformity errors below 12 %.


The goal of this article is to consider to what extent the promotion of agroecology in France is reopening questions of the production and circulation of agricultural knowledge. First, a brief historical review allows us to show how the institutionalization of agroecology has emerged as a major transformation operator within the contemporary agricultural scene. Next, we consider changes in modes of knowledge construction and exchange as they relate to the emergence of agroecology from three perspectives: in terms of the singular and local nature of this knowledge; in terms of how local knowledge is articulated and shared; and in terms of the tension between encapsulated knowledge and embodied knowledge. Finally, the papers collected in this issue are briefly presented, with special attention to the forms of knowledge distribution they make visible, across different spaces and between and among different social actors.


Video analytic techniques have been used to extract high level information from video streams. The technique leverages advances on machine learning to summarize complex image data into simple alert-signal to attract the attention of human operators. For example, in a station for the underground video analytic can help the operator to focus on an event from a specific camera rather than leaving this only to the human eye. A concern of such techniques is privacy as they expose people identity and enable profiling of personal habits and orientations. This work introduces ReSPEcT (Privacy Respecting theRmal basEd Specific Person rECogniTion), a privacy preserving video analytic system based on thermal video streams. ReSPEcT is able to identify a specific-human in thermal video streams from low-cost, low resolution cameras. The system leverages recent advances in machine learning (CNNs) and a plethora of pre-processing mechanisms, such as image automatic labeling, image segmentation, and image augmentation to reduce the stream background noise, improve resilience, strengthen human-body classification, and finally enable a specific human-target identification. ReSPEcT's automatic labeling tool significantly reduces time thus automatically performing labeling using a model that can be retrained by an interactive web application. The experimental evaluation shows that overall ReSPEcT achieve 96.83% accuracy in identifying a specific person. Furthermore, is important to notice that while ReSPEcT can identify a specific human, the tool is not aware of the realidentity as it operates only on thermal images. ReSPEcT paves the way to use video analytic in a variety of privacyprotected scenarios, such as confidential meetings, sensitive spaces, or even public toilets.


Abstract Affective disposition theory explains well the process of enjoying hero narratives but not the appeal of narratives featuring antiheroes. Recent antihero studies suggest that character identification and moral disengagement might be important factors in the enjoyment of such fare. The current study builds on this work. A sample of 101 self-identified fans and nonfans of the television series 24 viewed a condensed version of Season 1, providing evaluation of various protagonist perceptions, moral judgments, and emotional responses to the narrative, as well as overall enjoyment. As expected, fans reported greater liking of the protagonist and greater enjoyment. But more importantly, regression analyses illuminated key differences between the groups in terms of the factors predicting enjoyment, providing a clearer picture of how we enjoy antihero narratives.


For years, playing video on the Web has generally required using one of the three applications: Apple's QuickTime, Microsoft's Windows Media Player, or Real Networks' RealPlayer. Now, though, the Big Three players face a challenger that initially became well-known for uses that had nothing to do with video: Adobe (formerly Macromedia) Flash. Even before Adobe's $3.4 billion buyout of Macromedia, Flash - once just a Web site animation tool $was expanding into online video. Now that Flash has access to Adobe's clout and resources, as well as new technology, proponents hope this process will accelerate. However, Flash is considerably smaller than its competitors and offers faster download speeds. It is also tightly integrated with the well-regarded Flash multimedia-development environment. Nonetheless, Flash's strengths are already making the technology a prominent part of the online-video landscape, a process that could continue if Adobe keeps improving it. The new Flash 8 environment, released in August 2005, includes Flash Player 8 and Flash Professional 8, a set of content-creation tools. According to analysts, Flash is likely to become increasingly successful in the on-demand streaming segment of the video-player market but probably won't expand into other areas unless major features are added.


33 patients with suspected coronary artery disease were studied hemodynamically and angiocardiographically in the resting state and following administration of 0.4 mg of sublingual nitroglycerin (NTG). After NTG several parameters were changed: LVEDP, mean LV systolic pressure, EDVI, ESVI, SVI and SWI were decreased; EF, mean Vcf, MNSER, heart rate (P less than 0.01; r = 0.801) and chords, hemichords and shortening of long axis were increased. However, the changes after NTG were markedly different in patients with diffuse and localized LV asynergy, suggesting a more important inotropic effect of NTG in patients with localized LV asynergy, while reduction in venous return and EDV would be the main effect of NTG in patients with diffuse LV asynergy.


Objective: To examine the relationship between allergy-related symptoms, food intolerance and psychological distress in primary care. Methods: Two thousand three hundred and thirty two adults in five General Practices in the South of England completed questionnaires regarding allergy and psychological health. Results: There was a weak link between allergy-related symptoms and psychological symptoms, but no association was demonstrated between a history of diagnosed or treated asthma, eczema or hay fever and psychological morbidity. Cases of food intolerance had lower levels of psychological distress than expected compared to hospital samples. Current, but not past wheezing and eczema, was associated with an excess of life stresses in the previous six months. Conclusions: The association between psychological distress and the label of food allergy/intolerance found in specialist care does not extend to primary care.


The streaming of audiobooks is a new and fast-growing phenomenon amongst Swedish consumers. There exists a lack of knowledge on this topic as it is previously unexplored within academia. As the audiobook streaming services are growing it is important for providers and competitors to understand the key factors determining usage intention from an end-user's perspective. This thesis therefore examines what factors influence enduser's adoption of audiobook streaming-services, the examination extends both for consumers intention to begin using as well as continue using the service. Factors related to the end-user's usage intention were explored and identified in a Swedish context. A theoretical model consisting of eight hypotheses was constructed to examine the relationships between five variables. The model is based on previous literature of technology adoption and in particular the technology acceptance model (TAM). Additional theory was gathered on previous research on similar technologies such consumers adoption of E-books and E-readers. To achieve the research purpose of the thesis, a quantitative method was used and data was gathered through an online questionnaire with 935 (769 valid) responses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used with RStudio to test the collected data on our theoretical model. The results showcased that our model was successful in explaining key factors influencing usage intention. The findings indicate that perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use influence usage intention positively, while end-user's attachment to paper books and reading impact usage intention negatively. Further results and the implications of these results are discussed.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most commonly diagnosed malignancy and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. A 58-year-old man visited his local hospital due to abdominal discomfort and was diagnosed with lung metastasis. After admission to our hospital in April 2020, he received two cycles of transcatheter arterial embolization (TAE), hepatic arterial infusion chemotherapy (HAIC-Folfox), sorafenib, and camrelizumab every 3 weeks. Due to the end of HAIC treatment, he underwent drug-eluting transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (dTACE) once, sorafenib, and camrelizumab. However, because of worsening liver function, we interrupted TACE and only gave sorafenib and camrelizumab in August 2020. Although he received systemic therapy, the tumors still rapidly progressed and we considered the possibility of tumor resistance. Subsequently, regorafenib was given. In September, the patient underwent conventional TACE (cTACE) once, regorafenib, and camrelizumab. After half a year of comprehensive treatment, the treatment effect was not satisfactory, and he returned to the local hospital to received regorafenib every day and camrelizumab once every 3 weeks. The patient found that the tumor and lung metastasis had shrunk significantly after 1 year of the initial diagnosis, then he was admitted to our hospital and received surgery treatment, and now he has survived disease-free for 6 months.


PowerEpsilon ([ZhuW9l]) is a strongly-typed polymorphic functional programming language based on Martin-Lof's type theory and the Calculus of Constructions. In PowerEpsilon there are no constant time definitions of the predecessor functions which will lead to non-efficient programs. In this paper, we give a solution to this problem by introducing an algebraic rewriting mechanism into the system.


The field of computer graphics has developed significantly over the last decade. However, most current CAD systems support only the two most common input devices: a mouse and a keyboard. In addition to that few, if any, systems make it easy for the user or the programmer to add and use new input devices. People tend to use both hands to manipulate 3D real world objects; one hand is used to orient the object while the other hand is used to perform some operation on it. The same thing could be applied to computer modelling in the conceptual phase of the design process. Accordingly, the 3D object can be easily and intuitively changed through interactive manipulation of both hands. This paper investigates the manipulation and creation of free form geometries through the use of interactive interfaces with multiple input devices. It demonstrates that using multiple input devices can offer many opportunities for form generation resulting in visually rich forms. However, the experimental results demonstrated that regulations are needed to avoid developing inefficient two-handed interfaces


The plasmodium of the slime mould Physarum polycephalum forms a transportation network of veins, in which protoplasm is transported due to peristaltic pumping. This network forms a planar, weighted, undirected graph that, for the first time, can be extracted automatically from photographs or movies. Thus, data from real transportation networks have now become available for the investigation of network properties. We determine the local drag of the vein segments and use these data to calculate the transport efficiency. We unravel which veins form the backbone of the transportation network by using a centrality measure from graph theory. The principal vein segments lie on relatively ample cycles of veins, and the most important segments are those that belong simultaneously to two of these principal cycles. Each principal cycle contains a series of smaller cycles of veins of lower transport efficiency, thus reflecting the hierarchical and self-similar structure of the transportation network. Finally, we calculate accessibility maps that show how easily different nodes of the network may be reached from a given reference node.


The PageRank of a graph is a scalar function defined on the node set of the graph which encodes nodes centrality information of the graph. In this work, we utilize the PageRank function on the lower-star filtration of the graph as input to persistent homology to study the problem of graph similarity. By representing each graph as a persistence diagram, we can then compare outputs using the bottleneck distance. We show the effectiveness of our method by utilizing it on two shape mesh datasets.


Dear editor,

Synchronous primary lung cancer occurs in only 0.5% of patients with lung cancer, and coexistence of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) has been reported in a very small fraction of lung cancer cases [1, 2]. In NSCLC, malignant cells are generally arranged in three-dimensional clusters and have eccentrically placed round to oval nuclei with prominent nucleoli. The cytoplasm may contain single to many vacuoles with diffuse and strong positivity on periodic acid-Schiff (PAS) cytochemical staining. Most NSCLC cells show positive cytoplasmic immunoreactivity for cytokeratin (CK) 7 but negative immunoreactivity for CK20. In SCLC, the small tumor cells have an extremely high nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio and show nuclear molding with positive immunocytochemical staining for CD56. The nuclear contours are often "squeezed" in appearance in order to accommodate the contours of the adjacent nuclei (a back-to-back appearance) [3]. To the best of our knowledge, coexistence of residual NSCLC cells and newly developed SCLC cells in ascitic fluid after chemotherapy for previously diagnosed NSCLC has not been reported. Here, we report a case of residual NSCLC cells coexisting with newly developed SCLC cells in the ascitic fluid of a patient who had received chemotherapy for previously diagnosed NSCLC.

A 54-yr-old man had been admitted to our institution in July 2013 for examination of abdominal distension that had developed 1 month previously. He was diagnosed as having NSCLC (adenocarcinoma of the lung) 5 yr previously and had subsequently undergone right upper lobe (RUL) lobectomy. Pathological examination of the surgical specimen had shown involvement of moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma up to the visceral pleura, without any regional lymph node metastasis or neoplastic cells of other origins, and pleural fluid cytology showed the presence of adenocarcinoma (NSCLC) only. The initial stage of NSCLC was assessed as T2aN0M0 (stage IB) at diagnosis. After RUL lobectomy, the patient was routinely followed up without adjuvant chemotherapy for 2 yr.

Three years before the most recent presentation, chest computed tomography (CT) showed newly developed NSCLC lesions in the right middle and lower lobes. The patient was diagnosed as having recurrent NSCLC, and chemotherapy with intravenous infusion of gemcitabine (1,000 mg/day) and cisplatin (120 mg/day) for 3 months was administered. After chemotherapy, the newly developed NSCLC lesions initially decreased in size. However, after 2 yr of chemotherapy, multiple nodules developed in the right hemithorax, which increased in size over time. Dyspnea due to an increased amount of pleural effusion was also observed. Chest CT showed pleural thickening and an increased amount of pleural fluid, with evidence of regional metastasis to the right hemithorax. On the basis of these findings, progressive disease (PD) was ascertained. Mutational analysis showed the presence of EGFR gene mutation (a deletion occurring in the 745th codon of exon 19). The patient was treated with gefitinib (250 mg/day) for 1 yr.

Initial response to gefitinib was favorable, as evidenced by a gradual decrease in pleural effusion and the size of metastatic nodules in the lung for 6 months. Pleural and ascitic fluid analyses showed no evidence of metastasis in both cavities on follow-up examination. However, follow-up chest CT performed 6 months previously showed aggravation of malignant pleural effusion and an increase in the lymph node size in the left gastric and pericaval area, with thickening of the pericardium, suggesting tumor invasion to the left hemithorax and pericardium. The patient's condition was classified as PD again, and abdominal distension developed gradually over 6 months, despite gefitinib treatment.

Ascitic fluid analysis performed at the most recent presentation showed 2 types of neoplastic cells differing in origin, at a frequency of 18% (Fig. 1A). The first type of identified cells were clusters of small- to medium-sized neoplastic cells with a back-to-back appearance (Fig. 1B), and the second type of cells were large neoplastic cells with mucinous contents in the cytoplasm (Fig. 1C).

Fig. 1

Wright staining of ascitic fluid cytospin slides. Two types of neoplastic cells were detected (A, 400×, small-cell lung cancer [SCLC] cells pointed by black arrow and non-small cell lung cancer [NSCLC] cells by red arrow) at a frequency of 18%. ...

Subsequently, cytochemical staining with PAS and immunocytochemical staining for CD56 (antibody diluted to 1:100; Zymed, San Francisco, CA, USA), CK7 (antibody diluted to 1:200; Dako, Cambridge, UK), and CK20 (antibody diluted to 1:100; Dako) were performed on cytospin slides to confirm the presence of neoplastic cells of two different origins. The small- to medium-sized neoplastic cells with a back-to-back appearance showed membrane positivity for CD56 on immunocytochemical staining (Fig. 2A). The large neoplastic cells with mucinous contents in the cytoplasm showed cytoplasmic positivity with PAS cytochemical staining (Fig. 2B) as well as CK7 positivity on immunocytochemical staining (Fig. 2C), but CK20 negativity on immunocytochemical staining (Fig. 2D). The small- to medium-sized neoplastic cells with a back-to-back appearance were diagnosed as SCLC, and the large neoplastic cells with mucinous contents in the cytoplasm were diagnosed as NSCLC (adenocarcinoma). The patient was diagnosed as having peritoneal metastasis of both SCLC and residual NSCLC. Five days after diagnosis, the patient died of impending hyperkalemia and azotemia.

Fig. 2

Cytochemical and immunocytochemical staining results of the two types of neoplastic cells detected in the ascitic fluid. The small-to medium-sized small-cell lung cancer cells (black arrow) showed membrane positivity for CD56 on immunocytochemical staining ...

Factors contributing to the development of synchronous primary lung cancer have not been investigated adequately because of its rarity. A previous study reported a case of synchronous primary lung cancer (SCLC and NSCLC) with strong positivity for p53 on immunohistochemical staining in a patient with a history of tobacco use for 40 yr [2]. The authors hypothesized that synchronous primary lung cancer may be associated with long-term tobacco use, which could independently lead to mutations in the p53 and K-ras genes [2]. However, in our case, the patient had a history of limited tobacco use (0.5 packs for 8 yr) and no K-ras mutation, as demonstrated by direct sequencing. Although the p53 mutation status was not investigated in our case, the clinical and molecular features partly contradict the hypothesis propounded in the previous report [2]. Factors associated with the development of synchronous primary lung cancer need to be confirmed in future studies.

In conclusion, we report a case of residual NSCLC cells coexisting with newly developed SCLC cells in the ascitic fluid of a patient after chemotherapy for previously diagnosed NSCLC.


The ability to anticipate future states of perceived actions is an important faculty for motor control and the generation of coordinated social interaction. Here, we studied whether the perception of a static posture of a complex movement automatically activates representations of future states of this particular movement event. We did this by using a priming paradigm with photographs of a high-jump movement. Participants judged whether a picture depicted a posture from the approach or flight phase of that movement. To evaluate expertise-dependent effects of priming, non-athletes and athletes were compared. Results revealed faster responding when prime and target pictures were assigned to the same motor response (response priming), and when the temporal order of prime and target matched the temporal order of the depicted postures in a real high jump (temporal-order priming). Whereas experts showed a temporal-order effect even within the same response category, such an effect occurred for novices only between response categories. A second experiment confirmed that these between-group differences are due to domain-specific motor expertise (i.e., high jump) rather than to general motor experiences. Altogether our results suggest that motor expertise results in a more fine-grained posture-based movement representation.


When starting initial medication in people with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), the appropriate drug should be selected considering characteristics of the patient, efficacy, side effects, and cost. It is generally recommended to use metformin as the first-line treatment oral hypoglycemic agent in T2DM patients. Metformin is recommended as the first treatment because of its excellent glucose lowering effect, relatively mild side effects, long-term safety, low risk of hypoglycemia, and small weight gain. If it is difficult to use metformin as a first-line treatment, appropriate drugs can be selected based on the clinical situation.


Background/objectives LL-37, a member of the cathelicidin family of host defense peptides, has a broad range of immunomodulatory and anti-infective effects that are known to selectively alter innate immunity. The authors aimed to investigate a potential role of LL-37 in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Materials and methods Thirty-eight patients meeting the 1987 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria for RA were recruited for this study. The authors evaluated LL-37 and CD-68 expression by immunohistochemistry in synovial biopsy samples obtained before and after a mean of 8 weeks of treatment from 15 patients treated with adalimumab, 12 patients treated with etanercept and 11 patients treated with Methotrexate. The authors also evaluated LL-37 expression in 10 healthy controls. Microscopic analysis was performed and stained synovial biopsy sections were evaluated semiquantitatively in random order by two independent observers (ME and PN) using a four-point scale (0=no positive cells, 1=occasional positive cells, 2=scattered positive cells and/or focal positive cells, 3=extensive positive cells). The observers were unaware of patient identity. Statistical analysis was performed using Wilcoxon paired test. Results LL-37 was expressed in most of the RA synovial biopsies, both in close proximity to blood vessels and in the lining and sublining layers. Serial immunostaining for cell surface markers identifies macrophages and granulocytes as main cells expressing LL-37 in the inflamed joint. Lower expression of LL-37 was observed in the healthy controls. Interestingly the authors were able to demonstrate a significant downregulation of LL-37 following adalimumab and etanercept but not methotrexate treatment. Conclusion Our results suggest a role for LL-37 in the synovial inflammation and show specific regulation of this molecule by distinct antirheumatic agents.


Clean high-resolution mass spectra (HRMS) are essential to a successful structural elucidation of an unknown feature during nontarget analysis (NTA) workflows. This is a crucial step, particularly for the spectra generated during data-independent acquisition or during direct infusion experiments. The most commonly available tools only take advantage of the time domain for spectral cleanup. Here, we present an algorithm that combines the time domain and mass domain information to perform spectral deconvolution. The algorithm employs a probability-based cumulative neutral loss (CNL) model for fragment deconvolution. The optimized model, with a mass tolerance of 0.005 Da and a scoreCNL threshold of 0.00, was able to achieve a true positive rate (TPr) of 95.0%, a false discovery rate (FDr) of 20.6%, and a reduction rate of 35.4%. Additionally, the CNL model was extensively tested on real samples containing predominantly pesticides at different concentration levels and with matrix effects. Overall, the model was able to obtain a TPr above 88.8% with FD rates between 33 and 79% and reduction rates between 9 and 45%. Finally, the CNL model was compared with the retention time difference method and peak shape correlation analysis, showing that a combination of correlation analysis and the CNL model was the most effective for fragment deconvolution, obtaining a TPr of 84.7%, an FDr of 54.4%, and a reduction rate of 51.0%.


We compute the leading asymptotics of the logarithm of the number of $d$-regular graphs having at least a fixed positive fraction $c$ of the maximum possible number of triangles, and provide a strong structural description of almost all such graphs.
When $d$ is constant, we show that such graphs typically consist of many disjoint $(d+1)$-cliques and an almost triangle-free part. When $d$ is allowed to grow with $n$, we show that such graphs typically consist of very dense sets of size $d+o(d)$ together with an almost triangle-free part.
This confirms a conjecture of Collet and Eckmann from 2002 and considerably strengthens their observation that the triangles cannot be totally scattered in typical instances of regular graphs with many triangles.


Info 2013 In this paper Permanent Magnet Synchronous Generator (PMSG) is used for wind power generation in standalone system due to their feature of high efficiency and low maintenance cost, which was fed with smart direct matrix converter for direct AC-AC conversion, It provides sinusoidal output waveforms with minimal higher order harmonics and no sub harmonics and also it eliminate the usage of dc-link and other passive elements. Space vector modulation (SVM) controlled technique is used for matrix converter switching which can eliminate the switching loses by selected switching states. Proposed work is often seen as a future concept for variable speed drives technology. The proposed model for RL load was analysed and verified by varying the resistor and inductance value and analysed using MATLAB


Idealized model experiments investigate the advance warning for malaria that may be presently possible using temperature and rainfall predictions from state-of-the-art operational monthly and seasonal weatherprediction systems. The climate forecasts drive a dynamical malaria model for all of Africa, and the predictions are evaluated using reanalysis data. The regions and months for which climate is responsible for significant interannual malaria transmission variability are first identified. In addition to epidemic-prone zones these also include hyperendemic regions subject to high variability during specific months of the year, often associatedwith the monsoon onset.In manyof these areas,temperatureanomalies are predictablefrom 1 to 2 months ahead, and reliable precipitation forecasts are available in eastern and southern Africa 1 month ahead. The inherent lag between the rainy seasons and malaria transmission results in potential predictability in malaria transmission 3‐4 months in advance, extending the early warning available from environmental monitoring by 1‐2 months, although the realizable forecast skill will be less than this because of an imperfect malaria model.A preliminaryexaminationofthe forecastsfor the highlands ofUganda andKenyashows that the system is able to predict the years during the last two decades in which documented highland outbreaks occurred, in particular the major event of 1998, but that the timing of outbreaks was often imprecise and inconsistent across lead times. In addition to country-level evaluation with district health data, issues that need addressing to integrate such a climate-based prediction system into health-decision processes are briefly discussed.


The mid-infrared (MIR) wavelength coincides with various molecular resonances. In particular, a 13-20 µm wavelength window has fingerprints of unique groups such as organometallic, halogenated, and aromatic bonds. In this work, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, an on-chip supercontinuum generation (SCG) source based on cadmium telluride (CdTe)/ cadmium sulfide (CdS)/ silicon heterostructure is proposed to extend the on-chip SCG beyond 13 µm (spanning 3.5 to 20 µm). CdTe has an ultra-broad transparent spectral range up to 25 µm, and almost the largest third-order nonlinear coefficient (n2∼ 5×10-17 m2/W at 1.55 µm, 1.3×10-17 m2/W at 9 µm, several times larger than that of silicon) among the MIR materials, making CdTe an excellent candidate for long-wavelength MIR on-chip SCG. The waveguide structure is designed with CdS as the intermediate cladding layer to achieve a low waveguide loss and high mode confinement. A large-core CdTe waveguide is tailored to generate a low and flat dispersion (< 30 ps/nm/km) in a spectral range spanning from 5 to 20 µm, while balancing the large effective nonlinearity and the convenience of coupling. The simulation results solved by the nonlinear Schrödinger equation manifest that the engineered large cross-section waveguide with only 2.5-mm propagation distance broadens the MIR spectrum covering 3.5 to 20 µm pumped by a 9 µm femtosecond laser. Moreover, it is found that good coherence is achieved from the designed MIR waveguide, before severe soliton fission breaks the temporal profile. 5-fold self-compression of the pump pulse down to 1.6 optical cycles is observed while propagating inside the CdTe waveguide. The detailed simulation of the CdTe/CdS/Si waveguide design with the various waveguide parameters, polarizations, pump wavelengths, and pump power are provided. With the SC spectrum covering almost the entire fingerprint regime and the excellent coherence generated from the designed CdTe waveguide, it provides abundant new opportunities for MIR microphotonics.


In this paper, we propose a joint scheduling and precoding scheme in MU-MIMO downlink channel with limited feedback. Each user feeds back the index which indicates the channel direction in a predefined codebook and one scalar denoting the quantization error. With the feedback information, the base station schedules the first user with the minimal quantization error. And then it schedules the users with the metric based on the sum of two chord distances. Compared with the traditional joint scheduling and precoding based on ZF-CI, our proposed scheme can restrain the performance loss caused by quantization error and reduce the feedback. Further, the sum rate is greatly improved as SNR increases. Simulation results are exhibited to verify its effectiveness.


ZnO nanocrystals were successfully produced by mechanical milling. It is shown that mechanical milling is very effective and simple to produce ZnO nanoparticles with the possibility of obtaining large quantities of materials. Size effects in ZnO nanoparticles were probed by XRD and UV-vis and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. Absorption due to free electron was clearly observed, whereas strong PL lines were recorded in the UV and blue region. The absorbance and photoluminescence were found to increase with reduction in particle size. Blueshift of excitonic and emission peaks was observed as a consequence of the size quantization effect. Formation of pure ZnO phase was confirmed from XRD pattern and the optical spectroscopy.


ABSTRACT The comparative in vitro activity of HMR 3004 and HMR 3647, new ketolide antibiotics, was tested by a standard agar dilution technique against 221 pneumococcal strains, including isolates with intermediate levels of resistance to penicillin and erythromycin-resistant isolates. The ketolides were more active than other macrolides and showed excellent activity against erythromycin-resistant strains. All the strains were inhibited by ≤2 μg of HMR 3004/ml or by ≤0.5 μg of HMR 3647/ml.


ABSTRACT Background: There is an ongoing debate whether the effect of Melodic Intonation Therapy (MIT) in patients with severe non-fluent aphasia depends on recruitment of right hemisphere (RH) structures for language functioning or on re-recruitment of left hemisphere (LH) language structures. So far, neuroimaging studies have produced conflicting evidence. Aims: To investigate whether a shift in language lateralisation occurs after intensive treatment in subacute (<3 months post onset) and chronic (>1 year post onset) stroke patients with aphasia. Method & Procedures: In a multiple case pilot study with pre-post-design 5 subacute and 4 chronic stroke patients received intensive MIT (6 weeks, 30 sessions). Pre- and post-treatment they underwent functional MRI scanning with a passive listening task to determine language lateralisation indices (LIs). Outcomes & Results: No consistent shift of language activation was found either to the LH or to the RH. With one exception, subacute patients showed symmetrical or right-lateralised language activation pretreatment, which tended to become more right lateralised after treatment. Language activation in chronic patients was left lateralised in two of the four participants, with a tendency towards stronger left lateralised activation after treatment. Conclusions: Data for the subacute patients provide some support for the classical notion that MIT promotes recruitment of RH structures for language processing. However, the contrasting activation patterns in chronic participants before as well as after treatment suggest that reorganisation of language after MIT occurs in interaction with a dynamic recovery process after stroke. Time post onset should be addressed systematically in studies of treatment-induced language recovery.


Bronchopulmonary dysplasia has been well described in premature infants requiring mechanical ventilation. Systemic steroids are one of many treatment modalities used in the management of these infants, but these agents have been associated with a number of adverse effects. Aerosolized therapy has been proposed as an alternative in order to minimize the systemic complications that occur with the parenteral route. The initial reports of inhaled steroids, although limited, have shown promising results with minimal side effects. This article addresses the mechanism of action, the role in therapy, and potential complications associated with the use of inhaled steroids in the treatment of bronchopulmonary dysplasia.


Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor associated factor 2 (Traf2) is suspected to be involved in the anti-apoptotic pathways of the innate immune system in the zebrafish. The expression of three different forms of Traf2, 2a1, 2a2, and 2b, was knocked down in pairs using antisense morpholino oligonucleotides in zebrafish embryos. A rescue was attempted by knocking down a potential receptor for the Traf2 to pathway. After infection with snakehead rhabdovirus (SHRV), mortality was quantified and the apoptotic effects of each of the Traf2 genes was assessed. Cell death was quantified using the TUNEL technique. The findings indicated that at least two zebrafish Traf2 proteins were necessary for function. Increased mortality due to infection was not caused by an increased amount of virus in the Traf2 morphants or increased amount of apoptosis.


Maize grows on every continent save Antarctica and provides food and biofuels for millions of people. Now, researchers studying ancient and modern maize have found a clue to its popularity over the millennia: maize's easily adjustable flowering time, which enabled ancient peoples to get the plant to thrive in diverse climates, according to several studies presented in July at the meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution in Austin. The studies found hints of the genomic shifts behind such rapid change, and ancient DNA studies presented at the meeting began to clarify when maize flowering came under farmer control, revealing enormous adaptive potential that humans were able to exploit.


The hetero-/homogeneous combustion of hydrogen/air and hydrogen/carbon monoxide/air mixtures over platinum was investigated experimentally and numerically in a catalytic channel-flow configuration. The investigated equivalence ratios ranged from 2.0 to 7.0, the molar H2 : CO ratio from 1 : 2 to 5 : 1, the pressures were up to 5 bar for pure hydrogen/air mixtures and up to 14 bar for syngas/air mixtures, and the wall temperatures varied from 747 to 1260K. Main objectives were the provision of validated hetero/homogeneous chemical reaction schemes and the investigation of conditions leading to the onset of homogeneous ignition. Furthermore, the coupling of heterogeneous and homogeneous combustion was studied and fundamental differences between fuel-lean and fuel-rich stoichiometries on combustion characteristics were brought about. Experiments have been performed in an optically accessible, catalytic channel-flow reactor and involved in-situ one-dimensional Raman measurements of the major species concentrations over the channel boundary layer and planar laser induced fluorescence (LIF). For pressures up to 5 bar, LIF of the OH radical was used, while at higher pressures LIF of the O2 molecule was employed, since the OH-LIF signal was too weak at elevated pressures. O2-LIF in turn was not feasible for the lower pressure range. Simulations with a two-dimensional elliptic model, including detailed heterogeneous and homogeneous chemical reaction mechanisms, were able to reproduce the onset of homogeneous ignition, the measured catalytic fuel consumption and the post-ignition shape of the flames. A comparison of fuel-lean and fuel-rich gas-phase reactivity of H2/air mixtures revealed, that below a critical pressure, which is temperature dependent, the intrinsic gas-phase kinetics of H2 dictated a lower reactivity for the fuel-rich stoichiometry compared to the fuel-lean one. However, due to the lower molecular transport rate of the limiting reactant oxygen that resulted in a reduced catalytic conversion over the gaseous induction zone, homogeneous ignition was still more favorable for the fuel-rich stoichiometries than for the fuel-lean ones. Above the aforementioned critical pressure, the intrinsic gaseous hydrogen kinetics yielded a higher reactivity for fuel-rich stoichiometries than for fuel-


Pancreatic acinar cell metaplasia of the gastric mucosa is a newly recognized entity. Its physiological relevance and association with other gastric pathological conditions remains to be elucidated. We studied morphology of pancreatic metaplasia of the gastric mucosa in 15 cases. Two morphological forms of pancreatic metaplasia were noticed: an acinar form and a diffuse form. The diffuse form is characterized by small foci of pancreatic metaplasia dispersed in the gastric mucosa without any separation from the surrounding gastric glands. The acinar form is characterized by acini of pancreatic metaplasia separated from the surrounding gastric mucosa by strands of connective tissue and single smooth muscle cells. Acinar form of pancreatic metaplasia seems to be spared by the chronic atrophic gastritis involving the neighboring gastric mucosa.


Summary This paper presents an adaptive threshold channel allocation scheme for new and handoff calls in wireless multimedia network. We divide the channels of each cell into two parts; one for handoff call and the other for new call. To give handoff call higher priority over new calls, the handoff call is allowed to preempt the new call when it finds no channel available on its arrival. The interrupted new call goes to the buffer until channel is available at the new call reserve channels. The call in the buffer is served using ticket scheduling. The system is supported with an analytical model, and the numerical analysis to estimate the blocking probabilities of both new call and handoff call. The scheme is also simulated using extensive runs and the numerical results confirm the optimality of the scheme when queuing of new calls is allowed.


Odor memory was studied in 121 patients with unilateral cerebral excision from temporal, frontal, frontotemporal, or centroparietal areas, and 20 control subjects. Odors were presented birhinally, and half were named, to examine the effect of verbal labelling. Testing was by yes-no recognition immediately after presentation, 20 min later, and after 24 hr, using eight different targets and eight new foils each time. The results showed impairment only after excision from the right temporal or right orbitofrontal cortex. All groups showed significant forgetting over time, and verbalized odors were recognized more efficiently than unlabelled ones. The findings, suggesting a right hemisphere predominance in odor memory, support similar results for odor discrimination.


A table top ~0.2-kJ miniature plasma focus (PF) device "FMPF-1" (2.4 ¿F, 27 ± 2 nH, T/4 ~400 ns, 9-14 kV) has been successfully used as a compact and portable, pulsed hard X-ray (HXR) source for fast (< 32-ns exposure time) radiography applications using Hydrogen (H2) as filling gas. The overall dimensions of the apparatus, which includes capacitor bank, sparkgap switch, and the focus chamber, are 0.2 m × 0.2 m × 0.5 m, and the system weighs about 25 kg. The time resolved information of HXR emission and their relative yield along the axial (0°) and radial (90°) directions are measured using a pair of cross-calibrated scintillator-photomultiplier detectors. The average pulse durations (full-width at half-maximum) of HXR pulse are measured to be 29 ± 3 ns in axial direction and 18 ± 2 ns in the radial direction. The average axial to radial HXR yield anisotropy is found to be 3.9 ± 0.9 at the optimum pressure of 3.5 mbar. The experimental estimation of the effective average energy of the HXR emission, with high-Z (Pb) insert in stainless steel anode is found to be in the range of 60-80 keV. The potential of the miniature PF as compact radiographic source is illustrated by radiographic imaging, with submillimeter range (< 0.3 mm) spatial resolution, of different objects placed outside the chamber.


Full Text  The date: Feb 20, 2006. Medical publishing was rocked by the sudden dismissal of the Editor In Chief of the CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal), John Hoey, and a Senior Deputy Editor Anne Mary Todkill. The Editor appointed in the interim, Stephen Choe and another Deputy Editor Sally Murray, also resigned in a week's time, on 28 Feb to be precise. Along with them also went Jerome Kassirer, a former CMAJ editorial board member and a former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), appointed to frame regulations or governance plans about editorial independence.  All these are well-respected professionals in the field of biomedical publication and there has been a huge outcry, both in the medical as well as popular press, at their abrupt sacking.  If this were not enough, fifteen out of the nineteen members of the editorial board of the CAMJ also resigned, precipitating a grave crisis. In the meanwhile, the CMA, in an attempt at damage control, appointed an interim Editor, Noni Macdonald, along with an Editor Emeritus, Bruce Squires, who has been an earlier editor of CMAJ , and a founder member of WAME. A retired Chief Justice of the Canadian Supreme Court has been appointed to chalk out a Governance Plan for Editorial independence. Changes are also envisaged in the JOC (Journal Oversight Committee). The CMA President is exhorting everyone concerned to move on, and has assured a policy of editorial independence. The atmosphere, at the time of writing this, is combative and smoldering, and a distinct unease prevails.


Programmes that increase awareness of childhood obesity are vital to reducing the number of obese adults and adults with cardiovascular diseases. However, the effectiveness of these programmes must be evaluated to optimise resources for childhood obesity awareness programmes. The present study was conducted to assess the intermediate cost-effectiveness and provide a cost analysis of childhood obesity health promotion programmes. This quasi-experimental study compared the intermediate outcomes of the Sahabat Sihat and Be Best programmes over a six-month period. Data regarding health-related quality of life (EQ-5D and EQ-VAS), the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice questionnaire, and biomedical data were obtained from booklets prepared by MySihat for childhood obesity-related health promotion programmes. Data regarding cost was obtained from the expenditure records of the respective health promotion programmes. The intergroup and intragroup comparisons between the EQ-5D and EQ-VAS results, the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice scores, and the biomedical data were explored using the Mann-Whitney and Friedman tests. Descriptive statistics were utilised in the analysis of the cost results. Be Best and Sahabat Sihat were successful in helping to prevent overweight respondents from becoming obese. The Attitude score was higher among the Sahabat Sihat cohort, but the Practice score was higher among the Be Best cohort. Be Best had a lower mean cost per participant and was more cost-effective than Sahabat Sihat.


Temperature and salinity both contribute to ocean density, including its seasonal cycle and spatial patterns in the mixed layer. Temperature and salinity profiles from the Argo Program allow construction and analysis of a global, monthly, mixed layer climatology. Temperature changes dominate the seasonal cycle of mixed layer density in most regions, but salinity changes are dominant in the tropical warm pools, Arctic, and Antarctic. Under the Intertropical Convergence Zone, temperature and salinity work in concert to increase seasonal stratification, but the seasonal density changes there are weak because the temperature and salinity changes are small. In the eastern subtropics, seasonal salinity changes partly compensate those in temperature and reduce seasonal mixed layer density changes. Besides a hemispheric seasonal reversal, the times of maximum and minimum mixed layer density exhibit regional variations. For instance, the equatorial region is more closely aligned with Southern Hemisphere timing, and much of the North Indian Ocean has a minimum density in May and June. Outside of the tropics, the maximum mixed layer density occurs later in the winter toward the poles, and the minimum earlier in the summer. Finally, at the times of maximum mixed layer density, some of the ocean has horizontal temperature and salinity gradients that work against each other to reduce the horizontal density gradient. However, on the equatorial sides of the subtropical salinity maxima, temperature and salinity gradients reinforce each other, increasing the density gradients there. Density gradients are generally stronger where either salinity or temperature gradients are dominant influences.


Lanthionine-containing peptides (lanthipeptides) are a family of ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides containing (methyl)lanthionine residues. Here we present a phylogenomic study of the four currently known classes of lanthipeptide synthetases (LanB and LanC for class I, LanM for class II, LanKC for class III, and LanL for class IV). Although they possess very similar cyclase domains, class II–IV synthetases have evolved independently, and LanB and LanC enzymes appear to not always have coevolved. LanM enzymes from various phyla that have three cysteines ligated to a zinc ion (as opposed to the more common Cys-Cys-His ligand set) cluster together. Most importantly, the phylogenomic data suggest that for some scaffolds, the ring topology of the final lanthipeptides may be determined in part by the sequence of the precursor peptides and not just by the biosynthetic enzymes. This notion was supported by studies with two chimeric peptides, suggesting that the nisin and prochlorosin biosynthetic enzymes can produce the correct ring topologies of epilancin 15X and lacticin 481, respectively. These results highlight the potential of lanthipeptide synthetases for bioengineering and combinatorial biosynthesis. Our study also demonstrates unexplored areas of sequence space that may be fruitful for genome mining.


Abstract. Research cruises to quantify biogeochemical fluxes in the ocean require
taking measurements at stations lasting at least several days. A popular
experimental design is the quasi-Lagrangian drifter, often mounted with in
situ incubations or sediment traps that follow the flow of water over time. After initial
drifter deployment, the ship tracks the drifter for continuing measurements
that are supposed to represent the same water environment. An outstanding
question is how to best determine whether this is true. During the
Oligotrophy to UlTra-oligotrophy PACific Experiment (OUTPACE) cruise, from 18
February to 3 April 2015 in the western tropical South Pacific, three
separate stations of long duration (five days) over the upper 500  m
were conducted in this quasi-Lagrangian sampling scheme. Here we present
physical data to provide context for these three stations and to assess
whether the sampling strategy worked, i.e., that a single body of water
was sampled. After analyzing tracer variability and local water circulation
at each station, we identify water layers and times where the drifter risks
encountering another body of water. While almost no realization of this
sampling scheme will be truly Lagrangian, due to the presence of vertical
shear, the depth-resolved observations during the three stations show most
layers sampled sufficiently homogeneous physical environments during OUTPACE.
By directly addressing the concerns raised by these quasi-Lagrangian sampling
platforms, a protocol of best practices can begin to be formulated so that
future research campaigns include the complementary datasets and analyses
presented here to verify the appropriate use of the drifter platform.


Recombinant human growth hormone was covalently linked to biotin via a six-carbon spacer arm. Biotinylation was confirmed by electrophoresis and mass spectrometry showed that approximately 50% of the hormone was monobiotinylated. The modified growth hormone (GH) was shown to bind to the GH receptor of IM9 human lymphoid cells with an affinity of 0.55 x 10(9) M-1. Bioactivity of biotinylated GH measured in the Nb2 bioassay was 53.9% that of unlabeled GH. GH binding sites on human IM9 cells were visualized histochemically with the biotinylated hormone, a technique that provides a means of identifying receptors for GH on target cells in vitro.


Systematic studies on the replication of varicella-zoster virus in infected human fetal diploid lung cells have defined more optimal conditions for infection and harvesting of cultures and have led to the production of cell-free virus preparations with infectivity titers of greater than or equal to 10(6) plaque-forming units per ml. The highest yields of cell-free virus were obtained by (i) sonic treatment of the cellular phase of cultures inoculated with trypsin-dispersed infected cells at ratios of 1 infected cell to 6 to 10 uninfected cells in the monolayer and (ii) harvesting cells after 24 to 36 h of incubation at 36 degrees C. At this time the cultures showed minimal viral cytopathic effect. Spread of infectivity occurred much more rapidly in cultures inoculated with whole infected cells than in those infected with cell-free virus. Complement-fixing antigens with improved titers of greater than or equal to 1:128 were prepared from varicella-zoster virus-infected cell cultures in the same manner as cell-free virus, but harvested after 3 to 4 days of incubation when the cultures showed an advanced cytopathic effect.


It is absolutely essential to convert biomass waste into usable energy in a rational manner. This investigation proposes the economical synthesis of heteroatom (N and S)-doped carbon (ATC) from Aesculus turbinata seed as a natural precursor by carbonization at 800 °C. The final product obtained was characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, high-resolution transmittance electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Raman spectroscopy, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in order to investigate its structural property and chemical composition. The porous carbon achieved by this method contained oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur from Aesculus turbinata seed and had pores rich in micropores and mesopores. Crystalline ATC obtained with a high surface area (560 m2 g−1) and pore size (3.8 nm) were exploited as electrode material for the supercapacitor. The electrochemical studies revealed a specific capacitance of 142 F g−1 at a current density of 0.5 A g−1 using 1 M H2SO4 as an electrolyte. ATC had exceptional cycling stability, and the capacitance retention was 95% even after 10,000 charge-discharge cycles. The findings show that ATC derived from biomass proved to be a potential energy storage material by converting waste biomass into a high-value-added item, a supercapacitor.


INTRODUCTION
Diabetes is associated with gender-specific changes in sex steroid hormones. However, the mechanisms responsible for these associations as well as the link to sexual dysfunction are not well understood.

AIM
To discuss key clinical and laboratory findings linking diabetes, sex steroid hormones, and sexual dysfunction, with particular focus on the female gender.

METHODS
A comprehensive literature review was conducted using the PubMed database. Search terms were used in appropriate combinations, including diabetes, insulin, insulin sensitivity, androgen, estrogen, sexual function, women, men, estrogen receptor, and androgen receptor. Over 400 citations were selected, based on topical relevance, and examined for study methodology and major findings.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Data from peer-reviewed publications.

RESULTS
Imbalances in sex steroid hormone levels are strongly associated with diabetes and this may negatively impact upon sexual function. Although numerous factors are likely to contribute to the development of diabetes and its complications, the role of sex steroid hormones must be acknowledged.

CONCLUSIONS
Research related to diabetic women and sexual dysfunction is severely lacking. Identifying underlying causes for a given hormonal imbalance in diabetic patients, as well as determination of genetic and age-dependent factors, will become important in identifying the subpopulations in which hormonal replacement regimens will be most effective. Investigation into treating diabetic patients with adjunct hormonal therapies or steroid hormone receptor modulators holds much promise.


Zonal geostrophic velocity fields above 1975 dbar have been estimated for the Southern Ocean from 2004 into 2011 based on sea surface topography observed by Jason altimetry and temperature/salinity measured by Argo autonomous floats. The velocity at 1000 dbar estimated with the method has been compared to Argo drift trajectory at the same pressure level available from the Asia Pacific Data Research Center (APDRC). The inferred velocities agree with those from the Argo drift within the estimated sampling error of the latter, but have fewer gaps in space and time. The velocity has also been integrated from depth to surface to determine the mean and time-variable zonal geostrophic transport in the Southern Ocean between 29.5!S and 58.5!S, primarily in the South Atlantic and South Indian Ocean basins, due to limitations in coverage of Argo. Analysis shows errors can be reduced by >70% by averaging gridded results over wide areas. Zonal transport averaged over the entire Indian Ocean basin shows a significant correlation with the Antarctic Oscillation (AAO) at low frequencies: transport is higher than normal during a positive phase of the AAO, and lower during the negative phase.


Echo state networks (ESNs), as efficient and powerful computational models for approximating nonlinear dynamical systems, have been successfully applied in financial time series forecasting. Reservoir constructions in standard ESNs rely on trials and errors in real applications due to a series of randomized model building stages. A novel form of ESN with deterministically constructed reservoir is competitive with standard ESN by minimal complexity and possibility of optimizations for ESN specifications. In this paper, forecasting performances of deterministic ESNs are investigated in stock price prediction applications. The experiment results on two benchmark datasets (Shanghai Composite Index and S&P500) demonstrate that deterministic ESNs outperform standard ESN in both accuracy and efficiency, which indicate the prospect of deterministic ESNs for financial prediction.


We determine all the Fourier-Mukai transforms for coherent systems consisting of a vector bundle over an elliptic curve and a subspace of its global sections, showing that these transforms are indexed by the positive integers. We prove that the natural stability condition for coherent systems, which depends on a parameter, is preserved by these transforms for small and large values of the parameter. By means of the Fourier-Mukai transforms we prove that certain moduli spaces of coherent systems corresponding to small and large values of the parameter are isomorphic. Using these results we draw some conclusions about the possible birational type of the moduli spaces. We prove that for a given degree d of the vector bundle and a given dimension of the subspace of its global sections there are at most d different possible birational types for the moduli spaces. SA114/04 of the " Junta de Castilla y León " and by the European Scientific Exchange Programme " Geometry and topology of moduli spaces " of the Royal Society of London and the Spanish CSIC under grant 15646.


The increasing use of comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) in clinical practice for the genomic characterization of tumors is having an increasingly important impact on patients with cancer, empowering the rational use of both targeted therapies and immunotherapies and driving smarter, faster drug development. While some of the insights from clinical tumor sequencing have been realized, there remains a large gap between our understanding of the mutational landscape in cancer and its implication for patient treatment and outcomes. Furthermore, given the increasing subcategorization of cancer types by genetic lesion, efforts to understand the relationship between cancer genetics and clinical outcomes will require the use of large data sets. To date, the majority of these efforts have been largely confined to academic centers and limited by either number of patients or number of genes sequenced.Through a groundbreaking partnership between Foundation Medicine and Flatiron Health, a real-world dataset has been enabled, linking rich genomic and clinical outcomes data for over 20,000 oncology patients, the majority of whom have been treated in the community setting, in an HIPAA-compliant fashion. Within this cohort, longitudinal records from over 1,500 patients with NSCLC have been de-identified and consolidated in a research-grade clinico-genomic registry. These data include full somatic genomic records across the cohort, treatment histories, response to oncologic therapeutics, and multiple outcomes including PFS and OS, in addition to baseline clinical characteristics. The capabilities of these data and these novel methods of real-world observation are only beginning to be understood. Initial analytical validation has confirmed expected distributions of genomic findings and clinical characteristics, and early work still in progress had corroborated a number of known clinical and genomic correlates with survival, which will be presented. In a separate study marrying genomic, protein, and outcome data in a cohort of ~1,000 non–small lung cancer patients, modulators of response to immune checkpoint blockade were identified. These biomarkers include both immunosuppressors that explain why some patients with high tumor mutation burden (TMB) do not respond and immunogenic markers that explain why some patients with low TMB respond. Given the high cost and broadening use of immunotherapies, if validated in larger cohorts, these biomarkers will be important to more effectively stratify NSCLC patients by likelihood of response to immunotherapy. Citation Format: Phil Stephens. Identification of novel modulators of response to immune checkpoint blockade in lung cancer patients through the marrying of clinical and genomic data [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr SY40-02. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-SY40-02


We investigate numerically and experimentally the propagation of visible sub-50 fs pulses in a tapered small core photonic crystal fiber. The fiber has anomalous dispersion between two closely spaced zero dispersion wavelengths at 509 and 640 nm, and the excitation wavelength was varied within this range. We find that the spectral evolution in the low power regime is dominated by higher-order soliton fission, soliton self-frequency shift, and dispersive wave generation. At higher powers, extremely wide spectral broadening of the input pulse occurs within the first few millimeters of fiber. The wavelength conversion into the blue and red spectral ranges is studied as a function of the input power and excitation wavelength. Conversions into the spectral range 300-470 nm at efficiencies as high as 40% are observed when pumping at 523 nm.


This work aims to identify the caregiver difficults in assisting pacients at home in order to establish recommendations to improve pacient care. A special form was developed to collect data on 103 pacients and 181 caregivers during the period of Sept. 1999 and Jan. 2000. The findings pointed out that pacients with low quality of care have a long time of dependency on care (p<0,0001). The authors believe that the quality of care to these patients can be improved if they get special attention, such as assistive technologies, and caregivers access adequate information.


Aluminosilicate sodalites of three different types--chlorosodalite, basic sodalite, and oxalate sodalite--have been synthesized in their sodium forms using hydrothermal synthesis. The syntheses were investigated in terms of their relative rates of crystallization and final crystallinities using powder X-ray diffraction. These sodalites were subsequently loaded with silver by aqueous ion exchange. The exchange was studied primarily by monitoring the solution phase. Rate of exchange and equilibrium behavior have been established over the temperature range of 25-80°C for all three types. Extreme selectivity toward silver over sodium was observed, with little dependence on temperature. Both sodium and silver sodalites were characterized by powder diffraction, and crystallographic data for silver sodalites have been derived using Rietveld refinement. Electron micrographs of sodalites have been used for investigations of crystallite morphology and size. Silver sodalites have been observed to manifest various optical properties including photochromic, barochromic, thermochromic, and fluorescent behavior.


Background Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multifaceted autoimmune disease driven by auto-reactive immune cells that target multiple organ systems leading to severe complications. A main complication of SLE is nephritis, formally known as lupus nephritis (LN) that is classified as a secondary form of glomerulonephritis. Exposure to sunlight is one of the environmental factors involved in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus. Previous studies of a seasonal influence on SLE activity have conflicting results, suggesting that there was only an increased incidence of photosensitive rashes in the summer months, whereas others found more articular pain in the winter and spring. A study of renal biopsies found that the prevalence of class V lupus nephritis was significantly higher in Winter and Spring. Objectives To determine, in a cohort of adult LN patients, whether there is any seasonal variation in the activity of LN, and possible correlations between specific organ involvement, gender and disease duration. Methods Retrospective study, enrolling patients attending a Rheumatology/Nephrology outpatient department, diagnosed with SLE (according to the American College of Rheumatology criteria) and LN. Fixed variables: age, gender, race, disease duration, LN treatment phase, histological classification (renal biopsy), specific organ involvement and therapeutics for SLE, including glucocorticoids. Clinical variables evaluated 2 times for year (one in winter; one in summer, without change in therapeutics): anti-dsDNA antibodies, serum urea and creatinine, urinary sediment and protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPr/Cr). Statistical analysis with Microsoft Excel, version 2010; appropriate statistical tests was used, and a p value<0.05 with a 95% confidence interval will be assumed. Results 73 SLE patients were enrolled in the study, 61 were female (84%); mean age was 40±11.5 years and mean disease duration was 118±102 months. All the patients were white. 51 patients (70%) had class 4 LN. 58 (79%) patients had extra renal disease, 34 with joint disease and 23 with cutaneous involvement. Mean UPr/Cr was superior in summer than winter (0.443±0.66mg/g Vs 0.401±0.84mg/g), this increase being statistically significant (p=0.04). Patients with SLE cutaneous involvement had higher renal activity in summer and higher seasonal variation (p=0.02). Mean dsDNA was superior in summer, but this difference wasn't statistically significant. No association was identified between seasonal disease activity and sex or disease duration. Conclusions Despite the reduced size of our cohort, we confirmed a seasonal pattern for Lupus Nephritis and renal disease activity in Northern Portugal, being higher in summer time, in possible correlation with an increase in temperature and duration of sunshine, expecially in SLE patients with cutaneous envolvement. References Schlesinger N, Schlesinger M, Seshan SV. Seasonal variation of lupus nephritis: high prevalence of class V nephritis during winter and spring. J Rheumatol. 2005; 32:1053–7. Steup-Beekman GM, Gahrmann BM, Steens SC, van Buchem MA, Huizinga TW. Seasonal variation of primary neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus. J Rheumatol. 2006; 33:1913 – 4. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Tomato is one of the most important food crops immensely affected by water scarcity. Therefore, it is vital to find biocontrol agents for improving the yield of tomato crop in arid areas. The fungal genus, Trichoderma is widely used as an eco-friendly, biocontrol agent in commercial formulas because of the various beneficial effects it has on plants including the resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. In the present study, the effects of an isolate of Trichoderma atroviride ID20G (Ta) on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) seedlings were investigated under drought stress. The isolated fungus was identified using ITS (internal transcribed spacer) sequences. Root colonization by Ta induced changes in growth performance indexes such as root growth, root branching, and leaf number as compared to the untreated seedlings. Chlorophyll and carotenoid contents of the untreated tomato seedlings decreased after drought stress along with extensive membrane deterioration, whereas seed colonization by Ta prevented lipid oxidation and ameliorated the harmful effects of drought on pigment contents. Antioxidant enzyme activity was elevated and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) concentration was found to decrease under drought stress in the Ta treated seedlings. These observations suggest that colonization of tomato seedlings by Ta is effective in counteracting the injurious effects of drought, and therefore, may have a prominent role in increasing the drought tolerance of tomato plant by decreasing H2O2 concentration and activating the antioxidant enzymes. Furthermore, fungus-based biocontrol agent formulation of Ta might serve as a potential tool in tomato agriculture owing to its low cost, effectiveness, and characteristics required for balancing the natural ecology.


Gastrointestinal (GI) blood loss is a possible reason for anemia in athletes. To quantify the impact on endurance performance, we present data of a world-class rower who developed anemia due to GI blood loss but maintained his training volume. Eight months after recording four normal hematological values over 6 months, an anemic state was detected. Total hemoglobin mass (tHbmass) was reduced from 1267 g to 917 g (-28%) and [Hb] was reduced from 176 g/L to 122 g/L (-31%). Blood volume (BV) remained largely unchanged at 8162 mL and 8261 mL, respectively. VO2max was decreased from 5.8 L/min to 4.8 L/min (-17%), but remained ~0.4 L/min higher than calculated from tHbmass. Power at [lactate] 2 mmol/L (P2) and 4 mmol/L (P4) decreased by 12% and 14%, respectively. Ten months after detection of the anemic state, the athlete had recovered and tHbmass (9%) as well as VO2max (3%), P2 (7%) and P4 (5%) were higher than before anemia. GI blood loss was most likely caused by the intake of non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and/or a bleeding Meckel's diverticulum, the latter been diagnosed and surgically removed 3 years later after two rapid bleedings had occurred. Data demonstrate the impact of a tHbmass reduction leading to a substantial but mitigated decrease in submaximal performance and VO2max in an elite athlete. 10 months later, higher levels of tHbmass, VO2max, and endurance performance were observed. However, the underlying mechanisms for the apparent increase in tHbmass remain unclear.


Interfacial flows of practical interest, of which liquid sprays are typical examples, generally involve lengthand time-scales that span over several orders of magnitude. Their modelling using interface-capturing or interfacetracking methods therefore presents a prohibitively large computational cost. Over the past years, hybrid EulerianLagrangian approaches have been proposed with the aim to predict the behaviour of such flows both efficiently and accurately. These approaches rely on the assumption that small, detached interfacial structures are spherical due to the dominant influence of surface tension, therefore allowing for their modelling as Lagrangian particles. The dynamics of the large interfacial structures are fully resolved on the Eulerian grid, whereas the smaller interfacial structures, resulting from breakup instances, are transferred to a Lagrangian frame of reference and tracked as point-particles. In doing so, a main issue arises due to the competing requirements of both the Eulerian and Lagrangian approaches: on the one hand, interfacial structures modelled with the Eulerian approach need to be resolved by at least a few mesh cells; and on the other hand, the accurate account of the effect of the flow on the Lagrangian particles and vice-versa requires the tracked particles to be much smaller than the Eulerian mesh cells. Interfacial structures that lie between these two limits – typically shortly before and/or after their transfer from one framework to the other – are therefore poorly represented by any of the two approaches. In this contribution, we propose a hybrid Eulerian-Lagrangian approach that is free of such inconsistencies. It relies upon the filtering of the instantaneous flow equations with a particle marker function; a process in which a lengthscale equal to a few particle diameters is chosen. This decouples the size of the Lagrangian particle with the specific length of the discrete Eulerian mesh cell in calculating the volume fraction. This filtering is also applied to the fluidparticle momentum coupling terms, which provides a solid framework for spreading these source terms. Throughout the application of the proposed method to a number of test-cases, we show that the filtering strategy allows for the consistent tracking of Lagrangian particles regardless of their size relative to the Eulerian mesh. Finally, the full hybrid framework is tested on a realistic liquid atomisation case, and the impact of the proposed filtering on the dynamics and the statistics of the spray is investigated.


In the present study we describe fatty acid fluctuations in peripheral blood lymphocytes of patients with chronic renal failure who were undergoing maintenance hemodialysis. The decreased concentrations of linoleic acid and arachidonic acid and the increase in stearic acid are discussed in relation to the lymphocyte immune response and lymphocyte membrane enzymic systems in the disease.


Unicompartmental replacement with a Marmor knee prosthesis was performed in 53 patients with unicompartmental osteoarthritis (OA). A five year or longer follow-up study of 15 joints in 13 of these patients was possible, three of which are now more than 10 years post-operative. All 13 patients reported absence of pain on weight-bearing and were able to flex the replaced knee more than 105 degrees. However, the postoperative femorotibial angle (FTA) appeared to be worsening with time, especially in those cases with an immediate postoperative FTA of more than 180 degrees. Since the needed size of the Marmor prosthesis is no longer available, we began using a ceramic prosthesis recently which we are introducing in this article.


Vortex diodes are used as leaky nonreturn valves in applications, where it is desirable to avoid valves with moving parts. Despite their use in practice for several decades, no detailed analysis of the flow inside the vortex diodes is available. A strategy was derived for the CFD simulations of the vortical flow in diodes. A good agreement was seen between pressure drop (ΔP) across the inlet-outlet ports from CFD simulations, and the experimental data for five diode sizes. The simulations showed that in the reverse flow situation tangential velocity was dominant and resulted in conservation of angular momentum in the chamber until it reaches the axial exit port. This vortical motion induced a significant pressure drop (ΔPr). The axial velocity gradient over the chamber cross-section helps in inducing relaminarization of the flow. In the forward flow mode, the fluid gets distributed radially over the chamber and exits through the tangential port, yielding low ΔPf. The analysis showed that the performance of a diode is strongly affected by diode geometry, size, aspect ratio, nozzle configuration and Reynolds number. Among different configurations, the nozzles with entry port size equal to diode yielded higher diodicity. Simulations showed that using angle of divergence for diffuser sections of nozzles of the order of 7° exhibited higher diodicity than smaller angles. It was also observed that at higher flow rates significantly higher diodicity was obtained using axial nozzles with larger radius of curvature for expander section. The modeling methodology and results presented will be useful for evolving better designs of vortex diodes. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2008


that velocity perception is a primary sensation and is not inferred frorn distance and time estirnates. The second holds that velocity is perceived indirectly from estimations of traveling distance and duration Auditory stimuli are known to alter visual perception. However, the effects of such stimuli on velocity perception have not yet been examined. A well-known velocity illusion related to object size is described by Brown's law. We can easily match object size with sound intensity. Therefore, this study examined the potential modification of velocity perception by auditory stimuli at different sound pressure levels (SPLs). The results showed that the perceived velocity, particularly when the object size was smalL diminished with a high SPL auditory stimulus, We assume two interpretations of this result. First, high intensity sounds can modify the perceived object size and alter the perceived velocity by replicating Brown's law since large objects tend to match well with high SPL sounds, Second, previous studies indicated that stimuli with strong intensities seem to have been presented for longer durations. Thus, stimulus duration may be perceived as longer when higher SPL sounds are presented simultaneously, which may cause the velocity to be perceived as being slower.


Background: The repetitive urinary tract infections impact women's quality of life and represent an important problem for women's physical and mental health, causing relevant social impacts. This study aimed to evaluate the impact of recurrent urinary tract infections on the quality of life of women with recurrent infections.Methods: This is a case-control study with 49 women with recurrent urinary tract infections, confirmed by urine culture, without complications and 49 women without recurrent urinary tract infections, seen at an outpatient clinic of a public teaching hospital in the city of Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Quality of life was evaluated using the Brazilian version of the World Health Organization's shortened questionnaire, the WHOQOL-Bref.Results: Women with urinary tract infections showed greater impairment of quality of life in the physical (p = 0.007) and psychological (p = 0.038) domains, with lower quality of life score in their self-assessment (p = 0.002), when compared to the group control. Women with recurrent urinary infection had mean scores significantly lower than the control group in the Energy and fatigue (p = 0.003), Positive feelings (p = 0.014), Self-esteem (p = 0.040), Dependence on medication (p = 0.029), Negative feelings (p = 0.023) and Recreation and leisure (p = 0, 0.041).Conclusions: Recurrent urinary tract infections have an important impact on the quality of life of women, especially in the Physical and Psychological domains, representing a significant problem for women, health professionals, and the health system.


Original scientific paper UDC: DOI: Material flow analysis (MFA) was used to assess the amounts of plastic materials flows and stocks that are annually produced, consumed, imported, exported, collected, recycled, and disposed in the landfills in Serbia. The analysis revealed that approximatelly 269,000 tons of plastic materials are directly disposed in uncontrolled landfills in Serbia without any preatretment, and that siginificant amounts of these materials have already accumulated in the landfills. The substantial amounts of landfilled plastics represent not only a loss of valuable recourses, but also pose a seriuos treath to the environment and human health, and if the trend of direct plastic landfilling is continued, Serbia will face with grave consecequnces.


Electric vehicles (EV) and hybrid EVs (HEV) are designed and manufactured by GM, Toyota, Honda, and Hyundai motors. The propulsion system design process for EV requires integrating subsystem designs into an overall system model to maximize the performance of a given propulsion architecture. Therefore, high-power density and high-torque density are important attributes required for EV applications. To improve torque and power density, propulsion motors are designed for saturation during high-torque operation. The nonlinearity associated with core saturation is modeled by incorporating the cross-coupling inductances, which also behave nonlinearly. Furthermore, in EV environments, the battery is directly connected to the DC link, and the battery changes depending on the state of charge. It will be onerous if as many optimal current commands as different Vdc were made. This paper presents the optimal current commands in the various operating condition and the current control technique in EV environments.


The mixing of propellant and its mass distribution of unlike-doublet impinging injector, which is known to affect the combustion efficiency significantly, have been studied using PLIF(Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence). The results show that fuel jet penetrates considerably into the oxidizer jet at impinging point as variation of momentum ratio. and then stream flows inclined because of variation of momentum ratio. Consequently, the mixing efficiency shows that maximum efficiency is at MR=3. after MR=3, mining efficiency decreases slightly.


Abstract Background FAIR (findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability) guiding principles seek the reuse of data and other digital research input, output, and objects (algorithms, tools, and workflows that led to that data) making them findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable. GO FAIR - a bottom-up, stakeholder driven and self-governed initiative - defined a seven-step FAIRification process focusing on data, but also indicating the required work for metadata. This FAIRification process aims at addressing the translation of raw datasets into FAIR datasets in a general way, without considering specific requirements and challenges that may arise when dealing with some particular types of data. Objectives This scientific contribution addresses the architecture design of an open technological solution built upon the FAIRification process proposed by "GO FAIR" which addresses the identified gaps that such process has when dealing with health datasets. Methods A common FAIRification workflow was developed by applying restrictions on existing steps and introducing new steps for specific requirements of health data. These requirements have been elicited after analyzing the FAIRification workflow from different perspectives: technical barriers, ethical implications, and legal framework. This analysis identified gaps when applying the FAIRification process proposed by GO FAIR to health research data management in terms of data curation, validation, deidentification, versioning, and indexing. Results A technological architecture based on the use of Health Level Seven International (HL7) FHIR (fast health care interoperability resources) resources is proposed to support the revised FAIRification workflow. Discussion Research funding agencies all over the world increasingly demand the application of the FAIR guiding principles to health research output. Existing tools do not fully address the identified needs for health data management. Therefore, researchers may benefit in the coming years from a common framework that supports the proposed FAIRification workflow applied to health datasets. Conclusion Routine health care datasets or data resulting from health research can be FAIRified, shared and reused within the health research community following the proposed FAIRification workflow and implementing technical architecture.


Objective: Microsatellite instability (MSI) is one form of genomic instability that occurs in 10% to 20% of sporadic colon tumors and almost all hereditary nonpolyposis colon cancers. However, little is known about how environmental factors (e.g., diet) may influence MSI in sporadic colon cancer. Methods: We used data from a population-based case-control study in North Carolina (486 colon cancer cases and 1,048 controls) to examine associations of diet (total energy, macronutrients, micronutrients, and food groups) with MSI. In-person interviews elicited information on potential colon cancer risk factors, and a previously validated food frequency questionnaire adapted to include regional foods was used to assess diet over the year before diagnosis or interview date. MSI was classified as MSI-high (MSI-H) and MSI-low or microsatellite stable (MSI-L/MSS). Multivariate logistic regression models estimated energy-adjusted and non-energy-adjusted odds ratios (OR). Results: Ten percent of the cases (n = 49) had MSI-H tumors (29% African American). The strongest associations between diet and MSI were observed in case-control comparisons: there was a robust inverse association between MSI-H status and β-carotene [OR, 0.4; 95% confidence interval (95% CI), 0.2-0.9] and positive associations with energy-adjusted refined carbohydrates (OR, 2.2; 95% CI, 0.9-5.4) and non-energy-adjusted read meat intake (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 0.9-4.2). Compared with controls, MSI-L/MSS tumors were statistically significantly associated with energy-adjusted vitamin C, vitamin E, calcium, dietary fiber, and dark green vegetables and positively associated with total energy intake (all Ps for trend < 0.05). In case-case comparisons, no dietary factors were significantly differently related to MSI-H compared with MSI-L/MSS tumors. Conclusion: Refined carbohydrate and red meat consumption may promote development of MSI-H tumors, whereas β-carotene may be associated with lower risk.