OBJECTIVE
To explore the possible mechanism of electroacupuncture (EA) underlying improvement of chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS).

METHODS
Fifty SD rats were randomly divided into control, model, sham operation, EA and sham EA groups (n=10 rats in each group). The CPPS model was established by injecting complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA, 50 μL) into the ventral lobes of the prostate. EA (2 Hz/100 Hz) was applied to "Guanyuan"(CV4), "Zhongji"(CV3), "Sanyinjiao" (SP6) and "Huiyang"(BL35) once daily for 40 min, 5 days a week for 4 weeks, while rats in the sham EA group were treated with the same acupoints but without electrical stimulation. Mechanical pain threshold (MPT) and heat pain threshold (HPT) were measured before and after intervention. The body weight and prostate weight were measured and prostate index was calculated. Histopathological changes of prostate tissue were observed by HE staining. The levels of cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2), prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and β-endorphin (β-EP) in prostate tissue were detected by ELISA.

RESULTS
Compared with the control and sham operation groups, the MPT and HPT were significantly lower (P<0.01), and the prostate weight, prostate index, the contents of PGE2 and COX-2 were significantly increased (P<0.01), while the content of β-EP was significantly decreased (P<0.01) in the model group. Compared with the model group, the MPT and HPT were significantly increased (P<0.01) after 3 and 4 courses of treatment, and the prostate weight, prostate index, the contents of PGE2 and COX-2 were significantly decreased (P<0.01), while the content of β-EP was significantly increased (P<0.01) in the EA group, rather than in the sham EA group (P>0.05).

CONCLUSION
EA can effectively relieve pain in CPPS rats, which may be related to its functions in down-regulating COX-2 and PGE2, and up-regulating β-EP.


The authors have established that the traumatic disease is accompanied by phasic nonspecific changes of metabolism correlating with the trauma severity as well as with its specific features and outcomes. Within the first 3-7 days catabolic processes are found to prevail and metabolic acidosis develop. Later, anabolic processes become activated in the non-complicated course of the disease. Normalization of most biochemical processes is accomplished within 15-21 days. More pronounced and prolonged disturbances of metabolism are observed in complications and lethal outcomes.


Computer-Aided Diagnosis and Treatment of Tumors is a hot topic of deep learning in recent years, which constitutes a series of medical tasks, such as detection of tumor markers, the outline of tumor leisures, subtypes and stages of tumors, prediction of therapeutic effect, and drug development. Meanwhile, there are some deep learning models with precise positioning and excellent performance produced in mainstream task scenarios. Thus follow to introduce deep learning methods from task-orient, mainly focus on the improvements for medical tasks. Then to summarize the recent progress in four stages of tumor diagnosis and treatment, which named In-Vitro Diagnosis (IVD), Imaging Diagnosis (ID), Pathological Diagnosis (PD), and Treatment Planning (TP). According to the specific data types and medical tasks of each stage, we present the applications of deep learning in the Computer-Aided Diagnosis and Treatment of Tumors and analyzing the excellent works therein. This survey concludes by discussing research issues and suggesting challenges for future improvement.


To the Editor.— The EDITORIAL on renal function in respiratory failure ( 216 :131, 1971) prompts us to comment on our experience in prolonged hypercapnia in patients receiving ambulatory oxygen for control of hypoxemia. Over 200 patients have been managed by us with ambulatory oxygen therapy for periods ranging up to six years. 1-3 We have found the correction of hypoxemia extremely valuable in reducing pulmonary hypertension and correcting congestive heart failure for periods up to five years, and have reported on apparent reduction in mortality from cor pulmonale associated with chronic airway obstruction in patients given long-term oxygen therapy. 3 We have also been interested in chronic compensated carbon dioxide retention which occurs as obstructive airway disease progresses. We have found that chronic carbon dioxide tension (Pco 2 ) levels in excess of 65 mm Hg (mean 90 mm Hg) were extremely well tolerated clinically by ten patients for periods averaging


In this paper we present a wearable device in the form of a bracelet that turns everyday objects into interactive physical gameplay. We combine physical exploration and interactive entertainment by providing real-time audio and light feedback without the need to be in front of a screen. In contrast with today's computer, video and smartphone games, our system has the potential to enhance children's physical, social and outdoor play. We designed a set of playful applications that seamlessly integrate technology with outdoor game play, music, sports and social interactions.


Conventional beamformers suffer from problems of finite samples, desired signal pointing errors, as well as imperfect array. A simple and robust beamformer based on the manifold separation technique (MST) is proposed in this letter to alleviate these problems. Using MST, the steering vector of an arbitrary array can be modeled as the product of an array sampling matrix and a vector with a Vandermonde structure. Robust characteristics are found by using this transformation. The analysis is verified via simulations based on a real-world semispherical conformal antenna array.


Introduction . One of the biggest problems in the diagnosis of prostate cancer (PCa), which distinguishes it from many other solid tumour conditions, is the difficulty of detecting the tumour using standard imaging techniques. The primary method of diagnosis of PCa, which allows timely treatment, is prostate biopsy. However, under certain clinical situations a saturation biopsy allows a more accurate prediction of the volume and degree of malignancy of the tumour, which can be used to plan the tactics of treatment. Materials and methods . 81 patients were examined, whose mean age was 63.5 ± 7.4. The average volume of the prostate was 59 ± 24.2 cm3 , while the average level of the prostate-specific antigen was 12.5 ± 8.9 ng/ml. All patients underwent at least one transrectal prostate biopsy. The average duration of the transperineal saturation biopsy of the prostate was 25.2 ± 7.4 minutes. The average number of biopsies was 25. Results and discussion . Based on the results of transperineal saturation biopsy, prostate cancer was detected in 34 patients (43.2 %). Adenocarcinoma was detected in all patients with confirmed malignant pathology. Gleason grading was 6 points in 22 (27.1 %) patients, 7 in 9 (9.9 %) and 8 in 4 (4.9 %). Aggressive tumour types (Gleason 7 and 8) corresponded to PIRADS 4 and 5. In PIRADS 2 and 3, 80 % and 50 %, respectively, manifested prostatic adenoma without malignant manifestation. Following radical prostatectomy, the results of a planned morphological conclusion were studied alongside biopsy data. It was determined that in 80.0 % (n = 12) of cases the tumour did not go beyond the prostate capsule and in only 20.0 % (n = 3) of cases was not confined to the prostate. The coincidence of diagnosis based on biopsy results and morphological conclusion was 86.7 %. Conclusion . The study showed that saturation transperineal biopsy is often a reference diagnostic method when, despite the presence of clinical suspicion of PCa, a standard biopsy, including targeted fusion biopsies, fails to provide sufficient information to confirm or exclude PCa. In such situations, the proposed technique provides an alternative approach, with a good frequency of detection of prostate cancer.


This paper is a review of new trends in scientometrics. Indexes in scientometrics are based on citations. However, in contrast to the journal impact factor, which gives only the ranking of the scientific journals ordered by impact factor, indexes in scientometrics are suitable for ranking of scientists, scientific journals, research teams, research institutions and countries. In this paper the h-index, h5-index, h5-median, g-index, i10-index, ranking of the top of 20 Highly Cited Researchers (h>100) and the ranking of 10 scientists in Hungarian Institutions according to their Google Scholar Citations public profiles are considered. These indexes (h-index, h5-index and h5-median) are applied for making of the ranking list of the first 12 scientists in robotics and of the list of top 20 publications in the field of Robotics. The World ranking is done for the best 15 countries and also 25 countries in the scientific field of the Artificial Intelligence according to H index in year 2013. Data are obtained from the portal Scimago. In conclusions it is stated that the ranking of journals and of researches have to be strictly separated.


This research is aimed at understanding and analysing the legal protection regarding the absence of product information labels on packaging. As legal protection for consumers is an important issue in the context of safeguarding consumer rights and interests, one frequently discussed aspect is the lack of product information labels on packaging. This disorderliness can pose various risks to consumers, such as difficulties in making informed purchasing decisions, financial loss, health, and safety concerns. This study adopts a Normative Juridical research approach. The analytical technique used in this research is descriptive analysis, examining various regulations and laws that govern consumer protection and product labelling. The research findings indicate that consumers have the right to obtain accurate, clear, and complete information about the products they intend to purchase or consume. The absence of product labelling on packaging can result in consumers' inability to make informed decisions. Therefore, various regulations and laws have been established to mandate businesses to provide accurate and complete information on product packaging. This research concludes that legal protection for consumers concerning the absence of product information labels on packaging is highly significant. Continuous efforts are required to enhance business compliance, effective law enforcement, as well as consumer education and awareness regarding the importance of obtaining accurate information before purchasing products.


The intent of the present study is to analyze standard cosmology in an immanent mathematical-critical way. First of all, the fundamental statements of this cosmological model will be investigated themselves as well as their relation to the theory. Further aims are to reveal the interdependence of different physical disciplines, confrontation of various observations, to elucktate the correlations between observed data and theory and, finally, to analyze this cosmology from the point of view of self-consistency. The study discusses the status of the standard model.


Background: Post-operative pain management is one of the key responsibilities of health professionals. Failure to manage post-operative pain effectively will lead to increase morbidity and mortality, long hospital stay, increase health care costs, and patient dissatisfaction. Despite improved understanding of pain mechanisms, advances in pain management approach, and other focused initiatives large proportion of post-operative patient's reports pain after surgery. Therefore the major aim of this study was to assess pain severity and associated factors among post-operative adult patients in public hospitals of Addis Ababa.Methods and materials: A facility-based cross-sectional study was conducted. A total of 414 study participants were involved. Simple random sampling was used to select study participants. The data was collected by the standard questioner and checklist. The collected data were entered, cleaned, and analyzed by SPSS version 24.0 statistical software. Bi-variable analysis was employed to select independent predictors of pain severity and multivariable regression used to measure the association between independent and dependent variables. On bi-variable analysis, those variables with a value less than 0.20 were entered on multi-variable analysis. Finally, variables with a p-value < 0.05 were declared as independent predictors of the outcome variables.Results: A total of 406 study participants have responded to the interview giving a response rate of 98%. The overall incidence of moderate to severe pain was 85.5%. Preoperative analgesia adjusted odds ratio (confidence interval), 0.236(0.065-0.863), preoperative anxiety, 5.468(1.341-22.303), general surgery 7.627(1.901-30.602), orthopedics surgery, 7.195(1.055-49.094), size of the incision, 5.086(1.352-19.135), and postoperative analgesia; non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs 5.611(2.000-15.737), and tramadol, 4.714(1.506-14.753) was independent predictors of postoperative moderate to severe pain.Conclusion: The study revealed that the overall incidence of postoperative pain was high in the study area. This reflects attention given to postoperative pain management is low. Preoperative analgesia, preoperative anxiety surgery type, incision length, and postoperative analgesia were independent predictors of postoperative pain.


Angle-domain common-imaging gathers (ADCIGs) are important in analyzing the subsurface discontinuities where reflection waves take place. In elastic reverse time migration (ERTM), dip-angle ADCIGs can be computed postmigration via subsurface offset extension. We have obtained dip-angle ADCIG premigration in ERTM by using the Poynting vector, which was easy to compute during wavefield propagation. The reflection normal of PP imaging is the bisector of the scattering angle, whereas that of PS imaging is not. We derive formulas for PP and PS dip-angle estimations, respectively, with some straightforward vector operations. Similar to the subsurface-offset one, our method also outputs dip-angle ADCIGs with the appearance of blocky horizontal coherence. According to local semblance analysis, the signal with a better horizontal coherence promises a higher semblance score, and vice versa. We can thus design a specular filter to suppress incoherent noises according to their corresponding local semblance scores. We validate our methods with numerical examples. The Graben and Marmousi data sets show that our methods work effectively in dip-angle ADCIG computation and the following noise suppression in ERTM. We also examine our methods with one field data set.


Pathogen recognition receptors (PRRs) function to maintain the balance between controlled responses to pathogens and uncontrolled innate immune activation leading to inflammation. In the context of commensal bacteria and the etiology of inflammatory bowel disease, although a role for the TLRs is known, there is a less defined function for C-type lectin receptors (CLRs). We demonstrate that mice deficient (−/−) in the CLR specific intracellular adhesion molecule-3 grabbing nonintegrin homolog-related 1 (SIGN-R1) (CD209b) have reduced susceptibility to experimental colitis, with a reduction in the disease severity, colon damage, and levels of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6. To determine whether SIGN-R1−/− mice had a systemic defect in innate activation, we examined the responsiveness of macrophages from SIGN-R1−/− mice to TLR ligands. SIGN-R1−/− peritoneal macrophages, but not bone marrow-derived macrophages, have a specific defect in IL-1β and IL-18 production, but not other cytokines, in response to the TLR4 ligand LPS. In vivo SIGN-R1−/− mice had significantly reduced susceptibility to LPS-induced shock. To address the synergistic relationship between SIGN-R1 and TLR4 in the context of experimental colitis, SIGN-R1/TLR4−/− mice were generated. SIGN-R1/TLR4−/− mice displayed reduced susceptibility to experimental colitis relative to severity of disease observed in wild-type or TLR4−/− mice. The in vivo use of a blocking mAb confirmed a functional role for SIGN-R1 in LPS-induced shock and experimental colitis. These data indicate a role for SIGN-R1 in the regulation of inflammation in a model of experimental colitis and illustrate that SIGN-R1 is a critical innate factor in response to LPS.


An experimental study was conducted to "Assess the effectiveness of individualized education on lifestyle modification among post myocardial infarction patients in GKNM Hospital, Coimbatore".
OBJECTIVES:
1. To assess the lifestyle practices of post myocardial infarction patients.
2. To assess the effectiveness of individualized education on lifestyle modification among post myocardial infarction patients.
3. To associate the lifestyle practices with selected demographic variables.
Research design:
True experimental, post test only control group design.
Setting: Cardiac wards of G. Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital, Coimbatore.
Samples: Sixty subjects were selected who fulfilled the inclusion criteria.
Sampling techniques: Convenient sampling technique.
Conceptual framework: The conceptual framework used for this study was the Orem's general theory of nursing.
METHODS:
A true experimental, posttest only control group design was adopted. A sample of 60 post myocardial infarction patients were selected by using non-probability convenient sampling technique, 30 in each experimental and control group. Initially, demographic data was collected in both groups. Further, in the experimental group, the activities of daily living were assessed to know the readiness of the patient for education and the lifestyle practices was assessed. Based on these practices, individualized education on the lifestyle modification after myocardial infarction was given. Following which post test on the knowledge regarding the lifestyle modification after myocardial infarction was assessed using structured interview questionnaire which was carried out on the next day after education on both the groups. The collected data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics.
RESULT:
The mean knowledge level score and standard deviation of the experimental group was 21.86 (SD=2.20) higher than mean (10.57) and standard deviation (SD=3.49) of the control group and "t" value 14.72.Two mean "t" for independent samples showed a significant difference in the post test knowledge score on lifestyle modification among experimental and control group at 0.05 level. This finding indicated that the individualized education was highly effective.
CONCLUSION:
The study concluded that, individualized education on the lifestyle modification was highly effective, eminent and cost-effective intervention for improving the knowledge and creating awareness among post myocardial infarction patients about the lifestyle modification and helped them to adopt a healthy lifestyle post myocardial infarction.


Projections of climate change are inherently uncertain, leading to considerable debate over suitable allowances for future changes such as sea-level rise (an 'allowance' is, in this context, the amount by which something, such as the height of coastal infrastructure, needs to be altered to cope with climate change). Words such as 'plausible' and 'high-end' abound, with little objective or statistically valid support. It is firstly shown that, in cases in which extreme events are modified by an uncertain change in the average (e.g. flooding caused by a rise in mean sea level), it is preferable to base future allowances on estimates of the expected frequency of exceedances rather than on the probability of at least one exceedance. A simple method of determining a future sea-level rise allowance is then derived, based on the projected rise in mean sea level and its uncertainty, and on the variability of present tides and storm surges ('storm tides'). The method preserves the expected frequency of flooding events under a given projection of sea-level rise. It is assumed that the statistics of storm tides relative to mean sea level are unchanged. The method is demonstrated using the GESLA (Global Extreme Sea-Level Analysis) data set of roughly hourly sea levels, covering 198 sites over much of the globe. Two possible projections of sea-level rise are assumed for the 21st century: one based on the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and a larger one based on research since the Fourth Assessment Report. The final publication is available at www.springerlink.com Full reference: Hunter, J., 2011. A simple technique for estimating an allowance for uncertain sea-level rise, Climatic Change, DOI 10.1007/s10584-011-0332-1.


Most modern industrial products are manufactured through supply chains. Competition, rapid product upgrading, and demand for customized products make design and redesign important activities in supply chains. From the manufacturing perspective, a supply chain consists of a set of manufacturers that cooperate in the design and production of a final product or multiple related products. Each pair of manufacturers directly involved in the supply chain form a supplying relation, with one of them being the supplier and the other being the consumer. In this chapter, we use the term consumer to refer to a manufacturer in the above sense, and we refer to people who purchase and consume the product as end-users, who are regarded as outside the supply chain. A manufacturer R1 may be the consumer relative to another manufacturer R2, but acts as the supplier to a third manufacturer R3 in the same supply chain. Product design in supply chains are dominated by component-centered design, in which a final product is designed as a set of components. In computer design, a processor chip is a component, and so is a hard-disk drive. Lower level components may be composed into a higher level component. For instance, a desktop system unit is a component assembled from month-board, processor chips, etc. Under component-centered design and production, each supplier supplies one or more components to one or more consumers. Contemporary design in supply chains is essentially top-down (Huang et al., 2000). The manufacturer R of final product decomposes it into components. For each component C to be supplied to R, a supplier S further decomposes C into sub-components, and the process continues. With top-down design, consumers play dominant roles and suppliers are passive. Such designs are unlikely to be optimal, because consumers are usually not in the best position to judge options available to suppliers. This chapter presents a computational framework for collaborative design where suppliers play equally active roles in shaping design. In particular, we describe a multiagent framework, where manufacturers are collaborative designers aided by intelligent agents. The objective is to produce an overall optimal design by distributed decision making. The multiagent system and decision algorithm are elaborated.


The fiber architecture of adult human sartorius and gracilis muscles was examined using a combination of fiber microdissections and histological methods. Intact fibers were dissected from fascicles of muscle strips that were digested in nitric acid. All of these fibers terminate intrafascicularly by tapering to a fine strand at one or both ends. They measure 4–20 cm after correction for shrinkage. Systematic dissections of 1 cm long blocks sampled at intervals along the muscle length suggest that tapered fiber endings occur at all locations along the muscle but are most common centrally; here they accounted for up to 14% of dissected fibers in each block. Transverse sections of muscle confirm that fiber profiles with small diameters occur at all levels of the muscle but are especially common in sections more than 5 cm from its origin or insertion. The architectural arrangement demonstrated here suggests that long human muscles, like muscles in other species, are composed of relatively short, in‐series fibers. This has many implications for the neural activation and force‐developing behavior of these muscles that must be considered when paralyzed muscles are reanimated using electrical stimulation. Further, it may predispose long muscles to certain types of neuromuscular damage and dysfunction. © 1993 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Currently, thermal power is the largest source of power in the world. Although the impacts of climate change on cooling water sufficiency in thermal power plants have been extensively assessed globally and regionally, their economic consequences have seldom been evaluated. In this study, the Asia-Pacific Integrated Model Computable General Equilibrium model (AIM/CGE) was used to evaluate the economic consequences of projected future cooling water insufficiency on a global basis, which was simulated using the H08 global hydrological model. This approach enabled us to investigate how the physical impacts of climate change on thermal power generation influence economic activities in regions and industrial sectors. To account for the uncertainty of climate change projections, five global climate models and two representative concentration pathways (RCPs 2.6 and 8.5) were used. The ensemble-mean results showed that the global gross domestic product (GDP) loss in 2070–2095 due to cooling water insufficiency in the thermal power sector was −0.21% (−0.12%) in RCP8.5 (RCP2.6). Among the five regions, the largest GDP loss of −0.57% (−0.27%) was observed in the Middle East and Africa. Medium-scale losses of −0.18% (−0.12%) and −0.14% (−0.12%) were found in OECD90 (the member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development as of 1990) and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, respectively. The smallest losses of −0.05% (−0.06%) and −0.09% (−0.08%) were found in Latin America and Asia, respectively. The economic impact of cooling water insufficiency was non-negligible and should be considered as one of the threats induced by climate change.


End stage renal disease (ESRD) invariably leads to anemia which has been mainly attributed to compromised release of erythropoietin from the defective kidneys with subsequent impairment of erythropoiesis. However, erythropoietin replacement only partially reverses anemia pointing to the involvement of additional mechanisms. As shown more recently, anemia of ESRD is indeed in large part a result of accelerated erythrocyte loss due to suicidal erythrocyte death or eryptosis, characterized by cell shrinkage and cell membrane scrambling with phosphatidylserine translocation to the cell surface. Phosphatidylserine exposing erythrocytes are bound to and engulfed by macrophages and are thus rapidly cleared from circulating blood. If the loss of erythrocytes cannot be fully compensated by enhanced erythropoiesis, stimulation of eryptosis leads to anemia. Eryptotic erythrocytes may further adhere to the vascular wall and thus impair microcirculation. Stimulators of eryptosis include complement, hyperosmotic shock, energy depletion, oxidative stress, and a wide variety of xenobiotics. Signaling involved in the stimulation of eryptosis includes increase of cytosolic Ca2+ activity, ceramide, caspases, calpain, p38 kinase, protein kinase C, Janus-activated kinase 3, casein kinase 1α, and cyclin-dependent kinase 4. Eryptosis is inhibited by AMP-activated kinase, p21-activated kinase 2, cGMP-dependent protein kinase, mitogen- and stress-activated kinase MSK1/2, and some illdefined tyrosine kinases. In ESRD eryptosis is stimulated at least in part by a plasma component, as it is triggered by exposure of erythrocytes from healthy individuals to plasma from ESRD patients. Several eryptosis-stimulating uremic toxins have been identified, such as vanadate, acrolein, methylglyoxal, indoxyl sulfate, indole-3-acetic acid and phosphate. Attempts to fully reverse anemia in ESRD with excessive stimulation of erythropoiesis enhances the number of circulating suicidal erythrocytes and bears the risk of interference with micocirculation, At least in theory, anemia in ESRD could preferably be treated with replacement of erythropoietin and additional inhibition of eryptosis thus avoiding eryptosis-induced impairment of microcirculation. A variety of eryptosis inhibitors have been identified, their efficacy in ESRD remains, however, to be shown.


In this article we report the development of an integrated microfluidic system coupled to a screen-printed carbon electrode (SPCE) applied to the quantitative determination of IgG specific antibodies present in serum samples of patients that suffer from Chagas disease. This relevant parasitic infection caused by the hemoflagellate protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi represents a major public health concern in Latin America. In order to perform the detection of mentioned antibodies, SPCE coupled to a microfluidic device was modified by electrodeposition of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and functionalized with Trypanosoma cruzi proteins from epimastigote membranes. The developed microfluidic immunosensor with immobilized T. cruzi proteins on the SPCE surface was successfully applied in the detection of specific IgG anti-T. cruzi antibodies, which were allowed to react immunologically with immobilized T. cruzi antigen. After that, labelled antibodies were quantified through the addition of horseradish peroxidase (HRP) enzyme-labeled secondary antibodies specific to human IgG, using 4-tert-butylcatechol (4-TBC) as enzymatic mediator. HRP in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H(2)O(2)) catalyzes the oxidation of 4-TBC whose back electrochemical reduction was detected on a modified electrode at -100 mV. The calculated detection limit for electrochemical detection was 3.065 ng mL(-1) and the intra- and inter-assay coefficients of variation were below 6.95%.


In this paper authors have proposed a multifactor based approach to automatically detect video shot boundaries. The compressed domain features of H.264 are used to assign the factor values. The features used in our approach are (i) Number of I Macroblocks (MBs) in a P frame, (ii) DC component of integer transformed luma coefficients and (iii) Number of MBs coded as P_Skip in P frame. A confidence score for all frames are assigned based on those above mentioned features. Experimental results show that the proposed approach can detect the shot boundaries successfully in real time. The system on different type of videos gives a recall rate of 0.98 and a precision rate of 0.94.


This paper describes a new algorithm for encoding spectral envelope in the time domain alias cancellation (TDAC) part of G.729.1. The spectral envelope and modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) coefficients of the weighted code-excited linear predictive (CELP) coding error in lower-band and the higher-band input signal are encoded in the TDAC part. In order to reduce allocation bits for spectral envelope coding, a new algorithm using sub-band correlation between adjacent frames is proposed. In addition, to improve the quality of decoded signals, two bit allocation strategies using reduced bits from the proposed algorithm are proposed. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated in terms of objective quality and bit reduction rates. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm increases the quality of sounds significantly.


This article assumes that language is not only a way of saying things (informative), but also a way of doing things (performative) or exercising power. Through conducting eight focus group discussions (FGDs) involving 39 Christian participants in Surakarta Central Java, this research studies the Christians' discourse on their fellow Muslims. In those FGDs, I stimulated the participants' discussion by the basic question, "How do you speak about Muslims". Though the question is about Muslims, but in fact sometimes they also speak about themselves. I am concerned about the discursive study of religion taking advantage from Norman Fairclough's discourse analysis theory and method focusing on the analysis of linguistic practice, discursive practice, and social practice. As a result, the discussions of participants were on a hegemonic struggle between dominant and peripheral voices to define what is considered "[ab]normal" Muslims. Christian participants identified extremist (fanatical, fundamentalist) Muslims as abnormal. They positioned extremists and excessive persons as extraordinary. Thus, they identified extremism as not the norm but an exception to the rule of religions. In distinguishing between "normal" and "extreme" the participants primarily positioned themselves as normal or ordinary religious people who are moderate. They identified those who cause conflict as neither moderate Muslims nor moderate Christians, but fundamentalists in their respective faiths.


We introduce Epsilon*, a new privacy metric for measuring the privacy risk of a single model instance prior to, during, or after deployment of privacy mitigation strategies. The metric does not require access to the training data sampling or model training algorithm. Epsilon* is a function of true positive and false positive rates in a hypothesis test used by an adversary in a membership inference attack. We distinguish between quantifying the privacy loss of a trained model instance and quantifying the privacy loss of the training mechanism which produces this model instance. Existing approaches in the privacy auditing literature provide lower bounds for the latter, while our metric provides a lower bound for the former by relying on an (${\epsilon}$,${\delta}$)-type of quantification of the privacy of the trained model instance. We establish a relationship between these lower bounds and show how to implement Epsilon* to avoid numerical and noise amplification instability. We further show in experiments on benchmark public data sets that Epsilon* is sensitive to privacy risk mitigation by training with differential privacy (DP), where the value of Epsilon* is reduced by up to 800% compared to the Epsilon* values of non-DP trained baseline models. This metric allows privacy auditors to be independent of model owners, and enables all decision-makers to visualize the privacy-utility landscape to make informed decisions regarding the trade-offs between model privacy and utility.


Development trends in modern Common Rail Fuel Injection System (FIS) show dramatically increasing capabilities in terms of optimization of the fuel injection pattern through a constantly increasing number of injection events per engine cycle along with a modulation and shaping of the injection rate. In order to fully exploit the potential of the abovementioned fuel injection pattern optimization, numerical simulation can play a fundamental role by allowing the creation of a kind of a virtual injection rate generator for the assessment of the corresponding engine outputs in terms of combustion characteristics such as burn rate, emission formation and combustion noise (CN). This paper is focused on the analysis of the effects of digitalization of pilot events in the injection pattern on Brake Specific Fuel Consumption (BSFC), CN and emissions for a EURO 6 passenger car 4-cylinder diesel engine. The numerical evaluation was performed considering steady-state conditions for 3 key points representative of typical operating conditions in the low-medium load range. The optimization process was carried out through numerical simulation, by means of a suitable target function aiming to minimize BSFC and CN while not exceeding the target NOx emissions level. By means of a previously developed fuel injection system model, possible different injection patterns with high number of pilot injections were evaluated thus obtaining a kind of virtual injection rate generator, the outcomes of which were then used as input for a DIPulse combustion model in order to predict BSFC, combustion noise and emissions. Through numerical optimization of pilot injection pattern digitalization, potential for achieving significant reductions in BSFC and CN for low load engine points while not exceeding the target NOx emissions level, was demonstrated.


In a mission to Rwanda in December 2017, important stakeholders from government, research institutes, universities and private enterprises were interviewed to elaborate on Public Private Partnerships (PPP), or triple helix collaborations for further development of plant extracts in the agricultural sector of Rwanda. Findings of the missions were shared in a debriefing with the ambassador and the agricultural council of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Rwanda. During the mission, potential leads were shared with the University of Rwanda. Through the social enterprise Crosswise Works, most important issues were discussed and brought further in a workshop in January 2018, aimed at a follow up mission to the Netherlands in June 2018, and the start-up of PPP in Rwanda. To increase business opportunities for developing plant extract chains in Rwanda, further research, preferably in PPP would be required. Pyrethrum productivity can be increased, based on increasing pyrethrin content of the flowers (now 2% in Rwanda compared to 4% in other parts of the world), and improvement of the cropping system (direct seeding instead of transplanting). Local products from Pyrethrum might also be an option to explore. Artemisia extracts for the pharmaceutical industry has the potential to diversify the current plant extract portfolio of Rwandan organizations. Government bodies in collaboration with universities and research institutes, together with the private sector should investigate whether and how the development of the value chain can be accelerated, and how a good connection to the international market can be obtained.


(SD 14.12) seconds by the Hemotec ACT machine* (not significant). The dose response test performed by the Hepcon calculated heparin maintenance levels of 333 (SD 65) IU/kg. The same dose was given to the patients at the appropriate time and after waiting for 5 minutes. The repeat ACT was 432.75 (SD 72.60) seconds. This was taken as the second point in drawing the dose response curve according to Bull's method (this was slightly modified as the authors mention 200 IUjkg as the initial dose of heparin in their original study). Extra heparin required was 85 (SD 71) IU/kg, which was given to the patients. Repeat ACT after 5 minutes was 510 (SD 34.93) seconds. By Bull's method the patients' heparin maintenance requirements were 394 (SD 67) IU/kg, which was highly significant (p < 0.001) when compared to the maintenance levels shown by the machine. The dose response produced by the Hepcon tells us whether a particular patient is resistant or sensitive to heparin before he/she is subjected to the loading dose. There can be a difference in the potencies of different brands of heparin (one which is being used in the cartridge for the test and the second which the patient is receiving). This is especially so when they come from different sources or manufacturers. The cartridges of the Hepcon system contain USP beef lung heparin. The USP heparin exhibits a potency between 90 and 110% and is prepared, assayed and dispensed in terms of units/ml on1y.l The heparin IP we have been using is derived from beef intestinal mucosa and potency is determined by biological assay using a reference standard based upon units of heparin activity/mg. Although the source of both the brands was beef, the organ of extraction was different. Additionally, the potency is known to vary due to quality of bottles and lot number in the same batch., Lastly there can be loss of potency if the storage conditions are less than ideal. It would seem prudent if some method is evolved by which the in vitro heparin dose response performed in the operating theatre uses the same brand of heparin which is to be given to the patient. If the brands of heparin used are different, there is bound to be some confusion. We must emphasise that one should recheck ACT before going on to bypass rather than be influenced by 'hitech' machinery.


We here consider the most common technique used in spread spectrum clock generators that is the frequency modulation of a timing signal by means of a triangularly shaped waveform. As a first step, we develop a reliable mathematical model of a spectrum analyzer, which allows us to compute the power spectrum as measured by this instrument for any signal put at its input. This is particularly important when considering spread spectrum clocking methods for electromagnetic interference reduction, since international regulations impose constraints on the peak of the spectrum of interfering signals as measured by this instrument. Thanks to the developed mathematical tool, we are able to theoretically prove that the maximum peak reduction of the measured spectrum is achieved for a well-defined frequency of the triangular driving signal. This is in contrast with what one can obtain by optimizing the theoretical power density spectrum, where the minimum interference is ideally obtained when the triangular signal has a vanishing frequency. The results are confirmed by measurements on two commercial dc/dc switching converters.


The immune processes involved in the clearance and immunopathology of Chlamydia infection in the female reproductive tract (FRT) are not well understood. In previous ground-breaking studies we showed that IFN-ɛ, a novel type I IFN that is exclusively and constitutively expressed in the FRT, plays an important role in protecting against Chlamydia infections. Here, we examined the effects of IFN-ɛ on innate immune processes in the FRT in order to elucidate the mechanisms by which IFN-ɛ protects against Chlamydia infections. Female WT and IFN-ɛ−/− C57BL/6 mice were pre-treated with progesterone and infected intra-vaginally with Chlamydia muridarum or sham-infected. Uterine horns were harvested and the effects of IFN-ɛ deficiency on immune factor expression and cellular infiltration were assessed using microarray/bioinformatics analyses, real-time qPCR and flow cytometry. IFN-ɛ uniquely regulated the expression of 744 genes at baseline and 802 genes during Chlamydia infection, and universally regulated the transcription of 61 genes, regardless of infection status. Of note, pathways associated with protective innate responses, such as IFN regulatory factor activation and pattern recognition receptor signalling were down-regulated in Chlamydia-infected IFN-ɛ−/− mice compared to WT controls. These changes correlate with a decrease in the expression of many important IFN-γ signalling molecules and number of IFN-γ-producing NK cells in the FRT during infection. These findings suggest that IFN-ɛ may protect against Chlamydia FRT infections by potentiating innate immune processes important for the clearance of infection, particularly pathways associated with IFN-γ signalling and the activation of NK cell responses.


Ten voluntary dental students were examined by 12 teachers at the same dental clinic. Eleven items of data were subjected to a two-way analysis of variance: missing teeth, filled teeth, filled teeth surfaces, DMF and DMFS index scores, decayed surfaces (first (C 1) and second (C 2) degree caries), decayed surfaces (C 2 only), decayed approximal surfaces (C 2), decayed occlusal surfaces (C 2), decayed smooth surfaces (C 2), and teeth considered to require treatment. Significant differences were found between the subjects for all 11 items assessed. The differences between the examiners were not significant for missing teeth, filled teeth, filled surfaces, and decayed smooth surfaces, but for the other items the between-examiner variation was significant at the level P less than 0.01. In particular, great variation was found in the plans for reparative care. It is suggested that teachers should undergo a special training program in order to make more consistent clinical judgments and hence to reduce the between-dentist variation in postgraduate clinical practice. This would probably be beneficial to the patients.


To select a Kjeldahl procedure suitable for the determination of total protein in reference materials used in laboratory medicine, we reviewed in our previous article Kjeldahl methods adopted by clinical chemistry and found an indirect two-step analysis by total Kjeldahl nitrogen corrected for its nonprotein nitrogen and a direct analysis made on isolated protein precipitates. In this article, we compare both procedures on various reference materials. An indirect Kjeldahl method gave falsely lower results than a direct analysis. Preliminary performance parameters qualify the direct Kjeldahl analysis as a suitable primary reference procedure for the certification of total protein in reference laboratories.


This work constitutes the most comprehensive overview of Indonesian intellectual property law since the substantial legislative changes enacted from 1997 onwards. It offers a detailed overview of the Indonesian law and regulation on copyright law, patent law, trademark law, and unfair competition, and analyses the position of Indonesia with regard to the international conventions for the protection of intellectual property. An introduction on the history and development of the Indonesian legal system provides an excellent context for the understanding of the current legislative framework on intellectual property. The book includes in annex authoritative translations of the main laws covering copyright, patents, and trademarks.


Thirty-one infants and children aged 1 month to 15 years 3 months were treated with ceftriaxone once a day for the treatment of a meningitis related to Neisseria meningitidis (19 cases), haemophilus influenzae (7 cases), streptococcus pneumoniae (1 case), not identified bacteria (4 cases). All identified bacteria were sensitive to ceftriaxone. Twenty children were treated with 100 mg/kg/day, 11 with 50 mg/kg/day. CSF was sterile at the first control-generally performed 30 h after the onset of treatment-in all cases. Despite a great number of severe forms (fulminans purpura and septic shock; 11 cases; severe neurologic disturbances: 6 cases), all patients survived and recovered after a treatment of 9 to 22 days. Two infants exhibited neurologic sequelae: deafness, delayed development and hydrocephalus. Tolerance to ceftriaxone appeared to be good. With a 100 mg/kg/day dosage, mean CSF level at 6 h was 3.3 mg/l (0.8-7.7), on the first day of treatment. At the end of treatment, mean CSF level at 24h was 0.47 (0.15-2.5). With a 50 mg/kg/day dosage, mean CSF level at 6 h was 2,1 mg/l (1.1-3.9) in the first day of treatment. At the end of the treatment, mean CSF level at 24h was 0.22 mg/l (0.08-0.5). Once a day administration of ceftriaxone is adequate for the treatment of meningitis in infants and children. Though a 50 mg/kg/day dosage is probably sufficient in most cases, it seems to be more secure to use a 100 mg/kg/day dosage.


The virtual image of the incus formed by the saline lens is an aid to the safe dissection of the antrum. The saline irrigation fluid indeed may act as a thin negative lens which permits at the antrum the visualization of the image of the incus, around the corner of the bony canal wall overhang. This warning device, predicting the exposure of the incus, prevent in this way inadvertent contact of this ossicle by the power drill and subsequent acoustic trauma.


The results of periodic medical examinations (PME) of workers of the machine-building enterprise are analyzed and factors defining their quality are considered. The criteria of PME quality are proposed and used along with analysis of the defects of medical records. With help of Pareto chart the most significant factors affecting the quality of PME are revealed. These were noted in 76% of cases and included: lack of expertise of fitness to work, the discrepancy of the results of this expertise and the worker's pathology, the lack of registration and collection of complaints and anamnesis.


Purpose of review This article reviews the current literature on adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) with particular focus on racial and ethnic factors. Recent findings Limited research exists with respect to ACEs and certain racial and ethnic groups. In this article, we highlight the unique challenges specific populations may face in their lives. Further research on ACEs in these and other racial and ethnic groups is needed to help clinicians contextualize their cases in the clinical setting. Summary As the US population continues to diversify, it is pivotal that clinicians and researchers understand some of the challenges faced by different racial and ethnic populations and demonstrate more sensitivity to patient needs. Clinicians who are sensitive to an individual's history of ACEs would be expected to have a better understanding of his/her patient's predilection to specific mental health issues.


10-Deacetylbaccatin III, an important semisynthetic precursor of paclitaxel and docetaxel, can be extracted from Taxus wallichiana Zucc. A process for the isolation and purification of 10-deacetylbaccatin III (1), baccatin III (2), and 7β-xylosyl-10-deacetyltaxol (3) from the leaves and branches of Taxus wallichiana Zucc. via macroporous resin column chromatography combined with high-speed countercurrent chromatography or reversed-phase flash chromatography was developed in this study. After fractionation by macroporous resin column chromatography, 80% methanol fraction was selected based on high-performance liquid chromatography and liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry qualitative analysis. A solvent system composed of n-hexane, ethyl acetate, methanol, and water (1.6:2.5:1.6:2.5, v/v/v/v) was used for the high-speed countercurrent chromatography separation at a flow rate of 2.5 mL/min. The reversed-phase flash chromatography separation was performed using methanol/water as the mobile phase at a flow rate of 3 mL/min. The high-speed countercurrent chromatography separation produced compounds 1 (10.2 mg, 94.4%), 2 (2.1 mg, 98.0%), and 3 (4.6 mg, 98.8%) from 100 mg of sample within 110 min, while the reversed-phase flash chromatography separation purified compounds 1 (9.8 mg, 95.6%) and 3 (4.9 mg, 97.9%) from 100 mg of sample within 120 min.


A method of obtaining thin films of mercury sulphide is reported. Dispersion and absorption results are given using the method of analysis developed by Hall and Ferguson.


In this paper, we analyze the economic benefits of the deposit and subsidiary payment policy for infrastructure PFI (Private Finance Initiative) projects. One of the substantial charactersitics of infrastructure PFI projects is existence of externatiliy. SPC (Special Purpose Company) is interested in only their own cashflow. With considerable externality, a socially effcient project can be liquidated by them. In this case, deposit and compensation policy implemented by the government play a role in making an efficient project continue. Under the stochastic value of externality of a project, the policy which is a combination of deposit and subsidiary payment can improve efficiency of the project.


Power supplies, which feed magnetic systems of electron linac, together with the control system are very critical parts of any linac. The quality of power supplies and control software defines safety of the accelerator operation, stability and cost of operation. One of the today's tendencies in power supply system architecture is to use distributed CAN-connected power supplies with high level of local intellectual properties. These properties allow to achieve high stability, high safety of operation together with the specific features such as coil temperature check without any temperature sensors. Such programmable power supplies with the intellectual CANbus/CANopen controller have been designed for the specific accelerator applications. The control system software was adapted to operate with CANopen protocol. "Marathon IPP-1/100" and "Marathon IPP-4/35" power supplies with CANopen are used now within the control systems of LU-60m and LU-10 linacs. 3200 hours of continues operation were achieved since the year 2008.


A powerful new complement to traditional synchronous teaching is emerging: intelligent tutoring systems. The narrative: A learner interacts with a digital agent. The agent reviews, selects and proposes individually tailored educational resources and processes – i.e. a meaningful succession of instructions, tests or groupwork. The aim is to make personal tutored learning the new norm in higher education – especially in groups with heterogeneous educational backgrounds. The challenge: Today, there are no suitable data that allow computer-agents to learn how to take reasonable decisions. Available educational resources cannot be addressed by a computer logic because up to now they have not been tagged with machine-readable information at all or these have not been provided uniformly. And what's worse: there are no agreed conceptual and structured models of what we understand by "learning", how this model-to-be could be implemented in a computer algorithm and what those explicit decisions are that a tutoring system could take. So, a prerequisite for any future digital agent is to have a structured, computer-accessible model of "knowledge". This model is required to qualify and quantify individual learning, to allow the association of resources as learning objects and to provide a base to operationalize learning for AI-based agents. We will suggest a conceptual model of "knowledge" based on a variant of Bloom's taxonomy, transfer this concept of cognitive learning objectives into an ontology and describe an implementation into a web-based database application. The approach has been employed to model the basics of abstract knowledge in engineering mechanics at university-level. This paper addresses interdisciplinary aspects ranging from a teaching methodology, the taxonomy of knowledge in cognitive science, over a database-application for ontologies to an implementation of this model in a Grails service. We aim to deliver this web-based ontology, its user-interfaces and APIs into a research network that qualifies AI-based agents for competence-based tutoring.


The notion of trust is considered to be the cornerstone on patient-psychiatrist relationship. Thus, a trustfully background is fundamental requirement for provision of effective Ubiquitous Healthcare (UH) service. In this paper, the issue of Trust Evaluation of UH Providers when register UH environment is addressed. For that purpose a novel trust evaluation method is proposed, based on cloud theory, exploiting User Profile attributes. This theory mimics human thinking, regarding trust evaluation and captures fuzziness and randomness of this uncertain reasoning. Two case studies are investigated through simulation in MATLAB software, in order to verify the effectiveness of this novel method.


We study both classical and quantum relation between two Hamiltonian systems which are mutually connected by time-dependent canonical transformation. One is ordinary conservative system and the other is time-dependent Hamiltonian system. The quantum unitary operator relevant to classical canonical transformation between the two systems are obtained through rigorous evaluation. With the aid of the unitary operator, we have derived quantum states of the time-dependent Hamiltonian system through transforming the quantum states of the conservative system. The invariant operators of the two systems are presented and the relation between them are addressed. We showed that there exist numerous Hamiltonians, which gives the same classical equation of motion. Though it is impossible to distinguish the systems described by these Hamiltonians within the realm of classical mechanics, they can be distinguishable quantum mechanically.


During the last four years I have occupied the autumn months in tracing some of the rivers of this Province to their glacial sources, hitherto entirely unknown. The accompanying map, which is a reduction of a larger one, shows the principal results which I have already described, in their geographical relations, in a paper read last March before the Royal Geographical Society of London. Although the size of the principal glaciers is enormous, considering the narrowness of the central chain, the astonishment of the geological observer increases on meeting everywhere the signs of a still more considerable glaciation during the Pleistocene period. It is not my intention to enter here into a detailed description of this most remarkable feature of our Alpine regions, for I hope to lay this at some future time before the Society, as this ancient glaciation will illustrate in a remarkable manner many subjects of the highest interest, being generally very distinct and undisturbed; but I may be allowed to point out some of the most striking phenomena. The central range runs nearly from north-east to south-west through this island, and the lakes on both sides of it lie in the same line of direction. Most of the valleys are straight, and very little inferior in breadth to the lakes where the former Pleistocene glacier terminated. Most of these valleys run from north to south. According to information received from Mr. Arthur Dobson, my former assistant, who is at present surveying the wester slopes of the


To the Editor:— Roland T. Smith, MD, wondered whatever became of Cubebs, and William Carlyon, PhD, supplied a part of the answer. He directed inquiries to "a number of manufacturers and distributors of tobacco-substitute products" but he forgot to ask me. Cubebs is a perfectly good word, right out of Webster's dictionary and the USP as late as the tenth edition of 1926, in which its last glory as a medicine ended. Earlier pharmacopeias listed a cubeb troche containing tolu, licorice, acacia, and the powdered almost ripe fruit of the Java pepper, not to mention a fluid extract and some other tasties. You don't kill off a good thing like the cubeb cigarette so easily. The Blosser Cigarette Company, Daytona, Fla, manufactures a "Blosser's Cigarette" which I believe to be the immediate and direct descendant of the Cubeb. You will recall that the tobacco cigarette in the k century was


Lung adenocarcinomas exhibit various patterns of genomic alterations. During the development of this cancer, KRAS serves as a driver oncogene with a relatively high mutational frequency. Emerging data suggest that lung adenocarcinomas with KRAS mutations can show enhanced PD-L1 expression and additional somatic mutations, thus linking the prospect of applying immune checkpoint blockade therapy to this disease. However, the responses of KRAS-mutant lung adenocarcinomas to this therapy are distinct, which is largely attributed to the heterogeneity in the tumoral immune milieus. Recently, it was revealed that KRAS-mutant lung adenocarcinomas simultaneously expressing either a LKB1 or TP53 mutation typically have different immune profiles of their tumours: tumours with a KRAS/TP53 co-mutation generally present with a significant upregulation of PD-L1 expression and tumoricidal T-cell accumulation, and those with a KRAS/LKB1 co-mutation are frequently negative for PD-L1 expression and have few tumoricidal immune infiltrates. In this regard, interrogating TP53 or LKB1 mutation in addition to PD-L1 expression will be promising in guiding clinical use of immune checkpoint blockade therapy for KRAS-mutant lung adenocarcinomas.


The long history of multilateral economics nexus among the early settlers of Sarawakians has seen the mushrooming of supermarkets and rising population of affluent society. The study is intended to evaluate retailing relevance based on customers' satisfaction in the short term, and customers' continuous support for existence and survival of the Malaysian bumiputera retailers in the long term. The study is primarily focused on consumers residing in Sri Aman, a town which is predominantly rural based and the other part which is more pluraloriented, are consumers residing at the city of Kuching, Sarawak. About 270 over structured questionnaires were distributed and collected from randomly selected respondents from these two main areas. Empirical studies show that consumers in the rural areas are more inclined to buy from bumiputra grocery stores. However, the consumers in the city adopt a different trend, as the latter are more apt to shop at the mega stores. There exists a continuity of consumers buying practice in the rural areas, implying long run relevance. In the city, the urban bumiputera retailers have to be receptive to consumers needs for satisfaction, and to embrace the new art of trading and strategizing in order to remain relevant.


The paper compares the modal dac sie structure with the dispositional middle in Polish. It is argued that the two structures are similar as regards argument realization, i.e. in both constructions, the theme argument appears in the structural subject position. The two structures also have a dispositional meaning in common. However, they show a number of differences. They differ in the presence of a syntactically active agent, their aspectual properties, the availability of episodic interpretations, the obligatory presence of an adverbial modifier, and verb class restrictions. Although these differences seem to argue against a common syntactic derivation for the two structures analysed here, they do not preclude classifying the modal dac sie structure as a subtype of the dispositional middle. If middles are seen as a notional category, understood as a special meaning that different grammatical structures can have, along the lines postulated by Condoravdi (1989), then the modal dac sie structure can be subsumed under the label of middle. In fact, it is argued that the modal dac sie structure represents Type II middles in Ackema and Schoorlemmer's (2005) typology, and it shows properties typical of lassen-middles in German (Pitteroff 2014).


By the death of Carl Otto Lampland on December 14, 1951, the Lowell Observatory lost its assistant director and senior astronomer, and many people lost a friend. Lampland was born of Norwegian parents in a log house near the village of Hayfield, Minnesota, December 29, 1873, the third of eleven children. He grew up in that neighborhood, attending country school and working on a farm. Later he clerked in a store, and, among other activities, played clarinet in the village band. He attended the Valparaiso Normal School at Valparaiso, Indiana, and received the B.S. degree there in 1899. Desiring to do more advanced study, he then entered Indiana University, where his interest in astronomy was awakened ; he was graduated with the degree of B.A. in 1902. Indiana University conferred upon him the degree of M.A. in 1906 (for his work in planetary photography), and the honorary LL.D. in 1930. Upon his graduation, he accepted the position of principal of the high school at Bloomfield, Indiana. Less than three months after he began his work at Bloomfield, however, he was offered the position of astronomer by Percival Lowell upon the recommendation of J. A. Miller, W. A. Cogshall, and V. M. Slipher, who had known him at Indiana University. Lampland promptly accepted the position at the Lowell Observatory, and held it until his death forty-nine years later. For one semester in 1929 he was exchange professor of astronomy at Princeton University. In 1911 he married Verna B. Darby, who had been his classmate at Indiana University, and who survives him. Lampland was a man of great kindness and friendliness, intense loyalty, becoming modesty, and broad interests. His loyalty to the founder of the Observatory was excessive, but this did not prevent him from holding his own in their many arguments. I remember an occasion early in 1905 when, upon opening his mail, he became taciturn and depressed for several days, a very unusual state for him. At last I found out what was troubling him : Mr.


Rationale: Although chest radiography is currently recommended for the initial evaluation of patients with new‐onset uveitis, the efficacy of this diagnostic screening modality is not known. Objectives: To evaluate the diagnostic value of chest radiographs in patients with active uveitis of recent onset in a tertiary center in Western Europe. Methods: A retrospective cross‐sectional study was conducted by reviewing all chest imaging for adults with new‐onset (<1 yr) uveitis of unknown origin undergoing initial evaluation in the Department of Ophthalmology at Erasmus University Medical Center (Rotterdam, the Netherlands). Radiographic findings were related to clinical and other imaging characteristics and to final diagnoses. Results: Screening chest radiographs were abnormal for 30 of 200 patients (15%) included in this study. Twenty‐two of the 200 patients (11%) had biopsy‐confirmed sarcoidosis, and an additional 12 patients were presumed to have sarcoidosis. The finding of chest radiographic abnormalities interpreted as typical of sarcoidosis was specific (91%; 95% confidence interval, 85.9‐94.4%) but not sensitive (64%; 95% confidence interval, 43.0‐80.3%) for biopsy‐confirmed sarcoidosis. The combination of elevated serum angiotensin‐converting enzyme level and chest radiographic findings typical of sarcoidosis increased the sensitivity to 79%. Biopsy‐confirmed sarcoidosis was more common in patients with panuveitis (17 of 84; 20%) compared to patients with other anatomical locations of uveitis (5 of 116, 4%; P < 0.001). One patient was diagnosed with active pulmonary and ocular tuberculosis. Conclusions: Abnormal chest radiographs were found in 15% of patients with active uveitis of unknown origin and onset within 1 year of referral to a tertiary center in the Netherlands. A majority of the abnormal chest radiographs showed findings compatible with a diagnosis of sarcoidosis.


The soft turtle, Trionyx sinensis, body weight 235~319g, were fed the diets containing furazolidone(10 -4 , 10 -3 , 3×10 -3 ), sulfadiazine(10 -4 , 10 -3 , 3×10 -3 ) or norfloxacin(10 -5 , 10 -4 , 3×10 -4 ), for 7 and 14 d respectively. The experiment water temperature was (30±1)℃. The blood and 3 other tissues, i.e.liver, kidney and muscle, were analyzed at hour 24, 72, 120 and 240 after withdraw medication. The results showed that furazolidone was absorbed too little to be detected; the residual sulfadiazine could be detected in the 4 samples but the highest level was observed in the blood at hour 24 after the withdraw, and then dropped rapidly to the lowest level at hour 72 and vanished at hour 240, and norfloxacin was the samilar case in its residual change. The effect of administered time was not obvious on residue level in blood but that's not the case in the other 3 tissues that the residual levels went up with the elapse of administered time (P0.05). The residual elimination was the slowest in muscle that the residue rate was 76.8%(1.65~2.37 μg/kg) at hour 120 and 25%(0.63~1.11 μg/kg) at hour 240 for sulfadiazine, and for norfloxacin, 46%(0.81~0.93 μg/kg) at hour 120 and 24.2%(0.35~0.44 μg/kg) at hour 240 (the percentage was on the basis of the residue levels at hour 24 after withdraw). It is suggested that the sulfadiazine- or norfloxacin-treated soft turtle be onto the market 10 d after withdraw medication.


A high-performance Ni1−xFex on polyethyleneimine (PEI)-functionalized molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) electrocatalyst has been synthesized by an electroplating in situ growth approach. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy confirm the successful functionalization of MoS2 with PEI. The empty orbitals of Ni2+ and Fe2+ (Ni and Fe precursors) coordinated with the donated lone pairs of nitrogen atoms in PEI-mediated MoS2 and then the Ni2+ and Fe2+ were in situ reduced at a negative potential. Transmission electron microscope images and X-ray diffraction reveal that Ni85Fe15 nanoparticles with an average size of 2.25 nm are uniformly dispersed on the PEI–MoS2 sheets. The Ni1−xFex/PEI–MoS2 catalyst exhibits unexpectedly high activity towards the hydrazine oxidation reaction, which can be attributed to highly homogeneous dispersed Ni1−xFex alloy. It also shows enhanced electrochemical stability due to the structural integrity of PEI–MoS2. Finally, the Ni85Fe15/PEI–MoS2 catalyst is proved to be very valuable for applications in hydrazine fuel cells, as compared with Ni90Fe10/PANi–MoS2 and Ni85Fe15/MoS2 catalysts.


Purpose Human papillomavirus (HPV) is one of the most common sexually transmitted infections affecting both males and females but there is an apparent lack of knowledge and apprehension towards male HPV vaccination South Korea. The purpose of the present study was to examine the associations between knowledge and perceptions of male HPV vaccination and vaccination intent among Korean mothers of adolescent sons. Materials and Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study using a nationwide online survey. The independent variables were mothers' sociodemographic characteristics, history of HPV diagnosis, general HPV knowledge, HPV vaccine knowledge, and attitudes and beliefs towards male HPV vaccination. The outcome variable was mothers' intent to vaccinate their sons, which was classified into three categories: non-intent, undecided and intend to vaccinate. We performed univariate analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis. Results A total of 906 eligible mothers completed the survey. Mothers received low scores on the HPV-related knowledge scales with low ratings on the scale measuring perceived risk of HPV. Approximately 10% of the mothers intended to vaccinate their sons against HPV, 61.0% were undecided and 1.5% already had their sons vaccinated. According to the multinominal logistic regression analysis, having a daughter in the family, mothers' previous diagnosis with HPV, general HPV knowledge, influence, harm, and risk were significantly associated with being undecided and having intentions to vaccinate their sons (p<0.05). Conclusions Our study revealed that Korean mothers are generally less aware of male HPV vaccination, have low perceived risk of HPV, and remain highly hesitant on vaccinating their sons against HPV. It is therefore important to raise public awareness about male HPV vaccination and alleviate vaccine hesitancy. Such efforts will contribute to improving parents' vaccination intent, increasing vaccine uptake among male adolescents and prevention of HPV-associated diseases.


: Functionally diverse root-associated fungi may differentially interact with host plants, potentially affecting the assembly processes of belowground plant and fungi communities. Here, we applied the Illumina Miseq sequencing technique to identify root-associated fungi of plants which were co-dominant in a tropical montane rain forest on Hainan Island, China. Structural features of bipartite networks were compared among the whole root-associated, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) and ectomycorrhizal (ECM) fungus–plant interactions. A total of 297,831 fungal ITS1 sequences were obtained from eight families including Aceraceae, Annonaceae, Apocynaceae, Aquifoliaceae, Arecaceae, Fagaceae, Lauraceae, and Oleaceae. Fungal sequences were assigned to 1,279 OTUs comprised of Ascomycota (748 OTUs), Basidiomycota (354), Glomeromycota (80), and unidentified fungi (97). At least three functional groups of fungi i.e. putatively ECM (40 OTUs, represented 23.4% of the total fungal reads), AM (40, 13.9%) and saprophyte (83, 19.8%) were prevalent in the core root-associated fungal community (420 OTUs) of the tropical montane rain forest. Network analysis indicated that AM, ECM and root-associated fungus–plant interaction network showed structural features which cannot be predicate by null models assuming species interact randomly. Community level indices behaved differently among different ecotypes of fungus–plant interactions. Specifically, the degree of nestedness (NODF) and connectance were higher, while specialization was lower in the AM interaction network than the expected values from null models. In contrast, the ECM interaction network had a significantly higher degree of specialization and lower nestedness and connectance than the null models. At guild levels, plant niche overlap of AM and ECM interactions are higher and lower than the null model, respectively. Niche breadth of ECM fungi was narrower than that of AM fungi. Co-occurrence patterns of plant and fungus further confirmed competition for resources was intense in ECM interaction network (high C-score of both plants and fungi) and weak in the AM interaction network (low C-score). These findings suggest that at least two modes of interspecific interactions are critical for the assembly and coexistence of root-associated fungal communities, i.e. redundancy (nestedness) of AM interactions, and niche differen-tiation (specialization) of ECM interactions. Here we provide a comprehensive exploration of the interactions among functionally diverse root-associated fungal guild within a forest, which is key to understand the mechanisms maintaining species coexistence in tropical forests.


I. Introduction Canada has a long and illustrious history of censorship. Since 1867, it would seem that a defining characteristic of Canadian national identity has been to censor, particularly at our borders, to make sure that material that would "deprave and corrupt" was not permitted entry into our country. The censorship of gay and lesbian (1) materials is of a slightly more recent vintage, largely paralleling the rise of the gay and lesbian liberation movement in the 1970s. This is not to say that gay and lesbian themed material was not censored before the 1970s. It was. But the heyday of gay and lesbian censorship follows the emergence of the gay and lesbian liberation movement in the 1970s and 1980s. In this essay, I review this history of censorship, focusing on both customs censorship and criminal obscenity prosecutions. I argue that despite many legal defeats, the censorship of gay and lesbian sexual representations in Canada failed; indeed it failed precisely by its own internal contradictory nature. Censorship controversies, I argue, represent a site of public contestation over legitimate and illegitimate speech, and more specifically, that censorship controversies over sexual speech represent a contestation over sexual normativity. Relying on the new censorship studies literature, I argue that each moment of censorship mobilized resistance, making the story of censorship one of resistance and of redrawing the borders of legitimate sexual speech. By the 2000s, gay and lesbian sexual representations had crossed those borders, and their non-heterosexuality alone was no longer sufficient to cast them as non-normative and censorable. I further argue that although the intense censorship struggles over gay and lesbian sexual representations have subsided, censorship continues. Non-normative sexualities, such as those with a sadomasochist fetish theme, continue to be targeted at our borders. The location of censorship battles has also shifted to a new, more ubiquitous censor--online, social media corporate censorship, from the sexual representation policies of Facebook to Apple's emerging forms of "i-Censorship". Gay and lesbian sexual expression still does get caught up in the web of this censorship, as do many forms of sexual expression. Yet in the digital public sphere, the increasing normativity of gay and lesbian sexual expression and the mobilizing nature of censorship create the conditions for censorship failure. It is a site of censorship that is not yet well understood; much of it remains locked in confidential algorithms, allowing what we do see and do not see to remain in a kind of digital closet. But, as I will argue, when the censorship of gay and lesbian sexual expression comes to light, it creates the conditions for its own failure. II. RETHINKING CENSORSHIP In recent years, censorship studies have challenged the traditional view of censorship as the deployment of repressive state power. (2) Scholars, influenced by Foucault and Bordieu, have sought to focus on the productive nature of censorship, seeing it as more diffuse and quotidian. For some, like Michael Holquist, censorship is ubiquitous: "To be for or against censorship as such is to assume a freedom no one has. Censorship is." (3) While others worry that the claim of censorship's ubiquity flattens important distinctions between types and forms of censorship, (4) they nonetheless welcome the reframing of censorship to include its productive and constitutive capacities. (5) Yet, this new censorship scholarship presents a challenge to the more traditional terrain of state censorship. As Post describes, how do we "preserve the analytic force of the new scholarship without sacrificing the values and concerns of more traditional accounts. Recognizing always the pervasive, inescapable and productive silencing of expression, can we say anything distinctive about the particular province of what used to define the study of censorship: the 'direct control' of expression by the state? …


Now days is more the trust we can have to the Apex-locator in endodontics. Now we can expect more accuracy results working length measure, not only of the apical constriction but the total length of the roots. Endodontics can't left behind the use of the Apex-locator, because of its useful work, not only on the determination of the works length, also in the diagnostic of perforations or fractures. Even do, this article displays a reliable and simple guide in the use of apex locator during enodontic treatment.


A systematic study on the directed Pd-catalyzed (hetero)arylation of 26 substituted cyclic α-amino acids at the C(3)-atom was performed. For the first time, the 7- and 8-membered cyclic amino acids were introduced to C-H activation. 8-Aminoquinoline was used as a directing group. Effects of the ring size and the substituents on the reaction efficacy and stereoselectivity were studied.


Abstract. Region growing is a classical image segmentation method based on hierarchical region aggregation using local similarity rules. Our proposed method differs from classical region growing in three important aspects. First, it works on the level of superpixels instead of pixels, which leads to a substantial speed-up. Second, our method uses learned statistical shape properties that encourage plausible shapes. In particular, we use ray features to describe the object boundary. Third, our method can segment multiple objects and ensure that the segmentations do not overlap. The problem is represented as an energy minimization and is solved either greedily or iteratively using graph cuts. We demonstrate the performance of the proposed method and compare it with alternative approaches on the task of segmenting individual eggs in microscopy images of Drosophila ovaries.


Among the putative candidate genes for insulin resistance, the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator1α (PGC-1α) is a transcriptional coactivator of PPARγ and α, regulating a wide range of processes involved in energy production and utilization, such as thermogenesis, liver gluconeogenesis, glucose uptake in muscle. In population studies a Gly482Ser substitution in PGC-1α has been reported to be associated with increased risk of type diabetes 2 and insulin resistance. In the present study we have analysed the association between the Gly482Ser missense mutation of the PGC-1α gene and insulin sensitivity and glucose tolerance in a population of obese non-diabetic subjects. The Gly482Ser SNPs was detected by PCR-RFLP in a cohort of 358 Caucasian obese subjects (223 with normal glucose tolerance (NGT) and 125 with impaired glucose tolerance (IGT). We observed a significant association (p < 0.007) between carriers of the Gly482Ser variant of the PGC-1α gene and insulin resistance measured by HOMAIR. Multivariate analysis confirmed that the Gly482Ser SNP was a significant (p < 0.02) determinant of decreased insulin sensitivity, independently from other well-known modulators of insulin action. In conclusion, we have found significant association between the Gly482Ser variant of the PGC-1α gene and reduced insulin sensitivity in obese subjects. This association resulted independent from all other known modulators of insulin resistance, and suggests a primary role for the PGC-1α gene on the genetic susceptibility to insulin resistance in obesity.


Current and historical information about food habits of bearded seals, Erignathus barbatus , are presented. Shrimps, crabs, and clams are overall the most important prey. Proportions of different prey in the diet vary with age of seals, location, and time of year. Foods of male and female seals are similar. Young seals eat proportionally more shrimps than do older animals. Recently, clams were important in the diet only in Norton Sound and near Wainwright, and only during late spring and summer. Greatest quantities of food were found in stomachs of seals which had eaten mostly clams. In Bering Strait, seals taken in spring 1958 and 1967 had consumed large quantities of clams, but this item was only a minor fraction of foods in 1975-79. Walruses, Odobenus rosmarus , have increased steadily in numbers since 1960. Whereas Bering Strait was mainly a route through which walruses migrated in spring and autumn, this region is now an area in which large numbers (up to 80,000) spend portions of the summer and autumn. The walruses feed mainly on clams. Increased foraging activity of walruses may have reduced availability of this food item for bearded seals. The walrus population currently appears to be exhibiting indications of stress. These indications may be a reflection of walrus numbers at or in excess of the ability of the clam resource to withstand current predation by walruses. Indices of population condition in bearded seals have remained stable, perhaps due to their more euryphagous habits.


On 24th September, 2006, a severe disturbance occurred on the National Grid System of Pakistan which caused cascading outages of transmission lines and generating stations that ultimately led to system wide collapse/blackout. This major blackout was one of the worst power system failures of WAPDA, the main electric utility of Pakistan. This paper provides an insight of the investigations to identify system constraints that caused blackout The bulk power transfer on long 500 kV transmission lines in northern part of WAPDA, prior to blackout, had already loaded them close to their stability limits. As a result, the system, after a disturbance, was stressed further beyond its capability and experienced small signal and voltage instabilities, which led to its collapse. In this paper, detailed analytical work including steady state and dynamic simulations/analyses have been carried out to study the behaviour of VVAPDA power system during collapse. Later, the effectiveness of the power system controllers, i.e., power system stabilizers (PSS) and flexible AC transmission system (FACTS) has been demonstrated as remedial measures to prevent such major system blackout.


Incense burning is common in Asia including China. Research investigating the association between household incense burning and children's neurodevelopment is scarce. We aimed to examine this association in Chinese children. In 2019, we randomly enrolled 8293 children aged 6-12 years from 5 elementary schools in Guangzhou, southern China. Information on duration and frequency of household incense burning was collected using a questionnaire. Children's executive function was evaluated using the parental report of the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function. A general linear model was used to assess the associations between incense burning and executive function. Children who occasionally and frequently exposed to incense burning exhibited worse performance on executive function. For example, frequent incense burning was associated with increases in behavioral regulation index (BRI) of 1.77 (95%CI: 0.97, 2.58) points and metacognition index (MI) of 1.40 (95%CI: 0.60, 2.20) points, compared to never incense burning group. Parental smoking and household income were significant modifiers of the associations, with the stronger associations were observed in children having smoking parent(s) and poorer household income. The findings suggest that household incense burning was associated with poorer executive function, especially in children whose parent(s) were smokers and in those with low household income.


We introduce \emph{contact interactions hamiltonians} (self-adjointoperators defined by boundary conditions) between $N$ massive particles in $R^3$, $N \geq 3$. We prove that they are limits (in strong resolvent sense) when $ \epsilon \to 0$ of interaction through a two-body potential which scales according to $ V_\epsilon (|x|) =\epsilon ^{-3} V ( \frac {|x|}{ \epsilon} )$ where $ V(|x|) $ is an integrable function. The advantage of the formalism of contact interactions is that the results do not depend on the shape of the approximating potentials. Depending on the masses and symmetries there may be three body bound states with wave function localized near the barycenter and less localized four-body bound states. For some range of masses there is an infinity of bound states with energies which accumulate geometrically to zero (Efimov effect). For contact interactions these are all the bound states which can be present in the $N$-body system. We study of zero range hamiltonians by first compactly embedding the physical space $ L^2(R^{3 (N-1)}) $ in a larger Hilbert space of more singular functions (Krein space) Estimates are done in the auxiliary space, where strong resolvent convergence when $ \epsilon \to 0$ and spectral properties are easily established. If the hamiltonian \emph{in Krein space} is positive, coming back to $L^2 (R^{3N})$ is done using the compactness of the Krein map and the fact that for positive forms weak convergence implies strong convergence. If it is not positive we use a somewhat more sophisticated operation, $ \Gamma-$convergence [Dal]. In both cases the limit operator is unique.


The literature contains many articles on the design of voltage-operated diode logic gates. Perhaps the major disadvantage of this type of gate is the restriction of the design to two or three stages which does not, in general, allow realization of minimal networks or which alternately requires the insertion of a gain device to re-establish the voltage levels. This paper formulates the general realization procedures applicable to the synthesis of current-operated diode logic networks. The current-operated gate is essentially the dual of the voltage-operated gate; this relationship is established to substantiate the utilization of existing synthesis methods. Two distinctly different realization procedures are described, both equally general, and the choice is usually dictated by the nature of the specific transmission function. The Boolean operations of addition and multiplication (commonly referred to as OR and AND respectively) are more conveniently realized with the use of the "dual method." The operation of sum modulo two (or function selection) is more economically synthesized using the "lattice method." For a further discussion of the terms see the section on add and multiply, reference 1.


We have measured transition probabilities (Einstein's A values) of 23 transitions in the singly ionized oxygen (O II) spectrum belonging mostly to high lying transitions using a relative line intensity ratio (RLIR) method. A linear low-pressure pulsed arc was used as an optically thin plasma source operated at 27 000 K electron temperature and 1.8 1023 m-3 electron density in oxygen plasma. Measured A values have been compared to the recent theoretical and experimental data.


Among virtual reality technologies, a multi-projection display is certainly the most attractive and challenging. Engineers and researchersin any number of fieldsare increasingly attracted by immersive multi-projection displays. However, building a multi-projection system is a complex integration task, challenging even VR specialists. This book provides an introduction to the issues to consider when planning the installation of a multi-projection environment for researches and professionals not only in the computer graphics and virtual reality field but also in any other area that wants to use multi-projection displays. The book takes a practical approach, offering guidance in how to create a multi-projection environment. Sections: Evaluation of available display technologies Details of setting up a variety of display infrastructures Options for image generation, from cheapest to most expensive Methods for tracking users in an immersive projection environment Human-computer interaction, with an emphasis on multimodal interaction Audio: how to create a realistic auditory display in terms of sound synthesis and propagation How to utilize virtual reality software for immersive environments Case studies of VR environments the authors have constructed


In the present study, quids from La Cueva de los Muertos Chiquitos (CMC) were subjected to ELISA tests for 2 protozoan parasites, Toxoplasma gondii (n=45) and Trypanosoma cruzi (n=43). The people who occupied CMC, the Loma San Gabriel, lived throughout much of present-day Durango and Zacatecas in Mexico. The known pathoecology of these people puts them into at-risk categories for the transmission of T. gondii and T. cruzi. Human antibodies created in response to these 2 parasites can be detected in modern saliva using ELISA kits intended for use with human serum. For these reasons, quids were reconstituted and subjected to ELISA testing. All test wells yielded negative results. These results could be a factor of improper methods because there is no precedence for this work in the existing literature. The results could equally be a simple matter of parasite absence among those people who occupied CMC. A final consideration is the taphonomy of human antibodies and whether or not ELISA is a sufficient method for recovering antibodies from archaeological contexts. An additional ELISA test targeting secretory IgA (sIgA) was conducted to further examine the failure to detect parasite-induced antibodies from quids. Herein, the methods used for quid preparation and ELISA procedures are described so that they can be further developed by future researchers. The results are discussed in light of the potential future of quid analysis.


Phlegmon refers to a spreading diffuse inflammation of connective tissue with formation of an exudate or pus. Phlegmonous infections may affect any region of the gastrointestinal tract. The stomach is the region most frequently involved; infections at other sites have been but rarely reported. Acute phlegmonous esophagitis is a very rare disease involving both the submucosal and muscular layers of the esophagus, with sparing of the mucosal layer. Acute esophageal esophagitis is commonly associated with acute phlegmonous gastritis; any association with a deep neck infection is very rare. We report herein a case of acute phlegmonous esophagitis developing as a complication of a retropharyngeal abscess treated via incision and drainage and prescription of longterm antibiotics. Thus, we did not perform esophageal surgery. We also review the relevant literature. (J Clinical Otolaryngol 2018;29:119-122)


Metal cluster-based compounds have difficulty finishing the photocatalytic carbon dioxide reduction reaction (CO2RR) and water oxidation reaction (WOR) simultaneously because of the big challenge in realizing the coexistence of independently and synergistically reductive and oxidative active sites in one compound. Herein, we elaborately designed and synthesized one kind of crystalline reduction–oxidation (RO) cluster-based catalysts connecting reductive {M3L8(H2O)2} (M = Zn, Co, and Ni for RO-1, 2, 3 respectively) cluster and oxidative {PMo9V7O44} cluster through a single oxygen atom bridge to achieve artificial photosynthesis successfully. These clusters can all photocatalyze CO2-to-CO and H2O-to-O2 reactions simultaneously, of which the CO yield of RO-1 is 13.8 μmol/g·h, and the selectivity is nearly 100%. Density functional theory calculations reveal that the concomitantly catalytically reductive and oxidative active sites (for CO2RR and WOR, respectively) and the effective electron transfer between the sites in these RO photocatalysts are the key factors to complete the overall photosynthesis.


This paper describes a longitudinal study, in which the interaction between junior-high school principals and science teachers is characterized, and its influence on technology implementation is explored. Ten principals and 19 teachers who participated in a former study, which took place from 1998 to 2001, were re-interviewed and observed in 2003 to 2005. The teachers were classified into four types: initiator, follower, evader and objector, based on the mode and extent to which the teachers used these educational technologies. Principals were classified into four categories with respect to the way they motivated their science teachers to incorporate technologies into teaching, identified as initiating, empowering, permitting, or resisting. The principals were fairly consistent in the type of support they provided to their teachers throughout the seven years of the study. Teachers shifted in the ways they used technology; They leveraged on technology and moved up when they worked with an initiating principal and moved down when the principal was a "resister". The principals' longitudinal support or discouragement plays a crucial role in teachers' ability and motivation to use technology as an integral part of their teaching.


It is demonstrated that the concept of the elementary energy bands can be used to predict a structural change of a crystal's primitive cell during a phase transition without investigating this mechanism itself. Three examples of the phase transitions have been chosen: deformational phase transition occuring in GeTe (O5h), pressure induced phase transition in ZnTe (T2d) and induced by phonon-phonon interaction in SbSI (D162h). The discussed approach demands a knowledge about the space symmetry group of a crystal after phase transition.


A radioimmunochemical method of determination of leucine-binding protein and a method, based on the selective absorption of the protein and its complex with leucine on DEAE-cellulose, has been developed. The protein content in the E. coli cells at different stage of growth has been determined by the radioimmunochemical and equilibrium dialysis methods. It was shown that the protein content in the cells is practically independent of the growth-phase.


Catalase (hydrogen peroxide: hydrogen peroxide oxidoreductase, EC 188.8.131.52) is found in virtually all aerobic organisms. It employs a two-electron-transfer mechanism to disproportionate hydrogen peroxide into molecular oxygen and water (Deisseroth and Dounce 1970). These enzymes serve, in part, to protect the cell from the toxic effects of small peroxides. However, the entire range of biological functions of catalases remains unclear. Two types of catalases are known: Mn-catalases and heme-containing catalases. Mn-catalases, only present in certain prokaryotes, are non-heme hexameric enzymes with an "all-α" fold (Barynin et al. 1986). In contrast, heme-containing catalases, which are widespread, are homotetramers with molecular weights ranging from about 200,000 to 350,000. The three-dimensional crystal structures of five of these heme-containing catalases (Table 1) have been reported at almost atomic resolution. These include members from two eukaryote and from three prokaryote catalases: (1) from the fungus Penicillium vitale (PVC) (Vainshtein et al. 1981Vainshtein et al. 1986; G. Murshudov et al., unpubl.); (2) the mammalian catalase from beef liver (BLC) (Murthy et al. 1981; Fita et al. 1986); (3) from Micrococcus lysodeikticus (MLC) (Murshudov et al. 1992 and unpubl.), (4) from a peroxide-resistant mutant of Proteus mirabilis (PMC_PR) (Gouet et al. 1995); and (5) HPII catalase from E. coli (Bravo et al. 1995). The α+β fold of the subunits and the molecular organization in all these heme catalase structures are unique among proteins and, in particular, present striking differences from heme peroxidases. In catalases the four heme groups are deeply buried inside the molecule due to complex intersubunit interactions...


We present an experimental study of complex noise-like pulse dynamics in a passively mode-locked figure-eight fiber laser, by performing simultaneous temporal and spectral mapping of the waveform sequences. The simultaneous measurements allow us to relate temporal and spectral events. We found in particular that the evolution of energy and of temporal features such as the number and width of the wave packets is correlated to spectral variations, namely of the central wavelength and bandwidth of the instantaneous spectrum. The simultaneous temporal and spectral measurements also allowed a substantial improvement in the precision of the latter, which was performed using the dispersive Fourier transform method. In particular, this enhanced precision allowed measuring the subtle spectral differences between the two laser outputs and tracking their evolution over the cycles, providing crucial information that allowed to determine the physical phenomena involved in the observed dynamics.


Motivated by distributed storage applications, we investigate the degree to which capacity achieving codes can be efficiently updated when a single information symbol changes, and the degree to which such codes can be efficiently repaired when a single encoded symbol is lost. Specifically, we first develop conditions under which optimum error-correction and update-efficiency are possible. We establish that the number of encoded bits that should change in response to a change in a single information bit must scale logarithmically in the block-length of the code, if we are to achieve any nontrivial rate with vanishing probability of error over the binary erasure or binary symmetric channels. Moreover, we show that there exist capacity-achieving codes with this scaling. With respect to local repairability, we develop tight upper and lower bounds on the number of remaining encoded bits that are needed to recover a single lost encoded bit. In particular, we show that when the rate of an optimal code is ε below capacity, the maximum number of codeword symbols required to recover one lost symbol must scale as log1/ε. Several variations on-and extensions of-these results are also developed, including to the problem of rate-distortion coding.