Study Design. Pedicle screw strength or load to failure was biomechanically evaluated, and the geometric characteristics of pedicle screw instrumentation systems were compared. Objectives. To compare the features of pedicle screw systems, and to demonstrate the failure point of the polyaxial pedicle screw head. Summary of Background Data. Many pedicle screw instrumentation systems are currently available to the spine surgeon. Each system has its unique characteristics. It is important for the surgeon to understand the differences in these pedicle screw systems. Pedicle screw load to failure has not been subjected to a comparison study. Methods. The physical characteristics of each pedicle screw instrumentation system were determined. Features of rods, instruments, and pedicle screws were cataloged. Biomechanical testing of the pedicle screw construct was performed to determine the site and force of the load to failure. Nine pedicle screw systems were evaluated. Testing was performed with a pneumatic testing system under load control. Three polyaxial screws were used for each test at a load rate of 100 N/second. The load failure value was the force at which the pedicle screw or polyaxial head–screw interface initially deflected. Results. Biomechanical testing demonstrated in all instances that the polyaxial head coupling to the screw was the first failure point. Although there have been subtle design differences in the instruments over time, the features of the pedicle screw instrument sets have become remarkably similar. Conclusions. Biomechanical pedicle screw load-to-failure data demonstrated that the polyaxial head coupling to the screw is the first to fail and may be a protective feature of the pedicle screw, preventing pedicle screw breakage. Knowing the physical characteristics of the available pedicle screw instrumentation systems may allow the choice of pedicle screw best suited for a given clinical situation.


Prototype based learning offers an intuitive interface to inspect large quantities of electronic data in supervised or unsupervised settings. Recently, many techniques have been extended to data described by general dissimilarities rather than Euclidean vectors, so-called relational data settings. Unlike the Euclidean counterparts, the techniques have quadratic time complexity due to the underlying quadratic dissimilarity matrix. Thus, they are infeasible already for medium sized data sets. The contribution of this article is twofold: On the one hand we propose a novel supervised prototype based classification technique for dissimilarity data based on popular learning vector quantization (LVQ), on the other hand we transfer a linear time approximation technique, the Nyström approximation, to this algorithm and an unsupervised counterpart, the relational generative topographic mapping (GTM). This way, linear time and space methods result. We evaluate the techniques on three examples from the biomedical domain.


The intensity of fluorescence of amino acid and globular protein solutions, exposed to a pulsed electron beam in the presence and absence of the concurrent pulsed electromagnetic field was found to be a function of radiation dose. The observed decline in the fluorescence intensity was slightly dependent on the solution concentration and dependent on the time and dose-rate of irradiation. The effect of the concurrent pulsed radiation of the electromagnetic field was sometimes observed.


Oral sub mucous fibrosis (OSF) is a high risk precancerous condition, predominantly affecting Indian. Data from recent epidemiological studies provide overwhelming evidence that areca nut is the main etiological factor for OSF. A clear dose- dependent relationship was observed for both frequency and duration of chewing areca nut (without tobacco) in the development of OSF. Limitation of mouth opening result in difficulty in mastication is the main presenting feature. Although nutritional deficiencies and immunological processes may play an important role in the pathogenesis. The available epidemiological evidence indicates that chewing betel quid (containing areca nut, tobacco, slaked lime or other species) is an important risk factor for OSF. It has been postulated that areca nut may also induce the development of the disease by increased levels of cytokines in the lamina propria. Hence the present article OSF reviewed the etiology, pathophysiology, clinical features


In the sympathetic system, neurons from several spinal segments are mapped onto targets in the periphery in a topographically ordered way by means of selective synaptic connections in the superior cervical ganglion. Experimental evidence points to a crucial role for chemoaffinity in establishing this topographic map. Furthermore, rearrangements of synapses after surgical manipulations indicate that this chemoaffinity is not based on rigid "key-and-lock" markers. Our model is used to study how such nonrigid markers may interact with other regulatory factors, including growth-regulating signals and the growth potential of individual neurons. In the model, these latter factors are limiting, so that an increasing number of synaptic contacts decreases the likelihood of further synapse formation. These factors are combined with chemoaffinity using a linear threshold model. The model is robust to parameter changes and reproduces experimental observations with reasonable detail. Simulation results are used to discuss characteristic experimental results, such as the substantial plasticity of the connections seen after partial denervation. A surprisingly small effect of transient hyperinnervation in the model may help explain why final connectivities are similar in two real situations with high and low degrees of transient hyperinnervation (development and adult reinnervation). It is shown that spatial restrictions on post-synaptic neurons (dendrites) may contribute significantly to the segmentally broad innervation of each ganglion cell. Finally, we discuss potential effects of presynaptic neuronal death in systems with a high degree of plasticity.


This study determined the effectiveness of components of a germicidal air-cleaning system involving filtration, electrostatic polarization, and UV light on the reduction of airborne bacteria and molds. The filter alone, filter and electrostatic polarization combined, and the filter, electrostatic polarization, and UV light were found to be effective (P < 0.05) in reducing a given concentration of M. luteus and S. marcescens by 90 to 92%. The same components were also found to be effective (P < 0.05) in reducing indigenous airborne bacteria and molds from ambient air in processing plant production conditions by 62 to 77% after only 1 pass through the filtration system. A germicidal air-filtration system utilizing electrostatic polarization and ultraviolet light can be used to reduce the chance of contaminating surfaces with airborne bacteria and molds.


Abstract Problem-based learning (PBL) is an educational method that can be considered as an alternative to the traditional, discipline-based, approach to teaching. In this paper the characteristics of both approaches are discussed and compared. Some background knowledge concerning the principles that determine the success of instructional methods is presented. Finally, it is discussed how medical informatics can be taught in a PBL environment.


Superconducting circuits coupled to acoustic waveguides have extended the range of phenomena that can be experimentally studied using tools from quantum optics. In particular giant artificial atoms permit the investigation of systems in which the electric dipole approximation breaks down and pronounced non-Markovian effects become important. While previous studies of giant atoms focused on the realm of the rotating-wave approximation, we go beyond this and perform a numerically exact analysis of giant atoms strongly coupled to their environment, in regimes where counterrotating terms cannot be neglected. To achieve this, we use a Lanczos transformation to cast the field Hamiltonian into the form of a one-dimensional chain and employ matrix-product state simulations. This approach yields access to a wide range of system-bath observables and to relatively unexplored parameter regimes.


AtKAT1 plays roles as a major channel to uptake K+ in guard cell when stomata open in dicot model plant Arabidopsis. In a recent publication, we isolated 3 KAT-like potassium channels in rice. We expressed them in CHO cell to identify electrophysiological characteristics of the channels. OsKAT2 showed much bigger inwardly rectifying potassium channel activities among them. The histochemical X-glu staining of transgenic rice leaf blades expressing β-glucuronidase fused with OsKAT2 promoter showed that the OsKAT2 is dominantly expressed in rice guard cell. These findings indicate that OsKAT2 may be a functional ortholog of AtKAT1 in rice. Thus this gene will be the prime target for engineering the guard cell movement to improve drought tolerance in monocot plants, including most major crops.


This thesis explores the state apartment in the Jacobean country house – its status, function, use, planning, decoration and furnishing. It does so against various different backgrounds. Firstly, that of the royal progress, during which Tudor and early Stuart monarchs – in particular, James I – would visit private residences around the country. The nature of such visits are explored, using a large amount of primary evidence and drawing upon a full itinerary of James I's reign, compiled for the first time as part of this thesis.

A different context, that of royal palaces, is then considered, particular focus being given to the use and accessibility of state apartments. This subject is further explored within the context of the noble household. The use of state rooms beyond and during royal visits is investigated, again using much primary evidence that has been largely neglected before now. It is shown that state apartments in country houses were the focus for elaborate ceremonial, and that they were used for the reception and accommodation of various honoured guests, not just members of the royal family.

In the last two chapters of the thesis, the planning, decoration and furnishing of the country house state apartment is considered. It is argued that arrangements developed significantly between the Henrician and Jacobean periods, the state suite evolving from a comparatively simple (and sometimes haphazard) collection of spaces to a cohesively planned and integrated suite – a true apartment. This argument is based on the detailed analysis of 29 sixteenth-century houses (including Thornbury Castle, Theobalds and Hardwick Hall) and 9 houses of the Jacobean period (including Audley End, Hatfield House and Bramshill). Such a study clearly demonstrates that state apartments were undoubtedly the best rooms in a country house, and were used to reflect and further an owner's status and prestige.


The creation, interaction, observation and stability of dark solitons in two-component condensates are investigated. As a first scenario, we consider the case of miscible components, analysing the creation of solitons in different components via phase-imprinting, and the soliton-soliton interaction in different situations, which include the formation of a soliton-soliton binary system and free single solitons accompanied by a filling of the other component. The different regimes of interaction are analysed numerically, and compared with a variational calculation. The observability of the solitons and their stability are also analysed. In a second scenario, we study the soliton propagation in the presence of domains, and show that a dark soliton can be transferred from one component to the other at the domain wall when exceeding a critical velocity.


We developed a new nanotool of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) for local conductance measurement. Two Pt electrodes with a nanogap fabricated by focused ion beam (FIB) milling are integrated on a Si cantilever with Al electrodes. The minimum gap fabricated on the cantilever is 20 nm. Local conductance measurements of conductive materials, a carbon film and a gold film, were performed using the nanogap probe on a conventional SPM system. Ohmic contacts between the gap electrodes and the conductive samples were established. The resolution of the conductance image is almost the same as the gap distance of the electrodes. A single gold grain was successfully imaged with sub-100-nm resolution.


We report a delayed haemolytic reaction during the course of a severe HELLP syndrome, which required red blood cell transfusions. Haemolysis was mainly ascribed to the erythrocyte alloantibody anti-Fy a. The fact that this antibody was undetectable before transfusions (despite cross-matching and anti-erythrocyte antibody screening test) emphasizes the limits of these tests for low antibody concentrations. Moreover, this patient, who had a remarkable obstetrical history, received red blood cell transfusions matched for Rhesus and Kell antigens. The opportunity to perform a more extended phenotype screening for patients at high-risk to develop multiple alloantibodies is discussed.


The early detection of fire is of utmost importance since it is related to devastating threats regarding human lives and economic losses. Unfortunately, fire alarm sensory systems are known to be prone to failures and frequent false alarms, putting people and buildings at risk. In this sense, it is essential to guarantee smoke detectors' correct functioning. Traditionally, these systems have been subject to periodic maintenance plans, which do not consider the state of the fire alarm sensors and are, therefore, sometimes carried out not when necessary but according to a predefined conservative schedule. Intending to contribute to designing a predictive maintenance plan, we propose an online data-driven anomaly detection of smoke sensors that model the behaviour of these systems over time and detect abnormal patterns that can indicate a potential failure. Our approach was applied to data collected from independent fire alarm sensory systems installed with four customers, from which about three years of data are available. For one of the customers, the obtained results were promising, with a precision score of 1 with no false positives for 3 out of 4 possible faults. Analysis of the remaining customers' results highlighted possible reasons and potential improvements to address this problem better. These findings can provide valuable insights for future research in this area.


In this paper, we propose a reliability-based mapping strategy in LDPC-coded modulation systems. Compared to conventional mapping methods, this strategy gives a 0.15 dB - 0.2 dB performance improvement with no added complexity. Extrinsic information transfer (EXIT) chart analyses are used to explain the reason for this improvement. LDPC-coded modulation systems with gray and natural labeling are studied. We show that the performances of gray-labeled systems are always superior.


Endogenous cytokinins (CK) were measured in Cucurbita pepo L. (zucchini) cotyledons after spraying 7-day-old seedlings with methyl jasmonate (MeJA) to examine whether the senescence-promoting action of MeJA is associated with changes in metabolic regulation of CK levels. MeJA promoted senescence as estimated by the loss of chlorophyll and injury to chloroplast ultrastructure. This was already detected one day after treatment. The contents of physiologically active CKs determined by high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (CK bases: trans-zeatin, dihydrozeatin and isopentenyladenine and their ribosides), especially trans-zeatin and its riboside declined considerably. CK nucleotides and physiologically inactive CK 7- and 9-glucosides were also markedly decreased whereas the content of storage CK O-glucosides as well as cis-isomers of zeatin declined only slightly. Chlorophyll content and the normal chloroplast structure recovered 5 days after the MeJa treatment. The process of photosynthetic apparatus recovery correlated with an increased concentration of physiologically active CKs, especially Z. In contrast, the content of CK nucleotides and storage CK O-glucosides decreased further. We suggest that the ability of MeJA to promote some aspects of senescence in intact zucchini cotyledons is at least partially due to down-regulation of endogenous CK levels and their interconversion between active and inactive forms.


Gene dose alterations can cause mental retardation (MR), congenital malformations and miscarriages. Standard chromosome analysis by G-banding has a limited resolution, but molecular cytogenetic techniques, such as multi-subtelomeric FISH, microdeletion FISH, multicolour FISH and comparative genomic hybridisation (CGH), have played an important role for the diagnosis of MR during the past decade.1 A complete set of subtelomeric FISH probes was presented in 1996 and updated in 2000.2 Consequently, screening for subtelomeric abnormalities has become a diagnostic test that is offered by diagnostic laboratories, and a number of studies reporting new subtelomeric rearrangements have been published.3–16 However, these probes only reveal chromosome rearrangements located in the subtelomeric region. To cover the whole genome, genome wide screening for chromosomal imbalances using microsatellite markers has been reported,17,18 as well as metaphase CGH.19–22 Yet none of these techniques is able to offer a high resolution screening of the whole genome for chromosome imbalances. The development of accurate and sensitive genome wide screening methods would facilitate the clinical diagnosis of patients with very small or subtle rearrangements. Screening for chromosomal imbalances by array CGH, whether using cDNA23 or BAC clones,24 has mainly been performed on cancer samples,25–30 which usually contain large gene dose alterations. Although array CGH has provided a higher resolution compared to conventional CGH, it has not yet become a widely applied method for the analysis of gene dose alterations in individuals with idiopathic mental retardation. It has been a challenge to achieve the adequate performance needed for the reliable detection of single copy losses or gains of very small regions. Chromosome specific micro-arrays have however been used in a few cases to determine the critical regions in microdeletion disorders.31,32 In this report we used a cDNA micro-array and …


Prior studies have examined the relationship between macroeconomic factors and health insurance for the adult population and have evaluated changes in the composition of health insurance across the income distribution. We combine these types of analysis and examine how labor market fluctuations, health care costs, income, and economic structure are related to the distribution of health insurance coverage across educational groups. We find that there are substantial differences in how these factors affect insurance coverage for different groups. Variations in unemployment are more important in determining insurance coverage for more educated people. The price of medical care, by contrast, is a much more important determinant of private coverage for the least educated than for the most educated. This finding is consistent with differences in the valuation of cost-increasing health care technologies across education groups.


ABSTRACT Why have fundamental policy positions within the EU migration policy field remained relatively stable despite the changing composition of policy players and several 'external shocks' in the last two decades? To complement existing explanations of status quo tendencies in EU migration policy, this article applies a network-centred organizational approach shedding light on the policy environment in which policymakers form their understanding of policy problems and make choices. The analysis of data collected through interviews with representatives of national governments, EU institutions, international organizations, and non-governmental actors, suggests that status quo tendencies in EU migration policy depend on processes of knowledge formation and key features of the migration policy network, including not only its compositional specifics but also network constellations, dynamics of trust and perceptions of like-mindedness that guide policy actors' processing of information.


The provision of ecosystem services – the benefits people obtain from ecosystems – is strongly dependent on the capacity of natural processes and ecosystem functioning. The Tisza River Basin in Hungary and Romania is increasingly impacted by floods and droughts. In order to adapt to their effects and to sustain human well-being an integrated ecosystem service based approach is applied. To achieve this, a framework is developed focusing on the performance of ecosystem services and the factors that change it. The objective is to define the role of ecosystems services and their importance in two different cases of the Tisza River Basin by assessing them in the context of land and water management, policy options and weather extremes. As a conclusion it can be stated that in the current water management system, ecosystem services have a decreased performance, especially the regulating services. The decrease is not only the effect of the human activity but also of the services' ignorance in planning and the consequence of wetland drainage and cutting river arms. The water and land management initiatives – in particular in Hungary – aim to capitalize on the potential of ecosystems to regulate floods and droughts. The analysis also highlights the importance of an integrated, transboundary ecosystem services assessment for decision making and planning.


Among the factors affecting the photosynthetic rate of marine phytoplankton, aeolian iron (Fe) fluxes appear to be critical in several large regions of the global ocean. Here we present an analysis of in situ aerosol iron data obtained from a wide variety of marine locations to quantify the seasonal Fe inputs to the global ocean. When extrapolated to the global ocean, our results indicate strong seasonal variations in aeolian Fe fluxes in different oceanic basins. The predominant fraction of the Fe inputs enters the oceans in the Northern Hemisphere, with the summer flux rates ca. twice those of winter. The high Fe fluxes in the Northern Hemisphere are concentrated in low and mid-latitudes. With the promising new data from MODIS aboard the Terra satellite, the linkage between Fe fluxes and phytoplankton biomass and productivity may be soon further quantified.


The study evaluated the use of a commercial milk replacer as substitute to raw milk in nursing buffalo calves. Sixteen buffalo calves with an average age of 10 days and average live weight of 42.4 kg were fed with raw milk (T1- control) and milk replacer(T2) up to weaning of 90 days. The calves were kept in individual elevated calf hutch as provided with rice straw beddings. Eight hundred (800) grams of milk replacer powder were freshly diluted with 4 liters of warm water (38-40oC) that constituted the daily meal requirement of each calf. Two liters raw milk or milk replacer solution were offered in the morning and the remaining two liters was allotted for the afternoon meal. Results showed that calves fed with milk substitute had significantly lower final live weight of 97.7 kg compared to raw milk fed calves with 107.2 kg. The ADG (617 g) of calves fed milk substitute did not significantly differ from those given raw buffalo milk (711 g). The milk and concentrate intake among calves did not differ significantly between treatments. The 4 liters milk ration/calf in the form of raw milk or milk replacer solution was just enough to meet the daily feed requirements of the animals. No major health problem was observed among calves fed with the milk substitute. Using milk replacer as substitute to raw milk in calf rearing resulted to lower feed cost (Php114.60 vs PhP162.80). A daily savings of 29.61% (PhP48.20/calf) was attained in calves fed the milk replacer. The feed cost per kilogram gain in weight of calves fed with milk replacer was reduced by 18.91% (PhP43.30). Keywords: buffaloes, artificial calf rearing, milk substitute


Dense video captioning, a task of localizing meaningful moments and generating relevant captions for videos, often requires a large, expensive corpus of annotated video segments paired with text. In an effort to minimize the annotation cost, we propose ZeroTA, a novel method for dense video captioning in a zero-shot manner. Our method does not require any videos or annotations for training; instead, it localizes and describes events within each input video at test time by optimizing solely on the input. This is accomplished by introducing a soft moment mask that represents a temporal segment in the video and jointly optimizing it with the prefix parameters of a language model. This joint optimization aligns a frozen language generation model (i.e., GPT-2) with a frozen vision-language contrastive model (i.e., CLIP) by maximizing the matching score between the generated text and a moment within the video. We also introduce a pairwise temporal IoU loss to let a set of soft moment masks capture multiple distinct events within the video. Our method effectively discovers diverse significant events within the video, with the resulting captions appropriately describing these events. The empirical results demonstrate that ZeroTA surpasses zero-shot baselines and even outperforms the state-of-the-art few-shot method on the widely-used benchmark ActivityNet Captions. Moreover, our method shows greater robustness compared to supervised methods when evaluated in out-of-domain scenarios. This research provides insight into the potential of aligning widely-used models, such as language generation models and vision-language models, to unlock a new capability: understanding temporal aspects of videos.


: The method of selecting active strains among a definite group of analogue-resistant mutants was used on the basis of studying the dependence of the carminomycin-producing organism growth and the antibiotic synthesis level on some metabolites. As a result, gamma-ray induced mutants 4 times more active than the parent strains were obtained.


A psychometric study with more than 2,800 upper-elementary-age students examined the reliability and factorial validity of the My Class Inventory-Short Form (MCI-SF). Factor analytic and structural equation modeling results suggested that the original measure is a less than satisfactory approach to appraise various dimensions of classroom climate. Researchers subsequently tested a revised version of the MCI-SF, showingthatthe 18-item measure with four scales (Cohesion, Competitiveness, Friction, and Satisfaction) was psychometrically sound. Implications for ele-mentary school counseling programs and practices are discussed.


In times of crisis such as the one we have experienced due to COVID-19, listed companies have enhanced the communication of their intangible assets. Thus, the aim of this research is to study how listed companies in Spain have used one of the most popular social channels, such as Twitter, to transfer their intangible assets to their stakeholders. To this end, the communication of IBEX35 companies in Spain with a verified corporate profile on Twitter has been studied during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the main results, it should be noted that the transfer of intangible assets has been based on a strategy where providing added value was the connecting axis of the communication actions implemented and the content provided on Twitter. Hence, this work demonstrates that companies can provide added value in social networks to generate trust, build long-term relationships and strengthen their competitive advantage.


In this work we provide a computationally tractable procedure for designing affine control policies, applied to constrained, discrete-time, partially observable, linear systems subject to set bounded disturbances, stochastic noise and potentially Markovian switching over a finite horizon. We investigate the situation when performance specifications are expressed via averaged quadratic inequalities on the random state-control trajectory. Our methodology also applies to steering the density of the state-control trajectory under set bounded uncertainty, a problem that falls in the realm of robust covariance control. Our developments are based on expanding the notion of affine policies that are functions of the so-called "purified outputs", to the class of Markov jump linear systems. This re-parametrization of the set of policies, induces a bi-affine structure in the state and control variables that can further be exploited via robust optimization techniques, with the approximate inhomogeneous S-lemma being the cornerstone. Tractability is understood in the sense that for each type of performance specification considered, an explicit convex program for selecting the parameters specifying the control policy is provided. Furthermore, our convex relaxation is tight within a factor associated to the S-lemma. Our contributions to the existing literature on the subject of robust constrained control lies in the fact that we are addressing a wider class of systems than the ones already studied, by including Markovian switching, and the consideration of quadratic inequalities rather than just linear ones. Our work expands on the previous investigations on finite horizon covariance control by addressing the robustness issue and the possibility that the full state may not be available, therefore enabling the steering of the state-control trajectory density in the presence of disturbances under partial observation.


We have studied the interaction of an ion beam (17.6 keV F-) with cystine, a dimer formed by the binding of two cysteine residues. Cystine can be considered as an ideal prototype for the study of the relevance of the disulfide (-S-S-) chemical bond in biomolecules. For the sake of comparison, the amino acid cysteine has also been subjected to the same experimental conditions. Characterization of the samples by XPS and NEXAFS shows that both pristine cystine and pristine cysteine are found as a dipolar ion (zwitterion). Following irradiation, the dimer and the amino acid show a tendency to change from the dipole ion form to the normal uncharged form. The largest spectral modification was observed in the high resolution XPS spectra obtained at around the N 1s core level for the two biomolecules. The 2p sulfur edge spectra of cysteine and cystine were much less sensitive to radiation effects. We suggest that the disulfide bond (-S-S-) remains stable before and after irradiation, contributing to the larger radiation stability of cystine as compared to the amino acid cysteine.


Past riparian microclimate studies have measured changes horizontally from streams, but not vertically through the forest canopy. We recorded temperature and relative humidity for a year along a two-dimensional grid of 24 data-loggers arrayed up to 40 m height in four trees 2 – 30 m slope distance from a perennial second order stream in the Sierra Nevada. Our objective was to quantify diurnal and seasonal changes in vertical and horizontal microclimate gradients. Our data suggest a dynamic zone of riparian influence on microclimate that fluctuates diurnally and seasonally. Stream influence on microclimate was limited (statistically significant < 5.0 m vertically, < 7.5 m horizontally). In summer and winter, mean daily temperature and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) increased horizontally and vertically from the stream. Maximum absolute differences in temperature and VPD between upland and streamside conditions were greater in summer than winter. Winter diurnal ranges of temperature and VPD were dampened near the stream, increasing with distance, while summer diurnal ranges were greater near the stream and decreased with distance. Microclimate change was markedly greater vertically above the stream than horizontally. Such steep gradients of air temperature and moisture through the vertical forest profile likely affect arboreal habitat conditions that influence epiphytes and their animal communities.


A total of 175 acne lesions, including comedones, papules, pustules, and cysts were examined bacteriologically by smear and culture. The bacteriology of acne is simple. Two organisms, Corynebacterium acnes and Staphylococcus albus , usually in combination, occupy the various types of acne lesions almost exclusively. Both are regarded as contributors to pathogenesis by secondary infection.


A continuously variable transmission (CVT) can be advantageously used to drive a robot in its most efficient operation region for a wide range of external loads. The paper describes an optimal load-sensitive control algorithm for an actuator unit comprising a CVT and an electric motor. The introduced control algorithm takes into account both the electrical motor and the CVT efficiency. The validity of the proposed method is demonstrated by simulations and experiments carried out on an actual stair-climbing mobile robot "HELIOS-VI".


Several purely repulsive potentials (PRP) are investigated theoretically. In contrast to the traditional van der Waals picture, it is found that normal gas?liquid transition emerges only on condition that the PRP as a function of particle separation holds a discontinuous point, or an indifferentiable point, or is differentiable but with an additional length scale besides the hard sphere diameter.


Summary. — We demonstrate that the apparently ad hoc parametrization of the particle production spectra discussed in the literature and used in description of cosmic ray data can be derived from the information theory approach to multiparticle production processes. In particular, the violation of the Feynman scaling law can be interpreted as a manifestation of nonextensivity of the production processes.


In this study, a novel method for the analysis of perfluorinated compounds in whole blood has been developed and validated. The method was developed by using a conventional reversed-phase C18 column as a trapping column for the elimination of background contamination and high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry for the target compounds analysis. The trapping column provided fast online separation of the background contamination of perfluorinated compounds. In this developed method, the limits of detection for different perfluorinated compounds ranged from 0.06 to 0.14 ng/mL. It is notable that the limit of detection (0.07 ng/mL) for perfluorooctanoic acid was improved significantly after the elimination of background contamination. The method was also validated in terms of sensitivity, accuracy, and precision. The recoveries ranged from 66.8 to 111.9%, with relative standard deviations from 2.1 to 15.3%. Our preliminary data suggest that the novel method based on trapping column cleanup followed by high-performance liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry could be applied in studies on the human exposure to perfluorinated compounds.


In the information age, having a presence on the World Wide Web is critical for firms to establish and maintain competitive advantage. This study evaluated the Web presence of the top multinational manufacturing corporations in the Philippines. A sample of 70 Web sites of companies in BusinessWorld 's list of the Top 1000 Corporations in the Philippines for 2006 was subjected to a framework of ten critical factors; and comparisons were made against existing benchmarks. Thereafter, the functionality of the Web sites of the three top-ranked companies was analyzed using a two-dimensional grid for Web site evaluation. Results indicate that there is a need for improvement in the design and quality of the Web sites of manufacturing firms in the Philippines.


compared in order to evaluate the reproducibility of the microMRA technique. The study has been approved by the local institutional review board (IRB) and informed consents have been obtained from all participants. Based on our preliminary results on four healthy volunteers (all females, mean S.D. age 53.3 8.2 yrs) and one primary Raynaud's subject (female, age 55 yrs), the reproducibility of all three measurements is consistent. The Pearson's correlations for both digital artery area and number of veins measurements are 0.99 and Cohen'sof the vascular score measurement is 0.69. The Bland–Altman plot for the vascular area measurement is shown in Fig. 1. We also agree that environmental factors are key issues which may influence scanning measurement results. All the scans described in the original study were conducted in the same environment. The scanning room has a constant temperature of 248C controlled by a thermostat. In the discussion and planning of the original experiments, temperature control came up often. We did our best to ensure that the scanning suite would be comfortable for the SSc patients, who had to remain motionless for relatively long periods. We agree that the understanding of vascular response to temperature change is clinically meaningful. A follow-up investigation into the role of temperature in digital vasculature is planned and will be conducted in the near future for a better understanding of this issue. In terms of the vasospasm status in early and evolving pre-SSc subjects discussed by Dr McKay et al. [1], we would like to point out that significant differences were found for both early and longterm patients when compared with their matched controls. This indicated that clinically meaningful morphological differences can be visualized and quantified by the micro-MRA technique, despite the vasospastic status of each SSc subject. The original study was performed in order to learn the feasibility of using the micro-MRA technique to study SSc disease, rather than to explore the physiological and pathological background of the observed results.


Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) is the causative agent of Kaposi's sarcoma and is associated with two B cell malignancies, primary effusion lymphoma and the plasmablastic variant of multicentric Castleman's disease. EphA2 functions as a cellular receptor for the gH/gL glycoprotein complex of KSHV for several adherent cell types. KSHV gH/gL was previously shown to also weakly interact with other members of the Eph family of receptors. Whether these interactions are of functional consequence remained unclear so far, even if other A-type Ephs were shown to be able to compensate for absence of EphA2 in overexpression systems. Here, we demonstrate for the first time that endogenously expressed EphA7 in BJAB B cells is critical for the cell-to-cell transmission of KSHV from producer iSLK cells to BJAB target cells. The BJAB lymphoblastoid cell line often serves as a model for B cell infection and expresses only low levels of all Eph family receptors other than EphA7. Endogenous EphA7 could be precipitated from the cellular lysate of BJAB cells using recombinant gH/gL, and knockout of EphA7 significantly reduced transmission of KSHV into BJAB target cells by over 80%. Finally, we demonstrate that receptor function of EphA7 is conserved between cell-to-cell transmission of KSHV and cell-free infection by the related rhesus monkey rhadinovirus (RRV), which is relatively even more dependent on EphA7 for infection of BJAB cells. IMPORTANCE Infection of B cells is biologically relevant for two KSHV-associated malignancies, the plasmablastic variant of multicentric Castleman's disease (MCD) and primary effusion lymphoma (PEL). Elucidating the process of B cell infection is therefore important to understand the pathogenesis of these diseases. For various types of adherent cells, EphA2 has been shown by several groups to function as an entry receptor that is engaged by the gH/gL glycoprotein complex. Our previous findings indicate that KSHV does not only interact with EphA2, but can also bind to other members of the Eph family of receptor tyrosine kinases with comparatively lower avidity. We now analyzed the requirement of Eph interactions for infection of the BJAB B cell line, a model for infection of B cells by KSHV. We identify EphA7 as the principal Eph receptor for infection of this model B cell line by both KSHV and the related rhesus monkey rhadinovirus.


Chronic pelvic pain occurs commonly in the adolescent and can be a diagnostic and therapeutic challenge for the clinician, the adolescent, and her family. Defined as lower quadrant or lower abdominal pain lasting 3-6 months or longer, chronic pelvic pain can lead to missed school and activities, decreased functioning, and decreased quality of life in the adolescent. Both the primary care clinician and the pediatric gynecologist need to be aware of the most common causes of chronic pelvic pain in the adolescent, including surgical and nonsurgical, gynecologic versus other pathology including the psychosomatic, and the role of the mind in control of somatic pain in the adolescent. Adding to this complexity is the standard adolescent sense of invulnerability; a knowledge of adolescent development remains essential to the delivery of appropriate gynecologic care for this age group. Education and communication with both the adolescent and her family requires sensitivity, especially in cultures where adolescent sexuality is taboo or discouraged. This chapter will discuss the developmental stages of adolescence and how that impacts care of the patient with chronic pelvic pain at the varying ages, the issue of confidentiality when obtaining a sexual history on the adolescent, and etiologies of chronic pelvic pain specific to the adolescent, including gynecologic and nongynecologic causes. Diagnostic and treatment considerations for chronic pelvic pain in the adolescent will also be addressed.


Known complications of prone positioning for spinal surgery include visual impairment, blindness, meralgia paresthetica, and elevated intra-abdominal pressure1-3. There are a plethora of positioning frames and tables available for spinal surgery. Much of the focus in positioning the patient is to leave the abdomen hanging freely in order to reduce intra-abdominal pressure. Elevated abdominal pressures have been shown to lead to elevated inferior vena cava pressure, which results in increased blood loss during surgery4,5. In this report, we discuss a patient who had temporary compression of the superior vena cava caused by prone positioning on the patient chest pad of the Jackson spinal table during surgery. The patient and her family were informed that data concerning the case would be submitted for publication, and they consented.

A sixteen-year-old postmenarchal female had a 45° left lumbar curve and a 45° right thoracic curve that, despite bracing when the patient was younger, had continued to progress and were no longer balanced. The trunk had shifted to the left and the patient's head was no longer centered over the pelvis (Fig. 1-A). She was experiencing increasing lumbar back pain and reported having difficulties with balance. After discussion of the risks and benefits of operative compared with nonoperative treatment for idiopathic scoliosis, the patient and her family selected operative intervention.

Fig. 1-A Preoperative posteroanterior radiograph. Fig. 1-B One-year postoperative posteroanterior radiograph.

In the operating room, general endotracheal anesthesia was induced. Intraoperative monitoring of somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP) and motor evoked potentials commenced immediately after induction. Anesthesia was maintained with propofol and remifentanil intravenous infusions and low-dose sevoflurane (0.2 MAC [minimum alveolar concentration]). The maintenance anesthetic was adjusted and maintained at a constant rate prior to the onset of the critical surgical period. Invasive arterial pressure monitoring …


This work was conducted to evaluate the effect of dilute sodium hydroxide (NaOH) on barley straw at boiling temperature and fractionation of its biomass components into lignin, hemicellulose, and reducing sugars. To this end, various concentrations of NaOH (0.5% to 2%) were applied for pretreatment of barley straw at 105 degrees C for 10 min. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy studies revealed that 2% NaOHpretreated barley straw exposed cellulose fibers on which surface granules were abolished due to comprehensive removal of lignin and hemicellulose. The X-ray diffractometer (XRD) result showed that the crystalline index was increased with increased concentration of NaOH and found a maximum 71.5% for 2% NaOH-pretreated sample. The maximum removal of lignin and hemicellulose was 84.8% and 79.5% from 2% NaOH-pretreated liquor, respectively. Reducing sugar yield was 86.5% from 2% NaOH-pretreated sample using an enzyme dose containing 20 FPU of cellulase, 40 IU of beta-glucosidase, and 4 FXU of xylanase/g substrate. The results of this study suggest that it is possible to produce the bioethanol precursor from barley straw using 2% NaOH at boiling temperature.


Recently, most of semiconductor companies are developing high density packages using lead free solder and low-k layer. The melting temperature of lead free solder is higher than the eutectic solder. Therefore, the reflow profile for lead free solder is higher approximately 30 degrees C than the conventional profile. When a high temperature profile is used, the organic substrate is expanded and the package stress becomes higher. Furthermore, bump cracking by the package stress is concerned, because lead free solder is very fragile. In addition, it is easy to destroy the low-k layer by the package stress such as the package's warpage. Thus the stress control is necessary for the assembly process of high density packages using lead free solder and low-k layer. It is effective to use no-flow underfill (NUF) with local reflow process using a flip chip bonder (FCB). This process can realize an assembly with lower stress compared with capillary flow underfill (CUF) reflow process, because the organic substrate should not be exposed to a high temperature and is controlled not to expand much. NUF characteristics for local reflow process are investigated. At first, NUF curability and the influence of flux-ability for the solder connection were evaluated using NUF which was based on the epoxy resin and different kinds of hardeners. It was confirmed that solder connection was affected by NUF curability and the flux-ability were influenced by the hardener type. Then filler loading level was optimized to reinforce the solder joint. We improved the mismatch between IC chip and substrate in the C.T.E (coefficient of thermal expansion). NUF of various filler contents were evaluated under reliability tests such as moisture reflow test, temperature cycle test, and high temperature/high humidity test. Finally the package stress with a low stress NUF was evaluated by shadow moire technique. As a result, it was confirmed that the package by local reflow process had a lower stress than the package by conventional process


Bryn Jones, Peter Scott, Brian Bolton and Alan Bramley discuss the results of their cross-sectoral study of manufacturing firms in the UK. They find that policy of treating graduate engineers as an elite human resource is mostly confined to consortia having international cooperative links and to companies with 'central interventionist' HRD policies. the high degree of decentralisation characteristic of UK-owned companies, however, combined with the disproportionate recruitment of non-engineer managers, restricted the career development of engineers. All four authors are from the University of Bath. Bryn Jones and Peter Scott are from the School of Social Sciences. Brian Bolton and Alan Bramley are from the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and the School of Mechanical Engineering.


The causative association between tobacco use and lung cancer is a well-established fact. However, lung cancer also occurs, at surprisingly high rates, in lifelong never smokers. In fact, lung cancer in never smokers is among the leading causes of cancer-related mortality. This CCR Focus summarizes recent data, identifies knowledge deficits, and suggests future research directions with regard to this critically important subset of lung cancer patients. (Clin Cancer Res 2009;15(18):5622–5)


Owing to intermittency of wind power and slow ramp rates of conventional generators (CGs), a considerable amount of wind energy cannot be effectively utilized during frequency control processes. This paper proposes a technique for power system planners and operators to select or commit power capacity and energy capacity of BESS for mitigating the effects of intermittent wind speeds on reliability and economics. A novel procedure is proposed to determine intermittent wind speeds based on the chaos theory and intermittency-related parameters. The frequency-related reliability and economic indices of a power system with battery energy storage system (BESS) are formulated based on frequency control processes. The effects of BESS on dynamic reliability and economics of a practical power system are investigated using the proposed techniques and models.


Constant amplitude fatigue crack growth (FCG) tests were performed on dissimilar metal welded plates of Type 316L Stainless Steel (SS) and IS 2062 Grade A Carbon steel (CS). The plates were welded by TIG welding using SS E309 as electrode. FCG tests were carried on the Side Edge Notch Tension (SENT) specimens of 5 mm thickness, with crack initiator (notch) at base metal region (BM), weld metal region (WM) and heat affected zones (HAZ). The tests were performed at a test frequency of 10 Hz and at load ratios (R) of 0.1 & 0.6. FCG rate was found to increase with stress ratio for weld metals and base metals, where as in case of HAZ, FCG rates were almost equal at high ΔK. FCG rate of HAZ of stainless steel was found to be lowest at low and high ΔK. At intermediate ΔK, WM showed the lowest FCG rate. CS showed higher crack growth rate at all ΔK. However, the scatter band of data was found to be narrow. Fracture toughness (Kc) was found to vary in different locations of weldments. Kc was found lowest for the weldment and highest for HAZ of stainless steel. A novel method of characterizing the FCG behavior using an Infrared thermography (IRT) camera was attempted. By monitoring the temperature rise at the fast moving crack tip region, the amount of plastic deformation was estimated. Keywords—Dissimilar metal weld, Fatigue Crack Growth,


: The objective of this study is to examine the spillover effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic firms in Savannakhet province, Laos. The author uses the fixed effects model (FEM) and the random effect model (REM) with the help of Eviews software and Hausman test to analyze the spillover effects of FDI on domestic firms. in Savannakhet province in the period 2013-2018. Table I-O 2018 is used to structure the relationship between domestic firms and FDI enterprises through the horizontal and vertical spillover effect of FDI on domestic firms. With the data set of sectors from 2013 to 2018, the author estimated the impact of FDI on production and business activities of FDI enterprises. The result of this study is that there is empirical evidence of the effect of the spillover effect of FDI on domestic firms in Savannakhet province.


Gamification has demonstrated significant potential for the support of innovation processes and change initiatives in organizations. There are numerous examples of its application to employee idea crowdsourcing and internal platforms for innovation management in for-profit enterprises and government organizations, where it has fostered increased participation and engagement. A detailed overview of RE-PROVO—a game prototype designed to assist government practitioners in analyzing functional requirements during legacy IT system replacement projects—is an example of how gamification can further promote innovation by being applied to key business processes and practices. The evaluation of the prototype highlights the need for greater operational embeddedness of gamification and the added value of stakeholder participation in gamification design.


Abstract Candidate tungsten armor materials in a magnetic confinement fusion device must be able to withstand thermal variation that leads to internal stresses caused by the impinging heat load. In addition, the thermomechanical properties of these materials are degraded by irradiation-induced defect accumulation. Fission reactor–based irradiation data are used to predict the fusion neutron damage and property change. This study examines the motivation and design of a custom-designed three-point bend test for neutron-irradiated disk specimens that are 3 mm in diameter to be able to define the flexural strength of advanced tungsten materials, alloys, and composites—and to the extent that embrittlement occurs after neutron irradiation. The theory provided shows a calculation for the flexural deflection and shear deflection due to the small-geometry constraints. A finite element deformation analysis is performed to evaluate the mechanical stress field of disk bend specimens. The stress values above 80% of the maximum stress are concentrated in 2.4 mm of the 3.0-mm length of the centerline across the tungsten disk diameter. A bend test fixture has been designed and fabricated to enable testing of these specimens with precisely engineered tolerance and minimal machine compliance. This fixture will be able to be placed inside a universal testing frame at elevated temperatures for the mechanical property evaluation of future neutron-irradiated disk specimens.


Despite the rapid progress in personalized cancer therapy (PCT) for breast cancer, no previous studies have used genomic predictors to choose among multiple chemotherapy regimens. It is unclear that given the current regimens how much PCT can improve the response rate for patients who will receive chemotherapy. In this study, we reanalyzed data from published studies of 1111 breast cancer patients who were treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapies. Those patients were divided into three regimen groups: an anthracycline alone, anthracycline plus paclitaxel, and anthracycline plus docetaxel. We developed a new strategy called PRES (Personalized REgimen Selection) to reassign the optimal regimen to each of the patients. First, a variable selection scheme was developed to identify significant genetic predictors for chemotherapy response. The selected genetic variables were then combined with clinical variables to build random forest models to predict the response of a patient to each regimen using pCR (pathological complete response) as the measure of response. The models were used to assign an optimal regimen to each patient to maximize the chance of pCR. We found that the expected rate of pCR was improved from 21.2% to 39.6% (95% CI: 34.6% - 43.0%). We also found that 31.1% of the patients may have been overtreated and 8.2% patients undertreated. A validation study on 21 cell lines showed that our prediction agrees with their paclitaxel-sensitivity profiles. We performed additional analysis on the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data and found that 18 of the 19 genes identified are significantly differentially expressed between normal and tumor tissues, and 2 of them, TAF6L and METRN (meteorin), are associated with overall survival. In conclusion, PRES could substantially increase response rates for breast cancer patients who will receive one of the widely-accepted chemotherapy regimens at present. Citation Format: Jinfeng Zhang, Kaixian Yu, Qingxiang Amy Sang, Winston Tan, Mayassa B. Dargham, Jun S. Liu, Ty Lively, Cedric Sheffield. Personalized chemotherapy regimen selection for breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2034.


The healing of femoral fractures in an experimental rat pseudoarthrosis model was followed by studying the expression of cartilage specific genes coding for type II and X collagens and aggrecan, soft tissue and bone specific type I collagen, and decorin. Severe impairment of healing was observed with cartilage gene expression continuing until the seventh week and then declining rapidly. The abnormal healing pattern results in an inactive scar-like callus after the ninth week of healing even though house-keeping (e.g., GAPDH) genes are continuously expressed in the tissue. These results could be explained on the basis of continuous chondrogenic stimulus extending much beyond the normal range. If union is not achieved because of mechanical instability, signal of endochondral ossification persists until it becomes exhausted and callus at the fracture gap becomes an inactive fibrous scar. The disturbed matrix gene expression was confirmed by histology.


Integrated applications based on Earth-observation, telecommunication and navigation capabilities, both from Space and from terrestrial and in-door assets, will call for smaller satellite systems providing higher revisit times. This trend will only materialize in case instrument and satellite platform technology can keep up. Amongst others, micro-thrusters and miniaturized star-trackers and sun-sensors are enabling technologies with respect to the necessary satellite platform technologies. Nano- and microphotonic devices could potentially revolutionize space instrumentation once the challenge of coupling light into wave-guides on chips has been met and overcome. Copyright ©2010 by the International Astronautical Federation. All rights reserved.


The inhibitory effects in vitro of the three plant juice extracts- garlic (Allium sativum), onion (Allium cepa) and lemon, taken singlyi E. coli, Kleibsella spp and Proteus spp; & three gram-positive; S. aureus, B. cereus and Micrococcus spp) and four fungi (A. niger, A. terreus, A.japinicus and P. expansum) in which bacteria were found to be more susceptible to the plants juice extract than the fungi. The plants juice extracts showed the higher inhibitory effects against the gram positive bacteria than the gram-negative. Fungi are strongly inhibited by the garlic juice then the lemon juice and almost all fungi could not be inhibited be onion. In comparision to reference antibiotic (Choloroamphenicol) and antifungal agent (Ketacanazole), garlic and lemon showed effective inhibition against the bacteria and fungi respectively.


We discuss results on global definability in basic modal logic, and contrast our model-theoretic results and proof techniques with known results about local definability.


A highly reliable SiO2 deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD) as a gate dielectric interface layer with high-k/metal gate (HKMG) in high voltage I/O field effect transistor (FETs) for advanced technologies has been demonstrated. Improved process control, better gate oxide conformality, superior dielectric reliability (over CVD SiO2), and equivalent uniformity and reliability compared to thermal oxide proves its usefulness for FinFET/ETSOI I/O devices. In addition, use of ALD SiO2 with novel interface layer results in reduced interfacial regrowth on SiGe channel, which when coupled with post deposition nitridation and annealing optimization for optimal performance, is an attractive oxide optimization option for alternate channel architectures.


Forage plant breeding has been largely based on phenotypic selection following sexual recombination of natural genetic variation found between and within ecotypes. Advances in plant genetic manipulation over the last 15 years have provided convincing evidence that these powerful technologies can complement and enhance plant breeding programs. Significant progress in the establishment of the methodologies required for the molecular breeding of forage plants has been made. Examples of current products and approaches for the application of these methodologies to forage grass and legume improvement are outlined. Large-scale genomic analysis of many organisms is under way with human, arabidopsis and rice genome sequences almost completed. Forage plant breeding is just now entering the genome era. The plethora of new technologies and tools now available for high-throughput gene discovery and genome-wide gene expression analysis have opened up opportunities for innovative applications in the identification, functional characterisation and use of genes of value in forage production systems and beyond. Examples of these opportunities, such as 'molecular phenotyping', 'symbio-genomics' and 'xeno-genomics' are introduced.


In an article ("Great age suggested for South African hominids," News of the Week, 25 April, p. [562][1]) published in conjunction with our announcement of new absolute dates and early hominid specimens from Sterkfontein ("Lower Pliocene hominid remains from Sterkfontein," T. C. Partridge et al. , Research Article, 25 April, p. [607][2]), Ann Gibbons writes, "co-author Clarke says that Little Foot does not resemble A. anamensis in crucial aspects. And he says that the new Jacovec fossils, which [co-author] Granger dated to 4 million years ago, may represent two types of australopithecines—suggesting a diversity of 4-million-year-old hominids."

These statements by Gibbons are incorrect. Clarke told Gibbons that it was not possible at this stage to compare the australopithecines at Jacovec Cavern with Australopithecus anamensis because the most diagnostic part of A. anamensis , the mandible, was not represented in the Jacovec fossil sample. Furthermore, the Little Foot skeleton, including the mandible, is still embedded in breccia and thus cannot yet be compared directly to A. anamensis or any other Australopithecus species.

In the text of our paper, we observed that there are two forms of femur represented in the Member 4 breccia of Sterkfontein and that one of these, the long-necked form, is present in Jacovec. We state, "This suggests that two different forms of Australopithecus might be represented by the Sterkfontein femurs." We did not say, and do not even consider, that two forms are currently represented in the Jacovec sample.

We take this opportunity to correct other misconceptions about the dating. The stratigraphy at Sterkfontein is not particularly complex and is well documented in numerous surface and underground exposures, as well as by five stratigraphic boreholes [see ( 2 , 5 ) in our Research Article]. The validity of our results is, however, constrained by local relationships and not by overall stratigraphy. The hominid-bearing deposits that we dated were the first to accumulate after the cave opened to the surface via two vertical shafts. The sampling sites are in deep chambers whose dolomite roofs remain intact and exceed 20 m in thickness. These deposits overlie a basal sequence (Member 1) made up of roof-collapse blocks and insoluble components of the dolomite bedrock (mainly manganese and iron oxides) that accumulated as a fine residue during phreatic solution (i.e., below the water table); no extracavernous elements have been found within Member 1. Careful examination of the surface of the Sterkfontein hill, which consists largely of outcropping dolomite bedrock, as well as the shaft conduits themselves, has failed to reveal any infill deposits that could have contaminated soil entering the cave from the hill slopes outside. The shafts themselves are dolomite-walled and vertical and are not a source of quartz particles. It must also be pointed out that contamination from infills at depths shallower than 20 m would result in a reduction in apparent age, as such deposits would, regardless of their true age, have accumulated recent 26Al and 10Be.

The sequence within the Silberberg Grotto that contains the skeleton is well layered and includes four thick and laterally persistent layers of hard calcite flowstone that occur within a vertical interval of 3 m; after each of the intervening soil layers fell from above, it was sealed off by the next flowstone, precluding vertical mixing. The skeleton is sandwiched between the second and third flowstones, both of which were intact when our excavations began.

# Response {#article-title-2}

The article should have said that there were two types of australopithecines at Sterkfontein rather than in the Jacovec caverns, and I regret the error.

On the question of hominid diversity in Africa, I asked co-author Ron Clarke if the skeleton called Little Foot (Stw 573) was a member of Australopithecus anamensis , which lived in East Africa at the same time, and he replied in a telephone interview: "No, we cannot say it is like anamensis ." He added that he did not have the "right parts" to settle the taxonomic question, but then continued, "This was another indication that there were many species of australopithecines ranging all over Africa, just as there were multiple species of Miocene apes. There were multiple species of ape-men."

I gave all the authors an opportunity to check facts in the final draft of the article. Granger made minor corrections on the dating, Partridge did not respond to e-mail or a telephone message for 4 days, which was after deadline, and Clarke was unavailable.

 [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.300.5619.562
 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1081651


In this contribution, the variational problem for the Kirchhoff plate based on the modified strain gradient theory (MSGT) is derived, and the Euler-Lagrange equations governing the equation of motion are obtained. The Galerkin-type weak form, upon which the finite element method is constructed, is derived from the variational problem. The shape functions which satisfy the governing homogeneous partial differential equation are derived as extensions of Adini-Clough-Melosh (ACM) and Bogner-Fox-Schmit (BFS) plate element formulations by introducing additional curvature degrees of freedom (DOF) on each node. Based on the proposed set of shape functions, 20-, 24-, 28- and 32- DOF modified strain gradient theory-based higher-order Kirchhoff microplate element are proposed. The performance of the elements are demonstrated in terms of various tests and representative boundary value problems. Length scale parameters for gold are also proposed based on experiments reported in literature.


The Reynolds number, which describes the relative importance of viscous and inertial contributions is commonly used to analyze forces on fish and other aquatic animals. However, this number is based on steady, time-independent conditions, while all swimming motions have a periodic component. Here we apply periodic flow conditions to define a new non-dimensional group, which we name the "Periodic Swimming Number, P", which rectifies this lacuna. This new non-dimensional number embodies the periodic motion and eliminates the arbitrariness of choosing a length scale in the Reynolds number for Body –Caudal-Fin (BCF) swimming. We show that the new number has the advantage of compressing known data on fish swimming to two orders of magnitude, vs. over six required when using the existing Reynolds number and can point to a new comparison of swimming effectiveness for swimming modes.


Within interorganizational cooperative innovation of construction supply chain system, the achievement of project value-adding could be reflected by several factors, such as project-based organizational effect level, and the relationship between project cooperative innovation objectives. In this paper, based on the assumption of equal cooperation between project-based organizations, we selected the knowledge cooperation between the owner and contractor in construction supply chain system as research object. From the perspective of maximizing project value-adding and the relationship of effort cost between knowledge input and innovation stage in consideration, we established the knowledge collaborative incentive model for interorganizational cooperative innovation of construction supply chain system and proposed the first-order and second-order approaches. Then we conducted the digital simulation and example analysis, its results showed that if the owner has the capability to achieve project value-adding in knowledge cooperation, he would adopt a part commissioned way. Otherwise, a fully commissioned way would be better.


In fruit crop production, rainfall, water stress, temperature, and wind are key variables for success, and the present changes in rainfall patterns could affect the flowering and yield of the rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum L). Other fruit species like macopa (Syzygium samarangense), siniguelas (Spondias purpurea), and native santol or cotton fruit (Sandoricum koetjape) remain productive despite extreme climatic changes. This study assessed the influence of rainfall on rambutan yield and evaluated and selected tree genotypes of known drought-tolerant fruit species. Rambutan yield in a selected farm in Calauan, Laguna, Philippines, dropped remarkably from 152.2 kg/tree in 2008 to 8.6 kg/tree in 2009. This reduction could be attributed to the high rainfall in April 2009 at 334.4 mm, and possibly other environmental factors like temperature, relative humidity, solar radiation, and strong wind. Furthermore, wet months in 2009 also inhibited the flowering of rambutan. However, a low yield obtained in 2010 at 45.5 kg/tree could be partly attributed to the very low rainfall in May 2010 at only 9.1 mm. On the other hand, in relation to changing climate, selection of tree genotypes for use as varieties in known drought- and flood-tolerant fruit species based on important fruit qualities like sweetness, juiciness, and high edible portion was done. Among 103 macopa genotypes, Mc-13, 43, and 91 were selected and the best (i.e. , Mc-13) had sweet (7.15 °Brix) and crispy fruits weighing 49.44 g, creamy white (RHCC 155 A), and had high edible portion (EP, 93.22%). Among 114 siniguelas genotypes, Sg-41, 42 and 105 were selected and the best selection (i.e., Sg-41), had sweet (12.50 °Brix) and juicy fruit weighing 20.42 g, ruby red (RHCC 59 A), and had high EP (83.27%). Among 101 native santol genotypes, Sn-47, 59, and 74 were selected and the best selection (i.e. , Sn-59) had relatively sweet (5.56 °Brix) and juicy fruits weighing 51.96 g, maize yellow (RHCC 21 B), and had high EP (82.20%). These selections are recommended for planting in marginal and drought-prone areas for climate change adaptation. In addition, they can fare better in flooded areas in the face of climate change since they are very hardy, and have woody and strong roots that can resist strong wind and increasing amount of rainfall brought about by climate change. Keywords: Climate change, rainfall, macopa, native santol, rambutan, siniguelas


This study aimed to determine the relationship between health literacy and ecological footprint which is an indicator of sustainability and environmental impact and to examine the factors that may affect them. It was found that 20.3% of individuals have inadequate, 43.7% problematic, 26.1% sufficient and 10.0% excellent health literacy levels. There were differences in age, education level and BMI classification according to Ecological Footprint Awareness Scale score quartiles and health literacy levels (p < 0.05). It was determined that age and Turkey Health Literacy Scale score had effect on ecological footprint awareness. Individuals with a high level of health literacy have a high awareness of their ecological footprint. The increase in people's health literacy levels and ecological footprint awareness with age can be interpreted as the increase in people's education and knowledge levels and their awareness levels against the protection of nature and the environment.


Simple Summary This retrospective multicenter study examines the influence of hepatic and extrahepatic metastases on the response of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) in patients with metastatic uveal melanoma. A better response to dual ICB was observed in the presence of extrahepatic metastases in two recently published phase II trials. Therefore, we investigated two cohorts with and without extrahepatic metastasis and have assembled a population of 178 patients treated with ICB. The survival of this large cohort of patients with advanced UM was more favorable than that reported in previous benchmark studies. Patients with both hepatic and extrahepatic metastasis showed more favorable survival and higher response to dual ICB than those with hepatic metastasis only. Abstract Background: Since there is no standardized and effective treatment for advanced uveal melanoma (UM), the prognosis is dismal once metastases develop. Due to the availability of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) in the real-world setting, the prognosis of metastatic UM has improved. However, it is unclear how the presence of hepatic and extrahepatic metastasis impacts the response and survival after ICB. Methods: A total of 178 patients with metastatic UM treated with ICB were included in this analysis. Patients were recruited from German skin cancer centers and the German national skin cancer registry (ADOReg). To investigate the impact of hepatic metastasis, two cohorts were compared: patients with liver metastasis only (cohort A, n = 55) versus those with both liver and extra-hepatic metastasis (cohort B, n = 123). Data were analyzed in both cohorts for response to treatment, progression-free survival (PFS), and overall survival (OS). The survival and progression probabilities were calculated with the Kaplan–Meier method. Log-rank tests, χ2 tests, and t-tests were performed to detect significant differences between both cohorts. Results: The median OS of the overall population was 16 months (95% CI 13.4–23.7) and the median PFS, 2.8 months (95% CI 2.5–3.0). The median OS was longer in cohort B than in cohort A (18.2 vs. 6.1 months; p = 0.071). The best objective response rate to dual ICB was 13.8% and to anti-PD-1 monotherapy 8.9% in the entire population. Patients with liver metastases only had a lower response to dual ICB, yet without significance (cohort A 8.7% vs. cohort B 16.7%; p = 0.45). Adverse events (AE) occurred in 41.6%. Severe AE were observed in 26.3% and evenly distributed between both cohorts. Conclusion: The survival of this large cohort of patients with advanced UM was more favorable than reported in previous benchmark studies. Patients with both hepatic and extrahepatic metastasis showed more favorable survival and higher response to dual ICB than those with hepatic metastasis only.


The genetic analysis of the variants of human immunodeficiency virus of type 1 (HIV-1), circulating among drug addicts in Moscow and Moscow Province, has been carried out. The serological analysis of 122 blood specimens taken from HIV-infected drug addicts, residing in Moscow and 22 settlements of the Moscow region, has shown that in this region HIV-1 variant of subtype A spreads among drug addicts. These data have been confirmed by the results of the analysis of 44 specimens, made with the use of the method of the heteroduplex mobility assay for gene env. As revealed in this study, HIV-1 variants spreading at present among drug addicts in Moscow and the Moscow region are genetically related to viruses of subtype A, detected earlier in this group of risk in other regions of Russia, the Ukraine, Belarus and other countries of Eastern Europe.


The development objective of the Road Corridor Transport Sector Project of Mauritania is to improve, on the one hand, living conditions of the inhabitants of the area, and secondly to ensure: (i) the development and exploitation of economic potentials through access to areas of production; and (ii) the harmonious development of the territory by opening up areas of the boundaries. There are no large-scale, significant, and/or irreversible impacts associated with this road widening and rehabilitation project. However, there are adverse issues such as: 1) health problems (HIV/AIDS contamination risks), air dust pollution; 2) sewage issues that may worsen locally owing to waste production generated by the construction operation; 3) waste production generated by the construction operation may pollute surface and underground water, which would have negative impacts on population and on fauna; 4) appearance of sand on the road and in its surroundings owing to wind erosion created both by nature and by human activities; 5) temporary noise caused by civil works, which may have a negative impact on local fauna, mainly birds; and 6) destruction of animal habitat. Resettlement issues are anticipated, even though the road investments will be made along well-established existing alignments. The main impact is the need to relocate informal traders who are currently encroaching on the right of way near Rosso, and there is enough space beyond the right of way to accommodate them. Land, mostly consisting of small fields, will have to be acquired by the Government, either on a permanent or on a temporary basis, and owners of these fields will therefore need to be resettled or compensated.


The genus Colonomyia Colless contains six species in the Australasian and Neotropical Regions. Several recognized synapomorphies leave no doubt that Colonomyia is a monophyletic group, with the Australasian species more closely related to one another than to the Neotropical species. On arguments derived from the wing venation, Colonomyia is hypothesized to be the sister-group of the genus Ohakunea Edwards, both together representing a lineage distinct from the family-level taxa currently recognized in the Sciaroidea. Colonomyia borea sp. n. from Costa Rica and C. rakelae sp. n. from Papua New Guinea are described. Recognition of these new species extends the distribution of the genus Colonomyia into the tropical zone and the northern hemisphere.


PRECIS:Women are often invisible when official religious peacebuilding efforts are effectuated. However, religious women, even though often not allowed into official religious peace initiatives, are still active peacebuilders. The religious peacebuilding efforts of men have been subject to academic discussions and theorization during past decades, while the peace work of religious women has frequently been empirically described but to a much lesser extent theorized. This essay seeks to contribute to theorizing the peace work of religious women to enable more conceptual discussions on how their contribution to peace can be understood. Drawing upon older and more recent empirical descriptions of religious peacebuilding efforts led by women, I suggest that we consider how religious norms, identities, and religious organization are utilized to strengthen and create social capital in these efforts. This is a valuable perspective when seeking to understand peacebuilding efforts by religious women.


AIM
To determine whether the telomerase activity is related to the Microsatellite instability (MSI) genetic pathway and whether it means a difference in the survival.

METHODS
The population consisted of 97 colorectal cancer patients. MSI determination was performed in accordance with the NCI criteria using PCR and Genescan. Telomerase activity was determined by the TRAP-assay, an ELISA procedure based on the amplification of telomeric repeat sequences.

RESULTS
6.2% showed high MSI (MSI-H), 10.3% showed low MSI (MSI-L) and 83.5% did not show this alteration (MSS). Positive telomerase activity was detected in 92.8% of the patients. 83.3% of MSI-H tumors showed positive telomerase against 93.8% of MSS tumors. In the overall survival analysis the absence of telomerase activity conferred a better prognosis.

CONCLUSION
Previous works have shown that tumors which develop via the MSI pathway present a better prognosis. No link between telomerase activity and MSI status is observed, although sample sizes are small. Patients with telomerase negative tumors had better overall survival than patients with telomerase positive tumors.


Two classes of glutamate receptors [metabotropic (group-II) and ionotropic (NMDA) subclasses] are characterized by the binding of α-(carboxycyclopropyl)glycine (CCG) isomers, (2S,3S,4S)-CCG (L-CCG-I) and (2S,3R,4S)-CCG (L-CCG-IV) which contain an embedded L-glutamate moiety in a partially restricted conformation [relative to the C(3)–C(4) bond]. The spatial orientation of the perceived functional groups have been elucidated by a conformational analysis in aqueous solution of L-CCG-I and L-CCG-IV using a combination of NMR experimental results, theoretical simulation of NMR spectra, mechanics and dynamics calculations. It was of interest to compare the charge distributions resulting from a number of quantum calculations on the cyclopropane ring. One important conclusion of the study is that the best theoretical model is the MD in solvent. This study shows clearly the preferred 't-A' and 'g+-B' conformations of the C(3) aminocarboxymethyl side chain for L-CCG-I and L-CCG-IV, respectively. Weak pH-dependent effects on the structure of the principal L-CCG-I and L-CCG-IV conformers have been established in aqueous solution. The conformations may be grouped by the two backbone torsion angles, χ1 [α-CO2––C(2)–C(3)–C(4)] and χ2 [+NC(2)–C(3)–C(4)–γ-CO2–] and by the two characteristic distances between the potentially active functional groups, α-N+–γ-CO2– (d1) and α-CO2––γ-CO2– (d2). The conformational preferences in solution of L-CCG-I and L-CCG-IV are discussed in the light of the physical features known for specific metabotropic (ACPD) and specific ionotropic (NMDA) agonists, respectively.


Dendrimers are a new class of synthetic polymers which have a tree or star shape like structure, with a central core, interior branches and terminal groups which embellish the surface. It can be synthesized by a repetitive step-growth polymerization process. They are highly branched and monodisperse macromolecules. The structure of dendrimers mainly affected to its physical and chemical properties; so, it is widely used in biomedical, pharmaceuticals and industrial applications. In Drug delivery system, dendrimer plays major roles in ophthalmic, topical, transdermal, targeted drug delivery since last decade. Recent progress has been made in the application of biocompatible dendrimers to cancer and AIDS treatment, including their use as delivery systems for potent anticancer drugs such as cisplatin and doxorubicin, as well as agents for both boron neutrons capture therapy and photodynamic therapy. It is alsoinhibiting the entry of HIV and herpes simplex virus (HSV). This review articles giveswhole idea about various dendrimers, its type and its properties. Also it considers brief idea about various dendrimers used in various areas of research, treatment and diagnosis.


The impact assessment phase of a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) is essentially a multiple- attribute decision-making (MADM) problem. Alternative product systems are evaluated based on a number of environmental performance criteria . The competing systems are then ranked based on some aggregate merit index and, ultimately, the preferred alternative is selected. One particular aggregation algorithm is compromise programming, which generates a performance index based on mathematical distance From a specified ideal solution. A modified variant of compromise programming is proposed. This involves modifying the standard algorithm to allow far uncertain input data represented in possibilistic or fuzzy form. Since the resulting aggregated performance indices are also possibilistic, comparison of the alternatives is performed based on a simple fuzzy ranking rule. A numerical example is provided to demonstrate the use of the algorithm; the ranking results are compared with those generated using crisp and fuzzy versions of the PROMETHEE outranking method.


Today, it is discussed that the use of literary texts in foreign language classroom as a course material isn't obligatory; but necessary due to the close relationship between language and literature. Although literary texts are accepted as authentic documents and do not have any purpose for language teaching, they are indispensable sources to be used for development of basic language skills. Here the purpose is not just to contribute to teaching basic language skills, but also to contribute to teaching the culture of foreign language and to provide different perspectives to students while teaching. It is also thanks to linguistic and grammatical structures of literary texts that they can be used as an effective course material to teach the grammar of target language in the foreign language classroom. This study is a theoretical knowledge based on a research and it analyzes the use of literary text to teach grammar in foreign language classroom. The study consists of four parts: in the introduction part, it is discussed briefly the foreign language teaching, the place of grammar in foreign language teaching and the use of literary texts in grammar teaching. The second part discusses that it is necessary to use literary texts in foreign language teaching. In the third part, benefits that can be provided to grammar teaching with the use of literary texts are discussed. Finally, in the conclusion part, the points to take into account while using literary texts in foreign language classrooms are discussed and the suggestions are put forward.


This study was aimed to assess the frequency of thyroid hormone imbalance risk factors. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using the convenience sampling technique, from July-2018 to September-2018 in different cities of Punjab, Pakistan. A total of 150 patients, having thyroid hormone imbalance with or without any comorbidity were included and the subjects having normal thyroid levels were excluded. Thyroid hormone imbalance was more frequent in females having 40-60 years of age. Gender was significantly associated with 'pregnancy or delivery in last six months' (p=0.029) and iodine deficiency (p=0.036). Marital status was significantly associated with 'symptoms observed' (p=0.009), 'radioactive iodine exposure' (p=0.001), 'autoimmune disease' (p=0.050), 'smoking' (p=0.014) and 'stress' (p=0.040). Family income was significantly associated with 'family history of disease' (p=0.039) and 'iodine deficiency' (p=0.049). Residential area was significantly associated with 'autoimmune disease' (p=0.050), 'smoking' (p=0.036) and 'stress' (p=0.029). Use of iodized salt and stress were prevalent risk factors and disease was common among females, especially age group 40-60 years.


The ability of load monitoring instrumentation to predict the onset of peak power demands, based on the acquired voltage and current measurements, is essential to most load management strategies. This paper describes an innovative load forecasting scheme employing the genetic algorithm (GA) embedded neural network. The new load forecasting technique is compared with the conventional artificial neural network approaches, which sometime suffer from the local minima optimization problem. Employing genetic algorithms on the design and training of artificial neural networks (ANNs) allows parameters to be easily optimized. Furthermore, the artificial neural network requires a heavy trial-and-error design and training procedure which impairs the performances of the resulting load forecasting schemes. Using the genetic algorithm approach to construct the ANN results in significantly reduced trial-and-error effort in the training phase and produces a load forecasting scheme which is more efficient, adaptive, and optimized than that provided by traditional artificial neural network based approaches. The proposed genetic algorithm embedded artificial forecasting scheme has been tested with data obtained from a sample study performed on the Taiwan power system and the experimental evaluations have demonstrated adaptability and effectiveness of the proposed load forecasting scheme.


Today, video-game-playing has become one of the most popular entertainment among children and one of the hottest topics among parents. As the devices are more private and the screens are smaller, many parents find that it is more and more complicated to monitor children's gaming activities. In China, many parents have concerns about video games, especially the possible negative effects on children's study.Then, do Chinese parents' in the Netherlands share the same concerns? What are their attitude towards children's playing of video games as compared to local Dutch parents?
Through semi-structured interviews, this research explores parents' personal thoughts, awareness and method of parenting regarding to children's gaming activities. 9 Dutch Chinese parents and 3 local Dutch parents were interviewed. The result shows that in general Chinese parents living in the Netherlands have a more negative attitude towards video games than Dutch parents do, though most of them also admit that video games may have positive effects. The effects of video games on study and eye sight are two mostly frequently mentioned reasons when they explain their attitude. As for the strategies and style of parenting, most Chinese parents think they are more restrictive and stricter than Dutch parents, but more lenient than traditional Chinese parents, which could be the result of a combination of Chinese and Dutch culture. It is also interesting to see that Chinese parents with Dutch partners looks more relaxed than those who have Chinese partners. In comparison with Dutch parents, Chinese parents' awareness of PEGI rating system is lower. Since China has not introduced any rating system for television, film and video games, it is not natural for Chinese parents to be aware of PEGI and to use it.
It can be seen that parents of girls are slightly more protective than parents of boys, although the differences are not very significant. The level of integration, children's age, type of games and device have more significant association with parents' attitude.


Abstract Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection has become devastating in last a few years. Nearly 7400 new infection cases are coming every day. Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), which involves combination of at least three antiretroviral (ARV) drugs, has been used to extend the life span of the HIV-infected patients. HAART has played an important role to reduce mortality rate in the developed countries but in the developing countries condition is still worst with millions of people being infected by this disease. For the improvement of the situation, nanotechnology-based drug system has been explored for the HIV therapeutics. Nanosystems used for HIV therapeutics offer some unique advantage like enhancement of bioavailability, water solubility, stability, and targeting ability of ARV drugs. Main nanotechnology-based systems explored for HIV therapeutics are liposomes, nanoparticles, niosomes, polymeric micelles, and dendrimers. Present manuscript reviews conventional method of HIV therapeutics and recent advances in the eld of nanotechnology-based systems for treatment of HIV-AIDS.


The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Rowan University, led by staff and faculty who teach classes in transportation engineering, modified and refined the current civil engineering curricula by incorporating several (i.e., 17) Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP 2) solutions and products. The basic philosophy of the authors was to incorporate the SHRP 2 products as next generation tools to address existing and future transportation issues in addition to teaching the fundamentals of relevant subject matter, which is in line with the department's mission to prepare the next generation of civil engineering professionals. Each selected SHRP 2 product has become an inherent part of the course module. These were taught immediately after the relevant theoretical content was presented in the course. Furthermore, the authors re-emphasized these concepts using SHRP 2 as a tool for a seamless transition from theory to practice. A pre-survey and post-survey were conducted to determine the impact of introducing SHRP 2 modules within the courses. The results of the pre-and postsurvey are presented. A detailed framework on how to seamlessly integrate SHRP 2 products through the entire civil engineering curriculum in other institutions is also presented.


In this paper, a novel method to do feature selection to detect botnets at their phase of Command and Control (C&C) is presented. A major problem is that researchers have proposed features based on their expertise, but there is no a method to evaluate these features since some of these features could get a lower detection rate than other. To this aim, we find the feature set based on connections of botnets at their phase of C&C, that maximizes the detection rate of these botnets. A Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used to select the set of features that gives the highest detection rate. We used the machine learning algorithm C4.5, this algorithm did the classification between connections belonging or not to a botnet. The datasets used in this paper were extracted from the repositories ISOT and ISCX. Some tests were done to get the best parameters in a GA and the algorithm C4.5. We also performed experiments in order to obtain the best set of features for each botnet analyzed (specific), and for each type of botnet (general) too. The results are shown at the end of the paper, in which a considerable reduction of features and a higher detection rate than the related work presented were obtained.


bundles undergo deformations highly similar to a twisted rod under compression. Our data suggests that tau-like proteins minimize microtubule lattice interactions and the prevent torque generation that leads to extreme neuron deformations. These experimental results, together with mechanical modeling of the neuron, suggest that spectrin tension and microtubule bundle mechanics are crucial for stabilizing chiral cytoskeletal networks and produce a specialized cell shape that we propose is critical for neuronal function.


Debate continues over the ideal amount of pleural fluid needed to maximize the malignant diagnostic yield. Conventional teaching emphasizes that more is better; therefore, usually the entire volume is submitted for cytologic evaluation. We conducted a literature review to evaluate the myth that analyzing the entire pleural fluid removed during thoracentesis for suspected malignancy increases the yield.Myth: Analyzing the entire volume of pleural fluid removed during thoracentesis increases malignant diagnostic yield.


This paper presents a new framework, " text as scene " , which lays the foundations for the annotation of two coreferential links: discourse deixis and bridging relations. The incorporation of what we call textual and contextual scenes provides more flexible annotation guidelines, broad type categories being clearly differentiated. Such a framework that is capable of dealing with discourse deixis and bridging relations from a common perspective aims at improving the poor reliability scores obtained by previous annotation schemes, which fail to capture the vague references inherent in both these links. The guidelines presented here complete the annotation scheme designed to enrich the Spanish CESS-ECE corpus with coreference information, thus building the CESS-Ancora corpus.


We present a general simulation framework designed to model the Polish regional emergency hospital services system. Based partly on the last year's demand and structure, the National Health Fund grants contracts for admission units and emergency wards (AU/EW) to cover the next year's costs of treatment of acute patients. The hybrid simulation model examines the impact of forecasted regional demographic fluctuations on the expected type, volume, and cost of medical procedures for patients in emergency departments. Two simulation models are developed. A Monte Carlo model examines the influence of the observed demographic trends on the volume of emergency demand directed toward AU/EW in the region. The discrete-event model simulates patients' pathways and received services. The model's output may help healthcare decision makers to estimate future needs for emergency hospital care that must be satisfied at the regional level.


The research in evacuation planning has been very much motivated due to the rapidly increased number of disasters world wide. It supports to remove the evacuees from dangerous areas to safe areas. Contraflow reconfiguration during evacuation make traffic smooth by reversing the required road directions from dangerous areas to safe areas that improve both flow and speed significantly. On lossy network, the generalized maximum dynamic contraflow and generalized earliest arrival contraflow problems have been solved efficiently with pseudo-polynomial time. This paper focuses in analytical solutions on generalized contraflow for evacuation planning problem. The problems are considered on two terminal lossy networks. We solve the generalized maximum static contraflow problem in pseudo-polynomial time and compute its approximation solution in polynomial time. Moreover, we present a fully polynomial time approximation scheme (FPTAS) to compute an approximate generalized maximum dynamic contraflow solution.