The self-starting performance of a figure-9 fiber laser is critically dependent on the phase shift difference between the counter-propagating beams. Herein, we propose an effective approach to dynamically control the phase shift difference in a figure-9 fiber laser by utilizing the thermal nonlinearity of graphene-decorated microfiber device. With the adjustment of the control laser power injected into the graphene-decorated microfiber, the self-starting mode-locked threshold of the figure-9 fiber laser can be attained in a flexible pump power range, i.e., from 300 mW to 390 mW. These findings demonstrated that the graphene-decorated microfiber could act as a dynamical control device of phase shift difference for improving the performance of figure-9 fiber lasers, and might also open up new possibilities for applications of microfiber photonic devices in the field of ultrafast optics.


Recently, the possibility of light generation and/or amplification in silicon, based on Raman emission, has achieved significant results. However, limitations inherent to the physics of silicon have been pointed out, too. In order to overcome these limitations, a possible option is to consider low dimensional silicon. In this paper, an approach based on Raman scattering in porous silicon is investigated. First, we point out two significant advantages with respect to silicon: the broadening of the spontaneous Raman emission and the tuning of the Stokes shift. Then, we discuss about the prospect of Raman amplifier in porous silicon. Finally the design of a Raman amplifier in porous silicon waveguide is proposed. (© 2009 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)


Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 (PRC2) is a multi-protein complex with important roles in development and cancer. Both hyper- and hypoactivity of PRC2 are associated with blood-related malignancies. Activating mutations of the PRC2 methyltransferase EZH2 have been found in human B-lineage lymphomas. Inactivating mutations of PRC2 components EZH2 , EED and SUZ12 have been described in early T-cell Precursor ALL (ETP-ALL) and inactivating PRC2-alterations are found in Myelodysplastic and Myeloproliferative Syndromes. The mechanisms underlying this paradox are incompletely understood. We here investigate the context dependent role of PRC2 in murine models. We initially studied PRC2 in normal hematopoiesis: Chip-seq analysis of the PRC2-mediated H3K27me3 chromatin mark demonstrates that many genes highly expressed in immature hematopoiesis gain H3K27me3 in the developmental transition from more immature Lin-Sca1+Kit+ (LSK) cells to lineage committed Granulocyte Macrophage Progenitors (GMPs). Transcription of these genes is enriched in EZH2 ko GMP compared to EZH2 ff GMP by Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). These data suggest that PRC2 is important for the silencing of immature gene expression programs in the developmental transition from LSK to GMP. We next analyzed the role of PRC2 in two murine models of acute leukemia: MLL-AF9 driven leukemia, and a model of early T-cell precursor T-ALL (ETP-ALL). In MLL-AF9 leukemia, we previously found that inactivation of Eed completely abrogate leukemogenesis in vitro and in vivo. We now report that genetic inactivation of the tumor suppressor Cdkn2a (a canonical PRC2 target) partially rescued MLL-AF9 mediated leukemia in vitro and in vivo. However, Cdkn2a ko EED ko MLL-AF9 leukemia remained compromised. In vitro growth was reduced to approximately 10% of Eed ff controls. While control MLL-AF9 leukemia developed in vivo in 100% of the recipients, Cdkn2a ko EED ko MLL-AF9 leukemia developed with significantly prolonged latency and incomplete penetrance (25%). RNAseq analysis revealed that high level expression of genes with established roles in MLL-AF9 leukemia such as HoxA9, Cdk6 and Jmjd1c unexpectedly depends on Eed. These data are in keeping with the absence of alterations in PRC2-components in human MLL-rearranged leukemia. In contrast, PRC2 core components ( EZH2/EED/SUZ12 ) are deleted or mutated in > 40% of ETP-ALL. ETP-ALL also often has direct or indirect activation of the RAS-pathway, and carries frequent deletions of the CDKN2A locus. To model the effects of EED and EZH2- inactivation in ETP-ALL, we established Cdkn2a ko Eed ff vs Cdkn2a ko Eed ko , and Cdkn2a ko Ezh2 ff vs Cdkn2a ko EZH2 ko leukemias by transduction with NRASQ61K followed by expansion on OP9DL1 stroma cells to activate T-lineage differentiation via Notch-signaling. Cdkn2a ko NRASQ61K leukemia showed an immunophenotype similar to human ETP-ALL (positive for c-Kit, CD5 and myeloid markers and mostly negative for CD4/8). Inactivation of Eed or Ezh2 in this model led to a shortening of latency (p=0.03 for Eed , p=0.0001 for Ezh2 ). RNAseq revealed enrichment of genes associated with murine DN1 thymocytes and with human ETP-ALL in Eed ko vs Eed ff Cdkn2a ko NRASQ61K leukemia. These genesets showed even more pronounced enrichment in Ezh2 ko compared to Ezh2 ff Cdkn2a ko NRASQ61K leukemia. Genes highly expressed in early hematopoiesis were enriched in Eed ko and Ezh2 ko cells in both, the MLL-AF9 and NRASQ61K leukemia models. However, there was an opposing effect on HoxA9 gene expression, with PRC2 inactivation leading to decreased HoxA9 expression in MLL-AF9 , and increased HoxA9 expression in Cdkn2a ko NRASQ61K leukemia. D ecreased HoxA9 has been shown to impair MLL-AF9 leukemia growth. To test the functional significance of elevated HoxA9 -levels in the Eed ko and EZH2 ko NRASQ61K leukemias, we co-expressed HoxA9 and NRASQ61K in the presence of intact Eed and Ezh2 loci. Preliminary data suggest that HoxA9 accelerates leukemia development in this setting. Alterations in chromatin modifiers, including PRC2, are frequent in leukemia and lymphoma. Our data demonstrate that manipulation of PRC2 can have opposite effects on leukemia phenotype and expression of key PRC2-repressed genes such as HoxA9 in the context of different tumors. We are currently characterizing the mechanisms leading to divergent outcomes of PRC2 manipulation in MLL-AF9 leukemia compared to NRASQ61K ETP-like leukemia. Disclosures Armstrong: Epizyme : Consultancy.


The human complement component C4A and C4B genes are located within the class III region of the MHC. The polymorphic C4 genes are highly complex including variations in class (isotype), size, and number of genes. The DNA sequence for a C4A gene has been determined, except for a large intron of 6 to 7 kb long. The C4A gene consists of 41 exons encoding a transcript for a precursor protein of 1744 amino acid residues. Several structural and functional aspects of C4 have been located to individual exons. The active site of the anaphylatoxin C4a matches to a splice junction. Some unique properties of C4, such as, the alpha-gamma-chain junction, the tyrosine sulfation sites, and the post-secretory metalloprotease cleavage site, are encoded by a single exon. Comparison of human C4 with published data for mouse C4, human C3 and rat alpha 2 macroglobulin genes revealed that these evolutionary-related genes share very similar exon-intron structures. Altogether 20 polymorphic sites in human C4 have been detected by various techniques. Presumably, these polymorphic residues account for the functional, structural, and serologic variations observed among the various allotypes. A PvuII restriction length polymorphism has been detected within the region of DNA coding for C4a. The intergenic region between C4 and the neighboring 21-hydroxylase gene, CYP21, is approximately 3028 bp in size.


There are two major discourses on cooperatives and cooperative organizations. One deals with cooperatives for product marketing, inputs, credit, housing, consumers and similar voluntary associations. The other focuses on collective action in the area of provision and management of natural resources, which is gaining in importance due to increasing resource degradation and scarcity. One of the main differences between these two types of cooperative is that the first uses resources artificially pooled by people, while the second uses pools of natural resources that pre-existed the cooperative, which are used by applying appropriate technologies and adding the necessary infrastructure. As the commons literature demonstrates, however, cooperative organization or natural resource management will only lead to successful and sustainable social construction for natural resources if a set of crucial conditions are fulfilled. After discussing two analytical frameworks, the paper presents four cases of institutional analysis of social-ecological systems. They show that actors' interdependence caused by the attributes of nature-related transactions plays a crucial role in institutional choice and the feasibility of collective action in natural resource management.


A new scheme to sample signals defined on the nodes of a graph is proposed. The underlying assumption is that such signals admit a sparse representation in a frequency domain related to the structure of the graph, which is captured by the so-called graph-shift operator. Instead of using the value of the signal observed at a subset of nodes to recover the signal in the entire graph, the sampling scheme proposed here uses as input observations taken at a single node. The observations correspond to sequential applications of the graph-shift operator, which are linear combinations of the information gathered by the neighbors of the node. When the graph corresponds to a directed cycle (which is the support of time-varying signals), our method is equivalent to the classical sampling in the time domain. When the graph is more general, we show that the Vandermonde structure of the sampling matrix, critical when sampling time-varying signals, is preserved. Sampling and interpolation are analyzed first in the absence of noise, and then noise is considered. We then study the recovery of the sampled signal when the specific set of frequencies that is active is not known. Moreover, we present a more general sampling scheme, under which, either our aggregation approach or the alternative approach of sampling a graph signal by observing the value of the signal at a subset of nodes can be both viewed as particular cases. Numerical experiments illustrating the results in both synthetic and real-world graphs close the paper.


To date, there are no international codes or standards that deal with estimation of fatigue in subsea wellhead systems. Nevertheless have preliminary analytical methods for wellhead fatigue estimation been established. These analytical methods involve the use of global dynamic response analyses. Such analyses are commonly carried out in nite element software where the drilling system is modelled as beam or bar elements. Several uncertainties exist in regards to the mathematical modelling and simulation in global response analyses of drilling systems. In this thesis the uncertainties that are related to the goodness of the representation of the blowout preventer stack (BOP stack), are addressed. An overview of previous and ongoing work on analytical estimation of wellhead fatigue is given. Relevant theory on the subject is presented and described. The theory comprises of fatigue on structures, loads on a drilling system and static and dynamic response analysis. The main features of the preliminary analytical methods for estimating wellhead fatigue are summarized. The BOP stack is commonly assumed to have innitely high stiness when performing a global response analysis of a drilling system. The main objective in the thesis is to investigate if this is a good assumption. The investigation start with local modelling of an elastic beam element model of a BOP stack. Further, this elastic beam model is calibrated to have the same stiness properties as a detailed 3D element model of the BOP stack. The calibrated elastic beam BOP stack model is implemented in a global model of a drilling system. Global response analyses are carried out for two global models. One with an innitely sti BOP stack model and one with the calibrated elastic BOP stack model. Fatigue damage estimates are calculated with basis in the results from the global response analyses. The eects of BOP stack modelling are evaluated with regards to estimated fatigue damage in the wellhead. In addition to this main study, parameter studies and a sensitivity study are carried out to evaluate uncertainties and assumptions within a realistic frame. The results from the wellhead fatigue assessments conclude that the elastic BOP stack model imposes greater estimated fatigue damage in the wellhead compared to the innitely sti BOP stack model. The dierence, in terms of estimated fatigue damage, imposed by the two BOP stack models is, at maximum, 0.51% for the main study. The largest dierence observed in the parameter studies is 1.34%. Hence, it is concluded that the eects of improved BOP stack modelling in a global response analysis, with respect to wellhead fatigue estimation, is not signicant. There are though some uncertainties connected to the bending stiness of the wellhead connector and the LMRP connector.


This paper is a review of the lightning protection of wind turbine blades in terms of on the layout and location of the down conductor system. Generally, the down conductors of a lightning protection system for wind turbine blades may be installed inside the blade or outside the blade. However, the internal down conductor approach has become a common practice for blade manufacturers. This is presumably due to the preference for the aerodynamic properties of the blades to be maintained. However, by having an internal down conductor, other problems occur (e.g. blade disintegration, burn due to the impact of lightning strikes). This paper discusses the possibility that an external down conductor might be more advantageous and concludes with some recommendations.


To achieve the reduction target of GHG emission from the building sector, the government introduced the Zero Energy Building certification system in 2017 according to the Green Building Promotion Act, and established the roadmap for the expansion of the obligation to private buildings in 2025. With the expansion of obligatory buildings, it is necessary to find the affecting factors for certification and data about quantified performance levels. However, in the early times of the system, there were not many certified buildings. Therefore, this study tried to analyze the performance levels of the educational research facilities which had more than grade 1 in the latest 2 years in Building Energy Efficiency Rating as one of Zero Energy Building certification standards, and to suggest the influencing factors on zero energy building design and quantified performance levels. In a statistical analysis method, this study determined the affecting factors on energy requirement, and analyzed the actually certified buildings in order to find grade-based performance levels of the certified in building energy efficiency rating. According to the multiple regression analysis on the affecting factors on design, a coefficient of determination was 0.778 which was significant. Regarding most influencing factors on design, the higher grade, the better performance.


Introduction Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is an important precursor of androgen and has been studied and researched extensively for improving the various outcome measures of ovarian stimulation in women with advanced age or poor ovarian response. Androgens also play an important role in the enhancement of endometrial and decidual function by regulating both the transcriptome and secretome of the endometrial stromal cells and have a positive effect on various factors like insulin-like growth factor binding protein 1, homeobox genes (HOXA10, HOXA11), secreted phosphoprotein 1, prolactin which are necessary for implantation. It is well-known that the circulating 'precursor pool' of DHEA declines with age more so in poor ovarian reserve patients and exogenous supplementation may be beneficial in such cases. This double-blinded randomised controlled trial (RCT) aims to test the hypothesis whether transient targeted supplementation of DHEA as an adjuvant to progesterone in frozen embryo transfer (FET) cycles, for women with low serum testosterone, helps in improving live birth rate. Methods and analysis This study is planned as a double-blinded, placebo-controlled randomised trial and the sample size, calculated for the primary outcome measure—live birth rate, is 140. All participants will be having a flexible antagonist protocol for controlled ovarian stimulation and an elective freeze-all policy for the embryos as per the hospital protocol after written informed consent. For FET, the endometrium will be prepared by hormone replacement treatment protocol. During the FET cycle, the intervention group will be receiving DHEA 25 mg two times a day for 15 days from the day of starting progesterone supplementation and the control group will be receiving a placebo. Ethics and dissemination The approval of the study was granted by the Clinical Trials Registry—India and the Institutional Ethical Committee of CRAFT Hospital and Research Center. All participants will provide written informed consent before being randomised into allocated treatment groups. The results will be disseminated to doctors and patients through conference presentations, peer-reviewed publications, social media and patient information booklets. Trial registration numbers CTRI/2020/06/025918; ECR/1044/Inst/KL/2018.


Health and nutrition development policies for the period 2015-2019 / Perpres No.2 / 2015 are focused on reducing the prevalence of stunting. Stunting problems are influenced by the condition of the mother, fetus, baby, including illnesses suffered during infancy and other conditions that affect health. The government targets in 2019 the prevalence of stunting in children under 2 years must decrease to 28% of cases that occur in Indonesia. This study aims to analyze the incidence of stunting in Indramayu Regency. This study uses a quantitative research design with cross sectional approach. Research variables include genetic , prenatal, postnatal , environmental sanitation, and personal hygiene variables in Indramayu Regency. The population in this study were mothers who had stunting children in the working area of the Kandanghaur Community Health Center in Indramayu District, while the sample of this study was 308 people. The instruments used were questionnaire sheets and observation sheets . Analysis of the data used is univariate analysis.
Based on the results of measurements returned to a sample of 308 children who had been declared stunted it was known that there were only 119 children who were declared stunting. This happens because there are errors in measurement during posyandu activities, measurement results at posyandu are not well documented so the reported data does not match the data in the field.
The conclusion in this study is that the high number of stunting is not entirely caused by cases in the field, but errors in measurement and reporting are the main contribution in increasing the stunting level. It is necessary to conduct training on posyandu management for posyandu facilitators.


Recently, Verlinde discussed that gravity can be understood as an entropic force caused by changes in the information associated with the positions of material bodies. In Verlinde's argument, the area law of the black hole entropy plays a crucial role. However, the entropy-area relation can be modified from the inclusion of quantum effects, motivated from the loop quantum gravity. In this note, by employing this modified entropy-area relation, we derive corrections to Newton's law of gravitation as well as modified Friedmann equations by adopting the viewpoint that gravity can be emerged as an entropic force. Our study further supports the universality of the log correction and provides a strong consistency check on Verlinde's model.


Contemporary Austrian theory has expanded widely on the relationship between entrepreneurship and the structure of production, yet it has never touched on the existence of an exploration-exploitation dilemma within organizations. The objective of the article is to show that the integration of the exploration-exploitation dilemma into the Austrian theory adds new fruitful elements to the function of the destructive entrepreneur, as presented by the Austrian economists of the firm. By showing how an organization's complexity can motivate destructive entrepreneurship on competition, it firstly explains how their analytical tools, which were limited in this area to the infra-organizational field, can also be applied to the catallactic field; it secondly enriches the traditional Austrian vision of the relation between institutions and entrepreneurship, in highlighting a reverse causal relationship, that has not yet been pointed by Austrian literature on entrepreneurship, between bad institutions and the destructive entrepreneur.


Flocks is a privacy-enhancing technology (PET) used to hide the web usage patterns of employees in an organization against profiling or mere inspection by administrators and other officials. However, Flocks is intended to support the identification of senders of malicious requests by means of a legitimate forensic investigation. This paper formalizes what should be logged for an appropriate forensic investigation. Also, it considers exactly what evidence should be explored once a malicious request has been noticed. It argues that (i) evidence that would have been collected about a malicious request if the PET were not used, should still be collected, and (ii) evidence that becomes visible by some legitimate means because the PET is used, should be collected. However, information that has not become visible by such legitimate means, but is available because the PET is being used, should not be collected. In the latter case, privacy concerns override the fact that a malicious request might be uncovered by investigating more logged information. These positions are defended and formalized using mathematical notation.


Cover-crop residues left on the soil surface as a mulch in no-till crop production systems protect the soil from erosion, increase water infiltration and suppress weeds. Because many growers using cover crops want to reduce chemical inputs, non-chemical methods of killing or suppressing cover crops are needed. In the first part of this paper we review the current literature and discuss advantages and disadvantages of five mechanical methods for killing cover crops, i.e., mowing, rolling, roll-chopping, undercutting and partial rototilling. We also report on three new studies that broaden the current literature, including planting into freshly killed residue. In the first study, the use of planter attachments to remove surface residues from the planter row improved stands when cotton was no-till planted 2-7 days after mowing cover crops in Mississippi. In the second study, 100% of a rye/vetch cover crop in Missouri was killed by mowing, and greater than 90% was killed by roll-chopping. Cotton stands were reduced by the use of row cleaners that clogged when the cover crop was roll-chopped or mowed on the same day that the crop was planted. The third study evaluated three methods of mechanically killing summer cover crops in North Carolina. Undercutting provided greater than 95% kill for five of six broadleaf species, and two of five grass species. Mowing effectively killed all six broadleaf cover crops, but re-growth occurred with three of five grasses, with the exception of nearly mature German foxtail millet and mature Japanese millet. In general, rolling did not effectively kill broadleaf or grass cover crops, with the exception of nearly mature German foxtail millet, mature Japanese millet and mature buckwheat.


In a frequently globalized work environment organizations increasingly consider employing expatriates due to their positive influence on creative, innovative outcomes. However, literature on the topic of how to facilitate their creativity is missing. The aim of this paper was to provide with an overview of critical factors affecting expatriates' creativity and innovativeness, as well as implications on how managers could stimulate expatriates' creativity. 16 expatriates from various countries working in professional service industries, namely, governmental, communication, consultancy and art; and 1 expert from the European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation were interviewed in Brussels, Belgium. The findings suggest that non-hierarchical organizational structure; open communication and knowledge exchange; team diversity; equal treatment and social justice; clear long-term and short-term goals; expatriates' personal traits are a few of the most important factors that affect expatriates' creativity. Findings also reveal factors influencing expatriates' creativity that are surprising, either contradicting (lack of resources; adjustment and integration only to a certain extent) or adding (expatriate status) to the existing theory and previous research. Several recommendations for managers who seek for expatriates' creativity are presented, namely, non-work related guidance, mentoring and training programs, and manager's international experience and awareness. At the end, limitations and directions for future research are presented.


We consider the problem of multi-path routing in the Interne t. Currently, Internet routing protocols select only a single path between a source and a destination. Howeve r, du to many policy routing decisions, singlepath routing may limit the achievable throughput. In this pa per, we envision a scenario where applicationlevel routers are overlaid on the Internet to allow multi-pa th routing. Using minimal congestion feedback signals from the overlay routers, we present an algorithm th at can be implemented at the sources to stably and optimally split the flow between each source-destinatio pair. We then show that the connection-level throughput region of such a multi-path routing/congestion c trol scheme can be larger than that of a singlepath congestion control scheme.


Hands are often severely occluded by objects, which makes 3D hand mesh estimation challenging. Previous works often have disregarded information at occluded regions. However, we argue that occluded regions have strong correlations with hands so that they can provide highly beneficial information for complete 3D hand mesh estimation. Thus, in this work, we propose a novel 3D hand mesh estimation network HandOccNet, that can fully exploits the information at occluded regions as a secondary means to enhance image features and make it much richer. To this end, we design two successive Transformer-based modules, called feature injecting transformer (FIT) and self-enhancing transformer (SET). FIT injects hand information into occluded region by considering their correlation. SET refines the output of FIT by using a self-attention mechanism. By injecting the hand information to the occluded region, our HandOccNet reaches the state-of-the-art performance on 3D hand mesh benchmarks that contain challenging hand-object occlusions. The codes are available in: https://github.com/namepllet/HandOccNet.


Seasonal tropical forests are currently experiencing rapid deforestation and changing land management practices, which in turn may permanently transform mature forests into more shrub-herbaceous dominated plant communities and planted pastures. Effective restoration efforts are therefore essential for maintaining the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in seasonal tropical forests, yet before implementing restoration efforts we need to better understand mechanisms influencing secondary plant succession. The main objective of this study was to investigate the ecological significance mycorrhizae, the symbiotic association between plant roots and specific fungi, may have during secondary plant succession. In 2004, we selected a chronosequence of five distinct stages of secondary succession ranging from recently disturbed areas to more mature forest at El Eden Ecological Reserve in northeastern Yucatan. We determined the plant community composition, as well as, the percent vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizae (VAM) colonization and VAM spore diversity for each of the distinct stages of succession. Based on preliminary data we found a relatively low Sorenson index for plant species composition among the different stages (0.24-0.430) compared to within specific stages (0.50- 0.789), suggesting that plant communities are changing during secondary succession. On the other hand, we detected no significant difference in vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) infection among the chronosequence, with an overall average infection of 16.94%. Nevertheless, we did observe a change in VAM species from small-spored Glomus species in earlier stages of succession to larger-spored Gigaspora and Acaulospora species as the forest matures. It therefore appears that in order to maintain the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of seasonal tropical forest attention must also be give to below ground processes such as mycorrhizal fungi.


Basketball is a combined game demanding elevated physical and technical skills, mental characteristics and tactical behaviour. These characteristics cannot be evaluated only by skill tests, which are considered inadequate to record the mental ability of the athletes. For the complete evaluation of the athletes' performance observation methods have been proposed, which record all of their efforts during the game. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the athletes' efficacy in passing skill, with two different methods: (a) the skill test and (b) game observation and correlate the results with the total game performance. For this purpose three basketball teams composed by 33 athletes, aged 14-15 years old, participated in the study. Initially, the athletes performed the passing test and afterwards in order to evaluate their passing efficacy and their overall performance, three games between the teams were recorded. Results indicated that performance in passing skill test was not correlated with passing efficacy or with total performance in the games. On the contrary, passing efficacy in the games was significantly correlated and could clearly predict the overall performance of the athlete. The athletes' performance in passing skill should not be evaluated only by application of test, but additionally by observation of the games.


Interstitial hydrogen in bcc Nb and Ta is studied theoretically, using first-principles density-functional calculations. The effect of self-trapping is investigated in some detail, and our calculated energies, forces, and displacements for hydrogen at tetrahedral sites are all found to be in good agreement with experiments. The local motion of H and D is treated quantum mechanically by mapping out potential energy surfaces and solving a Schr\"odinger equation for the ground state and vibrationally excited states. Diffusion between sites is discussed in both the classical and the quantum regimes. At low temperatures, the small-polaron theory of phonon assisted tunneling is applied, and we find excellent agreement with experiments for both the calculated coincidence energy and bare tunneling matrix elements. At higher temperatures our results indicate that hydrogen migration should best be described in terms of overbarrier motion, rather than tunneling from excited states.


OBJECTIVES
The Ross procedure has demonstrated excellent results when performed in patients with aortic stenosis or mixed aortic valve disease [aortic stenosis and aortic regurgitation (AR)]. However, due to its reported risk of late reoperation, it is not recommended under current guidelines for patients presenting with bicuspid aortic valve and pure AR. We have analysed our own results in light of this recommendation.

METHODS
Between 1993 and 2016, 129 consecutive patients with a mean age of 34.7 ± 10.6 years (range 16-64 years) presented with bicuspid aortic valve and pure AR and underwent the Ross procedure. Patients were reviewed annually and had 2nd yearly transthoracic echocardiograms during follow-up. The unit had a liberal reoperation policy where reoperation was performed if patients developed recurrent moderate or greater AR during follow-up.

RESULTS
There was 1 inpatient death, and 3 late deaths over a mean follow-up duration of 9.6 ± 6.8 years. Late survival at 10 and 20 years post-surgery were 99% [95% confidence interval (CI) 94-100] and 95% (95% CI 85-99), respectively. Eleven patients underwent redo aortic valve replacement (AVR) and 4 patients had redo pulmonary valve replacement. Freedom from reoperation for AVR and more-than-mild AR at 10 and 20 years post-surgery were 89% (95% CI 81-94) and 85% (95% CI 74-92), respectively. Having longer aortic cross-clamp (hazard ratio 1.03, 95% CI 1.00-1.06; P = 0.05) and cardiopulmonary bypass times (hazard ratio 1.02, 95% CI 1.00-1.05; P = 0.05), and having a larger preoperative sinotubular junction diameter (hazard ratio 1.15, 95% CI 1.03-1.30; P = 0.02) were significant predictors of having redo AVR or significant AR at follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS
With a 20-year freedom from redo AVR and greater-than-mild residual AR of 85%, the utilization of the Ross procedure in bicuspid aortic valve patients with pure AR should be considered.


A new fast transient method is developed to study free and bound exciton formation and decay dynamics in semiconductors. The method uses two time-scales, slow and fast. In the slow time-scale the excitonic system, after its creation, is allowed to evolve freely in time, while in the fast one the detection of the state of the system due to tunnel dissociation of excitons is performed in a fast swept electric field. The principle of the proposed method is demonstrated by measuring free and bound exciton lifetimes in the n region of silicon p+nn+ structures. diffusion to p+n and nn+ junctions is found to limit the free-exciton lifetime at temperatures lower than 14 K, whereas at higher temperatures exciton thermal dissociation is found to dominate.


SUMMARY Bulk sampling of several levels in the upper part of the Speeton Clay type section has yielded teeth and other remains of sharks and rays. At least 10 shark and two ray species were recorded, with two sharks, Pteroscyllium speetonensis sp. nov. and Palaeobrachaelurus mitchelli sp. nov. being described as new. The oldest occurrences of the family Anacoracidae and the genus Pteroscyllium, as well as the youngest occurrence of the genus Palaeobrachaelurus, were recorded. The palaeoenvironmental significance of the faunas is briefly discussed.


Background: This study examined parent perceptions towards child vaccinations, and sources used leading to inoculation decisions.
Methods: A survey was electronically dispersed to parents to examine their perceptions of vaccinations, what source they used to form their decisions, and whether or not they have their children vaccinated.
Results: Significant differences on perceptions about vaccinations, those who followed the recommended vaccination schedule, and what sources of information they used were found. There was a significant relationship between parents who ranked using social media as their primary source and reports that they did not, or will not, vaccinate their children.
Conclusions: Where parents obtain health-related information was shown to be a significant factor on vaccine perceptions and whether children were inoculated or not.


Highly porous microcrystalline hydroxyapatite (HAP) coatings have been prepared from calcium nitrate and phosphoric acid based sols by the aerosol-gel process. The coatings were studied after sintering at different temperatures with the use of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, energy disperse x-ray microanalysis, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The composition, structure, and morphology of the coatings sintered at 650 °C fit fairly well highly porous HAP. These coatings were reproduced onto TiO_2/Si substrates and studied by Rutherford backscattering. It is shown that even after chemical etching, an adherent calcium phosphate phase remains attached to the TiO_2/Si substrate.


The three dimensional crystal structure of T5 5'-3' exonuclease was compared with that of two other members of the 5'-3' exonuclease family: T4 ribonuclease H and the N-terminal domain of Thermus aquaticus DNA polymerase I. Though these structures were largely similar, some regions of these enzymes show evidence of significant molecular flexibility. Previous sequence analysis had suggested the existence of a helix-hairpin-helix motif in T5 exonuclease, but a distinct, though related structure is actually found to occur. The entire T5 exonuclease structure was then compared with all the structures in the complete Protein Data Bank and an unexpected similarity with gamma-delta (gamma delta) resolvase was observed. 5'-3' exonucleases and gamma delta resolvase are enzymes involved in carrying out quite different manipulations on nucleic acids. They appear to be unrelated at the primary sequence level, yet the fold of the entire catalytic domain of gamma delta resolvase is contained within that of the 5'-3'exonuclease. Different large-scale helical structures are used by both families to form DNA binding sites.


INTRODUCTION
Coptidis Rhizoma (CR) is one of the most frequently used herbs to treat ulcerative colitis (UC) and is often processed before usage. However, the composition changes and therapeutic effects of CR before and after processing in the treatment of UC are still unclear.

OBJECTIVE
The purpose of the study is to explore the chemical components and therapeutic effects of crude and processed CR.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
CR was processed according to the 2020 version of the Chinese Pharmacopoeia. The liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and multivariate statistical analysis were used to screen the different compounds before and after processing. The network pharmacological prediction was carried out. The mechanism and therapeutic effects between crude and processed CR were verified by using dextran sulphate sodium-induced UC mice assay.

RESULTS
Ten compounds distinguish crude and processed CR based on multivariate statistical analysis. Network pharmacology predicts that the 10 compounds mainly play a role through TNF-α and IL-6 targets and PI3K/Akt and HIF-1 signalling pathways, and these results are verified by molecular biology experiments. For IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α inflammatory factors, CR is not effective, while CR stir-fried with Evodiae Fructus (CRFE) and ginger juice (CRGJ) are. For PI3K/p-Akt, Cleaved caspase3, NF- κBp65 and HIF-1α signalling pathways, CR has therapeutic effects, while CRFE and CRGJ are significant.

CONCLUSION
Overall, CRFE and CRGJ show better effects in treating UC. The chemical changes of processing and the efficacy of processed CR are correlated, which provides a scientific basis for the clinical use of crude and processed CR.


Malaria is an infectious disease caused by the protozoan of the genus Plasmodium. It is a major problem in third-world countries, with hundreds of millions of infections and millions of fatalities annually. The extreme challenge in malaria management is the resistance of parasites to traditional chemotherapies like chloroquine and artemisinin. Plasmodium falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (PfDHODH) was claimed to be one of the hottest malaria drug targets under investigation. PfDHDOH is an enzyme involved in the fourth key step of de novo pyrimidine biosynthesis. This way offer potential as targets for drug design, because, unlike the host, the parasite lacks pyrimidine salvage pathway. In search for new Plasmodium falciparum dihydroorotate dehydrogenase (PfDHODH) inhibitors as antimalarial drugs, compounds bearing 5-hydroxy/methoxy-4-aminocoumarin scaffold were developed at Lund University. The compounds with 5-methoxy-4-aminocoumarin structures were synthetized from resorcinol and should be act as a prodrugs, further test on microsomes are necessary to determinate that. The 5-hydroxy-4-aminocompound was obtained through a melting reaction between 4,5-dihydroxycoumarin and the desired amine. All compounds will be tested on PfDHODH by Gothenburg University. (Less)


With current economic advancements and increasing demand for well-being, diverse leisure cultures have developed. The geographic feature of being surrounded in 3 sides by water has resulted in the sustained growth of the marine leisure market. But the increased market and users has not resulted in the systematic management of sailing safety and equipment. Marine leisure activities occur on water, so the damage from collisions and distress calls are greater than land based leisure activities. And marine leisure equipment is very expensive, requiring systematic management. This research proposes an information system using a new IP-RFID technique to manage the safety of marine leisure users and equipment management.


Abstract Solid-liquid separation is an operation that starts with a dispersion of solid particles in a liquid and removes some of the liquid from the particles, producing a concentrated solid paste and a clean liquid phase. It is similar to thermodynamic processes where pressure is applied to a system in order to reduce its volume. In dispersions, the resistance to this osmotic compression depends on interactions between the dispersed particles. The first part of this work deals with dispersions of repelling particles, which are either silica nanoparticles or synthetic clay platelets, dispersed in aqueous solutions. In these conditions, each particle is surrounded by an ionic layer, which repels other ionic layers. This results in a structure with strong short-range order. At high particle volume fractions, the overlap of ionic layers generates large osmotic pressures; these pressures may be calculated, through the cell model, as the cost of reducing the volume of each cell. The variation of osmotic pressure with volume fraction is the equation of state of the dispersion. The second part of this work deals with dispersions of aggregated particles, which are silica nanoparticles, dispersed in water and flocculated by multivalent cations. This produces large bushy aggregates, with fractal structures that are maintained through interparticle surface-surface bonds. As the paste is submitted to osmotic pressures, small relative displacements of the aggregated particles lead to structural collapse. The final structure is made of a dense skeleton immersed in a nearly homogeneous matrix of aggregated particles. The variation of osmotic resistance with volume fraction is the compression law of the paste; it may be calculated through a numerical model that takes into account the noncentral interparticle forces. According to this model, the response of aggregated pastes to applied stress may be controlled through the manipulation of interparticle adhesion.


The US Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday (10 November) in the case attempting to overturn the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare. The court will issue its decision before the end of its term in June 2021.

Questions by two conservative justices, chief justice John Roberts Jr and associate justice Brett Kavanaugh, indicated that they were leaning toward preserving the act, as did comments by the liberal justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan. This would suggest a 5-4 ruling in favor of preserving Obamacare. The other four justices are conservative.

Obamacare, President Barack Obama's signature legislation to provide health insurance to more Americans, was passed in November 2010 with only Democrats voting in favor.1 President Donald Trump subsequently promised to repeal Obamacare and replace it with …


Teaching on wireless telecommunication networks faces a number of challenges, such as the fact that contents are dynamic in nature, the resulting framework is complex and heterogeneous, design principles can largely vary from one system to another, etc. In order to cope with these challenges, novel and advanced methodologies have to be implemented so that the expectations placed by students and industry are met. In this context, this paper will stress the relevance of exploiting the always-evolving wireless technologies to introduce concepts to students in a non-disruptive way, so that novel concepts associated to newly introduced technologies can be presented on top of previous concepts associated to previously existing technologies. In addition, the integration of theoretical contents and practical experience as key enablers of the learning process will also be stressed.


V.V. Dokuchaev developed five main issues of geomorphology that relate to a quantitative study of modern geomorphological processes: 1) the problem of landscape latitudinal and altitudinal zonality in the glacial and postglacial periods; 2) ideas about the formation of river valleys and 3) the development of gullies and balkas (small dry valleys), 4) regional geomorphology and geomorphologic mapping, and 5) the age of the relief, the staging and cyclicity of relief formation. According to V.V. Dokuchaev, geomorphology – a component of one of the most interesting disciplines in the field of modern Earth sciences – the doctrine of "… complex and diverse relationships and interactions, as well as laws governing their long term changes that exist between … living and dead nature, between: a) surface rocks, b) shape of the earth, c) soils, d) surface and ground waters, e) the climate of the country, e) plant and animal organisms (including, and even mainly, the lowest) and man – "the majestic final creation"". V.V. Dokuchaev anticipated the main idea of V.M. Davis on the successive change of erosion cycles and stages in the evolution of landforms, formulated a connection in the development of valleys, balkas, gullies and rivers. He managed to show that the similarity of these landforms is especially great in spring, that, possibly, some rivers could and even should have emerged in the same way as gullies currently form. In his opinion, on the western slope of the Ergeni (the upland in the south of the Russian Plain), where the balka valleys are not as numerous as on the eastern slope, they are not parallel to each other, but, on the contrary, they are joining together and striving to form large rivers that are going to River Don and partly to the western Manych. Very interesting and important is the statement of V.V. Dokuchaev that some ravines under favorable conditions can and should cross water-divides and eventually evolve into real rivers.


Prostacyclin (PGI2) production by bovine aortic or human umbilical vein endothelial cells increased when either human high density lipoproteins3 (HDL3) or low density lipoproteins (LDL) were added to a serum-free culture medium. At low concentrations and short incubation times, HDL3 produced more PGI2 than LDL, but LDL was just as effective as HDL3 in 18-hr incubations with high concentrations of lipoproteins. Neither lipoprotein was toxic to the cultures as assessed by [3H]leucine incorporation into cell protein. The stimulatory effect of HDL3 and LDL on PGI2 production decreased as growing cultures became confluent. Incubation with lipoproteins neither enhanced arachidonic acid release nor increased PGI2 formation when the cells were stimulated subsequently with ionophore A23187, indicating that the lipoproteins do not affect the intracellular processes involved in PGI2 production. The addition of albumin reduced the amount of PGI2 formation elicited by HDL3 or LDL. As compared with albumin-bound arachidonic acid, from 6- to 13-fold less PGI2 was produced during incubation with the lipoproteins. Furthermore, the amount of PGI2 formation elicited by the lipoproteins in 18 hr was 4-fold less than that produced during incubation with a fatty acid mixture containing only 5% arachidonic acid, and 3-fold less than when the cells were stimulated with the ionophore A23187 for 20 min. Taken together, our results indicate that human HDL and LDL contribute to endothelial PGI2 production only in a modest way and suggest that this process is not specific for either of these two plasma lipoproteins. In view of the greater participation of albumin-bound arachidonic acid in PGI2 production, plasma lipoproteins may not play as important a role in endothelial prostaglandin formation as has been suggested.


I consider the calculation of the two- and three-point functions for QED at finite temperature in the presence of a background plasma velocity. The final expressions are consistent with Lorentz invariance, gauge invariance and current conservation, pointing to a straightforward generalization of the hard-thermal-loop formalism to this physical situation. I also give the resulting expression for the effective action and identify the various terms.


Background: Hysterectomy for benign gynaecological conditions is effective in relieving symptoms but ripple effects do occur. Hysterectomies are being performed for conditions where alternatives are available so there is a trend of more surgeries. Not much is known about India but hysterectomy is very commonly performed. Aim: Study was carried out to know trends of morbidity mortality with hysterectomy for benign gynaecological disorders in women of low resource settings. Methods: Study commenced in 1998. Retrospective records were collected and prospective cases were included till completion of 2 decades. Analysis of 4223case records of hysterectomies was done at rural medical institute where most patients are rural. Overall 3985 (94.4%) hysterectomies were performed for benign gynaecological disorders (noncancerous tumours inflammatory conditions displacements miscellaneous like adenomyosis dysfunctional uterine hemorrhage). Analyses was done by dividing into four five yearly blocks ABCD to know the trends. Results: Complications rate in abdominal hysterectomy was 19.39% in Block A 26.42% B 26.65% C 18.72% and D 14.2% 50% reduction in complications from recent past. Postoperative vaginal bleeding occurred in 1.18% in Block A 0.37% in B 0.52% in C and 0.7% in Block D. Wound infection rate decreased from 10.14% in Block A 7.1% in D. Other complications had decreasing trend. In vaginal hysterectomy complications rate was 11.14% 15% in Block A 18.61% in B 10.55% in C and 8.4% in D. Mortality was 0.1% (4 cases) 0.19% (one) in Block A 0.14%(one) in B and 0.16% (2) in C and no mortality in Block D. Conclusion: Severe complications mortality can occur in hysterectomy for benign conditions also. Preoperative care intraoperative care can reduce morbidities mortalities but not totally eliminate even in present times.


In Approaching Historical Sources in Their Contexts, 12 academics examine how space, time and performance interact to co-create context for source analysis. The chapters cover 2000 years and stretch across the Americas and Europe. They are grouped into three themes, with the first four exploring aspects of movement within and around an environment: buildings, the tension between habitat and tourist landscape, cemeteries and war memorials. Three chapters look at different aspects of performance: masque and opera in which performance is (re)constructed from several media, radio and television. The final group of chapters consider objects and material culture in which both spatial placement and performance influence how they might be read as historical sources: archaeological finds and their digital management, the display of objects in heritage locations, clothing, photograph albums and scrapbooks. Supported by a range of case studies, the contributors embed lessons and methodological approaches within their chapters that can be adapted and adopted by those working with similar sources, offering students both a theoretical and practical demonstration of how to analyse sources within their contexts. Drawing out common threads to help those wishing to illuminate their own historical investigation, this book encourages a broad and inclusive approach to the physical and social contexts of historical evidence for those undertaking source analysis.


The surface of most heritage objects holds important clues about their creation. To answer specific research questions about the creation of a mural painting located in the Bishop's Gate porch of St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, the three-dimensional geometry of the entire painted surface was digitised in minuscule detail using thousands of overlapping photographs. After a brief introduction to the basics of image-based surface digitisation, this paper describes in detail how the photographs were taken and how they were processed to create a digital three-dimensional surface. To appreciate the subtle surface variations encoded in this digital model, various relief visualisation techniques have been applied. The paper ends with a discussion of the new insights into the creation of this painting that are enabled by these visualisations.


ABSTRACT This study uses the structure–conduct–performance framework to examine the structure and efficiency of small and medium enterprises in the informal metal manufacturing sector in Zimbabwe. Small and medium enterprises provide a lifeline to the country's resource-poor farmers, whose numbers increased exponentially after the agrarian reform in 2000. The study utilises nationally representative, enterprise-level data from five major towns (Harare, Chitungwiza, Bulawayo, Mutare and Rusape) in Zimbabwe. Various performance measures are applied at the industry level to assess efficiency, profitability and competitiveness; these include the Herfindahl–Hirschman index, concentration ratios, average yearly profits and Tobin's q ratio. The results indicate that small and medium enterprises in Zimbabwe are modestly efficient, profitable and competitive. These findings highlight the need to integrate informal metal fabrication activities into Zimbabwe's national economic development plans.


"Commission Decision prohibits Glaxo Wellcome's Spanish pricing system"* 1. Introduction On 8 May 2001 the Commission decided to prohibit the dual pricing system which Glaxo Wellcome (GW) had…


Davidson (2008), VandenBos (2008), and Silver (2008), well-known experts in the treatment of schizophrenia, have provided very interesting, thought-provoking, and important perspectives on my Case of Mr. X (Karon, 2008) and other such patients. In my response to Davidson, I describe my own problematic clinical experience concerning his positive view of "assertive community treatment." I also reply to the questions Davidson raises about my clinical techniques and interpretations, e.g., my telling Mr. X that I would not let anyone kill him, my telling Mr. X that he would not become psychotic again under the normal stresses of life, and my intepretation that Mr. X's not eating was the result of the fear of being poisoned.  Finally, I provide an alternative interpretation from Davidson of Freud's case of the Wolf Man.  Because VandenBos and Silver are longtime, supportive colleagues and collaborators, I spend most of my time in responding to their commentaries by emphasizing our points of agreement.  Throughout this response, I emphasize my belief that that the powerful ideas in psychoanalysis are not just abstractions, but rather the source of strategies that are very pragmatically helpful in conducting psychotherapy with individuals suffering from schizophrenia.


Although the specific policy priorities for entrepreneurship development vary between individual economies, key underlying themes are the importance of institutional development and capacity building and the development of a market-oriented system of governance, over which governments exert a key influence. In some countries an appropriate and effective institutionalisation of small business policy is still one of the main preconditions that need to be fulfilled before productive and sustained private sector development can become embedded. In others, more should be done to unleash the potential role of regional and local authorities, both in promoting entrepreneurship and in facilitating its development, in view of the fact that it is at the local level that policy and institutions touch entrepreneurs most directly.


Urban flooding is a frequent problem affecting cities all over the world. The problem is more significant now that the climate is changing and urbanization trends are increasing. Various, physical hydrological models such as the Environmental Protection Agency Storm Water Management Model (EPA SWMM), MIKE URBAN-II and others, have been developed to simulate flooding events in cities. However, they require high accuracy mapping and a simulation of the underground storm drainage system. Sadly, this capability is usually not available for older or larger so-called megacities. Other hydrological model types are classified in the semi-physical category, like Cellular Automata (CA), require the incorporation of very fine resolution data. These types of data, in turn, demand massive computer power and time for analysis. Furthermore, available forecasting systems provide a way to determine total rainfall during extreme events, but they do not tell us what areas will be flooded. This work introduces an urban flooding tool that couples a rainfall-runoff model with a flood map database to expedite the alert process and estimate flooded areas. A 0.30-m Lidar Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the study area (in this case Manhattan, New York City) is divided into 140 sub-basins. Several flood maps for each sub-basin are generated and organized into a database. For any forecasted extreme rainfall event, the rainfall-runoff model predicts the expected runoff volume at different times during the storm interval. The system rapidly searches for the corresponding flood map that delineates the expected flood area. The sensitivity analysis of parameters in the model show that the effect of storm inlet flow head is approximately linear while the effects of the threshold infiltration rate, the number of storm inlets, and the storm inlet flow reduction factor are non-linear. The reduction factor variation is found to exhibit a high non-linearity variation, hence requiring further detailed investigation.


Permanent makeup (PMU) is a frequently implemented cosmetic procedure performed by beauticians. From a technical point, PMU is considered a facial tattoo. Failed procedures or a change of mind can lead to the desire for removal. The purpose of this retrospective evaluation of patients who came to the clinic with the desire to remove PMU between 2011 and 2015 was to explore the problems, side effects, and results in order to define treatment guidelines for other doctors. We evaluated 87 individual cases in total. In treatable cases, i.e. 52 out of the 87 cases, laser treatments were performed using a nanosecond Q-switched neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd:YAG) laser. It takes between 1-12 treatments to remove the PMU. In three cases, the colour of the PMU could not be removed by laser and remained after the treatment. In two cases, laser treatment had to be terminated due to colour changes towards the green-blue spectrum. Before PMU removal, laser test shots are urgently recommended as unforeseeable colour changes can cause severe aesthetically unpleasant results. Covered up PMU (skin colour) is particularly susceptible to changes in colour. Heat-induced shrinking of the eye area can cause an ectropium. Surgical solutions also have to be taken into consideration. The use of proper eye protection with intraocular eye shields is mandatory. This article is an attempt to set up some guidelines for the treatment of PMU removal.


The longitudinal rip of belt conveyor often causes coal mine in a stoppage of production, and the fault diagnosis technology of visual processing is adopted. Because of a large amount of dust, most visual processing algorithms are often out of work. In this paper, the edge detection algorithms including Canny operator, Sobel operator and laplacian operator are compared, meanwhile, the python language is applied in image processing, the Canny operator of python programming is simulated and verified. Finally, the canny operator is proved to have good detection effect.


ABSTRACT Between November 2018 and December 2021, 35 juvenile and adult Western Creek Chubsuckers, Erimyzon claviformis, were collected from 5 sites in western and southern Arkansas (Ouachita and Red River drainages), and their gills, gallbladders, fins, integument, other major organs, and musculature were examined for myxozoans. The fins of 12 (34%) individuals were infected with a novel species, Myxobolus stuartae n. sp. Qualitative and quantitative morphological data were obtained from formalin-fixed preserved myxospores. Molecular data from ethanol-preserved specimens consisted of a 2,028 base pair sequence of small subunit (SSU) ribosomal DNA (rDNA) from a specimen collected in Nevada County. Three other specimens from Polk County yielded partial SSU rDNA sequences that were identical to the first sequence. Phylogenetic analyses placed M. stuartae n. sp. as sister to Myxobolus bibullatus (Kudo, 1934), both clustering with other catostomid-infecting myxobolids. This is the first fin-infecting myxozoan reported from E. claviformis.


Anecdotal evidence suggests that constructed wetlands can remove odors from veal, dairy, and swine wastes
(Murphy and George, 1997; McCaskey, 1995). However, the use of constructed wetlands as an odor control treatment will
be more successful after malodor reduction in wetland systems has been quantified. This study quantified odor removal
from swine facility wastewater (feces, urine, and flushwater) in constructed subsurface-flow wetlands. Four wetlands
planted with wetland grasses and four unplanted wetlands received swine facility waste. The relationship between
wetland treatments (planted vs unplanted) and reductions of malodorous dimethyl disulfide and p-cresol in wastewater
were examined. Reductions in odor intensity and offensiveness as perceived by a human sensory panel were also studied.
Gas chromatography analysis indicated that planted wetlands removed 80 and 83% of dimethyl disulfide (DMDS) and
p-cresol, respectively. Unplanted wetlands removed 52 and 64% of dimethyl disulfide and p-cresol, respectively. The
reductions in DMDS and p-cresol did not differ significantly (p > 0.05) between the two treatments. A human sensory
panel, using the cloth swatch technique, assigned a median odor intensity and offensiveness rating of 4 (identifiable
odor—offensive, but tolerable) to untreated swine facility wastewater. Median odor ratings for both planted and
unplanted effluent were 1 (faint odor—nonidentifiable, not offensive). These median odor ratings were significantly (p <
0.05) lower than the median odor rating for untreated wastewater, indicating that constructed wetlands were effective in
removing malodor from swine facility wastewater.


This paper gives an overview of the historical and theoretical developments of Ethnomedizin in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. It demonstrates the richness of this interdisciplinary field at the interface of anthropology, medicine and public health, and provides the unique perspectives of some of its founders from the 1970s onwards.


We explore value decomposition solutions for multi-agent deep reinforcement learning in the popular paradigm of centralized training with decentralized execution(CTDE). As the recognized best solution to CTDE, Weighted QMIX is cutting-edge on StarCraft Multi-agent Challenge (SMAC), with a weighting scheme implemented on QMIX to place more emphasis on the optimal joint actions. However, the fixed weight requires manual tuning according to the application scenarios, which painfully prevents Weighted QMIX from being used in broader engineering applications. In this paper, we first demonstrate the flaw of Weighted QMIX using an ordinary One-Step Matrix Game (OMG), that no matter how the weight is chosen, Weighted QMIX struggles to deal with non-monotonic value decomposition problems with a large variance of reward distributions. Then we characterize the problem of value decomposition as an Underfitting One-edged Robust Regression problem and make the first attempt to give a solution to the value decomposition problem from the perspective of information-theoretical learning. We introduce the Maximum Correntropy Criterion (MCC) as a cost function to dynamically adapt the weight to eliminate the effects of minimum in reward distributions. We simplify the implementation and propose a new algorithm called MCVD. A preliminary experiment conducted on OMG shows that MCVD could deal with non-monotonic value decomposition problems with a large tolerance of kernel bandwidth selection. Further experiments are carried out on Cooperative-Navigation and multiple SMAC scenarios, where MCVD exhibits unprecedented ease of implementation, broad applicability, and stability.


Regulating the environmental impacts of hydroelectric schemes is of increasing importance in the light of the strong policy drive towards expanding the proportion of energy gained from renewable sources. Yet hydroelectric schemes are significant in another way. They provide an unusual example of a technology that has changed little over the last 100 years and thus offers a real opportunity to judge the impact of a changing regulatory climate. In Scotland, three distinct phases can be detected. Earlier controls focussed on the protection of private interests, especially fishing rights, with authorisations secured through Private Acts of Parliament. This was followed by a period where promotion of such schemes lay with public bodies; though under general statutory duties, ultimately the balancing of environmental and other interests lay with such bodies who acted with few external controls. Privatisation of electricity generation in 1989, coupled with the growing development of relevant European Community legislation, dramatically shifted the regulatory balances. Environmental Assessment requirements and now the obligations of the Water Framework Directive have substantially altered the concept and scope of environmental concerns in this field.


A 2:1 multiplexer and a 1:2 demultiplexer IC fabricated in a 0.8 μm silicon bipolar technology were operated up to 30 Gbit/s. The increase in speed compared to former measurements is obtained by improving the mounting technique and the measuring setup -and by increasing the clock voltage swing. This is the highest data rate reported for any monolithic integrated circuit in any semiconductor technology


A histological survey of 871 previously sectioned temporal bones from the Ear Pathology Research Laboratory (EPRL) of the University of Toronto was undertaken to determine the presence of ganglion cell and ganglion cell rests within the human middle ear. The presence of ganglion cells within the middle ear was a common finding noted in 52.3% of temporal bones surveyed. So-called 'ectopic' ganglion cells were identified most often in the greater superficial petrosal nerve (38.7%), the lesser superficial petrosal nerve (12.4%) and on the promontory (11.4%). They were also identified in the main trunk of the intratemporal facial nerve, but in smaller numbers (3%), and for the first time in the tensor tympani muscle. Their consistent presence implies that they should not be considered an abnormal anatomic variant, and further questions accepted conventional anatomic descriptions of middle ear innervation.


Drawing upon recent reworkings of world systems theory and Marx's concept of metabolic rift, this paper attempts to ground early nineteenth-century Ireland more clearly within these metanarratives, which take the historical-ecological dynamics of the development of capitalism as their point of departure. In order to unravel the socio-spatial complexities of Irish agricultural production throughout this time, attention must be given to the prevalence of customary legal tenure, institutions of communal governance, and their interaction with the colonial apparatus, as an essential feature of Ireland's historical geography often neglected by famine scholars. This spatially differentiated legacy of communality, embedded within a country-wide system of colonial rent, and burgeoning capitalist system of global trade, gave rise to profound regional differentiations and ecological contradictions, which became central to the distribution of distress during the Great Famine (1845-1852). Contrary to accounts which depict it as a case of discrete transition from feudalism to capitalism, Ireland's pre-famine ecology must be understood through an analysis which emphasises these socio-spatial complexities. Consequently, this structure must be conceptualised as one in which communality, colonialism, and capitalism interact dynamically, and in varying stages of development and devolution, according to space and time.


. The early phase of the neoclassical (3,2) + (2,2) tearing mode at ASDEX Upgrade has been investigated in order to study the seed island. Sawtooth crashes or fishbones can trigger this mode, and in few cases it appeared spontaneously.


Introduction: Investigating airway inflammation and pathology in wheezy preschool children is challenging from both a technical and ethical standpoint. Novel non-invasive tests need to be identified and validated. Real-time analysis of eVOC may be useful in the diagnosis and monitoring of these children. Aims: To evaluate eVOC patterns in wheezy preschool children, to assess reproducibility and compare eVOC patterns with those obtained from healthy adults. Methods: Children breathed room air tidally via a facemask for 80 secs and eVOC were analysed instantly by Proton-Transfer-Reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry coupled to Loccioni breath collection apparatus. Repeat samples were obtained 15 min after the initial sample. Using a MATLAB programme we identified mass channels within each breath sample that changed with breathing. Results: 9 children (14 – 74 months) participated, of which 6 were able to produce analysable results. A total of 55 of 249 channels varied with the breathing cycle. 5 mass channels were common to all analysable preschool wheeze samples with 11 mass channels found in 4 of the breath samples. The adult samples showed similar patterns, with 6 out of 9 adult samples containing the same 5 channels. There were 11 unique channels within the children9s samples in comparison to the adult channels.Currently one sample has been repeated, with 91% commonality of channels. Conclusion: eVOC measurements in preschool children are feasible, well tolerated and appear reproducible, with channels not significantly different in adults and children. Further work is required to confirm repeatability and to compare patterns in children with preschool wheeze with that of healthy controls.


Abstract In this paper, we first use a structural vector autoregression model to examine whether the US economy responds asymmetrically to expansionary and contractionary monetary policies. The empirical results show that monetary policy has significant asymmetric effects on output and investment. To provide an explanation of such asymmetries, we consider a nonlinear dynamic stochastic general equilibrium (DSGE) model in which collateral constraints are occasionally binding over the business cycle. The nonlinear DSGE model is able to match the empirical findings that macroeconomic aggregates react asymmetrically to positive and negative monetary policy shocks.


Metastasis of hepatoma to the brain is a rare event. Even rarer is massive hemorrhage of the brain associated with metastatic hepatoma. A 57-year-old man had cirrhosis of the liver with hepatocellular carcinoma. The tumor spread to the lungs and left occipital lobe of the brain. The primary and secondary neoplasms were negative in detection of mucin, but were immunohistochemically positive to cytokeratin CAM 5.2 and KC; the finding supported the hepatocellular origin of the tumor. The metastatic tumor formed papillae in the lung and produced massive hemorrhage in the left occipital lobe. This case raised the total number of intracranial metastatic hepatic carcinomas to 34 cases. Five of 34 hepatic carcinomas metastatic to brain, including the current one, were hepatocellular carcinoma that produced massive hemorrhage.


The field of games aimed at social change is young and ripe with opportunity, and several recent announcements of corporate/public-sector partnerships to develop such games are further fueling hopes for its success. These games raise awareness of important social issues in two ways: through "engaging and meaningful game play" and innovative, successful, and often large-scale distribution techniques. Such games are typically low-budget, grassroots creations distributed virally. The focus is on reaching new audiences, exploring innovative distribution options, and drawing attention to an issue.


Abstract It is shown that, as a result of the flow diffluence at the upper levels of the cloud, droplets of different sizes move along different trajectories. The small droplets with negligible fall velocities will have higher probability of being carried away from the cloud and completely evaporating, while the droplets with larger fall velocities are more likely to be recycled in the cloud. During the recycling process droplets of different sizes reenter the cloud at different spatial locations and mix with the droplet-free air brought from the upper levels of the cloud. This results in the decrease of the total concentration, as well as in the concentration of larger droplets, thus facilitating rain formation through enhanced condensational growth. It is also shown that the notion of an air parcel as an entity containing various constituents (water vapor, aerosol particles, cloud droplets, etc.), all evolving under the same dynamical conditions, may be rather limited. Our results indicate that these el...


This paper addresses three key issues in buffer management in cell switching networks including asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. First, it develops a model of fuzzy thresholding-based buffer management for a 50-switch representative cell-switching network, to study its performance under realistic conditions. Second, it presents an approach to re-route to their final destinations, the fraction of the selectively blocked cells that correspond to the difference of cell loss due to buffer overflow between the fixed and fuzzy schemes. Third, it reports on the influence of the buffer management scheme on the end-to-end delay performance of a representative cell switching network. The model is simulated on a testbed consisting of a network of 25+ Pentium workstations under Linux, configured as a loosely coupled parallel processor. Simulation results obtained are discussed.


In this study the FUSE framework to unserstand model structural error is used to investigate the effects of model structure on extreme events in different climate zones. The authors do not use real catchments to investigate the model structural effects but a synthetic approach with a given range of parameter sets (the same for each all climate zones). The topic of investigating structural errors is very relevant and the application in different climatic regions is interesting. The manuscript is written clearly and follows a logical structure, even though not quite the classic one.


Background    Venous thromboembolic complications (VTEC) are a major non-oncological cause of death of patients with malignant neoplasm (MNP). This determines the high significance of antithrombotic therapy for the treatment and secondary prevention of VTEC in this population. During recent years, low-molecular weight heparins (LMWH) have been a "gold standard" for the treatment of cancer-associated venous thrombosis (CAVT). In the recent decade, direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have become extensively used for the treatment and prevention of VTEC relapse in non-oncological patients and also for primary prevention of VTEC following orthopedic surgery. Taking into account the oral route of administration, the predictable and convenient pharmacokinetic profile, and the absence of need for coagulation monitoring, it seems possible to use DOACs for the treatment and secondary prevention of VTEС in oncological patients. A meta-analysis of 4 randomized clinical trials (RCTs) showed a higher efficacy of DOACs compared to LMWHs, however, with a greater risk of bleedings in CAVT. In two of four studies using apixaban (more than 40% of weight in meta-analysis), no increase in bleedings was noted.Aim    The aim of this study was to perform a systematic search for comparative clinical studies with apixaban and to perform a meta-analysis to answer the question on clinical efficacy and safety of apixaban in the treatment and secondary prevention of recurrent VTEC in patients with CAVT.Material and methods    The systematic search was performed in three reference databases, Medline (PubMed), Cochrane Library (CENTRAL), and eLibrary. The search was aimed at publications containing results of RCTs using apixaban for the treatment and prevention of VTEC in patients with MNP. A totality of 678 titles was found; 15 articles were selected for detailed studying, and 4 RCTs were included into the final analysis. The meta-analysis was performed according to the criteria of PRISMA guidelines. Relative risk (RR) was used as a measure of the effect. The meta-analysis was performed by the Mantel-Haenszel method using the R software. Statistical heterogeneity was evaluated with the Cochran criterion (I2); heterogeneity was considered significant at I2 ≥50 %, which was a reason for performing a random-effects meta-analysis. For this meta-analysis, the primary outcome measure was new VTECs (symptomatic or detected proximal deep vein thrombosis and/or symptomatic, detected or fatal pulmonary thromboembolism plus symptomatic upper extremity thromboses, celiac veinous thromboses, and cerebral veinous thromboses if they were included into the efficacy endpoint of the primary studies). The primary safety measure was major bleeding according to ISTH criteria. Other variables included major and clinically significant minor bleedings as well as overall death rate.Results    During the systematic search, 4 RCTs were selected. The meta-analysis of the treatment and secondary prevention of VTEC in patients with MNP showed that apixaban was more effective than the active control (88% of LMWHs) in prevention of VTEC relapse. The RR was 0.59; 95 % confidence interval (CI): 0.40-0.86 in the absence of statistically significant differences from the control in the risk of major bleedings (statistically non-significant decrease by 21%), the sum of major and clinically significant minor bleedings, and overall death rate.Conclusion    According to the results of the meta-analysis, the DOAC apixaban may be a drug of choice for the treatment and prevention of VTEC relapse in patients with MNO.


All over the world a large number of people are suffering from brain related diseases. Studying and finding the solutions for those diseases is the requirement of the day. Dementia is one such disease of the brain. This causes loss of cognitive functions such as reasoning, memory and other mental abilities which may be due to trauma or normal ageing. Alzheimer's disease is one of the types of the dementia which accounts to 60-80% of mental disorders [1].Diagnosis of this disease at an early stage will help the patients to lead a quality life for the remaining tenure of their life. The goal of the paper is to have a review on different neuro psychological tests, the various algorithms used for the purpose of diagnosis, and the tool that may be used for the analysis. Keywords— Alzheimer's disease, Machine Learning, Weka


The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the day-to-day activities of CRM and media sales as social practices in the context of media convergence. This study has two main objectives. First, it aims to characterize the key customer relationships of media sales. Second, it aims to identify the social practices of media sales and examine how these practices enable or constrain customer orientation. The empirical study is conducted in a Finnish media organization which is transforming its sales operation model towards more customer-oriented as a response to the challenges introduced by media convergence. The changes in the media environment and within the organization have profound implications on how media sales work is carried out and how customer relationships are managed, providing a current and interesting case context. Research objectives are approached through a qualitative case study. The empirical data consists of nine thematic interviews in total, four of which were conducted in one of the media sales units of the case organization. Five interviews were conducted among customers of the media sales unit. The theoretical framework builds primarily on practice theory in social sciences and literature on media management, drawing also on customer relationship management literature. The practice perspective provides an interpretive lens through which attention is directed to the collectively shared norms, traditions, understandings, procedures and routines that seem to guide the everyday activities of marketing practitioners. Overall, the case study provided a detailed view of the practical complexities of media sales in the context of media convergence. Based on the empirical analysis four social practices of media sales are identified. The practices of relationship management, steering, collaborating, and developing describe the underlying background understandings and the bodily activities that make up media sales. The study suggests that these interrelated practices consist of both enabling and constraining features towards customer orientation. Although the case organization has taken measures to enhance customer orientation, it was found that the old product-oriented logic is mediated through established, culturally and historically transmitted social practices.


: Existing research on digital technologies in peacebuilding exhibits both tech-solutionist and tech-problematizing traits that tend to un-derstate their embeddedness in society and politics. We argue that the study of digital peacebuilding should instead reflexively engage with the coproduction of the technical and the social in both academia and practice. This requires asking how assumptions about technology are related to assumptions about the conflict and peacebuilding context on which these technologies are brought to bear, and with what consequences. Therefore, we propose a methodological framework that brings to the fore how technologies for peacebuilding and peacebuilding with technology are coproduced. First, we focus on the interrelated claims about peacebuilding and technology, and the coproduction of peacebuilding problems and technological solutions. Second, we inquire into the characteristics of the digital peace-building agendas built on these claims, including the dynamics of disruptive change and datafication that these agendas bring. Third, we consider the sticky effects of digital approaches, in terms of a politicization or de-politicization of peacebuilding efforts, and ask what kind of peace this may produce.


The influence of allozyme heterozygosity on developmental homeostasis as indicated by fluctuating morphological asymmetry (FA) has been a controversial issue in evolutionary studies. In the present investigation, relationships between overall individual heterozygosity (H), calculated over 13 polymorphic enzyme loci, and fluctuating asymmetry (FA) in 27 non-metric and 9 metric bilateral skull and mandible traits were examined in a total of 417 brown hares. The respective tests were performed separately for juveniles and adults within and among five geographic arrays of samples, and among 17 single sampling localities. Within geographic units, neither in metric nor in non-metric characters could a clear relationship between FA and H be detected. Among geographic units and single sampling localities, for metric traits the result remained the same. In non-metric traits, however, a significant negative correlation between overall FA and H became apparent in adults. Thus, fluctuating asymmetry and heterozygosity are inversely related also in a mammalian species. The long lasting dispute as to the existence of a homeotherm-poikilotherm dichotomy may have been the result of a disregard of non-metric traits and of an interpopulation approach for assessing relationships between morphological FA and H in mammals.


This work presents a theoretical study of the anomalous behavior of moisture transient diffusion in vegetable fiber-reinforced composites materials using Langmuir-type model. For obtain the analytical solution was used the Laplace transform technique. Results of the absorption kinetics and concentration distribution of water (free and trapped water molecules) within the material along the process are presented and analyzed. Predicted results compared to experimental data of average moisture content have shown that the model was effective for description of the phenomenon, allowing a better understanding about the effects of moisture migration mechanisms.


Abstract Background: Paraganglioma is a rare neuroendocrine tumor from extra-adrenal chromaffin cells of the sympathetic paravertebral ganglia of thorax, abdomen, and pelvis. In most cases paragangliomas produce catecholamines in large concentrations and the lack of treatment can lead to cardiovascular and cerebral catastrophes [1]. That is why early diagnosis of this tumor is so important and, consequently, knowledge of its diagnostic criterion, too. Clinical case: A 59-year-old man was presented to a cardiologist for rapid increasing of blood pressure (up to 220/120 mmHg), which was accompanied by severe headache and epigastric pain in September 2017. From anamnesis it is known: the disease began suddenly and had paroxysmal flow. The first attack lasted for about 3 minutes and finished itself. Then such attacks occured with different frequency (from 1 per month to several times per week) and were connected with physical activity. The cardiologist suspected diagnosis of pheochromocytoma. The result of urinary fractionated metanephrines measurement showed its levels higher than normal rage but did not confirm suspected diagnosis reliably, so antihypertensive therapy was prescribed to minimize the symptoms. Despite this, the attacks persisted and the patient referred to a surgeon in May 2018. On the basis of patient's complaints on epigastric pain during the attacks and the neck inflection of the gallbladder revealed by the ultrasound examination, it was decided to carry out cholecystectomy. A week after the operation the patient referred to the endocrinologist because of the continuing attacks. The diagnosis of pheochromocytoma was suspected again, the urinary fractionated metanephrines measurement was repeated, which revealed elevated normetanephrine level (1008 µg/day). A CT of retroperitoneal space revealed a spherical mass sized about 17х16х18 mm in paraaortal region under the left renal vein. The retroperitoneal tumor was removed laparoscopically in August 2018. Pathological examination of the removed mass showed a paraganglioma with uncertain potential of biological behaviour. BP was normal and remained within range without the need of any antihypertensive medication until discharge from hospital. The patient is asymptomatic and normotensive during his follow-up visits. Conclusion: This clinical case shows how a tumor with bright and specific symptoms can be revealed only in several years and after referring to several specialists. Also, this case highlights the importance of knowledge of diagnostic process of different diseases. In the present case the paraganglioma would have been revealed earlier if only the CT of retroperitoneal space had been done just after getting the results of free metanephrines, which were higher than normal. References: (1) Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline - the Endocrine Society, 2014.


E-procurement policy is one form of reformation in procurement in Indonesia which aims at enhancing transparency in public procurement. E-procurement can be implemented through e-tendering and e-purchasing methods by utilizing e-catalogue. Policy implementation model was used to assist the realization of the goal of eprocurement policy. This study found three significant factors of e-procurement policy implementation model , namely legal foundation, infrastructure and human resources. This article entitled liE-procurement Policy Implementation Model: Case Study of Regency/City Health Agency, North Sumatra Province, Indonesia. Applying qualitative research method and case study approach, this study describes in detail stages of etendering and e-purchasing methods and transparency. It also explains how this e-procurement policy implementation method works and its relation with transparency in public procurement at Health Agency at Medan City, Binjai City and Serdang Bedagai Regency.In-depth interview, observation, document and literature analysis were utilised as interrelated data gathering techniques. In-depth interviews were conducted with head of Development AdministrationiLPSE of Medan City, Binjai City and Serdang Bedagai and Working Group of Procurement Service Unit (ULP), Commitment Authorities, Procurement Official and business as providers of eprocurement. This study also applies observation technique on Electronic Procurement Services (LPSE) website to examine transparency of data, process and decision of e-procurement activities. This study reveals epurchasing methods is more interested for e-procurement implementers compare to e-tendering at all research sites. Security resulted from the utilization of e-catalogue is one of the reason for preference in using this method. This study also fmds out that the three factors of e-procurement implementation model as mentioned previously were yet to function optimally causing speculations in e-procurement activities which usually addressed by providers to e-procurement implementers, and diverse understanding and interpretation on transparency between implementers and providers. Observation on LPSE websites reveals data transparency has been satisfactory while process and decision transparency are yet to be satisfactory.


Engagement in physical activity is an essential part of an older person. However, there is inconclusive evidence about the level of participation in physical activity among older persons in institutions in Malaysia. In this cross-sectional study, 331 older persons who live in elderly institutions participated in this study. The results indicated that the majority of older persons in institutions have low participation in physical activity. The normal cognitive function group has a higher level of participation in physical activity compared to older persons with mild neurocognitive disorder and Dementia. Physical functioning and mental health predict participation in physical activity.


Marc Bavant. Basque Resultatives and Related Issues. Lingua Posnaniensis, vol. LIV (2)/2012. The Poznań Society for the Advancement of the Arts and Sciences. PL ISSN 0079-4740, ISBN 978-83-7654-252-2, pp. 7–22. Basque has an impressive number of resultative constructions for transitive verbs, not to mention dialectal variants. The purpose of this paper is to classify them according to Nedjalkov's typology and compare Basque resultatives with similar periphrastic constructions in Classical Armenian. On the way, we meet the questions of Basque diatheses, of voice ambiguity of past participles, and of the affi nity between possession and resultativity. The paper is based on material available in the literature and discussions with a native speaker or a specialist of the fi eld. It appears that only "mediopassive", a detransitivizing transformation, can be considered a diathesis, whereas the so-called "passive" and "antipassive" are respectively an objective and a subjective resultative. Also LAFITTE'S so-called "parfait" (1979) is a resultative, possessive in form and rather subjective in meaning. Classical Armenian displays a strikingly similar series of resultatives and the same kind of voice ambiguity for its past participle. It is hypothesized that the voice ambiguity may be related to the existence of a possessive resultative construction. Marc Bavant, Amsterdam Centre for Language and Communication, Universiteit van Amsterdam, Spuistraat 210-212, NL – 1012 VT Amsterdam, firstname.lastname@example.com


Despite the reduction in incidence of acute suppurative otitis media since the introduction of antibiotics, the incidence of chronic middle ear effusion and chronic otitis media have not experienced a similar reduction. Eustachian tube dysfunction is believed to be a principal etiological factor in these cases. The inflation-deflation technique to measure tubal function has shown promise in a number of laboratories, and is the basis for our present studies. Traditional application of this technique has been to document the capability of patients with chronic otitis media to equilibrate an induced positive or negative pressure. These patients are compared to a control group of patients with recent traumatic perforation, negative otologic histories, and normal tympanograms in the uninvolved ear. We have applied this test to observe its relationship to successful take of a tympanic membrane graft. The overall pattern of our results suggests that the capability to reduce an induced negative pressure is most frequently associated with successful tympanic membrane closure. However, compromise or even total failure to reduce an induced negative pressure does not preclude successful grafting of the tympanic membrane; nor should such failure to reduce negative pressure by this technique serve as a contraindication to surgery. Our results do suggest that during induced positive pressure application, spontaneous opening of the eustachian tube at opening pressures below +150 mm H2O may be discriminatory between success and failure.


This paper discusses the unique challenges of regulating identity crime. Identity crime involves the use of personal identification information to perpetrate crimes of fraud. As such, the identity crime involves using personal and private information to perpetrate crime. This article considers the two significant issues that obstruct responses to this crime; firstly, the reporting of crime. Secondly the paper considers the issue of jurisdiction. Finally, the paper explores some responses to this crime. The paper then explores some of the current responses to identity crime.


Heme is an iron ion-containing molecule found within hemoproteins such as hemoglobin and cytochromes that participates in diverse biological processes. While its unlimited supply has been implicated in deleterious processes in several diseases including malaria, sepsis, ischemia-reperfusion, and disseminated intravascular coagulation, little is known about its regulatory and signaling functions. A majority of the computational research to elucidate these functions has been purely data-driven due to the absence of curated pathway resources, which have proven useful in the computational study in other indications. Here, we present two resources aimed to exploit this unexplored information to model heme biology. The first resource is an ontology covering heme-specific terms not yet included in standard controlled vocabularies. Using this ontology, we curated and modeled a corpus of 46 scientific articles to generate a mechanistic knowledge graph representing the heme's interactome for that particular literature. Finally, we demonstrated the utility of these resources by investigating the role of heme in the Toll-like receptor signaling pathway. Our analysis proposed a series of crosstalk events that could explain the role of heme in activating the TLR4 signaling pathway. In summary, the presented work opens the door for the scientific community to explore in more detail the published knowledge on heme biology.


Multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) frequency-domain Volterra kernels of nonlinear order 3 are experimentally determined in bandwidth-limited frequency regions. How the effect of higher nonlinear orders can be reduced and how this affects the estimated errors are discussed. The magnitude and the phase of the kernels are Kramers–Kronig consistent. The self-kernels and cross-kernels have different symmetries, and the kernels are therefore determined and analyzed in different regions in the 3-D frequency space. By analyzing the properties along certain paths in the 3-D frequency space, the block structures for the respective kernels are determined. These block structures contain the significant blocks of the general block structures for the third-order kernels. The device under test is an MIMO transmitter for radio frequency signals.