BACKGROUND
For many years alternatives to penicillin have been studied for the management of pediatric group A beta-hemolytic Streptococcus (GABHS) pharyngitis. As a result of its pharmacokinetic profile azithromycin is unique among these alternative antimicrobials in allowing once daily dosing and shorter duration of treatment. However, the optimum dose (e.g. 10 or 12 mg/kg/day) and duration (e.g. 3 or 5 days) of azithromycin therapy have not been defined yet.

METHODS
An open, comparative multicenter study was conducted in 343 children with clinical symptoms of GABHS pharyngitis and a positive culture to evaluate the efficacy and safety of azithromycin (10 mg/kg) once daily for 3 days compared with penicillin V three times daily for 10 days.

RESULTS
Among the evaluable patients bacteriologic eradication documented at follow-up visits was inferior with azithromycin when compared with penicillin V therapy: at Days 9 to 20 (mean, 12 days), negative cultures in 65% (99 of 152 patients) vs. 82% (128 of 126 patients) (P < 0.001); and at Days 17 to 57 (mean, 25 days), in 55% vs. 80% (P < 0.001). Overall clinical success (cure or improvement) was achieved in 93% (149 of 160 patients) of azithromycin-treated and in 89% (143 of 160 patients) of penicillin-treated patients (P > 0.50). There was no correlation between bacteriologic response and clinical outcome, as assessed shortly after completion of therapy or during 6-month follow-up. Both treatments were well-tolerated.

CONCLUSIONS
In the present study on GABHS pharyngitis in children, a once daily (10-mg/kg), 3-day oral regimen of azithromycin was as clinically effective and as safe as traditional penicillin but appeared inferior in eliminating GABHS from the throat.


Percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) remains an important method for treating upper urinary calculi. However, bleeding and peripheral vascular injury are serious complications of PCNL. Injury of the inferior vena cava accompanied by secondary thrombosis has rarely been reported clinically. We treated a patient who experienced bleeding during PCNL to establish a channel. A catheter was used to make a renal fistula, and the inferior vena cava was implanted. The wound was fixed and compressed by balloon injection, and secondary thrombosis and repeated infection occurred after the operation. A filter was then placed, the water balloon was released, and the fistula was removed. The anti-bacterial and anticoagulant filter was removed. This major complication was successfully managed. In our patient, during PCNL, the renal fistula entered the inferior vena cava by mistake. If this issue cannot be treated in time, it can easily lead to the formation of secondary thrombosis. A fistula can be extracted through an inferior vena cava filter, and anticoagulant treatment and other conservative treatment regimens can be used to treat patients in this situation. These treatments avoid the possibility of further damage from open surgery.


s: School bonding refers to a meta-construct that encompass several aspects of students' engagement and connection with school. Previous studies have constantly shown that school bonding is one of the significant protective factors that affect numerous educational and social outcomes for students. Nevertheless, little research has been conducted to develop a reliable and valid instrument to measure the concept of school bonding. This study aims to validate Perception of School Social Bonding (PSSB) with explanatory factor analysis and examine differences in school bonding across students' characteristics. Data for this study include a total of 2620 students in 8 public schools across Indiana. More than half of respondents was female (53.5%) and students of color (55.5%), while a majority of students (70.7%) was 11-15 ages. A factor analysis demonstrated that school bonding consisted of three subscale: attachment (4 items), involvement (3 items), and commitment/brief (4 items). All scales indicate acceptable reliability; Cronbach's alpha coefficients for overall school bonding was .85, ranging from .74 to .83 for subscales. On average, commitment/brief (M = 3.90, SD = .83) was rated relatively higher than involvement (M = 3.54, SD = 1.04) and attachment (M = 3.43, SD = .97). In addition, the findings indicated that the level of school bonding significantly differs by students' demographics. Female students (M = 3.66, SD = .72), white students (M = 3.74, SD = .75), and students aged 6-10 (M = 3.695, SD = .80) reported significantly higher scores on overall school bonding than did their counterparts. The findings suggest that school should pay more attention to male, ethnically marginalized, and older students in promoting their school bonding. Future research is also needed to identify significant challenges and barriers that prevent such students at risk from their active engagement and positive connection with their school. Mentors: Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, Jangmin Kim, Isaac Karikari, Natasha Bragg, IU School of Social Work and Monica Medina, IU School of Education


In this paper we describe Hydrive, an operational computer-based intelligent tutoring system built to help Air Force technicians develop generalizable skills for troubleshooting hydraulics systems. We use Hydrive as an example of how effective training and assessment is developed from a coherent understanding of a target task and how this understanding can be consistently represented in all aspects of a training/assessment instrument. We show how an organizing principle of expert behavior, active path analysis, is used to inform the design and content of the tutor's system, student and instructional models and the design of the tutor's interface. We conclude with information about Hydrive's field trial evaluation and some thoughts on knowledge acquisition and generalizability.


The Parthenocissus Tricuspidata, genus of the Vitaceae family, is a rustic plant with lianas, whose tendrils tips have organelles called adhesive discs that, set near a substrate, adhere to it. Studies of A.G. ENDRESS, W. THOMSON, S. JUNKER attribue the disc adhesion ability to an adhesive substance secretion instead of a suction mechanism. Teeth were set beneath the tendrils and in few weeks the adhesion to enamel, dentin and radicular cement was so strong as the usual adhesion to the wall, except with teeth that were set before in fluoride gel, because of the element cytotoxicity. Then the adhesion place was investigated with microanalysis and S.E.M. The microanalysis has shown calcium and phosphorus both on enamel and on adhesion place, while silicon, sulphur, chlorine and potassium were only on the adherent vegetable substance. The S.E.M. analysis was conducted on the enamel surface, after removing of the vegetable, and perpendicularly to the adhesion surface of the vegetable with the enamel, the dentin and the cementum.


While previous research on projectification tends to focus on why processes of projectification emerge and in what contexts, this chapter use the example of European Union (EU) project funding in Swedish local government to analyse and understand how processes of projectification unfold in terms of transformation and adaptation. Key agents in processes of projectification are located and how these agents work and with what techniques and tools are described and analysed. It is argued that processes of projectification unfold through the workings of agents sharing, at the same time as constructing, a project funding market in which they mediate between EU funding and possible EU projects. The EU project funding market is held together by mediating agents and their application of policy techniques and tools of information, roadmaps/policies, collaborations/networks, courses, and consultation. Processes of projectification are as such triggered by project-supporting incentives created top-down at the same time as several bottom-up initiatives trigger the same phenomenon. As a result, projectification is understood not only as an increasing use of EU projects but as processes of transformation and adaptation where agents create project strategies, project models, engage in project networks and train staff in project management and project methodology to handle forthcoming projects. (Less)


A dual-level direct dynamics method was employed to study the hydrogen abstraction reaction of C2H3 with CH3F. The calculated potential barriers (ΔE ≠ ) of reaction channels R1, R2, and R3 are 43.2, 43.9, and 44.1 kJ · mol -1 , respectively, and the reaction energy is -38.2 kJ · mol -1 at the QCISD(T)/6-311++ G(d, p)//B3LYP/6-311G(d, p) level. In addition, the rate constants of the reaction were evaluated by means of the conventional transition-state theory (TST) and canonical variational transition-state theory (CVT) with or without small curvature tunneling corrections (SCT) over a wide temperature range of 200-3000 K. The results indicate that the rate constants of the three hydrogen abstraction reaction channels exhibit a positive temperature dependence, in which the variational effect is negligible for all the channels, whereas the tunneling effect is considerable at lower temperatures. Moreover, the reaction R1 is the dominant channel. Reaction R2 competes kinetically with R1 as the temperature increases, whereas the contribution from R3 is small.


General axisymmetric problems with torsion and 3-D processes of elastoplastic deformation of structure elements, loss of stability problems, damage cumulating and limit states under the static and dynamic loading are considered. A mathematical model is based on a continual approach to the description of non-elastic material failure processes and generalized theory of plastic flow. The original method of determining deformation and strength characteristics of metal and alloy structural components under an inhomogeneous stress-strain state has been developed. The results of numerical and natural experiments for the processes of failure and limit states of the standard specimens and elastoplastic structure elements in the conditions of tension, compression, torsion and combined simple and complex loading are described. Introduction. By now a broad spectrum of mathematical models describing the nonlinear behavior of elastoplastic materials under the simple and complex loading has been developed. However, experimental verification has only been received by the models whose domain of application is bounded by the class of small elastoplastic strains and loading trajectories of small and medium curvature [1–5]. Under the complex stress-strain state (SSS) conditions, the equipment of these models with material functions and constants (true stress-strain diagrams, SSS type, fracture parameters) on the basis of direct measurements by the available tools is difficult even in the case of small strains. Under the strains preceding failure, an inhomogeneous stress-strain state arises in laboratory specimens and structure elements. Therefore it is reasonable to use mathematic modeling methods of deformation processes in laboratory specimens or structure elements in combination with experimental methods to identify the strain and strength characteristics of materials. The present paper aims at methodology for numerical solving axisymmetric problems with torsion and 3-D problem of elastoplastic deformation and damage cumulating. Limit states and failure of the structure elements in the conditions of the static and dynamic loading are analyzed. Numerical model. A mathematical model is based on a continual approach to the description of non-elastic material destruction process and modified defining relation, which describes failure as a lost resistibility of the material under the certain conditions [7-9]. The deformation process is described by the generalized flow theory with combined kinematic and isotropic hardening. The failure process is supposed to be quasi-equilibrium and it doesn't allow an explicit dependence of the parameters and characteristics of the failure on the time. Common strength criterions are applied to predict the failure conditions; the history of the SSS is described by the hypothesis of the cumulative damage. A damage measure is determined by the non-negative function ≤1 [10]. The solution of the problem is based on a finite element method and an explicit finite-difference scheme of CREST type [7, 8, 11], realized in the "Dynamic-2" and "Dynamic-3" software


This paper aims to draw attention to the need to create an innovative measure that allows us to delve into women's poverty and its specificities. Only by performing an accurate analysis of women's multidimensional poverty will it be possible to respond to their specific needs, identify the bottlenecks that prevent them from escaping poverty and make policy recommendations that are gender-sensitive in that regard. This paper presents a proposal for a Multidimensional Poverty Index with a focus on women in Latin America and the Caribbean, including results for 10 countries: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic, and Uruguay. Estimates show that 28 percent of women in the analysed countries are multidimensionally poor. Uruguay and Chile exhibit the lowest incidence, below 10 percent, while in Honduras and El Salvador, more than 62 percent of adult women are multidimensionally poor.


ABSTRACT: In a small‐scale preliminary trial of oral rifampicin treatment was considered successful in six out of eight cutaneous leishmaniasis patients and probably effective in a seventh. The in vitro effect of rifampicin on leishmania organisms concerns inhibition of mitochondrial function or replication. The need for protozoological control in the assessment of treatment is stressed.


BACKGROUND: Very few data are available on the use of bispectral index (BIS) monitoring in children who are intellectually disabled. Epileptiform electroencephalogram activity, underlying cerebral pathology, or anticonvulsant/spasmolytic therapy might influence BIS monitoring. Our aim in this exploratory study was to first compare BIS values at 4 different stages of anesthesia between intellectually disabled children and controls. Our second aim was to investigate the discriminative properties of BIS between consciousness and unconsciousness for intellectually disabled children and for controls. METHODS: Eighteen intellectually disabled children and 35 control children, aged 2–13 yr, were included. BIS values, landmark events, and standard monitoring values of vital functions were recorded throughout the whole procedure. The performance of BIS in distinguishing between a conscious and unconscious state was assessed from receiver operating characteristic curves. RESULTS: Median (interquartile range) BIS values for the intellectually disabled group were significantly lower than those for controls in the awake state (72 [48–77] vs 97 [84–98], P < 0.001), during stable intraoperative anesthesia (34 [21–45] vs 43 [33–52], P = 0.02), and during return of consciousness (59 [36–68] vs 73 [64–78], P = 0.009). The discriminative properties of the BIS monitor for the state of consciousness were comparable between the 2 groups according to the receiver operating characteristic curves. Nevertheless, the optimal cutoff BIS value for discrimination between conscious and unconscious state was 28 points lower for the intellectually disabled group. CONCLUSIONS: We advise anesthesiologists to be alert to possible lower BIS values in intellectually disabled children. There is a risk that they will inadvertently misinterpret the state of consciousness in intellectually disabled children. New multicenter studies must find the optimal manner of evaluating (un)consciousness in intellectually disabled patients with documented and confirmed specific etiologies of their intellectual disability.


Abstract New thermal maturity (%Ro, Rock-Eval® pyrolysis), shale compaction and apatite fission track (FT) data were integrated into thermal history models for the East MacKay I-77 petroleum exploration well located approximately 80 km southeast of Norman Wells, Northwest Territories. The study well is in the Keele Tectonic Zone where multiple phases of anomalous Phanerozoic subsidence and uplift have resulted in an Upper Cretaceous–Cenozoic foreland succession resting unconformably on Devonian strata. This major unconformity, which developed during pre- and post-Albian time, displays a thermal maturity discontinuity (0.55-0.75%Ro) and represents approximately 270 m.y. of missing geological record. Linear shale compaction across this unconformity suggests that maximum burial occurred during the Cenozoic, whereas thermal maturity data imply that maximum temperatures were reached sometime between the Devonian and Early Cretaceous. Detrital apatite grains from a single sample from the Upper Devonian Imperial Formation of the I-77 well yielded two FT age populations (90.4±6.1 Ma and 222.2±22.5 Ma; ± one standard deviation) with different thermal annealing properties based on their chlorine content. An inverse multi-kinetic FT annealing model was developed and used to determine thermal histories that are consistent with the FT parameters and other geological constraints. Model results suggest that hydrocarbon generation from Devonian rocks at the I-77 well location occurred during the early Mesozoic prior to the development of Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic structures. Peak FT model temperatures are 124±10°C within the Early Triassic to Middle Jurassic (250–170 Ma), <75°C during the Albian (112–100 Ma) and 97±9°C during the Paleocene-Early Eocene (65–50 Ma). The Cretaceous-Cenozoic thermal history was modelled using a simple burial history with the present geothermal gradient (32°C/km) held constant; a range of geothermal gradients (31–42°C/km) and maximum burial depths for the pre-Aptian thermal history fit Devonian maturity data. If maximum burial was during the Cenozoic, then Mesozoic peak maturity was achieved under a higher geothermal gradient than present. Although hydrocarbon generation pre-dates structural trap development near the I-77 well, Devonian source rocks retain significant hydrocarbon potential. Given the complicated geological history of the central Mackenzie Valley, deeper Cenozoic burial elsewhere in the region may have generated hydrocarbons from Cretaceous and reactivated Devonian source rocks.


The later Wittgenstein holds that the sole function of mathematical propositions is to determine the concepts they invoke. In the paper this view is discussed by means of a single example: Wittgenstein's investigation of the concept of a regular heptagon as used in Euclidean geometry (i.e., the Euclidean construction game with ruler and compass) and in Cartesian analytic geometry. Going on from some well-known passages in Wittgenstein's Lectures on the Foundations of Mathematics, and completing these passages, it is shown that Wittgenstein's view makes perfectly good sense and can be very well defended.


In the field of the analysis of culture, the theory of omnivorousness holds that aesthetic tastes have overcome the mono-legitimist outline based on the hierarchical distinction between high culture and popular culture, becoming more and more tolerant and varied each day. In this paper, parting from the analysis of musical practices in Spain, in the context of the growing diffusion of the mediated autidition, we study the evolution of the musical preferences; and we outline the concept of regime of cultural consumption (musical, in this case) as an analytical tool which is more complex and adequate than omnivorousness.


The recent suggestion that the microlensing events observed toward the Large Magellanic Cloud are due to an intervening Sgr-like dwarf galaxy is examined. A search for foreground RR Lyrae in the MACHO photometry database yields 20 stars whose distance distribution follow the expected halo density profile. Cepheid and red giant branch clump stars in the MACHO database are consistent with membership in the LMC. There is also no evidence in the literature for a distinct kinematic population, for intervening gas, or for the turnoff of such a hypothetical galaxy. We conclude that if the lenses are in a foreground galaxy, it must be a particularly dark galaxy.


The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic and the introduction of Society 5.0 by the Japanese government in 2019 have resulted in significant changes to consumer behavior. The aim of this research is to examine the impacts of consumption value on customers' behavioral shifts. Furthermore, quantitative methods were used with a sample of 344 respondents, and data analysis using the structural equation model with the Lisrel 8.72 application. The stages in the structural equation analysis of this model are: development of theoretical models, development of path diagrams, conversion of path diagrams to structural equations, selecting input matrices and types of estimates, identifying models, assessing goodness of fit criteria, and interpreting results. The results obtained showed that consumers' attitudes and habits toward utilizing meal delivery applications can be influenced by factors such as their social, conditional, emotional, epistemic, and functional values. In the use of food delivery applications, consumers are not only interested in tangible benefits, but also in less tangible benefits, such as information provided by businesses.


Current market tendencies show the need of storing and processing rapidly
growing amounts of data. Therefore, it implies the demand for distributed
storage and data processing systems. The Apache Hadoop is an open-source
framework for managing such computing clusters in an effective, fault-tolerant
way.
Dealing with large volumes of data, Hadoop, and its storage system HDFS
(Hadoop Distributed File System), face challenges to keep the high efficiency
with computing in a reasonable time. The typical Hadoop implementation
transfers computation to the data, rather than shipping data across the cluster.
Otherwise, moving the big quantities of data through the network could significantly
delay data processing tasks. However, while a task is already running,
Hadoop favours local data access and chooses blocks from the nearest nodes.
Next, the necessary blocks are moved just when they are needed in the given
ask.
For supporting the Hadoop's data locality preferences, in this thesis, we propose
adding an innovative functionality to its distributed file system (HDFS), that
enables moving data blocks on request. In-advance shipping of data makes it
possible to forcedly redistribute data between nodes in order to easily adapt it to
the given processing tasks. New functionality enables the instructed movement
of data blocks within the cluster. Data can be shifted either by user running
the proper HDFS shell command or programmatically by other module like an
appropriate scheduler.
In order to develop such functionality, the detailed analysis of Apache Hadoop
source code and its components (specifically HDFS) was conducted. Research
resulted in a deep understanding of internal architecture, what made it possible
to compare the possible approaches to achieve the desired solution, and develop
the chosen one.


Background and Objectives: Mandibular incisor's anatomy presents a challenge when making endodontic access because of its small size and high prevalence of two canals and isthmus within them. The main objective of this study is to evaluate the root canal anatomy and its aberrant morphology in mandibular central incisors. Knowing the variations in canal anatomy such as two canals, presence of isthmus, type, its prevalence, and position in the mandibular central incisors, which help improve the procedure of successful root canal treatment. Materials and Methods: One hundred and twenty extracted human mandibular central incisor teeth were collected. Two different studies have been performed. Sixty teeth were studied through tooth clearing and dye penetration technique. Teeth were decalcified with 5% nitric acid, dehydrated with increasing concentrations of alcohol and rendered clear by immersion in methyl salicylate. Hematoxylin dye was inserted in access cavity and canals. The samples were observed under dental operating microscope. These samples were evaluated for root canal morphology to assess its root canal configuration. Sixty teeth were studied through sectioning of apical 3 mm (1, 2, and 3 mm from the apex) simulating a surgical resection method was followed. The sectioned samples were observed under stereomicroscope for evaluating isthmus and its type. Results and Conclusion: Sectioning study showed that canal shapes varied from round to oval, long oval, and ribbon shaped, while the prevalence of isthmus was more at 3 mm section. Tooth clearing study showed that 46.6% teeth had single canal, 49.8% teeth had two canals, and only 5% teeth had two separate apical foramina.


Thesoil characteristics and water balance of an arid sand dune ecosystem were investigated in Nizzana, NW Negev Desert, Israel. The main emphasis was placed on the relations between atmosphere, vegetation and soil moisture. Soil moisture measurements were carried out using time domain reflectometer (Easy Test Co., Poland). The soil investigations required transect- and area mapping, soil characterization and time flow analyses. The abiotic factors, such as relief position and exposure, together with biotic factors affect the water dynamics in the ecosystem through redistribution and accumulation processes. Input and output paths and components of the water balance were identified and then quantified.


This qualitative case study provides a detailed description of the ways a Kindergarten/Grade 1 teacher in a Gulf Islands school, located on Canada's west coast, integrated place-based education in her practice with young learners. The teacher's integration of place-based knowledge over a school year, and her incorporation of traditional knowledge linked to local Coast Salish ways of knowing, was in response to the British Columbia Ministry of Education's mandate to include local Indigenous ways of knowing in all classrooms. This study also reveals the ways an Indigenous educator affiliated with the school district and local community members provided the teacher and students with deeper understandings of Salt Spring Island from a historical, place-based, and Indigenous knowledge perspective. Specifically, the Indigenous educator and community members shared their knowledge on the vegetation on the island and shared information about the animals that lived on or near the island. Throughout the study, the teacher drew on a "critical pedagogy of place," which focuses on the ecological aspects of place and the tenets of critical pedagogy. This study documented the ways the teacher included local Indigenous knowledge in her practice in culturally relevant and appropriate ways – primarily through outdoor learning experiences. The children also shared their perspectives on these learning experiences. In this study, the place-based learning opportunities provided to the children enabled them to acquire rich insight on the history and ecology of their community and island.


The TGN-localised, type I integral membrane protein TGN38 has previously been suggested to play a role as a cargo transporter within mammalian cells. We have undertaken a series of experiments designed to address this hypothesis, and, in so doing, have partially characterised the glycosylation status of the lumenal domain of TGN38. We find that elevated expression of different regions of the lumenal domain of TGN38 has no reproducible effect on secretion from stably transfected NRK cells expressing the different lumenal domain constructs; neither does it affect the gross morphology of organelles of the secretory and endocytic pathways. However, we observed that, whilst elevated expression of full-length TGN38 in stably transfected NRK cells does not have any significant effect on the morphology of organelles of the secretory and endocytic pathways, it does lead to a change in the pattern of protein secretion from these cells. In particular, elevated expression of full-length TGN38 led to increased secretion of a 48-kDa glycoprotein identified as plasminogen activator inhibitor-1.


BACKGROUND The main feeding artery of an anterior condylar arteriovenous fistula (AC-AVF) is the ascending pharyngeal artery and rarely the internal maxillary artery. OBSERVATIONS A 58-year-old male with a history of sinusitis since adolescence presented with a 5-year history of bilateral pulsatile tinnitus and a 2-month history of right ocular symptoms. Angiography showed that the peripheral branches of the bilateral internal maxillary arteries were the main feeding arteries of the AC-AVF and that they gathered in the clivus with a relatively large shunted pouch in the left jugular tubercle. Shunt flow drained to the right external jugular vein via the right superior ophthalmic vein. A sheath was placed in the right external jugular vein, and a small distal access catheter was guided to the right superior ophthalmic vein to allow the microcatheter to reach the shunted pouch. Selective angiography of the contralateral sphenopalatine artery allowed us to confirm the gathering site of the feeding arteries and the shunted pouch and archive the complete occlusion. LESSONS Selective angiography of the contralateral sphenopalatine artery may be useful to confirm the gathering site of the peripheral branches of the bilateral internal maxillary arteries in an AC-AVF.


AIMS
Major guidelines recommend lowering systolic blood pressure (SBP) to <140 mmHg in all hypertensives, but evidence is missing whether this is beneficial in (i) uncomplicated hypertensives, (ii) grade 1 hypertensives, and (iii) elderly hypertensives. Providing this missing evidence is important to justify efforts and costs of aggressive therapy in all hypertensives.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Felodipine Event Reduction (FEVER) was a double-blind, randomized trial on 9711 Chinese hypertensives, in whom cardiovascular outcomes were significantly reduced by more intense therapy (low-dose hydrochlorothiazide and low-dose felodipine) achieving a mean of 138 mmHg SBP compared with less-intense therapy (low-dose hydrochlorothiazide and placebo) achieving a mean of 142 mmHg. FEVER included older and younger patients, and patients with and without diabetes or cardiovascular disease. In the analyses here reported, Cox regression models assessed outcome differences between more and less-intense treatments in groups of patients with different baseline characteristics. Significant reductions in stroke were found in uncomplicated hypertensives (-39%, P = 0.002), in hypertensives with randomization SBP <153 mmHg (-29%, P = 0.03), and in elderly hypertensives (-44%, P < 0.001), when their SBP was lowered by more intense treatment. Significant reductions (between -29 and -47%, P = 0.02 to <0.001) were also found in all cardiovascular events and all deaths. Achieving mean SBP values <140 mmHg by adding a small dose of a generic drug prevented 2.1 (uncomplicated hypertensives) and 5.2 (elderly) cardiovascular events every 100 patients treated for 3.3 years.

CONCLUSIONS
These analyses provide strong support, missing so far, to guidelines recommending goal SBP <140 mmHg in uncomplicated hypertensives, individuals with moderately elevated BP and elderly hypertensives.


Contextualism for Conditionals Consider the following sentences: (1) If Sarah has the measles, she will have a fever. (2) If Sarah has a fever, then she has the measles. (3) If Julia asks nicely, Bill still won-t help us. Intuitively, (1) would be used to communicate that the present case is of the kind in which having fever follows causally from having measles, (2) would be used to communicate that the case is one in which having the measles follows evidentially from having a fever, and (3) would probably be used to communicate that the case in question isn-t the kind in which asking nicely elicits helpful action. My question is through what processed these intuitive messages concerning causal and evidential relations are encoded and decoded given the conventional contribution of the -if P, Q- form. Standard philosophical theories of indicative conditionals - the material implication theory, the conditional probability theory, and versions of the possible world theory - take these intuitive messages to be pragmatically inferred from the utterance of a sentence the conventional meaning of which gives it more abstract truth- or acceptability conditions. Elsewhere, I have defended an alternative model: relational contextualism. It agrees that the intuitive messages are determined pragmatically, but denies that we identify the intuitive messages by first identifying more abstract truth- or acceptability conditions. Instead, the conventional contribution of if-clauses to the meaning of conditionals is that if-clauses introduce a proposition without asserting it so that the main clause can be understood in relation to it. When we decode the conditional form, our primary task is to identify the relevant relation between the content of the if-clause and the main clause. In the case of conditionals like (1), (2) and (3), that relation will typically be one of causal or evidential consequence or independence. There are several reasons to think that something like relational contextualism is correct. It gives a unified account of a wide variety of conditionals: apart from consequence conditionals like (1) and (2) and independence conditionals like (3), it covers relevance conditionals (-If anyone cares to ask, I do have views on celebrity couples-) as well as conditionals expressing conditional commands, questions and bets (-If it is snowing hard, stay with your car-). It explains both why conditionals embed systematically and why some embedding constructions nevertheless seem unintelligible. And it promises a unified account of indicative and subjunctive conditionals, as well as a straightforward explanation of the well-known context-relativity of the latter. My concern in this talk is to clarify how relational contextualism explains a phenomenon that appears to undermine standard theories of conditionals. Standard theories all take it that when the consequent is highly probable independently of the antecedent, we have good reasons to accept what the conditional says. But not all such conditionals seem acceptable. I am reasonably confident that both clauses of the following conditional are true, but I find the conditionals nonsensical rather than acceptable: (4) If Berne is the capital of Switzerland, John Lennon was killed in 1980. I am also reasonable confident that it will rain tomorrow, independently of what I do, but my first intuitive verdict about the following is false: (5) If I go to the movies tonight, it will rain tomorrow. Verdicts like these are very common, especially among people without background in logic and the theory of conditionals, and relational contextualism explains them easily: (4) comes off as unintelligible because no relation between antecedent and consequent has been identified; (5) comes off as false because it has been taking to convey a relation of causal consequence between


The CIS and EOM-CCSD adiabatic geometries for the first excited states of a set of small molecules (C2H4, C2H2, H2C=O, H2C=S, CS2, CO2, SO2, NO2) have been calculated using the 6-311++G** basis set to see if the former geometries can be good starting points for optimizations at the latter theoretical level. With most of the molecules, there is fairly good agreement between the results from the two methods, and EOM-CCSD gives good agreement with the available experimental data. A detailed discussion of the lowest-lying singlet excited states in CO2 and CS2 is presented, highlighting the pronounced differences in electronic character and equilibrium structure displayed by these isovalent species. The origins of the structural distortions that are frequently found for the adiabatic excited states are examined with the aid of deformation density plots and the electron localization function (ELF).


Not long ago, a group of friends in a national park in the Canadian Rocky Mountains took a hike on a popular trail known for high grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) activity. A couple of miles along the trail, they had an encounter with what appeared to be a grizzly. The animal came at them growling and hissing, making horrific sounds. All in the group climbed trees to get away from it, except for one person, who was able to flee to the warden office for help. Upon arriving at the incident site, a park warden discovered that the animal involved was actually a wolverine (Gulo gulo luscus). The astonished hikers reported that it had behaved so ferociously that they'd been certain it was a grizzly. While wolverines don't normally threaten humans, this story illustrates the species' formidable nature.


: In the geothermal Bouillante area, electricity is presently produced from well BO-2 only. Fol-lowing a successful stimulation operation in 1998, a second well BO-4 will be soon connected to the power plant. This paper presents relevant geochemical data obtained for both wells during 1998 and 2000. For some dissolved species, results show discrepancies between surface and down hole samples. In this case, additional information from thermal springs can be very useful to reconstruct the chemical composition of the deep fluid. Despite an high water-rock ratio, the deep NaCl brine (20 g/l) composed of about 58 % seawater and 42 % freshwater reacts with volcanic rocks at about 250°C reaching chemical equilibrium with a mineralogical assemblage as shown by its composition and by saturation calculations.


The program MAD is widely used for accelerator design and beam dynamics studies. For many years, its input language has been the nearest thing to a world-wide standard for describing accelerator structures. The new Version 9 is a complete rewrite using a systematic object-oriented methodology based on the CLASSIC classes [2] for accelerator physics. It provides many improvements over the previous MAD Version 8. These include: (i) support for multiple beam-lines simultaneously, facilitating, for example, matching constraints that couple the two rings of a tworing collider, (ii) much improved Lie-algebraic map calculations, (iii) a uniform method and format for exchanging many kinds of structured data with other programs, (iv) an improved and more consistent input language. In addition, we report on a parallel 3D Poisson field solver for space charge calculations in high intensity particle beams. Applied to the PSI injector cyclotron, this shows the general nature of MAD Version 9 as a state-of- the-art problemsolving environment. We describe the current status of the program and how to get it, outline future plans and illustrate some of the new features.


Workflows are composite multitransaction activities occurring in heterogeneous environments. They relax the semantic properties of traditional transactions to accommodate the demands of such environments. It is important that workflows be specified declaratively, reasoned about formally, and scheduled automatically. Declarative approaches based on intertask dependencies are prominent in the literature. However, extant approaches often lack a formal semantics, or fail to meet other important criteria. Also, they do not carefully distinguish event types from instances, a distinction that is crucial when the constraint that tasks are loop-free is relaxed. We propose an approach that gives a rigorous formal semantics for dependencies and meets the above conditions. Our approach uses algebraic expressions to represent dependencies and uses symbolic reasoning to take scheduling decisions. It can form the basis of a programming language for workflows.


— There is a growing population of adults with long-term sensory and mobility impairments who are aging into older adulthood. Little is known about the everyday challenges and accessibility issues experienced by these individuals as they age and acquire age-related declines in addition to a pre-existing impairment. The present paper provides an overview of a large-scale interview study, currently in progress, exploring user needs of older adults with long-term vision, hearing, and mobility impairments. The structured interview is designed to elicit detailed information on task performance challenges across a wide range of daily activities, as well as strategies to manage those challenges. In this paper we provide case-study examples from each of the three impairment groups to convey the potential depth and breadth of insights about user needs among individuals aging with impairments that can be realized through this novel qualitative approach.


Recent increase in the production of high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) from lidar data has led to interest in their use for terrain mapping. Although the impact of different resolutions has been studied relative to terrain characteristics like roughness, slope and curvature, its relationship to the extraction of terrain features remains unclear. To address this question, this study tests the impact of four resolutions on the capture of glacial cirques from DEMs. Mean curvature was derived from one arc-second, one-third arc-second, one-ninth arc-second and half meter DEMs representing a cirque-covered mountainous region southwest of Lake Tahoe, California. Using a GEOBIA workflow, ridge objects were identified, and three scales - via the multi-resolution scale parameter (SP) - of objects bordering the ridges were classified as cirque objects. The resulting classifications were compared to reference cirques digitized at a scale of ~1:10,000. Results show that the one-third arc-second DEM produces the set of cirque objects most closely resembling the reference cirques. The one-ninth arc-second DEM afforded the second-best classification. These results emphasize the importance in carefully choosing resolution relative to the features extracted, rather than using the highest resolution data available. In the case of GEOBIA workflows, the choice of scale parameter is equally important.


NiTi alloy has a wide range of applications as a biomaterial due to its high ductility, low corrosion rate, and favorable biocompatibility. Although Young's modulus of NiTi is relatively low, it still needs to be reduced; one of the promising ways is by introducing porous structure. Traditional manufacturing processes, such as casting, can hardly produce complex porous structures. Additive manufacturing (AM) is one of the most advanced manufacturing technologies that can solve impurity issues, and selective laser melting (SLM) is one of the well-known methods. This paper reviews the developments of AM-NiTi with a particular focus on SLM-NiTi utilization in biomedical applications. Correspondingly, this paper aims to describe the three key factors, including powder preparation, processing parameters, and gas atmosphere during the overall process of porous NiTi. The porous structure design is of vital importance, so the unit cell and pore parameters are discussed. The mechanical properties of SLM-NiTi, such as hardness, compressive strength, tensile strength, fatigue behavior, and damping properties and their relationship with design parameters are summarized. In the end, it points out the current challenges. Considering the increasing application of NiTi implants, this review paper may open new frontiers for advanced and modern designs.


Sex, Gender and Social Change details the drastic changes in the attitudes toward gender in society since the seventeenth century and its effects on each gender. Gerhard Falk examines the change in roles of men and women as the power structure evens out between the genders. He begins with the place of women in the working world as they gain prominence as executives, in the military, as religious leaders, and in the political arena. He then moves into less studied aspects such as the move toward gender neutrality in fields like nursing and engineering, and the difference between the involvement of the genders in crime. Finally, he approaches the evolution and future of personal lives as roles change within the family and women take greater control over their sex lives.


Objectives: The objective was to determine accuracy of ultrasound in thediagnosis of ureteric calculi confirmed on non-contrast Computed Tomography amongpatients with acute ureteric colic. Study Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: EmergencyDepartment of Nishtar Hospital, Multan. Period: 11-07-2012 to 10-01-2013. Materials andMethods: 100 consecutive patients presenting with acute severe ureteric colic and fulfillingthe inclusion and exclusion criteria were enrolled for the study from the emergency departmentof Nishtar Hospital Multan. Ultrasonography was done in all patients and USG findings wererecorded for the presence or absence of hyperechoic shadows in the ureteric. All the patientsunderwent CT scan to confirm or refute the findings of Ultrasonography. Result: Mean age ofthe patients was 37.85 + 12.60 years. Males were 53 (53%) while females were 47 (47%). Meanduration of pain before presentation was 14.81 + 6.20 hours. Mean severity of pain on visualanalogue scale was 9.40 + 0.8. Overall 79 patients were diagnosed as having ureteric calculi.Ultrasonography detected the ureteric stone in 75 patients and was all found to have stoneon CT scan and represented true positives. Among 25 patients in whom ultrasound did notdemonstrate any stone, 4 were found to have ureteric stone on CT scan thus representing falsenegative whereas 21 (84%) were confirmed on CT scan not to have any stone, thus representingTrue negatives. The sensitivity of USG for detection of ureteric stone was found to be 94.9%,the specificity was 100%, and positive predictive value was 100% while negative predictivevalue was 84% .There was no significant effect of age or gender on the accuracy of ultrasound.Conclusion: Ultrasonography is a readily available, non-invasive and reliable investigation inpatients presenting with acute flank pain to diagnose ureteric stones with a specificity of 100%and a sensitivity approaching 95%. Thus it is recommended that it should be used routinely forthe evaluation of patients presenting with acute flank pain.


The Oak Ridge polycystic kidney (orpk) mutant mouse model resulted from a transgene insertion into the Tg737 gene and exhibits a pleiotropic syndrome with lesions in the kidney, liver, and pancreas. We found marked differences in the phenotypic expression of the orpk mutation when bred on different genetic backgrounds. In the FVB/N background, the phenotype is very severe for kidney, pancreas, and liver lesions. To evaluate better how genetic background might influence the expressivity of the orpk phenotype, we bred the transgene into the C3HeB/FeJLe (C3H) genetic background. We performed a genome-wide scan using backcross and intercross populations with more than 150 markers to map the chromosomal location of the modifier genes that differ in the FVB/N and C3H genetic backgrounds that affect the severity of kidney disease in the orpk mouse. Low-resolution interval mapping was performed using the Map Manager QTb program, with the interval explaining a significant portion of the variance being the distal end of chromosome 4.


As the molecular breeding was progressed, many plant transformation techniques were attained for improving transformation accuracy and used to produce useful transgenic plants. Day by day, new varieties were developed so new transformation techniques required for these newly developed varieties. Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus L.) is a popular and economically important ornamental plant, all over the world. Keeping this in view, we selected 18 varieties of D. caryophyllus L. commonly available in the market and did optimization of culture conditions for more efficient tissue culture and to get higher number of plants via micro-propagation. Four varieties namely Yellowdotcom, Jakarta, Belmonte, Polartessino etc. were selected for organ culture studies from single cell line. The optimum growth was recorded in the MS media supplied with sucrose 3%, NAA 1.0 ㎎/L and TDZ 1.0 ㎎/L. except Belmonte, in which, BA 1.0 ㎎/L was found to be the best combination, in place of TDZ, rest ingredients were same. The most efficient coagulating agent used to obtain higher number of plant from callus was phytagel 0.3%. The most effective explant for higher shoot formation was stem in which 80.2% shoot formation was recorded. It also reduced culture periods by 6 days.


Recovering the wavelengths from disordered speckle patterns has become an exciting prospect as a wavelength measurement method due to its high resolution and simple design. In previous studies, panel cameras were often utilized as the speckle images receiver. However, high cost (especially at near infrared range), large size and low speed limit its application in optical communications, metrology and optical sensing. In this work, the speckle patterns were highly compressed into four intensities by using a quadrant detector (QD). And wavelengths still can be recovered through only four pixels instead of millions of pixels of a camera. A new CNN based demodulation algorithm, shallow residual network (SRN), was proposed to recognize the wavelengths from the highly compressed speckle images. Finally, a wavelength precision of 4 fm (~ 0.5 MHz) with an updating speed of ~ 1 kHz was achieved in the demonstrations. In addition, the SRN shows a broad measurement range and good noise robustness. Compared with camera based system, the QD detection scheme associated with the CNN algorithm provides a compact, high speed, and low cost method to examine the speckle patterns, which opens new routes in many other �elds.


Hybrid Bond Graph (HBG) is a Bond Graph-based modelling approach which provides an effective tool not only for dynamic modeling but also for fault detection and isolation (FDI) of switching systems. Bond graph (BG) has been proven useful for FDI for continuous systems. In addition, BG provides the causal relations between system's variables which allow FDI algorithms to be developed systematically from the graph. There are many methods that exploit structural relations and functional redundancy in the system model to find efficient solutions for the residual generation and residual evaluation steps in FDI of switching systems. This paper describes two different techniques, quantitative and qualitative, based on common modelling approach that employs HBG. In quantitative approach, global analytical redundancy relationships (GARRs) are derived from the HBG model with a specified causality assignment procedure. GARRs describe the system behaviour at all of its operating modes. In qualitative approach, functional redundancy can be captured by a Temporal Causal Graph (TCG), a directed graph that may include temporal information.


Regulation efficiency is essential in addressing the growing informal sector in developing countries because informality thrives with an inefficient legal and regulatory framework of an economy. This paper, therefore, seeks to explore the effect of regulations on informal employment across a panel of 36 sub-Saharan Africa from 2005 to 2018. The study includes both the business and labour aspects of regulation to analyse the effect. The fixed effect and GMM method of panel regression analysis was adopted to achieve the objective of the study. The result suggests that an increase in labour regulation efficiency is associated with a reduction in informal employment while there exists no significant relationship between efficient business regulation and informal employment. The study further investigates how the outcomes affect both genders and the output. The study suggests that efficient labour regulation is gender-specific, as the result is only consistent for the male. It is therefore imperative to incorporate more female gender-specific incentives in the social and labour regulations to compensate for the imbalance of social roles of women that may affect their choice to work in the formal or informal sector.


Golog is a situation calculus-based logic programming language for high-level robotic control, This paper explores Hoare's axiomatic approach to program verification in the Golog context. We present a novel Hoare-style proof system for partial correctness of Golog programs. We prove total soundness of the proof system, and relative completeness of a subsystem of it for procedureless Golog programs. Examples are given to illustrate the use of the proof system.


The Popdc2 gene is a member of the Popeye domain containing gene family encoding membrane proteins with prominent expression in striated and smooth muscle tissue. After introducing a LacZ reporter gene into the Popdc2 locus, expression was studied during embryonic development and postnatal life. At embryonic day (E) 7.5, expression was present in cardiac and extraembryonic mesoderm. At E10.5, expression was found in heart, somites, and mesothelial cells lining the coelom. At E12.5, expression was present in the coelomic mesothelium, pericardial and myocardial layer of the heart, skeletal muscle, bladder, gut, and umbilical vessels. Postnatal expression was found in cardiac and skeletal muscle and in the smooth muscle layer of colon, rectum, and bladder. In the stomach, Popdc2 was exclusively present in the pyloric epithelium. In conclusion, Popdc2 is expressed in various muscle and nonmuscle cell types during embryonic development and in postnatal life. Developmental Dynamics 237:780–787, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Saturn's rings have long been a source of fascination. Interest in them increased in the 1980s when Voyager sent back detailed images of the ring structures showing intricate kinks and braids. In his Perspective, [Showalter][1] discusses results from the Cassini spacecraft reported by [ Charnoz et al .][2] in the same issue that reveal the existence of spiral features in the F ring, a narrow strand just outside the main rings. One possible mechanism for the formation of spiral rings centers on an object called S/2004 S6, possibly a small moon or a clump of dust. This object may have interacted with the ring particles, causing them to scatter into a spiral pattern about the ring. Another possible scenario suggested by Showalter is that S/2004 S6 is the consequence of a large unusual impact event. Continued monitoring of Saturn by Cassini should help decide among the possible mechanisms.

 [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/310/5752/1287
 [2]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/310/5752/1300


Background: Todays modern and future cardio-respiratory physiotherapists are, and will be, presented with ubiquitous and uncertain complex problems in professional life. Yet, to date, teaching approaches lack robust scientific evidence of optimal learning to stimulate students active cognitive engagement of higher-order skills beyond knowledge and skills transfer and are only focused on graduation. For the past two decades, pedagogy recommends the use of active learning strategies to enhance authentic student engagement, self-efficacy, and satisfaction. In recent years, team-based learning (TBL) is emerging as a popular student-centered active collaborative learning strategy that promotes individual and team learning in medical and allied health education. Objective: This paper reports on the design and impact of the novel Hybrid Team-Based learning" (H-TBL) on students engagement and perceptions of their learning experience in a Year 2 undergraduate physiotherapy Cohort. Study Design : A retrospective study. Methods: In 2019, a keynote lecture on Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) was taught using a novel hybrid team-based learning" (H-TBL) comprising phases 1-4, delivered in two sessions (COPD1 and 2) to our year two (n=136), undergraduate physiotherapy students. Results: Of 136 students, 82% engaged in Phase 1, 80% attended Phase 2, and 3 of COPD 2 sessions, and 74% engaged in phase 4. 72% provided their perception of their learning experience. Conclusion: The majority of our students valued the learning experience in H-TBL design. This study confers that H-TBL supports students active engagement and self- efficacy. Future randomized studies are mandated to explore the validity and specificity of H-TBL in the physiotherapy curriculum.


Background Spinal mobility, as assessed by the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Metrology Index, BASMI, and imaging findings have been reported to correlate on the group level. Treatment with anti-TNF leads to improvement of both spinal inflammation as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and total BASMI scores. Objectives Using data from the golimumab (GLM) in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) study (GO-RAISE), we analysed the relationship between single components of BASMI and MRI scores of the corresponding spinal segments in anti-TNF-treated AS patients. Methods Complete MR imaging sets and spinal mobility data were available for 91 pts who participated in GO-RAISE. The MRI scores for active (ASspiMRI-a) and chronic changes (ASspiMRI-c) of the cervical and lumbar spine were compared to BASMI values for the cervical (cervical rotation (CR) and tragus-to-wall (TTW)) and the lumbar (lumbar flexion (LF) and lateral lumbar flexion (LLF)) spine using the linear definition. Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated for baseline scores and for changes in both BASMI and ASspiMRI-a and -c measurements of patients treated with GLM or placebo (PBO) after 14 weeks and after 2 years of GLM therapy. Subanalyses were performed with regard to age. Results At baseline, ASspiMRI-a scores of the cervical spine correlated with TTW (r=0.31, p=0.003) and CR (r=0.32, p=0.002) measurements, while ASspiMRI-a scores of the lumbar spine correlated with LF and LLF scores (both r=0.41, p<0.0001). In addition, ASspiMRI-c scores of the cervical spine correlated with TTW (r=0.46) and CR (r=0.45), both p<0.0001, while ASspiMRI-c scores of the lumbar spine correlated with LF (r=0.34, p=0.001) and LLF scores (r=0.41, p<0.0001). ASspiMRI-a scores correlated better in patients <40 years (TTW: r=0.31, p=0.04, LLF: r=0.42, p=0.005), while ASspiMRI-c scores correlated better in patients >40 years (TTW: r=0.35, p=0.015, LLF: r=0.48, p<0.001). In contrast, no significant correlations were found in change scores (data not shown). There was a negative correlation between MRI chronicity scores and lateral lumbar flexion at 2y: r=-0.26, p=0.037. Conclusions Our data confirm earlier reports on patients with active AS which showed that both inflammation and structural changes contribute to impairments of spinal mobility. In addition, we demonstrate significant correlations of MRI findings with detailed spinal mobility measures before anti-TNF treatment was started. Inflammatory changes had greater impact on spinal mobility in younger patients, while structural changes had more influence on spinal mobility in older patients. The correlation of the observed changes in MRI scores and spinal mobility was significant but not high. This may be due to the different mixture of active and chronic changes in individual patients. Disclosure of Interest X. Baraliakos Grant/research support: Janssen Research & Development, LLC, K.-G. Hermann Grant/research support: Janssen Research & Development, LLC, S. Xu Grant/research support: Janssen Research & Development, LLC, B. Hsu Grant/research support: Janssen Research & Development, LLC, J. Braun Grant/research support: Janssen Research & Development, LLC DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.3781


Patients admitted with spinal injuries following trauma require careful serial examinations to detect any neurological deficit that may develop. Thorough documentation of the findings is of paramount importance. Enforced working practice within the NHS means that these patients are often assessed by different members of staff with varying levels of experience, thus inconsistent documentation can be a cause for concern. The project aim was to design a human computer interface to standardise the performance and documentation of serial neurological examinations in patients with spinal injury, allowing the user to accurately detect any neurological deterioration. A prototype system was developed for ward based PC's incorporating the essential requirements of the neurological examination. Usability testing was performed on the prototype by recruiting fifteen users who would be expected to routinely perform the neurological examination on spinal injury patients. Usability was defined by a number of well defined goals (impression, efficiency, learnability, memorability, safety and effectiveness) and methods used in the evaluation included direct observation during completion of tasks, a questionnaire and unstructured interview. Both quantitative and qualitative data was collected. This data was subsequently analysed using descriptive and inferential methods. The results of the analysis showed that the users responded favourably to the prototype in respects to the all usability goals except efficiency. This lack of efficiency was expected due to the rigid nature of computer based systems compared to paper based methods of recording data but this disadvantage was more than compensated for by the increased patient safety that the system would provide. It can be concluded from the usability testing that the prototype achieves the aims of the project but further work is required in developing the prototype into a final interface design before beta testing in a clinical environment can be considered.


The History of Little Henry and His Bearer (1814), an Evangelical tract, was published on the heels of the Charter Act of 1813, an act of Parliament of the United Kingdom that introduced more regulation of the East India Company and legalized missionary work in India. The act implicitly rationalized expanding British dominance, invoking the moral mission to save the heathen. Little Henry captures this zeitgeist and was received enthusiastically by a readership newly interested in additional imperial expansion as a means of bringing civilization to the colonial world (Regaignon 89).


Most extracellular glutamate in the brain is released by xCT, a glial antiporter that exports glutamate and imports cystine. The function of xCT, and extracellular glutamate in general, remains unclear. Several lines of evidence suggest that glutamate from xCT could act in a paracrine fashion to suppress glutamatergic synapse strength by triggering removal of postsynaptic glutamate receptors. To test this idea, we used whole-cell patch-clamp electrophysiology and immunohistochemistry to quantify receptor number and synapse function in xCT knock-out mouse hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapses. Consistent with the hypothesis that xCT suppresses glutamate receptor number and synapse strength, xCT knock-out synapses showed increased AMPA receptor abundance with concomitant large enhancements of spontaneous and evoked synaptic transmission. We saw no evidence for changes in GABA receptor abundance or the overall number of glutamatergic synapses. The xCT knock-out phenotype was replicated by incubating slices in the xCT inhibitor (S)-4-carboxyphenylglycine, and consistent with the idea that xCT works by regulating extracellular glutamate, the xCT knock-out phenotype could be reproduced in controls by incubating the slices in glutamate-free aCSF. We conclude that glutamate secreted via xCT suppresses glutamatergic synapse strength by triggering removal of postsynaptic AMPA receptors.


Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Introduction The physician assistant profession (PA) is experiencing a proliferation of PA programs nationally, creating a demand for PA faculty to educate and train future PA clinicians. Current data show that the number of minority PA educators is insufficient to train a diverse PA workforce. Previous studies have explored the high turnover rate of minority PA faculty, their retention, and attrition. Guided by the social-ecological model (SEM), the purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of Black and Hispanic minority PA faculty in PA education to gain further insights about the specific role that mentoring has played in their recruitment and retention. Methods Qualitative data were collected from a purposive sample of 6 minority PA faculty using semi-structured telephone interviews. Results This study's findings identified specific SEM constructs—specifically individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels of mentoring—that may influence minority PA faculty recruitment and retention efforts. The participants in this study identified several recruitment and retention factors, including formal and informal mentoring, support, and guidance. Challenges related to lack of pedagogical training and lack of administrative support for meaningful professional development were reportedly overcome by the assistance of colleagues within and outside of their programs. Discussion The findings of this study provide insights necessary to inform professional practice initiatives among PA program leaders and institutional leadership to engage in dialogue and coordinate efforts involving the implementation of effective professional development and mentoring structures.


Due to its high feature resolution and the capability to produce 3D-structures without the need of support-structures, two-photon polymerization (2PP) is one of the fastest growing technologies in the field of additive manufacturing. To ensure good quality of the fabricated parts, proper methods for evaluating the suitability of different material systems for 2PP are necessary. In this paper, we present a fast screening method based on measuring the Young's modulus of micro-cantilevers giving a quantifiable measure and representing the material- and fabrication-properties in one experiment.


The role of increased plasma prolactin (PRL) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is not fully explained. The aim of this study was to compare the clinical features and the treatment administered in RA patients with normal and elevated plasma PRL concentrations. Forty-nine patients with rheumatoid arthritis and 16 healthy subjects were included in this study In healthy controls, PRL concentrations were 7.6 micro/l (median), in 34 patients plasma PRL was less than 20 micro/l (9.9 micro/l) and in 15 patients it was elevated, with a median of 26.7 micro/l. No differences in clinical features were found compared with normal or increased plasma PRL. The introduction of corticoid therapy produced a significant difference. Steroid therapy was administered to 93% of the patients with hyperprolactinemia, compared with 59% of those with normal PRL concentrations. Daily prednisone doses higher than 5 mg were administered to 43% of the patients with elevated PRL, compared with 25% of patients with normal prolactin concentrations. In conclusion, the clinical feature of patients with rheumatoid arthritis did not differ in subjects with elevated PRL concentrations and in those with normal concentrations. The difference between these two groups was in the higher demand for steroid therapy in patients with hyperprolactinemia.


While algorithms for cooperative proxy caching have been widely studied, little is understood about cooperative-caching performance in the large-scale World Wide Web environment. This paper uses both trace-based analysis and analytic modelling to show the potential advantages and drawbacks of inter-proxy cooperation. With our traces, we evaluate quantitatively the performance-improvement potential of cooperation between 200 small-organization proxies within a university environment, and between two large-organization proxies handling 23,000 and 60,000 clients, respectively. With our model, we extend beyond these populations to project cooperative caching behavior in regions with millions of clients. Overall, we demonstrate that cooperative caching has performance benefits only within limited population bounds. We also use our model to examine the implications of future trends in Web-access behavior and traffic.


Background: Protein S (PS) is a vitamin K-dependent anticoagulant whose importance is distinguished by many hematological disorders in PS-deficient individuals. PS deficiency is associated with venous and arterial thrombosis, cerebral thrombophlebitis, myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, and vascular calcification. The 75-kDa PS contains a γ-carboxyglutamic acid module, a thrombin sensitive region, four epidermal growth factor-like modules, and a sex hormone binding globulin-like region that consists of two laminin G domains (LG1 and LG2). PS has three different functions: (a) a cofactor for activated protein C; (b) a cofactor for tissue factor pathway inhibitor, and (c) a direct inhibitor of factor IXa (FIXa). Our laboratory discovered that PS binds FIXa with a dissociation constant (Kd) ~40 nM and inhibits FIXa's function. Currently, we are ascertaining the domain of PS responsible for binding FIXa.
 Result and Discussion :
 By using molecular modeling and biochemical assays, we demonstrated that the laminin G domains of PS are crucial for binding FIXa. However, we do not have any information regarding conformational or structural changes that occur when the LG domains and FIXa interact. To confirm our hypothesis, we used circular dichroism (CD), isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) and biochemical assays to locate the region of the LG domains responsible for FIXa binding.
 CD spectroscopy gives details of protein secondary structure and conformational change. The conformational change was greatest for binding of LG1+2 to FIXa (LG1+2>LG1>LG2); thus, FIXa apparently has a greater affinity for LG1+2 than for either of the separate LG domains.
 ITC measures the stoichiometry and thermodynamics (binding affinity, enthalpy, entropy, and Gibbs free energy of protein-protein interaction. We observed that the binding affinity between LG1+2 and FIXa was higher than the affinity between either LG1 or LG2 and FIXa, with a trend of LG1+2>LG1>LG2. In addition, the differences in Gibbs free energy supported the same trend. The binding stoichiometry was 1:1 in all three cases, which implied that each LG construct binds one FIXa molecule. All three interactions were enthalpy driven, their binding was exothermic, and binding was favored by a negative enthalpy.
 In addition to the foregoing biophysical study, we performed biochemical assays to assess the activities of the LG domains. Thrombin generation assays were performed with PS-deficient plasma supplemented with each LG domain construct and with intact PS. The reactions were initiated with a low tissue factor concentration (0.4 pm) to selectively generate thrombin in the intrinsic pathway. With PS-deficient plasma, the amount of thrombin produced decreased from 255 nM to 155 nM on addition of LG1+2. This result was comparable to the effect of adding intact PS (148 nM thrombin produced). Overall, the structural studies and the plasma studies indicated that LG1+2 is required to mimic the function of PS in binding to and inhibiting FIXa. Similarly, we previously observed that the LG1+2 domain inhibited generation of FXa by FIXa (by ~55%), which was similar to the inhibition of FIXa by intact PS. We conclude that the LG1+2 domain mimics the function of PS in inhibiting FIXa.
 Future Direction:
 To exactly identify the region in the PS LG domains responsible for binding to FIXa, we have created multiple single and double amino acid substitutions in the LG domains. Currently, we are identifying particular PS mutants unable to bind FIXa to precisely map the FIXa interaction region in PS.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a major public health matter. Mainly affecting the elderly, it is responsible for a high rate of hospitalization due to the frequency of acute heart failure (ADHF). This represents a disabling pathology for the patient and very costly for the health care system. Our study is designed to assess a connected and portable bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) that could reduce these hospitalizations by preventing early ADHF.

METHODS
This prospective study included patients hospitalized in cardiology for ADHF. Patients achieved 3 self-measurements using the BIA during their hospitalization and answered a questionnaire evaluating the acceptability of this self-measurement. The results of these measures were compared with the clinical, biological and echocardiographic criteria of patients at the same time.

RESULTS
Twenty-three patients were included, the self-measurement during the overall duration of the hospitalization was conducted autonomously by more than 80% of the patients. The acceptability (90%) for the use of the portable BIA was excellent. Some correlations were statistically significant, such as the total water difference to the weight difference (p=0.001). There were common trends between the variation of impedance analysis measures and other evaluation criteria.

CONCLUSION
The feasibility and acceptability of a self-measurement of bioelectrical impedance analysis by the patient in AHF opens up major prospects in the management of monitoring patients in CHF. The interest of this tool is the prevention of ADHF leading to hospitalization or re-hospitalizations now requires to be presented by new studies.


This collection of papers arises from the International Organization of Women and Mathematics Education conference. It contains contributions which reflect the range of recent studies on the links between gender and the learning of mathematics. The book aims to provide new material for students and teachers of mathematic as well as insight into methodologies and questions in this field relevant to different cultures.


To address water quality concerns and numeric effluent limits, the designers of bioinfiltration/bioretention systems will need to integrate water and soil chemistry into the selection of filtration media mixtures. For the dissolved metals, designers will need to consider the ratio of valence states of the metals as they consider the proportion of ion exchange resins versus organic-based media in the final media mixture. As the correlations between pollutant capacity and soil/media chemistry showed, metals' capacity is directly related to organic matter content and the effective cation exchange capacity of the soil. Available stormwater treatment organic media provides a wide range of treatment sites, but possibly smaller numbers of each site type, compared to ion exchange resins such as zeolites. An activated organic media, such as granular activated carbon (GAC), will have an increased number of surface active sites potentially available for treatment, but this media may not sustain plant growth and may not be desired as a component of bioretention media. Other trade-offs also have to be considered in a complete analysis of a potential media component, such as the trade-off between organic content for plant growth versus nutrient leaching. Finally, there is a lower limit to treatment, after which no further pollutant removal occurs, especially given the contact time requirements based on draindown times required for many bioretention devices. Slightly improved removals for many metals may be achieved with much longer contact times, but the substantial increase in surface area devoted to bioinfiltration may not be cost-effective (given the draindown time requirements). This paper uses dissolved copper as an example of how to use both soil and water chemistry to design an optimal bioretention media from a subset of potential mixture components.


The paper discusses the phenomenon of offense to religious beliefs and its social and cultural context from the perspective of religious studies. It corroborates the idea that public acts that demonstrate obvious disrespect towards a religion, and "premeditated public desecration" of religious objects lead to distortion of the meaning of religious notions and beliefs, rather than offending religious sensibilities as such. A forensic expert working on cases involving offense to religious beliefs and sensibilities needs to be competent in the field of religious studies in order to address three objectives: to investigate the religious meaning of desecrated objects; to determine the intentional nature of the resulting transformation of religious ideas; and to describe the religious and cultural context and the direction of the transformation, which in turn helps to define the social implications of such transformation.


The study area comprises an oil play with numerous opportunities, identifying sandstone sequences with proven potential. The main sequence was deposited in the Upper Miocene within a transitional environment (external neritic), resulting in the formation of bars in deltaic facies and channels, which represents an excellent quality and lateral extension of the storage rock, but also complexity due to internal variability. The trap is structural with closure against faults, formed in an extensive tectonic regime giving rise to normal faulting and increasing the degree of complexity for the characterization of the reservoirs.
 Seismic data have accurate information about these characteristics, however, it is insufficient to solve the variability in the vertical scale, so incorporating all the information obtained in the wells through seismic inversion is essential when characterizing highly heterogeneous reservoirs with thin thickness. Furthermore, the geostatistical inversion combines Bayesian inference with a sampling algorithm called Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) that allows incorporating all the information from well logs, geological information, geostatistical parameters, and seismic data, generating models that honor the input data (Hameed et al., 2011). Additionally, the method provides a solution to the problem of non-uniqueness of the results, based on a statistical distribution of the multiple realizations derived from the initial model.
 This work proposes a flow that integrates quantitative analysis, establishing a direct link between seismic measurements and well logs, which additionally, when combined with non-linear techniques such as geostatistical seismic inversion, can minimize the differences in scales, obtaining better models, more predictive and with quantification of uncertainty. The static workflow used consists of 6 main components: Pre-stacked gather conditioning, curve modeling by rock physics (Vp, Vs and Rho), geostatistical seismic inversion (impedance P, Vp/Vs ratio, density), determination of facies cubes (oil-sand, brine-sand and shale) and petrophysical properties (Vcl, Phie, permeability) using a robust algorithm combining Bayesian inference and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), quantification of uncertainty and volumetric estimation by ranking multiple realizations (P10, P50, P90) and transfer to a geological mesh (upscaling) ready for numerical simulation without the use of typical extrapolation algorithms such as kriging or Sequential Gaussian Simulation (SGS), managing to minimize the scale differences, obtaining better models, more predictive and capable of estimating uncertainty.
 With the results obtained, redefined geo-bodies were extracted, already discretizing the sandstones with good rock quality from the sandstones with good rock quality and bearing hydrocarbons to have greater precision in the development of these fields. Subsequently, the dynamic information was coupled to analyze the existing Pressure Transient Analyses (PTA) that have identified pseudo-steady state and the Rate Transient Analyses (RTA) to numerically model the response, checking the volumes obtained previously. Additionally, a benchmarking was considered with more than 590 oil producing fields in siliciclastics worldwide, considering the main properties of the fluid, porosity, facies and depositional environments and drive mechanisms, thus identifying new development opportunities with less uncertainty.


Haemoglobin-S has been reported in several studies on remote populations from various parts of India eg Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Rajasthan and Malaysian Indians. Uttaranchal also has got scattered areas with people living in remote-pockets due to its geophysical nature. There has been no previous report from this state about prevalence of Hb-S. In the present study on 38 individual eight were found to have Hb-S positivity by sickling test. In one of these electrophoretic confirmation was positive with demonstration of associated Beta thalassaemia. The group was a family of muslims in village Baghori near Haldwani. Due to technical, geographical and social restrictions further study could not be done. However, this study does establish the presence of Hb-S-Beta thalassaemia in Uttaranchal State for the first time. Follow up study in the affected area and elsewhere in the state might discover more of Hb-S positivity, other haemoglobinopathies and thalassaemias.


Purpose: To characterize the effect of cardiac motion on the CyberKnife Synchrony respiratory tracking system for radiosurgical cardiac ablation. Method and Materials: A high precision programmable haptic device (Force Dimensions Omega.6) was used to simulate cardiac and respiratory motion of a ball cube phantom. The CyberKnife Synchrony system was used to track the position of the 25 mm diameter target via spatial correlation of a fiducial within the phantom with the external LEDs placed on a second haptic device simulating chest wall motion. The targeting and tracking error were analyzed by comparing the actual target positions with the linac offset positions predicted from the Synchrony model. Film dosimetry was used to evaluate the effect of cardiac motion on target coverage. Results: Examination of log files revealed that the Synchrony modeling averaged out cardiac motion not present in the surrogate with some error. Superior‐inferior motion from both respiratory and cardiac motion contributed to the largest Synchrony modeling error. This modeling error led to misdirection of the beams from the time averaged target position. Additionally, untracked motion resulted in the target moving into and out of the radiation beams which manifested as softening of the dose gradient changes. Analysis of the films indicated that this was most severe in the superior inferior direction consistent with the extent of motion in that direction. Conclusion: A small additional margin would enable treatment of cardiac targets with the current CyberKnife if Synchrony tracking were used. For the motions and dose distributions tested, a 2 mm margin was sufficient to provide good target coverage in the presence of untracked cardiac motion. S. Dieterich consults for Cyberheart Inc.


Various sensors have been recently integrated in a smart-phone and step detection method based on the acceleration sensor of a smart-phone has been introduced for indoor positioning scheme. Many researchers have put their interests on the study of step detection algorithm based on the acceleration sensor. However, the estimation performances of these methods are not good enough or just suitable for the situation when the position of the smart-phone is fixed in hand because the performance is significantly degraded in other cases. In this paper, a novel step counting algorithm based on the acceleration and the gravity sensors is proposed to enhance the estimation performance regardless of the position of a smart-phone and the motions of a pedestrian likewise walking or running. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is demonstrated with experiments and the performance of the proposed scheme is compared with those of the conventional schemes. According to the results, the performance of the proposed scheme is enhanced compared to the conventional schemes no matter what the pedestrian is walking or running although the phone is in different places like trouser pocket, shirt pocket and hands.


One of the toughest parts of being a grad student is having a limited income. Paying for groceries can be a challenge, never mind finding the money to pay for even a limited education in finances. Grogan Advisory Services, which bills itself as an independent financial services firm, works with the IEEE to offer free advice to student members of the IEEE. A review of current assets and how those assets can be invested to possibly increase their return is among those free services. Larry Grogan, who is the company's head, said that a number of free services are available to all members of the IEEE. Those free services include a portfolio review and consultation and Webinars, which are Web-based seminars that focus on financial topics such as retirement. Individual financial plans can also address investment analysis, funding education, evaluating stock options, and charitable giving, among other topics.


Health care has, he believes, been led on to a mistaken path by the belief that the body is a machine and that medicine should concern itself with identifying and correcting faults and defects when it goes wrong. This is the wrong concept: what we need to do is to identify and correct the external events that lead to the fault in the machine. With that switch in emphasis, medical research has much yet to offer. The wider view should also be extended to personal medicine, so that providing acute care should be seen as the beginning of a responsibility that continues so long as the patient remains unwell, and cutting across arbitrary distinctions-acute and chronic, mental and subnormal.


Over the past three years, the so-called Islamic State (IS) has made significant progress in building an international network of Jihadist groups that pledged allegiance to the organisation. The affiliates of IS are both new-born movements like the Islamic State in Libya, and older groups like Boko Haram in Nigeria. The latter are much more valuable for the 'Caliphate' because they have broad experience and capacities that allow them to operate independently of IS. In its global Jihad, therefore, the Islamic State tried to gain the support of the members of former al-Qaeda franchises, shifting their alliances from Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi. The paper offers an overview of such IS efforts in the Horn of Africa and an evaluation of how successful this quest had been until 2017.


Very little research has been conducted so far into the general problem of producing a 3D soundscape consistent with the visual content of a 3D-stereoscopic movie. First, the following 3D sound reproduction techniques are reviewed: Vector Base Amplitude Panning (VBAP), binaural and transaural techniques, Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) and Ambisonics. Second, the new challenges of 3D cinema are introduced. Third, we reconsider each 3D audio technique in the light of these challenges. We find that, at least in theory, a completely personalized soundscape is needed and that, due to various technical reasons, only binaural reproduction through headphones is able to accurately produce a 3D soundscape consistent with a 3D-stereo movie in a theater environment.


Quality of life has emerged as an important health care outcome for patients with chronic illnesses requiring long-term therapy. Disease-specific quality-of-life instruments have been developed as outcome measures for several chronic diseases, and the number of studies that have used quality of life as an outcome measure has increased dramatically in the past 10 years. Quality-of-life measures have not been widely applied in epilepsy, however. Because seizure severity is an important measure of quality of life, seizure severity scales that quantify seizure severity in the evaluation of medical and surgical treatments of epilepsy have been developed for use in clinical trials. The development of a health-related quality-of-life model for epilepsy, including previously validated scales, and its application to the assessment of treatment effects in a clinical trial are described.


In radiation therapy planning, uncertainties in target volume definition yield a risk of underdosing the tumor. The classical way to prevent this in the context of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) has been to expand the clinical target volume (CTV) with an isotropic margin to obtain the planning target volume (PTV). However, the EBRT-based PTV concept is not directly applicable to brachytherapy (BT) since it can lead to dose escalation (Tanderup et al., 2010). This work presents a treatment plan optimization model that uses worst-case robust optimization to account for delineation uncertainties in interstitial high-dose-rate BT. A scenario-based method was developed that handles uncertainties in index sets. Heuristics were included to reduce the calculation times to acceptable proportions. The method was applied on data from prostate cancer patients, and evaluated in terms of commonly used dosimetric performance criteria for the CTV and relevant organs at risk. The robust optimization approach was compared against the classical PTV margin concept and against a scenario-based CTV margin approach. The results show that both the scenario-based margin and the robust optimization method are well capable of reducing the risk of underdosage to the tumor. As expected, the scenario-based CTV margin approach leads to dose escalation within the target, whereas this could be prevented with the robust model.


In this PhD thesis I investigate the occurrence of quantum coherences and their consequences in biological systems. I consider both finite (spin) and infinite (vibrations) degrees of freedom. Chapter 1 gives a general introduction to quantum biology. I summarize key features of quantum effects and point out how they could matter in biological systems. Chapter 2 deals with the avian compass, where spin coherences play a fundamental role. The experimental evidence on how weak oscillating fields disrupt a bird's ability to navigate is summarized. Detailed calculations show that the experimental evidence can only be explained by long lived coherence of the electron spin. In chapter 3 I investigate entanglement and thus coherence in infinite degrees of freedoms, i.e. vibrations in coupled harmonic oscillators. Two entanglement measures show critical behavior at the quantum phase transition from a linear chain to a zig-zag configuration of a harmonic lattice. The methods developed for the chain of coupled harmonic oscillators will be applied in chapter 4 to the electronic degree of freedom in DNA. I model the electron clouds of nucleic acids in DNA as a chain of coupled quantum harmonic oscillators with dipole-dipole interaction between nearest neighbours resulting in a van der Waals type bonding. Crucial parameters in my model are the distances between the acids and the coupling between them, which I estimate from numerical simulations. I show that for realistic parameters nearest neighbour entanglement is present even at room temperature. I find that the strength of the single base von Neumann entropy depends on the neighbouring sites, thus questioning the notion of treating the quantum state of single bases as independent units. I derive an analytical expression for the binding energy of the coupled chain in terms of entanglement and show the connection between entanglement and correlation energy, a quantity commonly used in quantum chemistry. Chapter 5 deals with general aspects of classical information processing using quantum channels. Biological information processing takes place at the challenging regime where quantum meets classical physics. The majority of information in a cell is classical information which has the advantage of being reliable and easy to store. The quantum aspects enter when information is processed. Any interaction in a cell relies on chemical reactions, which are dominated by quantum aspects of electron shells, i.e. quantum mechanics controls the flow of information. I will give examples of biological information processing and introduce the concepts of classical-quantum (cq) states in biology. This formalism is able to keep track of the combined classical-quantum aspects of information processing. In more detail I will study information processing in DNA. The impact of quantum noise on the classical information processing is investigated in detail for copying genetic information. For certain parameter values the model of copying genetic information allows for non-random mutations. This is compared to biological evidence on adaptive mutations. Chapter 6 gives the conclusion and the outlook.


A cellular cancer therapy is described with unique efficiency even in late-stage disease. in situ activated tumor-immune T cells, induced in allogeneic, tumor-resistant, MHC identical but superantigen different donor mice (B10.D2) could transfer strong graft-versus-leukemia (GvL) effects accompanied by only mild graft-versus-host (GvH) reactivity. Systemic immune cell transfer into 5 Gy irradiated DBA/2 mice bearing up to 4 week established syngeneic tumors and macrometastases led to massive infiltration of tumor tissues by CD4 and CD8 donor T lymphocytes. Upon interaction of immune CD4 donor T cells with host antigen presenting cells in synergy with immune CD8 donor T cells attacking the tumor cells directly, primary tumors (1.5 cm diameter) were encapsulated and rejected from the skin and liver metastases eradicated. For the first time, such adoptive cellular immunotherapy (ADI) was followed in individual live animals by P-31-NMR spectroscopy of primary tumors. An approximately 25,000 fold excess of metastatic tumor cells could be rejected as revealed quantitatively by FACScan analysis of lacZ gene transfected tumor cells.


Progress in neuroscience research hinges on technical advances in visualizing living brain tissue with high fidelity and facility. Current neuroanatomical imaging approaches either require tissue fixation, do not have cellular resolution or only give a fragmented view. Here, we show how regular light microscopy together with fluorescence labeling of the interstitial fluid in the extracellular space provide comprehensive optical access in real-time to the anatomical complexity and dynamics of living brain tissue.


Numerical and analytic results have been used to characterize quantum transport in spin chains, showing the existence of both ballistic and diffusive motion. Experiments have shown that heat transfer is surprisingly always diffusive. The scattering from phonons and impurities have been postulated to be the two factors critical in causing the diffusive transport. In this work, we evaluate the transport process by incorporating a bath of phonons and impurities in order to understand the role played by each of the factors. While methods like time-dependent density matrix renormalization group (tDMRG) can be used to simulate isolated spin chains, the coupling with phonons make simulations significantly more challenging. The recently developed multisite tensor network path integral (MS-TNPI) method builds a framework for simulating the dynamics in extended open quantum systems by combining ideas from tDMRG and Feynman-Vernon influence functional. This MS-TNPI is used to characterize dynamics in open, extended quantum systems. Simulations are done with the commonly used sub-Ohmic, Ohmic and super-Ohmic spectral densities describing the phononic bath. We show that while the transport in presence of impurities eventually becomes diffusive, the exact details are dependent on the specifics of the interactions and amount of impurities. In contrast, the presence of a bath makes the transport diffusive irrespective of the parameters characterizing the bath.


While acceptance of the reality of climate change is rising among the U.S. population, there still exists an inconsistent willingness of individuals to engage in pro-environmental behaviors (WPEB) to mitigate anthropogenic drivers of warming. Decreasing the temporal and spatial psychological distance between the adverse effects of climate change and students' home communities is one proposed approach that environmental science teachers can take to motivate students to take up attitudes to engage in pro-environmental action. This study used data from a large public survey of Americans' perceptions of climate change to better understand whether existing conceptions of the distance of the effects of climate change affects self-reported WPEB. Two ordinal logistic regression models were constructed to compare temporal distance of effects and spatial distance of effects respectively to the WPEB construct. Both models showed the inverse of the expected relationship, where participants who perceived the effects of climate change as more psychologically distant displayed a greater WPEB. These finding suggest that localizing discussions of climate change alone may not be sufficient to increase students' WPEB.


At the cellular scale, blood fluidity and mass transport depend on the dynamics of red blood cells in blood flow, specifically on their deformation and orientation. These dynamics are governed by cellular rheological properties, such as internal viscosity and cytoskeleton elasticity. In diseases in which cell rheology is altered genetically or by parasitic invasion or by changes in the microenvironment, blood flow may be severely impaired. The nonlinear interplay between cell rheology and flow may generate complex dynamics, which remain largely unexplored experimentally. Under simple shear flow, only two motions, "tumbling" and "tank-treading," have been described experimentally and relate to cell mechanics. Here, we elucidate the full dynamics of red blood cells in shear flow by coupling two videomicroscopy approaches providing multidirectional pictures of cells, and we analyze the mechanical origin of the observed dynamics. We show that contrary to common belief, when red blood cells flip into the flow, their orientation is determined by the shear rate. We discuss the "rolling" motion, similar to a rolling wheel. This motion, which permits the cells to avoid energetically costly deformations, is a true signature of the cytoskeleton elasticity. We highlight a hysteresis cycle and two transient dynamics driven by the shear rate: an intermittent regime during the "tank-treading-to-flipping" transition and a Frisbee-like "spinning" regime during the "rolling-to-tank-treading" transition. Finally, we reveal that the biconcave red cell shape is highly stable under moderate shear stresses, and we interpret this result in terms of stress-free shape and elastic buckling.