Adversarial machine learning has attracted a great amount of attention in recent years. In a poisoning attack, the adversary can inject a small number of specially crafted samples into the training data which make the decision boundary severely deviate and cause unexpected misclassification. Due to the great importance and popular use of support vector machines (SVM), we consider defending SVM against poisoning attacks in this paper. We study two commonly used strategies for defending: designing robust SVM algorithms and data sanitization. Though several robust SVM algorithms have been proposed before, most of them either are in lack of adversarial-resilience, or rely on strong assumptions about the data distribution or the attacker's behavior. Moreover, the research on their complexities is still quite limited. We are the first, to the best of our knowledge, to prove that even the simplest hard-margin one-class SVM with outliers problem is NP-complete, and has no fully PTAS unless P$=$NP (that means it is hard to achieve an even approximate algorithm). For the data sanitization defense, we link it to the intrinsic dimensionality of data; in particular, we provide a sampling theorem in doubling metrics for explaining the effectiveness of DBSCAN (as a density-based outlier removal method) for defending against poisoning attacks. In our empirical experiments, we compare several defenses including the DBSCAN and robust SVM methods, and investigate the influences from the intrinsic dimensionality and data density to their performances.


Background Treatment Escalation Plans (TEPs) were introduced at the Royal United Hospitals Bath (RUH) in 2013 to help physicians document decisions regarding ceilings of treatment. In implementing a TEP, a patient may be deemed unsuitable for resuscitation and/or Intensive Care Unit (ICU) but remain a potential candidate for ward-based non-invasive ventilation (NIV). However as ward-based NIV is indicated in relatively few respiratory conditions this option should only be available to a small cohort of patients. This study examines how appropriately patients have NIV cited as a ceiling of treatment, using 2002 BTS acute NIV guidelines as a benchmark. Method We collected data from medical, surgical and geriatric wards at the RUH on three separate days between November 2014 and June 2015. In patients with a TEP who were deemed unsuitable for CPR, we recorded a) the ceiling of treatment decision b) reason for admission and c) co-morbidities. We reviewed how many patients with NIV as a ceiling of treatment had an indication in accordance with BTS guidelines. Results 658 patient notes were reviewed. 109/658 patients were deemed not suitable for ICU but had NIV as a ceiling of treatment. 64/109 patients (59%) had an indication in accordance with BTS guidelines, while 45/109 patients (41%) were non-compliant. There was variation in compliance between specialties (General Medicine 60% compliant, Elderly Care 54% compliant and Surgery 33% compliant). The Respiratory ward was the most compliant (100%). Conclusions Whilst NIV can offer significant survival benefits to patients with certain conditions (eg COPD exacerbations, obesity hypoventilation syndrome and chest wall disease) national BTS audits have repeatedly shown that ward-based NIV is often used unsuccessfully outside of these indications. The current study demonstrates that over 40% of patients admitted to our hospital inappropriately have NIV set as their ceiling of treatment, albeit with some variability between wards and specialties. This suggests that further education is required about the potential limitations of NIV, particularly for non-respiratory specialists who often make TEP decisions.Abstract P43 Figure 1


In high voltage equipment, gases are often used as insulation material. Several parameters can influence the dielectric withstand voltage of gaseous insulation systems, such as the degree of inhomogeneity, gas pressure and type as well as surface roughness. This study focuses on the influence of surface roughness on the withstand voltage of atmospheric pressure air gaps under lightning impulse stresses. For this purpose, surface profiles of different rough metallic surfaces have been characterized using an optical surface scanner with a resolution of 3nm. Based on the extracted features of the surface roughness, axial symmetric random surface profiles have been generated in a multi-physics simulation tool, electric field simulations performed, and streamer criterion applied to estimate the breakdown voltage. To verify the simulation results, lightning impulse breakdown voltage measurements have been carried out in simple configurations (sphere plate and rod plate) for four different degrees of surface roughness of the plate electrode. The experimental results confirm the observed trend in simulations, where the breakdown voltage is only to a limited extend reduced even for considerably rough surface profiles.


This paper presents a messy genetic-algorithm-based optimization scheme for placement of static VAR compensators (SVCs), aimed at voltage stability enhancement of power systems under critical operation conditions. The SVC planning was formulated as a multi- objective optimization problem in terms of maximum worst-case reactive power margin, highest load voltages towards the critical operating points, minimum real power losses and lowest costs of SVC devices. During the genetic algorithm search for the optimal solution, the most critical disturbance scenario was estimated with the configuration of the original power system and each candidate of the SVC placement. The approximation can greatly simplify the SVC planning. By employing a fuzzy performance index, the multi- objective optimization was further transformed into a constrained problem with a single objective function.


Modal and non-modal linear stability analysis of channel flow with a dilute particle suspension is presented where particles are assumed to be solid, spherical, and heavy. The two-way coupling between particle and fluid flow is therefore modeled by the Stokes drag only. The results are presented as function of the particle relaxation time and mass fraction. First, we consider exponentially growing perturbations and extend previous findings showing the potential for a significant increase of the critical Reynolds number. The largest stabilization is observed when the ratio between the particle relaxation time and the oscillation period of the wave is of order one. By examining the energy budget, we show that this stabilization is due to the increase of the dissipation caused by the Stokes drag. The observed stabilization has led to the hypothesis that dusty flows can be more stable. However, transition to turbulence is most often subcritical in canonical shear flows where non-modal growth mechanisms are responsible for the initial growth of external disturbances. The non-modal analysis of the particle-laden flow, presented here for the first time, reveals that the transient energy growth is, surprisingly, increased by the presence of particles, in proportion to the particle mass fraction. The generation of streamwise streaks via the lift-up mechanism is still the dominant disturbance-growth mechanism in the particle laden flow; the length scales of the most dangerous disturbances are unaffected, while the initial disturbance growth can be delayed. These results are explained in terms of a dimensionless parameter relating the particle relaxation time to the time scale of the instability. The presence of a dilute solid phase therefore may not always work as a flow-control strategy for maintaining the flow as laminar. Despite the stabilizing effect on modal instabilities, non-modal mechanisms are still strong in internal flows seeded with heavy particles. Our results indicate that the initial stages of transition in dilute suspensions of small particles are similar to the stages in a single phase flow.


AIMS
Heart failure (HF) guidelines recommend initiation and optimization of guideline directed medical therapy (GDMT), including mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs), before hospital discharge. However, scientific evidence for this recommendation is lacking. Our objective was to determine whether initiation of MRA prior to hospital discharge is associated with improved outcomes.

METHODS AND RESULTS
We performed a secondary analysis of 6197 patients enrolled in the RELAXin in AHF-2 (acute HF) study. Patients were divided into 4 groups according to MRA therapy at baseline and discharge. At baseline 30% of patients received MRA therapy, which increased to 50% of patients at discharge. In-hospital initiation of an MRA was observed in 1690 (27%) patients, 1438 (23%) patients remained on MRA therapy, 418 (7%) patients discontinued MRA treatment, and 2651 (42%) patients did not receive an MRA during hospital stay. Compared with patients who did not receive MRA therapy, in-hospital initiation of a MRA was independently associated with lower risks of mortality (multivariable hazard ratio (HR) 0.76 (0.60-0.96), p = 0.02), cardiovascular (CV) death (HR 0.77 (0.59-1.01), p = 0.06), hospitalization for HF or renal failure (HR 0.72 (0.60-0.86), p = 0.0003) and the composite endpoint of CV death and/or rehospitalization for HF or renal failure (HR 0.71 (0.61-0.83), p < 0.0001) at 180 days. These results were independent of baseline left ventricular ejection fraction.

CONCLUSION
In patients hospitalized for acute HF, in-hospital initiation of an MRA was associated with improved post-discharge outcomes, independent of LVEF and other potential confounders. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


The article deals with contemporary issues and experiences in practice-oriented training in higher education for tourism and hospitality. Among main problems marked are unwillingness of institutions of higher education to converse towards the new format of conducting educational activities; inconsistency on the part of business and tourist hotel industry, which voice dissatisfaction with the level of competency of graduates and at the same time actively remove themselves from real participation in the development and implementation of appropriate educational programs; lack of common terminology in the designation of positions and qualifications between scholars and tourist industry practitioners; lack of regulatory documentation support and coordination of competencies of graduates to the functional requirements of specific categories of personnel, and others. In the example of Russian State University of Tourism and Service for the integration of tourism education and tourism industry as a sphere of professional applications of graduates' competences proposed are approaches to change the format and theoretical training as well as educational and industrial practices for bachelors enrolled in the areas of Tourism and Hospitality. Also shown is the specifics corresponding to each direction of organizational and specific content, as well as the role of the simulation environment for high school students during the development of their practical skills. As a basic condition for the successful implementation of the proposed approach, the author identified the development and approval of professional standards for employees of the tourism industry; willingness of higher education institutions to abandon the usual principles and techniques of the educational process; active and effective business desire to engage in the training of qualified personnel for their own purposes.


This study is focused on the aspect of law enforcement, especially on tax law. The study additionally examines the process of tax laws enforcement that tends to emphasize on the criminal law rather than on administrative one. This research was conducted by using a normative juridical method focused on primary and secondary materials.The result of the research shows that merely emphasizing the criminal aspects of tax law enforcement will only jeopardizes the primary goal of tax administration in collecting tax revenue that is highly needed for public needs such as building schools, bridges, hospitals, fuel subsidies, and so on. Conversely, using an administrative approach will maximize tax revenue because it will make taxpayers and tax officers feel safe every time they face a tax dispute.
Key words : Administrative law, criminal law, government spending.


Image segmentation is the pixel-by-pixel detection of objects, which is the most challenging but informative in the fundamental tasks of machine learning including image classification and object detection. Pixel-by-pixel segmentation is required to apply machine learning to support fetal cardiac ultrasound screening; we have to detect cardiac substructures precisely which are small and change shapes dynamically with fetal heartbeats, such as the ventricular septum. This task is difficult for general segmentation methods such as DeepLab v3+, and U-net. Hence, here we proposed a novel segmentation method named Cropping-Segmentation-Calibration (CSC) that is specific to the ventricular septum in ultrasound videos in this study. CSC employs the time-series information of videos and specific section information to calibrate the output of U-net. The actual sections of the ventricular septum were annotated in 615 frames from 421 normal fetal cardiac ultrasound videos of 211 pregnant women who were screened. The dataset was assigned a ratio of 2:1, which corresponded to a ratio of the training to test data, and three-fold cross-validation was conducted. The segmentation results of DeepLab v3+, U-net, and CSC were evaluated using the values of the mean intersection over union (mIoU), which were 0.0224, 0.1519, and 0.5543, respectively. The results reveal the superior performance of CSC.


The uphill transport of boric acid in aqueous solutions through a thermal-crosslinked poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) membrane was investigated. A normal permeation caused by the concentration difference of the boron along the PVA membrane was observed for equal pH conditions at both sides of the membrane, and higher flux was observed under an acidic condition at pH = 5.0 than under a basic condition at pH = 10.0. When the pH of one side is kept pH = 5.0 (acid side) and the other side was kept at pH = 10.0 (base side), uphill transport of boric acid from the acid side to the base side was observed under an equal initial concentration of both sides. Such an uphill transport was also observed against the concentration difference under the condition in which the initial concentration of the base side was higher than that of the acid side. The uphill transport could be explained by the difference in the permeation rates through the PVA membrane between B(OH)3, the dominant form under lower pH, and B(OH)4−, the dominant form under higher pH, which makes a complex with diols in PVA. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 104: 1451–1455, 2007


OBJECTIVE
To identify the predictors of massive blood transfusion in liver transplantation for patients with benign end-stage liver disease (ESLD).

METHODS
The clinical data of 268 patients with ESLD mainly caused by hepatitis B who were to receive cadaver liver transplantation performed by 5 groups of anesthesiologists respectively were retrospectively reviewed. The patients were divided into 2 groups according to the transfusion amount: massive blood transfusion (MBT) group (n = 120) receiving the blood transfusion of more than 12 units of red blood cells (RBCs) during the operation, and non-massive blood transfusion (NBT) group (n = 148). Univariate analysis and stepwise logistic regression were used. The influence of anesthesiologists on administration of blood cells was analyzed.

RESULTS
During the liver transplantation, 98.13% of the patients received RBC transfusion of the mean dose of 13.32 units. Different group of anesthesiologists exerted no influence on the amount of RBC transfusion. Logistic regression showed that the preoperative MELD score, hemoglobin, platelet, interactional normalized ratio of prothrombin time, kaolin partial thromboplastin time, total protein, serum creatinine, total bilirubin, ascite, and severity of hepatitis were risk factors of MBT. Multivariable logistic regression showed that 2 independent predictors of MBT were identified: preoperative MELD score and hemoglobin. Accordingly, MBT during liver transplantation was predicted by 0.593 - 0.049 x preoperative hemoglobin + 0.137 x preoperative MELD score, with a cut off value of -0.67, a sensitivity of 84.1% and a specify of 71.2%. The area under receiver operating characteristic curves of prognostic score was 0.832.

CONCLUSION
MBT during liver transplantation can be predicted by preoperative MELD score and hemoglobin value in patients with ESLD secondary to type B hepatitis.


The aim of this paper is to investigate how agricultural innovation can be applied to achieve the triple bottom line of agricultural sustainability, environmental sustainability and improved welfare. The different perspectives on the different forms of agricultural technology are discussed. Technological innovation in agriculture that would not only increase the economic returns to farmers but can also make farming done in a sustainable way and at the same time conserve the environment keeping in mind that agriculture, a natural resource-based industry, is contingent on how we protect and conserve the environment is dealt


Postmenopausal hormone therapy increases mammographic density, a strong breast cancer risk factor, but effects vary across women. We investigated whether the effect of hormone therapy use is modified by polymorphisms in the estrogen receptor (ESR1) and progesterone receptor (PGR) genes in the Dutch Prospect-EPIC and the English EPIC-Norfolk cohorts. Information on hormone therapy use was obtained through questionnaires at recruitment and after 5 years. Blood samples were collected and consecutive mammograms were available through breast cancer screening programs. For 795 hormone therapy users, one mammogram before and a second mammogram during hormone therapy use was included. For 781 never hormone therapy users, mammograms with similar time intervals were included. Mammographic density was assessed using a computer-assisted method. Changes in density were analyzed using linear regression. A statistically significant difference in percentage density change between hormone therapy users and never users was seen in women with the ESR1 PvuII Pp or pp genotype (2.24%; P < 0.01), but not in those with the PP genotype (0.90%; P = 0.47). Similarly, effects of hormone therapy on percentage density were observed in women with the ESR1 XbaI Xx or xx genotype (2.20%; P < 0.01), but not in those with the XX genotype (−0.65%; P = 0.70). Also, effects were seen in women with the PGR +331 GG genotype (2.04%; P < 0.01), but not in those with the GA or AA genotype (0.98%; P = 0.53). The PGR PROGINS polymorphism did not seem to make women more susceptible to the effects of hormone therapy use. In conclusion, our results suggest that specific polymorphisms in the ESR1 and PGR genes may make women more susceptible to the effects of hormone therapy use on mammographic density. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2006;15(3):462–7)


Historically, the professional structure of higher education has provided restricted employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women. This is exacerbated where there is an intersection between gender and race, culture, religion, or age. Women continue to be underrepresented in senior leadership positions across a range of disciplines, and this lack of representation of women within the professional structure of higher education itself acts as a barrier for more women reaching senior levels within institutions. More women are needed in higher positions to increase representation and visibility, and to encourage and mentor others to then aspire to follow a similar path. This critical review examines gender equity across the major career benchmarks of the academy in light of the impact of the personal contexts of women, systemic processes, and cultural barriers that hinder career progression. Research-based systemic solutions that work towards improved gender equity for women are discussed. The findings from this critical review highlight the need for global systemic change in higher education to create ethical equities in the employment, career, and leadership opportunities for women.


Summary form only. In recent years the discovery and subsequent research into photorefractive-like gratings in liquid crystals (LCs) has opened new possibilities. We investigated liquid crystal samples (5CB) doped with a relatively high concentration (above 1%) of a Methyl Red dye. At 488 nm, the transmission through our samples was only 58%. We observed that permanent gratings can be created in such samples without any polymer coating of the surfaces, provided that the product of the illumination time and the incident intensity was above a threshold. These permanent gratings, both one and two-dimensional persisted in time and some residual diffraction could also be detected above the liquid crystal phase transition.


Between 1976 and 1986, we treated with curative intent, 108 patients with inoperable esophageal cancer. Eighty-three patients (77%) were treated with radiation therapy alone with a mean total dose of 61 Gy and 25 (23%) patients were treated with induction chemotherapy followed by radiotherapy. Actuarial survival, site of failure, sequellae of treatment, and prognostic factors were analysed in this retrospective study. Survival rates at 2, 3 and 5 years were 23, 16 and 9%, respectively. Local failure occurred in more than 61% of documented failures. Patients with tumor located in the upper third of the esophagus, or with total tumor stenosis or poor performance status had low results, but the difference was not statistically significant. Patients treated according to CT scan plans had a 43% 3-year survival rate; this difference is statistically significant (P = 0.0001). Induction chemotherapy improved one year local control and survival rate (60%), but no long term survival benefit was observed. We conclude that inoperable esophageal cancer can be treated successfully by radiotherapy with a curative intent. We also discuss the role that CT scan planning can play in the effective treatment of these patients.


Background: Application of scalp pins for craniotomy surgeries is a noxious stimulus, causing tachycardia and hypertension, resulting in increased cerebral blood flow and elevated intracranial pressure, hence measures to attenuate this will have beneficial role. Aims: The aim is to compare the effectiveness of scalp block (SB) to 4 μg.kg-1 intravenous (i.v) fentanyl in attenuating hemodynamic response to scalp pin application in patients who underwent elective craniotomy under general anesthesia. Settings and Design: The study design involves prospective, randomized study conducted at Tertiary care center/hospital. Subjects and Methods: Forty-four American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status Classes l and II patients were randomly allocated into the following groups: Group-SB (n = 22) received SB using 0.25% injection bupivacaine and Group-F (n = 22) received 1 μg.kg-1 i.v fentanyl. Patient's heart rate (HR) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were recorded from the application of pins till 60 min and rescue analgesic/anesthetic agents and their dosage were noted. Statistical analysis was performed comparing HR and MAP changes to application of scalp pins. Statistical Analysis: Software developed by the Centre for Disease Control, Atlanta, namely Epidemiological Information Package 2010 was used to derive statistical variables. Results: Patients were comparable in age, gender, hypertension as comorbidity, baseline HR, and MAP. Significant rise in HR was noted in Group-F till 20th min compared to Group-SB. MAP was high from application of pins till 60th min in Group-F compared to Group-SB. Requirement of rescue analgesics/anesthetics was high in Group-F compared to Group-SB. \Conclusion: SB effectively attenuates hemodynamic response to application of scalp pins in patients undergoing elective craniotomy and reduces requirement of rescue analgesic and/or anesthetics.


An examination of the relationship between the issues of race and class in the United States set in its historical context. Leiman argues controversially that black people in the USA will remain the subjects of racism until they realize that their problems stem from class society rather than from the colour difference with whites. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach he explores racism not only from an historical but also an economic and sociological perspective and concludes that racism is embedded in the capitalist system.


Abstract:The official recognition of 'post-COVID syndrome' in 2021, a condition with debilitating physical and mental symptoms including suicidal ideation, calls for analysis of earlier viral pandemics. To test for possible links between the 1918–19 influenza pandemic and suicide, this paper focuses on the state of New South Wales and draws on coronial and newspaper evidence. These sources reveal sixteen cases in which medical and lay witnesses associated acute and post-acute symptoms of influenza with the impulse to self-harm. This feature of post-war trauma, overlooked by historians of the First World War, highlights the capacity of historical research to inform current-day analysis of viral infections' physical, emotional, and psychological sequelae.


The traditional use of medicinal plants played a vital role in treating disease free human existence on this planet and can be traced back over five millennia. Although we have drugs of mineral and animal origin form nature and synthetic substances, plants are almost the exclusive source of drugs for the majority of the world's population. Inspite of overwhelming influence of modern medicine and tremendous advances made in the production of synthetic drugs, traditional medicaments referred to now-a-days as herbal drugs in different places in literature, have retained their place in therapy. Their effectiveness, low cost and comparative freedom from serious toxic effects make these medicaments not only popular but also an accepted mode of treating diseases even in developed countries.In view of the potential use of the medicinal plants as a source of active constituents in eliciting novel drug molecules, We have selected the medicinal plant Andrographis serpyllifolia to examine chemical and biological properties.


We conduct a code search, restricted to the recently introduced class of generalized punctured convolutional codes, under the minimal trellis complexity measure defined by McEliece and Lin. For the same decoding complexity and the same code rate, new codes are compared to well-known existing classes of convolutional codes. Some of the best convolutional codes (in a distance spectrum sense) of existing and new trellis complexities are tabulated.


Paired U.S. Department of Agriculture Select strip loins were injected with either a conventional brine (4.5% potassium and sodium polyphosphate blend [Brifisol 750], 3.6% NaCl, 1% Herbalox seasoning HT-S, and 90.9% ice water) or an ammonium hydroxide (AH) brine (1% AH, 3.6% NaCl, 1% Herbalox seasoning HT-S, and 94.4% ice water). The steaks were sliced, high-oxygen modified atmosphere packaged, placed at 5°C in dark storage for 5 days, and then transferred to a retail display at 5°C for another 14 days. Steaks injected with AH brine appeared to have lower counts of psychrotrophic, mesophilic, and gram-negative bacteria. Immediately after injection, there was ∼1 log CFU/g difference between treatments in gram-negative bacterial counts. No differences in coliform and lactic acid bacterial counts were found.


Resource constrained embedded systems (RCES) refers to systems which have memory and/or computational processing power constraints. They can be found literally everywhere, in many application sectors such as automotive, aerospace, and home control. They are in many types of devices, like sensors, automotive electronic control units, intelligent switches, and home appliances such as washing machines and meters. RCES are becoming increasingly complex and have various communication interfaces. Therefore, they have to be seen in the context of bigger systems or complete infrastructures. Consequently, their non functional requirements such as security and dependability (S&D) become more important as well as more difficult to achieve. The integration of S&D requires the availability of both application expertise and S&D expertise at the same time. In fact, S&D could also require both specific security expertise and specific dependability expertise.

Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) provides a very useful contribution to the design of RCES applications since it bridges the gap between design issues and implementation concerns. Significant research is being carried out concerning MDE for embedded systems, at the level of system architecture, design techniques, testing, validation, proof of correctness, modeling, software reliability, operating systems, parallel processing and real-time processing. More research is needed on the use of MDE to enforce the integration of S&D requirements into the engineering process and to support the reuse of S&D mechanisms.

The objective of this workshop is to foster the exchange of ideas among practitioners, researchers and industry involved in the deployment of secure and dependable resource-constrained embedded systems. Special emphasis will be devoted to promote discussion and interaction between researchers and practitioners focused on the particularly challenging task of efficiently integrating security and dependability solutions within the restricted available design space for RCES. Furthermore, one important focus is on the potential benefits of the combination of model-driven engineering with pattern-based representation of security and dependability solutions. Of particular interest is the exchange of concepts, prototypes, research ideas, and other results which contribute to the academic area and also benefit business and industrial communities. Some of the topics that we seek to include in the workshop are related to the development of models and tools to support the inclusion of SD issues into the RCES engineering process.

Among the 12 initial submissions, 07 papers have been selected and organized in tow sessions, covering a wide spectrum of the subject of Security and Dependability for Resource Constrained Embedded Systems (secure and dependable RCES by design). In "ongoing project and new visions" category, we accepted 03 papers. It is our wish that the workshop provides an appropriate and relaxed environment to discuss these new ideas and approaches. In order to facilitate it each speaker will have 30 minutes for the presentation and discussion. Moreover, we will close the workshop with a working and a discussion session about: Trusted Computing Challenges in Resource Constrained Embedded Systems, Why, What and How.


From the Publisher:
TEX, a software system created by Donald E. Knuth, sets the standard for typesetting in mathematics, science, and engineering. "TEX for the Impatient" is a handbook that arose from the need to help technical writers learn TEX more quickly -- and once having learned it, to find fast answers to common questions. Clear, concise, and accessible, this book is organized for easy retrieval of information, thoroughly indexed, and carefully designed for learning by example.


The Internet of Things (IoT) concept has been around for some time and applications such as transportation, health-care, education, travel, smart grid, retail, are and will be major benefactors of this concept. However, only recently, due to technological advances in sensor devices and rich wireless connectivity, Internet of Things at scale is becoming reality. For example, Cisco's Internet of Things Group predicts over 50 billion connected sensory devices by 2020. In this talk, we will discuss the Internet of Mobile Things (IoMT) since several game-changing technological advances happened on 'mobile things' such as mobile phones, trains, and cars, where rich sets of sensors, connected via diverse sets of wireless Internet technologies, are changing and influencing how people communicate, move, and download and distribute information. In this space, challenges come from the needs to determine (1) contextual information such as location, duration of contact, density of devices, utilizing networked sensory information; (2) higher level knowledge such as users' activity detection, mood detection, applications usage pattern detection and user interactions on 'mobile things', utilizing contextual information; and (3) adaptive and real-time parallel and distributed architectures that integrate context, activity, mood, usage patterns into mobile application services on mobile 'things'. Solving these challenges will provide enormous opportunities to improve the utility of mobile 'things', optimizing scarce resources on mobile 'things' such as energy, memory, and bandwidth.


Oxidative stress is responsible for myocardial injury occurring after ischemia and reperfusion (IR) and has been shown to be modulated by the Haptoglobin (Hp) genotype. In this manuscript we demonstrate that the antioxidant BXT - 51072, a glutathione peroxidase synthetic mimic, provides protection against IR injury in a Hp genotype dependent fashion.


Abstract--Although software engineering has matured greatly over the years, a large number of ICT projects continue to fail[1][2] . Studies continue to identify non-technical issues such as poor communication, shifting requirements and poor executive involvement as the main causes of these failures. This paper identifies such well known causes and poses the question as to why currently available software development life cycles fall short of dealing with them. Drawing on results from a research exercise carried out by the authors, a link is made between the quality of information used throughout the development life cycle and the quality of the resultant product. Consequently, it is proposed that organisations knowingly or unknowingly maintain a knowledge context and the quality of this knowledge context has direct impact on product quality. Furthermore, it is proposed that a software development life cycle be developed in which participants do not focus explicitly on the traditional phases of software development. Rather, a conscious decision is made to focus instead on information which is being created, manipulated and utilised throughout the lifetime of a product. If a link can be established between the quality of the knowledge context and the quality of a finished product, then it is sound to argue that if one nurtures a high quality knowledge context, a highquality product will naturally follow.


Individuals are recruited during an accrual period of R years (or months or days). They are followed for an additional period of time until a total of T years is reached. Hence, the follow-up period is T-R years. At the end of the study, the non-inferiority logrank test is conducted at significance level α with power 1− β . Under the proportion hazards assumption, the hazard ratio HR = h2 / h1 is constant across time. For a given non-inferiority margin HR0 (>1) (the maximum ratio of clinical insignificance), the statistical hypotheses tested are


The invention discloses an attapulgite-shale hollow block which comprises the ingredients attapulgite clay tailing, shale, coal gangue, volcaniclastic rock mixture, bentonite tailing powder, kieselguhr tailing, cement, polypropylene reticular fiber and polycarboxylic acid high-performance water reducer. The attapulgite-shale hollow block is prepared by evenly stirring the ingredients and conveying into a full-automatic block machine, pressing to obtain a semi-finished hollow block, conventionally maintaining for 28 days and packaging to obtain the finished attapulgite-shale hollow block. The attapulgite-shale hollow block has the characteristics of good strength, no cracks, heat insulation, energy conservation, sound insulation, less than or equal to 20% of water absorption and good anti-freezing performance; by using a mass of waste as ingredients, not only the resource utilization rate is improved to turn the waste into wealth, but also the land occupation is decreased to protect and purify the environment and save the energy; and the attapulgite-shale hollow block is suitable for the wall construction.


Since 2019, the Korean government's investments in making data more accessible to the public have grown by 337%. However, open government data, which should be accessible to everyone, are not entirely accessible to people with low vision, who represent an information-vulnerable class. Emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, decrease face-to-face encounters and inevitably increase untact encounters. Thus, the information gap experienced by low-vision people, who are underprivileged in terms of information, will be further widened, and they may consequently face various disadvantages. This study proposed visual communication design accessibility (VCDA) guidelines for people with low vision. Introduced screens enhanced by accessibility guidelines were presented to 16 people with low vision and 16 people with normal vision and the speed of visual information recognition was analyzed. No statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) was found due to the small sample size; however, this study's results approached significance with improved visual recognition speed for people with low vision after adopting VCDA. As a result of the intervention, the visual information recognition speed of both normal and low-vision people improved. Thus, our results can help improve information recognition speed among people with normal and low vision.


Lipidomic and metabolomic profiles of sporulated and vegetative Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus thuringiensis from irradiated lysates were recorded using a quadrupole ion trap mass spectrometer modified to perform two-dimensional tandem mass spectrometry (2D MS/MS). The 2D MS/MS data domains, acquired using a 1.2 s scan of negative ions generated by nanoelectrospray ionization of microwave irradiated spores, showed the presence of dipicolinic acid (DPA) as well as various lipids. Aside from microwave radiation to extract DPA and lipids from spores, sample preparation was minimal. Characteristic lipid and metabolic profiles were observed using 107─108 cells of the two Bacillus species. Major features of the lipid profiles observed for the vegetative states included sets of phosphatidylglycerol (PG) lipids. Product ion spectra were extracted from the 2D MS/MS data, and they provided structural information on the fatty acid components of the PG lipids. The study demonstrates the flexibility, speed, and informative power of metabolomic and lipidomic fingerprinting for identifying the presence of spore-forming biological agents using 2D MS/MS as a rapid profiling screening method.


The movement of key transition metal ions is recognized to be of critical importance in the interaction between macrophages and intracellular pathogens. The present study investigated the role of copper in mouse macrophage responses to Salmonella enterica sv. Typhimurium. The copper chelator BCS (bathocuproinedisulfonic acid, disodium salt) increased intracellular survival of S. Typhimurium within primary mouse BMM (bone-marrow-derived macrophages) at 24 h post-infection, implying that copper contributed to effective host defence against this pathogen. Infection of BMM with S. Typhimurium or treatment with the TLR (Toll-like receptor) 4 ligand LPS (lipopolysaccharide) induced the expression of several genes encoding proteins involved in copper transport [Ctr (copper transporter) 1, Ctr2 and Atp7a (copper-transporting ATPase 1)], as well as the multi-copper oxidase Cp (caeruloplasmin). Both LPS and infection with S. Typhimurium triggered copper accumulation within punctate intracellular vesicles (copper 'hot spots') in BMM as indicated by the fluorescent reporter CS1 (copper sensor 1). These copper hot spots peaked in their accumulation at approximately 18 h post-stimulation and were dependent on copper uptake into cells. Localization studies indicated that the copper hot spots were in discrete vesicles distinct from Salmonella containing vacuoles and lysosomes. We propose that copper hot spot formation contributes to antimicrobial responses against professional intracellular bacterial pathogens.


Advancements in hardware technology have ushered in a digital revolution, with networks of thousands of small devices, each capable of sensing, computing, and communicating data, fast becoming a near reality. These networks are envisioned to be used for monitoring and controlling our transportation systems, power grids, and engineering structures. They are typically required to sample a field of interest, do 'in-network' computations, and then communicate a relevant summary of the data to a designated sink node(s), most often a function of the raw sensor measurements. In this thesis, we study such problems of network computing under various communication models. We derive theoretical limits on the performance of computation protocols as well as design efficient schemes which can match these limits. First, we begin with the one-shot computation problem where each node in a network is assigned an input bit and the objective is to compute a function f of the input messages at a designated receiver node. We study the energy and latency costs of function computation under both wired and wireless communication models. Next, we consider the case where the network operation is fixed, and its end result is to convey a fixed linear transformation of the source transmissions to the receiver. We design communication protocols that can compute functions without modifying the network operation. This model is motivated by practical considerations since constantly adapting the node operations according to changing demands is not always feasible in real networks. Thereafter, we move on to the case of repeated computation where source nodes in a network generate blocks of independent messages and a single receiver node computes a target function f for each instance of the source messages. The objective is to maximize the average number of times f can be computed per network usage, i.e., the computing capacity. We provide a generalized min-cut upper bound on the computing capacity and study its tightness for different classes of target functions and network topologies. Finally, we study the use of linear codes for network computing and quantify the benefits of non-linear coding vs linear coding vs routing for computing different classes of target functions.


Precise and efficient monitoring is vital to ensure that a network works according to the intended behaviour, as well as quickly acting in response to possible problems. The task of monitoring a network becomes complex with increasing network size and its heterogeneity. This work explores the development of a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) system to monitor network communication infrastructures. All the processes of creation of the system and the existing entities will be described as well as their communication capabilities. Then, the definition of a metalanguage will be exposed, allowing network administrators to conFigure and pre-program the network in an effective and versatile manner. The optimization of the monitoring system will be also described, reducing the traffic generated by the P2P network. It will be also addressed how the system became fault-tolerant, recovering its state even if any entity has a problem.


Background:Waldenström Macroglobulinemia (WM) remains an incurable disease with a heterogeneous course, relapse following initial treatment happens in virtually all patients. Ibrutinib, a Bruton Tyrosine Kinase inhibitor, is a promising drug used in WM, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, mantle cell lymphoma, marginal zone lymphoma, and chronic graft versus host disease. Ibrutinib first received FDA approval in WM as a monotherapy in January 2015 and expanded the approved use of ibrutinib with rituximab in August 2018.Ibrutinib-related prior data in Waldenström Macroglobulinemia (WM) remain sparse, particularly outside of clinical trials. Herein, we share a real-life experience using off-label ibrutinib in the treatment of heavily pretreated WM.
 Methods:This multicenter retrospective study conducted in eight different sites included 13 adult patients diagnosed with WM and used off-label ibrutinib monotherapy or with rituximab from April 2016 to November 2019. Disease-refractoriness to prior therapy was defined as progression on therapy or within 2 months of treatment interruption. The response rates were assessed by the modified Third International Workshop on WM Response Criteria.
 Results:TwelveRRWM patients received ibrutinib monotherapy for active/symptomatic WM during the study period; median follow up of the entire cohort was 29 months for the subset that received ibrutinib as salvage therapy. The median time on therapy for the entire cohort was 12.5 months. WM IPSS score was calculated intermediate in three patients and high in nine patients. MYD88 mutation status was assessed in five patients and detected positive at the time of WM diagnose. Before therapy, six of the 12 (50%) had a serum level of 3000 mg per deciliter or higher; after treatment, at the time of best response, two of the 12 patients (16.6%) had a serum IgM level of 3000 mg per deciliter or higher. ECOG performance score was 1 in 75% of our cohort. The median lines of prior therapy for the RRWM were 3 (range: 2-8). Only two patients had received autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) prior to ibrutinib monotherapy. Responses included a complete response in three patients, a very good response in 1 patient and a partial response in six patients, representing overall response of 83.3%. The remaining two patients discontinued ibrutinib due to progressive disease. No several adverse events due to ibrutinib were observed in our cohort. At the time of data collection, one patient had deceased.
 Conclusion:Ibrutinib is an effective drug, associated with durable responses, and safety for both previously-treated and newly diagnosed WM. Our study has several limitations that should be considered when reviewing the results, including the retrospective design and inclusion of a small number of patients. Nevertheless, because of the rarity of the diseases, our data provide useful information on the use of ibrutinib in patients with heavily pretreated WM.

 Ferhanoglu: Janssen: Other: Advisory Board; Roche: Other: Advisory Board; Abbvie: Other: Advisory Board; Takeda: Other: Advisory Board. Beksac:Takeda: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Sanofi: Speakers Bureau; Amgen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Janssen&janssen: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Celgene: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau; Deva: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Speakers Bureau.

 ibrutinib were used off-label


This paper deals with the investigation of a method for sustainment of high-power microwave discharge in the installation for natural-gas decomposition. The essence of the method is to provide a generation of auxiliary discharge plasma in the area where the main microwave plasma torch burns. The design of the electrode system of auxiliary discharge resembles that for a coaxial plasmatron that consumes an average current of about 0.1 A. Then, the nonself-sustained microwave discharge with a frequency of 2.45 GHz has been obtained at a power level from 1 to 3 kW. Such a discharge has been used in the installation for natural-gas decomposition and generation of the carbon nanotubes. With a typical gas flow of 1 m3/h, the natural-gas conversion achieves 40%-80%. Three types of nanotubes are contained in the final product: multilayer tubes, single-layer tubes, and onion-type tubes.


OBJECTIVE
In tuberculous meningitis (TBM) blood flow may be altered due to associated vasculitis, hydrocephalus and raised intracranial pressure. Electroencephalography (EEG) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) provide information about electrical activity and regional cerebral blood flow respectively. This study aims at the correlation of EEG and SPECT changes in patients with TBM.

METHOD
Sixteen patients with TBM whose age ranged between 5 and 62 years and 3 of whom were females were subjected to clinical, radiological (CT and/or MRI), EEG and SPECT studies using 99mTc ethylene cystine dimer (ECD). Ten patients were in stage III and 3 each in stage II and stage I meningitis. Cranial CT scan was carried out in 15 and MRI in 4 patients. Hydrocephalus was present in 9, infarction in 7 and tuberculoma in 5 patients.

RESULTS
SPECT studies were abnormal in all except 2 patients revealing basal ganglionic hypoperfusion in 14 and focal cortical hypoperfusion in 9 patients. The EEG was abnormal in 11 patients which included delta slowing in 5, theta slowing in 6, frontal intermittent rhythmic delta activity (FIRDA) in 3 and epileptiform discharges in 2 patients. All the patients with abnormal EEG had abnormal SPECT study except 1. In 4 patients, EEG was normal although there was subcortical hypoperfusion on SPECT. In spite of high frequency of focal cortical hypoperfusion (9 patients), EEG revealed focal abnormality in 3 patients only.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that the SPECT reveals more frequent abnormalities compared to EEG and CT scan. Cortical hypoperfusion with or without basal ganglia hypoperfusion is associated with FIRDA and diffuse delta slowing on EEG.


Cycle benefits of rotating detonation engines show up to five percentage points of efficiency gain for low-pressure ratio engines. An optimal integration between the combustor and the turbine needs to be guaranteed to realize this potential gain. The rotating detonation combustor (RDC) exhausts transonic flow with shocks rotating at frequencies ranging from a few to tens of kilohertz depending on the number of present waves. Hence, the turbine design requires precise knowledge of the fluctuations and losses downstream of the combustor. This paper focuses on the quantification of fluctuations and losses for accelerating and diffusing passages. The analysis of the combustor is performed via reactive unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations. The unsteady RANS equations are solved via CFD++ from Metacomp with a one-step reaction mechanism for an H2-air mixture. The resolving of the boundary layer is achieved with a structured mesh of around 36 million cells. Inlet pressure of 10 bar and two different back pressures are applied to the combustor to model the interconnection with downstream turbines. Finally, we present and assess a methodology to reduce the computational time to model these passages ten times.


Detecting code clones is an established method for comprehending and maintaining systems. One important but challenging form of code clone detection involves detecting semantic clones, which are those that are semantically similar code segments that differ syntactically. Existing approaches to semantic clone detection do not scale well to large code bases and have room for improvement in their precision and recall. In this paper, we present a scalable slicing-based approach for detecting code clones, including semantic clones. We determine code segment similarity based on their corresponding program slices. We take advantage of a lightweight, publicly available, and scalable program slicing approach to compute the necessary information. Our approach uses dependency analysis to find and measure cloned elements, and provides insights into elements of the code that are affected by an entire clone set/-class. We have implemented our approach as a tool called srcClone. We evaluate it by comparing it to two semantic clone detectors in terms of clones, performance, and scalability; and perform recall and precision analysis using established benchmark scenarios. In our evaluation, we illustrate our approach is both relatively scalable and accurate. srcClone can also be used by program analysts to run on non-compilable and incomplete source code, which serves comprehension and maintenance tasks very well. We believe our approach is an important advancement in program comprehension that can help improve clone detection practices and provide developers greater insights into their software.


A criterion is introduced for determining the optimum sampling interval for the identification of system parameters. It increases the accuracy and stability in identification procedures. This is done by employing a bilinear transformation from the z-plane to the w-plane. Some results of simulations are also included. These reveal the usefulness of the suggested algorithm even in the presence of measurement noise.


A lens-less method for generating vortex arrays with tunable parameters is proposed based on quasi-Talbot effects. By illuminating a two-dimensional periodic sinusoidal grating with a vortex beam carrying a fourth-order cross-phase, the continuous vortex array structure can be generated in the Fresnel diffraction region. Due to the shaping effect of the fourth-order cross-phase on the vortex beam, by changing the constant parameter of the fourth-order cross-phase, it is possible to shape the generation of optical vortex arrays at different positions. This will somewhat broaden the flexibility of the lens-free optical vortex array in terms of generation position. In addition, the generation of polygonal optical vortex arrays is achieved by higher-order cross-phases of different orders. This technique has potential applications in various fields such as optical tweezers, multi-particle screening, microscopic manipulation, etc.


OBJECTIVES We sought to determine the role of conventional atherosclerosis risk factors in the development and progression of transplant coronary artery disease (CAD) using serial intravascular ultrasound imaging. BACKGROUND Transplant artery disease is a combination of allograft vasculopathy and donor atherosclerosis. The clinical determinants for each of these disease processes are not well characterized. Intravascular ultrasound imaging is the most sensitive tool to serially study these processes. METHODS Baseline intravascular ultrasound imaging was performed 0.9 6 0.5 months after transplantation to identify donor atherosclerosis. Follow-up imaging was performed at 1.0 6 0.07 year to evaluate progression of donor atherosclerosis and development of transplant vasculopathy. Conventional risk factors for CAD included recipient age, gender, smoking history, diabetes mellitus, hypertension and hypercholesterolemia. RESULTS Donor-transmitted atherosclerosis was present in 36 patients (39%). At follow-up, progression of donor lesions was seen in 15 patients (42%) and 42 patients (45%) developed transplant vasculopathy, leaving 35 patients (38%) without any disease. There was no difference in any conventional risk factors in patients with and without allograft vasculopathy. However, the severity of allograft vasculopathy was associated with a larger increase in low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol from baseline (p 5 0.02). High one-year posttransplant serum triglyceride level and pretransplant body mass index were the only significant predictors (p 5 0.03) for progression of donor atherosclerosis. CONCLUSIONS Conventional atherosclerosis risk factors do not predict development of allograft vasculopathy, but greater change in serum LDL cholesterol level during the first year after transplant is associated with more severe vasculopathy. Therefore, maintenance of LDL cholesterol as close to pretransplant values as possible may help to limit the rate of progression of acquired allograft vasculopathy. (J Am Coll Cardiol 2001;38:206–13) © 2001 by the American College of Cardiology


This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of dietary supplementation of paprika powder as carotenoid source with three different zooplankton on carotenoid deposition and skin pigmentation of rose bitterling Rhodeus ocellatus. Two replicate groups of fish (initial average weight 0.8 g) were fed the five experimental diets containing 5% paprika (P5) and mixture of 5% paprika with 3% three zooplankton of water flea Moina macrocopa (P5M3), Artemia nauplius Artemia sp. (P5A3) and rotifer Brachionus plicatilis (P5R3) and without supplementation of carotenoid source (Con) for 10 weeks. Survival of fish among the treatments was not affected by dietary supplementation. Total carotenoid contents of whole body in fish fed the diets containing 3% zooplankton was higher than that of fish fed other diets. Especially, the highest total carotenoid contents of whole body was observed in fish fed the P5A3 diet. Similarity, Lightness, and values of the fish fed the diets containing 3% zooplankton tended to be higher than that in fish fed control and P5 diets. The apparent color intensity of skin and fin in fish fed the diets containing paprika with Artemia nauplius and rotifer was better than those of fish fed other diets. The results of this study suggest that dietary supplementation of paprika with Artemia nauplius and rotifer can improve skin pigmentation of rose bitterling.


The idea to increase the cytostatic concentration by direct perfusion of the target organ and to simultaneously reduce the systemic side effect is almost 40 years old. New techniques brought new impulses to this old method, namely regional chemotherapy, by the discovery of a fully implantable catheter system as a byproduct of space research. This system can be used intravenously, intraarterially and intraperitoneally. In addition to avoid some types of complications caused by externally placed catheters this system serves another important goal in palliative cancer treatment: an improved quality of life, as a good ambulatory implementation is secured.


This research project aims at developing a portuguese dialogue system to interact with an online calendar application, the Google Calendar. The dialogue system uses the LF NLP Chain in order to be able to automatically recognize and normalize temporal expressions. This thesis traces the entire development process, including: (i) the study of other dialogue systems that deal with the calendar domain; (ii) the study of dialogue systems developed based on the DIGA Framework; (iii) the design of a solution; (iv) the implementation and evaluation of the devised solution. In this work the DIGA Framework is used on a client perspective, in order to identify possible design and development problems and suggest improvements to the development of the framework. This dialogue system supports four types of interaction with the calendar: scheduling, listing, deleting and searching of events in an online calendar associated with the user. Additionally, the support of a wide range of temporal expressions diminishes the constrains over the dialogue between users and the dialogue system. This work went through two evaluation phases which showed mixed results towards the user satisfaction. This work resulted in a proof of concept dialogue system which successfully recognizes temporal expressions in portuguese and is able to interact effectively with Google Calendar.


A new method of automatic detection of brain lesion based on wavelet feature vector of CT images has been proposed in the present paper. Firstly, we created training samples by manually segmenting normal CT images into gray matter, white matter and cerebrospinal fluid sub images. Then, we obtained the cluster centers using FCM clustering algorithm. When detecting lesions, the CT images to be detected was automatically segmented into sub images, with a certain degree of over-segmenting allowed under the premise of ensuring accuracy as much as possible. Then we extended these sub images and extracted the features to compute the distances with the cluster centers and to determine whether they belonged to the three kinds of normal samples, or, otherwise, belonged to lesions. The proposed method was verified by experiments.


This study was aimed to investigate the killing activity of cytokine-induced killer (CIK) cells after being incubated with autologous tumor cell lysate-pulsed dendritic cells (DC) and to evaluate the clinical efficacy and side effect of autologous tumor cell lysate-loaded DC in combination with CIK on relapsed or refractory non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC) were isolated from 9 patients with NHL, and cultured with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin-4 (IL-4) to produce DC. The DC were pulsed with autologous tumor cell lysate. T lymphocytes from PBMNC were cultured with interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), IL-2, CD3-moAb, and IL-1alpha to prepare CIK. After receiving the immunotherapy of DC and CIK, immunologic and clinical responses were evaluated. The results showed that the AgNOR, CD3(+)CD8(+) and CD3(+)CD56(+) ratio were markedly improved after the immunotherapy (p < 0.01); IFN-gamma and IL-12 levels in supernatant of DC-CIK group were higher than that in CIK group (p < 0.01); Tumor size were significantly decreased after the immunotherapy (p < 0.05). Except transient fever and chill, no remarkable adverse event happened during or after the treatment. It is concluded that the autologous tumor cell lysate-pulsed DC in combination with CIK show ability to specifically kill the lymphoma cells, obviously increases the IS value of Ag-NOR in peripheral lymphocytes, secretes cytokines higher than CIK cells alone. This combination displays the short-term satisfied efficacy on NHL through inducing specific antitumor immunity, and can be used as an effective adjuvant measure for the routine therapy of NHL.


Age and growth estimates of Squalus megalops were derived from the first dorsal fin spine of 452 sharks, ranging from 274 to 622 mm total length. Age bias plots and indices of precision indicated that the ageing method was precise and unbiased. Edge analysis of the enameled surface of whole spines and similarities in the banding pattern deposited in the enameled surface of spines and in spine sections supported the hypothesis of annual band formation. Multiple versions of two growth models were fitted to length-at-age data, from which a two-phase von Bertalanffy model produced the best fit. For males, the change in growth rate corresponded with size-at-maturity, whereas for females, the change was slightly before size-at-maturity. Regardless of the growth model used, growth rate of females (0.034 to 0.098 years −1 ) was very low, making S. megalops highly susceptible to overexploitation by fisheries.


The cardiovascular control system comprises a complex network of various control mechanisms operating on many time scales resulting in complex and mutually interconnected output signals (e.g. heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressures). The analysis of these interconnections could noninvasively provide an information on the regulatory mechanisms involved in cardiovascular control and thus could be potentially applied to better characterize cardiovascular dysregulation in pathological conditions. Our study demonstrates that the strength of interactions among signals changes with the time scale and as a response to changed autonomic state (orthostasis compared to supine rest). Novel insight regarding the interaction between two signals (sources) when influencing a target (third) signal could be obtained by the information-theoretic analysis of sources' redundancy and synergy.


The Present investigation focused on isolation and characterization of fungal strains which has an ability to decolorize textile dye, reactive Blue MR. Initially, the effluent sample was collected from the textile industry situated in ichalkaranji, India. The effluent sample was analyzed for their physicochemical properties. Various fungal species were isolated, and decolorization capabilities of these fungal species were evaluated for reactive Blue MR dye [50 %] in minimal medium, under optimum conditions. It was found that Aspergillus and Penicillium species showed higher decolonization capabilities after 48 hours of incubation. So these fungal isolates are potential candidates for bioremediation.


A discussion of developments in the field of bifurcation theory, with emphasis on symmetry breaking and its interrelationship with singularity theory. The notions of universal solutions, symmetry breaking, and unfolding of singularities are discussed in detail. The book not only reviews recent mathematical developments but also provides a stimulus for further research in the field.


We treat the production of neutrons, photons, and neutrinos through photomeson interactions of relativistic protons with ambient photons in the compact inner jets of blazars. Internal synchrotron and external isotropic radiation due to scattered optical/UV accretion-disk radiation are considered as target photon fields. Protons are assumed to be accelerated to a maximum energy limited by the size scale and magnetic field of the jet, and by competing energy losses. We characterize the conditions when the photomeson interactions of ultrarelativistic protons become effective, and show that the presence of the external radiation field makes possible strong energy losses already for protons with energies Ep & 10 15 eV. Without this component, effective energy losses of protons begin at Ep & 10 18 eV, and would rapidly disappear with expansion of the blob. We develop a model describing the production and escape of neutrons from a comoving spherical blob, which continue to interact with the ambient external radiation field on the parsec-scale broad line region (BLR). Neutrons may carry ≈ 10 % of the overall energy of the accelerated protons with Ep & 10 15 eV outside the BLR. Ultra-high energy gamma rays produced by photomeson interaction of neutrons outside the blob can also escape the BLR. The escaping neutrons, gamma rays, and neutrinos form a collimated neutral beam with a characteristic opening angle θ ∼ 1/Γ, where Γ is the bulk Lorentz factor of the inner jet. Energy and momentum is deposited in the extended jet from the decay of neutrons at distances ld(En) ≈ (En/10 eV) kpc, and through pair-production attenuation of gamma rays with energies Eγ & 10 15 eV which propagate to ∼ 10-100 kpc distances. In this scenario, neutral beams of ultra-high energy gamma rays and neutrons can be the reason for straight extended jets such as in Pictor A. Fluxes of neutrinos detectable with km-scale neutrino telescopes are predicted from flat spectrum radio quasars such as 3C 279.


Aim: A variety of traditional first aid methods in the treatment of burns have been developed. These treatment modalities can bring unusual medical issues. We present a traditional burns first aid method 'shoe polish applying' for scald burns.
Methods: 5 patients (Male: 3, Female: 2), who applied shoe polish to burns due to scald burns, were admitted to our burn centre between 2002 and 2015. The mean age was 29.8 (range: 20 -53). Olive oil impregnated gauzes were applied to facilitate removing the paint at the night before the operation. Mechanical debridement by using Versajet (Smith & Nephew, London,UK) was performed while patients were under general anesthesia.
Results: The shoe polish was removed from all of the patients. Burned areas healed after appropriate dressings and no skin graft application was needed.
Conclusion: The Versajet Hydrosurgery System and olive oil or other oily substances usage has strong effects on the treatment. Permanent black tattoos can occur in the later stages, if patients do not take proper treatment.


ABSTRACT In many species, individual social animals interact with others in their group and change their collective behaviours. For the solitary nematode Caenorhabditis elegans strain N2, previous research suggests that individuals can change the behaviour of other worms via pheromones and mechanosensory interactions. In particular, pheromones affect foraging behaviour, so that the chemotactic behaviours of individuals in a group (population) can be modulated by interactions with other individuals in the population. To investigate this, we directly compared the chemotactic behaviours of isolated (single) worms with those of individual animals within a population. We found that worms approached an odour source in a distinct manner depending on whether they were alone or in a population. Analysis of behaviours of the N2 worm and a pheromone production-defective mutant revealed that the 'pirouette' strategy was modulated by interaction of the worms via pheromones. Thus, pheromones play an important role in the characteristic collective behaviours seen in the population condition. Summary: Chemotactic behaviours of Caenorhabditis elegans in a population are modulated by pheromones, leading to changes in collective behaviours.


In this paper, we compared the characteristics of normally-on/off AlGaN/GaN MISHEMTs passivated by an in situ/ex situ SiN layer. The devices passivated by the in situ SiN layer revealed enhanced DC characteristics, such as the drain current of 595 mA/mm (normally-on) and 175 mA/mm (normally-off) with the high on/off current ratio of ~107, respectively, compared with those of the devices passivated by the ex situ SiN layer. The MISHEMTs passivated by the in situ SiN layer also exhibited a much lower increase of dynamic on-resistance (RON) of 4.1% for the normally-on device and 12.8% for the normally-off device, respectively. Furthermore, the breakdown characteristics are greatly improved by employing the in situ SiN passivation layer, suggesting that the in situ SiN passivation layer can remarkably not only suppress the surface-trapping effects, but also decrease the off-state leakage current in the GaN-based power devices.


A new form of a grammar is described, which provides two separate sets of stochastic parameters for representing both the semantic and the syntactic knowledge, required for automatic speech understanding. The semantic structure is introduced as an adequate representation of natural spoken, one-sentence command utterances. The constraints and probabilities delivered by the grammar can be integrated into the framework of a stochastic topdown parser to decode the semantic content of an utterance directly from its observation sequence. The performance of the developed methods is proved for the domain of a speech understanding graphic editor, which can be controlled solely by natural spoken commands.


Biobanks are currently archiving human materials for medical research at a hitherto unprecedented rate. These valuable resources will be essential for developing 'personalized' medicines and for a better understanding of disease susceptibilities. However, for such scientific advances to benefit everyone, it is crucial that biobanks recruit donations from all sections of the community. Unfortunately, other initiatives, such as transplant programmes, have clearly demonstrated that ethnic minorities are under-represented. Here we suggest that this issue deserves serious consideration to avoid biobanks evolving into ethnically biased archives which unwittingly promote race-specific research. Specifically, this necessitates research ethics committees engaging in a re-assessment of the relative merits of individual personal sovereignty and the common good.


"This paper explores the ¿borderline community of migration'.... The placing of migrant identities is examined in the context of Hong Kong immigrants in Britain and Canada. Changes in identity and the meaning of the multiplicity of migrant identities are explored through interview material. The tensions between the multiple facets of migrants' identities reflect the sociopolitical relationships within and between places. The resolution of these tensions is partially revealed in the hybridity and fluidity of migrants' articulation of their identities, whilst maintaining a primary identification with their culture of origin."


This work was carried out to investigate groundwater potentials of Kano city using lineament analysis, and to study the relationship between the characteristics and occurrence of groundwater in aquifers of about 200m deep in crystalline basement rocks of the area by examining the possibility of groundwater occurrence at such depths; despite the general understanding that fractures closes with depth. It shows the use of LANDSAT ETM+ imagery and geological map to investigate areas favorable for groundwater development.  This was achieved by plotting the lineament trends, and lineament density to know the groundwater potentials. Rose (azimuth-frequency) diagram of the lineaments delineated on the imagery shows trends in the directions of N-S, E-W, NE-SW, and NW-SE. The dominant trend is NW-SE. The analyses have shown that the study area has numerous fractures whose major trends are mainly in north-south and northwestern-southeastern directions. Lineament density map shows the cross-cutting lineaments are relatively high in areas around the north-eastern and south-western parts of the study area but low in the other areas. The zones of high lineament intersection density are feasible zones for groundwater prospecting.  The positions of deep boreholes on the map of the area do not coincide with the cross cutting lineaments, and are therefore the yields of the deep boreholes are not sustainable. Keywords: Lineaments, groundwater, boreholes, aquifer, fractures


The (6'S)-configuration of brevipolides A-J (1-10), isolated from Hyptis brevipes, was established by X-ray diffraction analysis of 9 in conjunction with Mosher's ester analysis of the tetrahydro derivative 11 obtained from both geometric isomers 8 and 9 as well as by chemical correlations. The structure of the new brevipolide J (10) was characterized through NMR and MS data as having the same 6-heptyl-5,6-dihydro-2H-pyran-2-one framework possessing the cyclopropane moiety of all brevipolides but substituted by an isoferuloyl group instead of the p-methoxycinnamoyl moiety found in 8 and 9. Conformational analysis of these cytotoxic 6-heptyl-5,6-dihydro-α-pyrones was carried out on compound 9 by application of a protocol based on comparison between experimental and DFT-calculated vicinal (1)H-(1)H NMR coupling constants. Molecular modeling was used to correlate minimum energy conformers and observed electronic circular dichroism transitions for the isomeric series of brevipolides. Compounds 7-10 exhibited moderate activity (ED(50) 0.3-8.0 μg/mL) against a variety of tumor cell lines.


Three clinically used anticholinesterases--neostigmine, pyridostigmine, and edrophonium--were tested for their ability to reverse two levels (60% and 95%) of neuromuscular blockade produced by pancuronium. A controlled in vitro environment of the rat diaphragm-phrenic nerve system was used for the studies. Concentrations of anticholinesterases spanned the clinical range and were extended beyond to establish dose-response curves. Neostigmine was the most potent reversal drug (ED50 for 95% block 5.5 +/- 4 nM), followed by pyridostigmine (0.27 +/- 0.06 microM) and edrophonium (2.1 +/- 0.05 microM). The three drugs were equally effective at reversal of block and fade as measured by train-of-four stimulation. The dose-response curves for all three drugs showed a ceiling effect for reversal of tension and fade. Supraclinical concentrations of drug did not effect complete reversal, especially at 95% block. High concentrations of anticholinesterase led to randomly appearing hyperactivity manifested by spontaneous twitching and repetitive firing with severe fade on stimulation.


This article surveys financial markets experiments from a particular vantage point, namely, asset pricing theory. The goal is to assess to what extent these experiments have (and could) shed light on the validity of the basic principles of asset pricing theory, namely (i) that markets equilibrate to the point that expected returns are proportional to covariance with aggregate risk, (ii) that markets aggregate dispersed information. There appears to be solid support for (i), yet the evidence regarding (ii) is mixed. The reason for the latter is hard to determine, because of features in the experimental design that are at odds with standard asset pricing theory (e.g., the payoff on a security depends on the identity of the holder). Where we can interpret the results, the article demonstrates that the occasional aggregation failures ("mirages") agree with rational learning. More specifically, their number is consistent with the mistakes one expects a Bayesian to make even when she has full knowledge of the likelihood function (of any signals conditional on the value of the state variable that she is learning).


During the school year, motor skills must be approached at all times, offering them a differentiated space within the lessons, depending on the season, motors training topics, material conditions etc. Within the study, we proceeded from the following hypothesis: assume that by using predominantly dynamic games in the physical education lesson we will obtain an increase in the indices of motor quality, the speed and skill in the children. The purpose of the paper was to choose from the motion games, the most efficient ones for the development of motor skills, to explain them, to use them during the physical education classes, and have the results prove their efficiency in achieving the proposed purposes. In our study the research area was established, the hypothesis was formulated, the research methods and techniques were selected, the selected tests applied, the study strategy was established, the data were recorded, and the conclusions were drawn up.


In this paper, a new approach to define the optimum values of the scaling factors for a fuzzy logic controller, based on the sliding mode theory, has been proposed. Indeed, these factors are chosen in such a way that the trajectory in the phase plane is always attracted by the main diagonal of the fuzzy matrix and slides on this line. This approach was first tested in simulation to control the position of a permanent-magnet direct-current machine drive and then implemented on a low-cost 16-bit microcontroller. Furthermore, the scaling factors are tuned in function of the distance between the reference and the output in such a way as to cope with the discretization of the lookup table stored in the memory of the microcontroller. This algorithm has been successfully applied on an advanced test bed, which allows mechanical configuration changes


-Electrophoretic studies showed that the protein content and composition of inflammatory exudates in cutaneous Arthus reactions of rabbits did not differ quantitatively or qualitatively from controls. The specific antigen always produced positive skin tests. With micro-immunodiffusion specific precipitating antibody was found in most post-immunization sera, but was not demonstrable in the corresponding inflammatory exudates. Inflammation was enhanced in the lesions of Arthus reactions but revealed no distinctive qualitative features. The findings of the present and previous studies suggest that the inflammatory reaction as measured by the protein content and composition of the exudate and by the histology of the cellular responses in skin lesions produced by an immunological stimulus is stereotyped and is only affected quantitatively by the immunological state of the host.


Only a minority of patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have access to pulmonary rehabilitation (PR). Home-based solutions, e.g. telehealthcare, have been used in efforts to make PR more available. Aim: To investigate the effects of telehealthcare on physical activity level, physical capacity and dyspnea in patients with COPD, and to describe the interventions. Methods: Studies were identified through database searches, reference lists and contacts with included authors. Abstracts and articles were reviewed based on eligibility criteria by three authors. Risk of bias was individually assessed by two authors. Standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% CI were calculated. Forest plots were used to present data visually. Results: Eleven studies (ten RCT) with a total of 1051 patients were included. Regular phone calls was the most common intervention. Rehabilitation promoted through websites or mobile phones was also used. Telehealthcare was often combined with education and/or exercise training. Comparators were ordinary care, exercise training and/or education. For dyspnea there was a small significant effect favoring telehealthcare (SMD, 0.147; 95% CI, 0.015-0.279). For physical activity level (SMD, 0.328; 95% CI, -0.053-0.709) and physical capacity (SMD, 0.147; 95% CI, -0.094-0.387) a positive trend favoring telehealthcare, although not significant, was found. Conclusions: The use of telehealthcare can lead to improvements in dyspnea and seems to be promising also for improving physical activity level and physical capacity. More studies with the aim to evaluate telehealthcare as main intervention would be of benefit.


This revised edition of a cross-cultural study of rituals surrounding death has become a standard text in anthropology, sociology and religion. Part of its fascination is that in understanding other people's death rituals we are able to gain a better understanding of our own. The authors refer to a wide variety of examples, from different continents and epochs. They compare the great tombs of the Berawan of Borneo and the pyramids of Egypt, as well as the dramas of medieval French royal funerals and the burial alive of the Dinka 'masters of the spear' in the Sudan, and other rituals which at first sight seem to have little in common. Many of these cases are anthropological classics, but the authors place them in an alternative context, so as to shape a novel synthesis on the anthropology of death ritual. A fresh introduction reviews theoretical developments in the field since the book first appeared in 1979.


Job stress can be defined as a dangerous physical and emotional response that occurs when work requirements
are not matched with our own ability, resources, or needs of the workers. Job stress needs special attention
by the company because it relates a worker individual's health and affects operational continuity of the
company's production. The risk factors as the cause of job stress on female and male workers in PT. X are
related to the characteristics and the perceptions of a work environment. The purpose of this research is to
examine the individual characteristics and perceptions of the working environment that affects the incidence
of job stress on female and male workers.
This type of research is observational by designing cross-sectional research with the number of respondents
as many as 50 people. The independent variables in this study included age, education, employment, marital
status, noise, lighting as well as temperature. Dependent variable was job stress on female and male workers
in PT. X.
Female workers at PT. X experienced 32% of job stress and 20% of male workers. The results of logistic
regression analysis obtains a significant influence of working time with job stress (P=0.027) as well as
noise with job stress (P=0.017) on female workers. Male workers are significant to the job stress namely
age (P=0.011), working period (P=0.030) as well as lighting (P=0.005). Advice for job-stress workers to
take a leave, using personal protective equipment to reduce the risk of working environment. The company
provides leave permits for workers and periodically performs work rotation.


The design and experimental characterization of a passive RF (4-225 MHz) filter pertinent to industrial and military aviation environments is presented. The filter utilizes three different low-pass stages and a simple DC discriminating circuit. A detailed theoretical analysis (lumped parameter modeling) of the filter's frequency response is provided. Even though it is not part of the initial design criteria, the filter also effectively blocks both out-of-band high-frequency (f>225 MHz) and low-frequency (f>4 MHz) harmonics. >


Maternal deprivation (MD) for 24 hr during the neonatal period impairs body weight gain in adolescent and adult rats. It has been previously shown that maternally deprived rats consume less standard and carbohydrate-rich diets. Because neuropeptide Y (NPY) is implicated in feeding behavior, we assessed, prospectively, the effects of maternal deprivation, imposed on postnatal days (PND) 3 (DEP3) or 11 (DEP11), on physical development (snout-anal length and body weight gain, measured once a week) and food intake (assessed daily, during the rest and active phases, from PND 23 to PND 51); NPY-immunoreactivity (NPY-ir) in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus was evaluated in male (at PND 52) and female rats in estrous (at PND 53-60). DEP3 and DEP11 male and female adolescents were smaller, lighter, and ate less during the active phase, than their CTL counterparts. This change in food intake was accompanied by reduced NPY-ir in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus. The present results indicate that maternal deprivation had a negative impact on the physical development and feeding behavior of adolescent rats that may be explained by reduced hypothalamic NPY production.


Background Anemia is one of the most prevalent problems in pregnancy. In 2011, 29.9% of all pregnant women in Jamaica were diagnosed with anemia. Objective The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and predictors of anemia in pregnancy in Western Jamaica. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 293 mothers attending post-natal clinics in Western Jamaica. A questionnaire was administered to the mothers, and an abstraction form was used to collect clinical data from the mothers' records. Results The prevalence of anemia among the women was 37.6%. Younger mothers (aged 18–24 years) were more likely to be anemic compared to those ≥35 years (odds ratio [OR]: 3.44, 95% CI: 1.07–11.06). Mothers who reported not always washing their hands after using the toilet were almost 10 times more likely to be anemic (OR: 9.7, 95% CI: 1.72–54.78) compared to those who reported always washing their hands. Mothers who attended a public facility for antenatal care were 2.3 times more likely to be anemic (OR: 2.31, 95% CI: 1.03–5.18) compared to those who obtained care at a private facility, and mothers who reported being told that they were anemic by a health care provider (HCP) were almost six times more likely to be anemic compared with those who were not told (OR: 5.58, 95% CI: 1.73–17.93). Conclusion The results of the study indicate that early identification and treatment of anemia, especially among younger pregnant women, should be a priority. HCP should ensure that women understand the need to be cured of their anemia and to adhere to preventive hygienic practices.


With the help of the Internet, data is often shared between organizations in Business-to-Business healthcare networks. In many applications, users' personal profiles may contain sensitive information that they do not want to make public. The existing system applies the FindU, a profile matching scheme for the Mobile Social Networks. In this scheme an initiating user can find from a group of users the one whose profile best matches with his/her; to limit the risk of privacy revelation, only necessary and minimal information about the participating users is exchanged. In this paper we propose a set privacy-preserving profile matching scheme called FindU for Mobile Health Networks. We design authentication strategies with privacypreserving profile matching requirements in different interactions among participating entities. Finally, we have evaluated the security and computational overheads for our proposed schemes via secure multi-party computation (SMC).


| Squeeze film effects naturally occur in dynamic MEMS structures because most of these structures employ parallel plates or beams that trap a very thin film of air or some other gas between the structure and the fixed substrate. An accurate estimate of the effect of squeeze film is important for predicting the dynamic performance of such devices. In design, availability of very good models for squeeze film effects is indispensable. In this paper, we discuss the development of squeeze film flow modelling, tracking its routes to the air damped vibrating system studies in the early twentieth century. We try to capture the early developments in gas lubrication theory and then discuss the current developments motivated by the complexities in squeeze film flow analysis brought out by the geometries and flow conditions prevalent in dynamic MEMS devices.


ABSTRACT
This final project is aimed to know the strength of concrete brick pressure
with materials lime sludge adding, that is considered by the strength of pressure,
water absorption, and exterior concrete brick testing, also determination of the
best composition of them.
This final project can be categorized as experimental research with
laboratory test technique, which is using dependent variable (variety testing),
independent variable (mixed composition), and variable of control (the materials,
how to make it, and the treatment). The research used three varians of mixed
composition and a control composition, with the amount of samples are 5 matters
of each other. The research was take a place in UNY Civil Engineering
Laboratory. The step of research include : planning model and matters test
composition that's based on comparation (1Pc : 1Sludge : 7Ps;1Pc : 2Sludge :
6Ps;1Pc : 3Sludge : 5Ps and 1Pc : 8Ps as a control), preparation of materials and
tools, making of matters examination, and data processing. Examination was
accomplished if concrete brick had been 28 days. Analysis data technique is
quantitative descriptive method and SNI 03-0349-1989
Generally, the examination gave data : a). Mean of the strength of pressure
for own composition consecutively are 87.13 kg/cm², 74.83 kg/cm², and 61.53
kg/cm². It accomplished quality terms qualification are composition I quality level
II, and composition II quality level II, and composition III quality level II ; b). The
water absorption for each composition consecutively are 10,1%, 9.51%, and
9.29% which accomplished quality terms of qualification is composition III
quality level B70 ; c). Deviation size of composition I has length's 0,60 mm,
wide's 0,84 mm, and thick's 0,82 mm ; composition II has 0,58 mm for length,
0,77 mm for wide, 0,81 for thick ; composition III has length's 0,57 mm, wide's
0,75 mm, and thick's 0,88 mm ; which accomplished quality terms qualification ;
d). Composition 1Pc : 1 Sludge : 7Ps is the best composition that's based on SNI
03-0349-1989 with strength of pressure is quality II, water absorption quality's
B70, and deviation size length's 0,60 mm, wide's 0,84 mm, thick's 0,82 mm.
Keyword : Sludge, lime, concrete brick, strength of presure


Abstract The channel of the Valo Grande (VG) in the Ribeira de Iguape River (São Paulo State, Brazil), inaugurated in 1852, is one of the largest environmental disasters in the Brazilian coast. This article presents a synthesis of the historical, ecological, geographic and sociopolitical dimensions involving the VG. The VG has promoted the ecosystem disrupting and the landscape reconfiguration of Cananéia-Iguape estuary-lagoon complex. Studies have also indicated that part of these environmental changes could be reversible, in the case of VG closure, which was determined by Brazilian jury at second instance in 2018. Such a decision, however, shall be accompanied by an extensive monitoring program aiming at the environmental and social effectiveness of this action in long-term. The VG question still remains unsolved, although more than 150 years have passed since its first impacts in the region. It is a unique case in Brazil, which this article seeks shed some light.


Background: Falls are the primary cause of accidental death in older persons, producing increased morbidity, decreased independence, and billions in medical costs annually. Massage therapy (MT) may produce adaptations that decrease risk of falling. If MT can improve stability in older persons, it may provide a new intervention for this issue. Purpose: Determine the acute effects of a 60-minute MT treatment on static and functional balance, neurological measures, heart rate, and blood pressure in healthy, older individuals. Setting: Laboratory Research Design: A 2 by 4 (treatment by time) mixed factorial experimental design for the cardiovascular and postural control variables; independent variables were treatment with two levels (control, MT) and time with four levels (pretreatment baseline, immediate post-treatment, 20-minute post-treatment, 60-minute post-treatment). Neurological measures utilized a 2 by 2 mixed design, with testing conducted pre- and 60-minutes post-treatment. Participants: Thirty-five healthy, older volunteers (19 male and 16 female; ages 62.9 ± 4.6). Intervention: A 60-minute full-body therapeutic massage. The control group rested quietly in the treatment room. Main Outcome Measures: Static (double-legged) and functional (single-legged) postural control with eyes-open and eyes-closed; Hoffmann-reflex measures; heart rate, and systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Results: MT significantly decreased rectangular displacement area in both the eyes-open and eyes-closed, double-legged stance conditions (p < 0.05); displacement velocity in both eyes-open conditions (p < .05); and systolic and diastolic blood pressure (p < .05), while increasing heart rate (p < .05). MT also significantly lowered Hmax/Mmax ratios compared to controls (p = .002). Decreased Hmax/Mmax measures were correlated to improved stability. Conclusions: A single, 60-minute, full-body massage therapy treatment was shown to have a stabilizing effect on measures of static and dynamic balance and physiological factors related to stability in older adults. MT should be investigated as a potential intervention to decrease falls in older individuals.


Porcine mammary tissue is a dynamic system that undergoes multiple cycles of growth, differentiation, and regression during the life cycle of a female; however, the mechanisms of mammary morphogenesis are not fully understood. The current hypothesis suggests that epithelial stem cells in the terminal end buds interact with surrounding epithelial and stromal cells during mammary tissue development and regeneration. Because the mammary gland of the virgin animal consists largely of a pad of adipose tissue, we propose that adipose-derived stem cells from the mammary fat pad (MFP) may also play a role in the regeneration process. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to determine whether multilineage stem cells are present in the MFP of gilts. Adipose tissue from the MFP and back fat (BF) from the loin region were harvested from six nulliparous, cycling Yorkshire gilts, approximately 16 mo of age. Methods for isolation of adipose-derived stem cells were modified from those of Malusky and Wheeler (2004; International Society for Stem Cell Research, Proceedings 2nd Annual Meeting, abstr. 248:124). Presumptive stem cells isolated from each tissue type were maintained in vitro in DMEM supplemented with either 10% newborn calf serum (NCS; Rep 1 and 2) or 10% fetal calf serum (Rep 3). BF and MFP cell types formed colonies of fibroblast-like cells within 3 to 5 d. Growth characteristics are shown in Table 1. When the cells were 80% confluent, they were trypsinized and reseeded into 75-cm2 flasks. When cultured in the presence of NCS, both cell types had a progressive decrease in viability, and these cultures could not be maintained past Passage 4. Differentiation of both cell types (Passage 1) into adipogenic, myogenic, and osteogenic lineages are currently underway. Based on morphological evaluations, both cell types are able to differentiate into the aforementioned lineages; however, differentiation of MFP-derived cells occurred at a slower rate and was less pronounced than that of BF-derived cells. These preliminary findings suggest that the MFP likely contains a population of multipotent stem cells; however, at this time, it is not possible to make meaningful statistical comparisons. Further experiments are needed to fully characterize these cells and determine their role in mammary gland morphogenesis. Table 1. Growth of porcine adipose-derived stem cells obtained from the BF or from the MFP This study was partially supported by the Council for Food and Agricultural Research (C-FAR) Sentinel Program and USDA Multistate Project (W-1171).


This book presents a unique collection of fairy tales from contemporary China, translated into English for the first time. Demonstrating the continuity of oral tradition throughout Chinese history, the thirty tales are selected according to the theme of "magic love." Many readers are familiar with European tales of love and family, but these Chinese tales have a very different emphasis. The structural differences are also striking: there are more tales with tragic endings, instead of the familiar "happily ever after," and often more tale types in one tale. They are fascinating to read and challenging in terms of both morphology and cultural symbolism. Unlike many collections of fairy tales, this book provides contextual information on the tellers, collectors, and time and location of collection, along with an introduction to the Chinese social and cultural background, and folkloristic approaches to fairy tale studies.