Objective To explore the relationship between estradiol (E2) and thyroid function during the second trimester of pregnancy and the effect of E2 on sodium iodide transporter (NIS) expression in cultured thyroid cells. Materials and methods We analyzed relationships between E2 and thyroid function in 196 pregnant women during the second trimester. Multiple linear regression analysis was performed between E2 and thyroid function. The human thyroid Nthy-ori3-1 cells were cultured in different E2 concentrations, and the mRNA levels of NIS, estrogen receptor (ER)-α, and ER-β were measured by quantitative real-time PCR. Their protein levels were assessed by western blot. Results E2 was positively correlated with thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) and negatively correlated with free thyroxine (FT4) (P < 0.05). When we corrected for age, BMI, alanine aminotransferase, and serum creatinine, E2 was still negatively correlated with FT4 (P < 0.5) during the second trimester. In Nthy-ori3-1 cells treated with 10 nM E2, NIS and ER-β mRNA levels were significantly reduced, while ER-α mRNA level was not altered (P > 0.5). Moreover, 10 nM E2 significantly decreased protein levels of ER-β, phosphorylated versions of protein kinase A (p-PKA), phosphorylated versions of cAMP response element-binding protein (p-CREB), and NIS, while treatment with the ER-β inhibitor restored the expression of p-PKA, p-CREB, and NIS (P < 0.05). Conclusion High concentration of E2 has a negative correlation with FT4. High concentration of E2 can inhibit the NIS expression through the ER-β-mediated pathway, which may cause thyroid hormone fluctuations during pregnancy.


Objective To provide exemplars of pseudo-hallucinations experienced by six individuals with bipolar disorder, suggest that they may be preferentially overrepresented in those with that condition and argue that their presence does not indicate that the individual is necessarily psychotic. Method Historical definitions of pseudo-hallucinations are overviewed and six profiles are presented considering manifestations in those with a bipolar disorder, their sequencing and response to medication. Results The six patients initially judged such experiences as true hallucinations and, only over time, did they recognize their falsity. Clinical observation suggests that pseudo-hallucinations may be more common in those with a bipolar disorder and that they can precede, cooccur or follow disorder onset, can manifest during any phase of the condition and that they may or may not respond to medication prescribed for the bipolar disorder. Conclusions The exemplars of pseudo-hallucinations overviewed here indicate their richness of expression, their variable time course with illness stages and their variable response to medications prescribed for the bipolar condition.


A surface soil moisture (SM) condition at high spatiotemportal resolutions is required by regional Earth system applications. Here, we mapped daily 1-km SM in the Babao River Basin in the northwest of China during the summers from 2013 to 2015 using a random forest (RF) method by merging SM information retrieved from in situ measurements, optical/thermal remote sensing, and topographical indices. Relative importance analysis was used to determine the optimal predictors for estimating high-resolution SM. A specific RF model (RFVI+sup) was constructed using the optimal predictors including remote sensing albedo, apparent thermal inertia (ATI), normalized difference vegetation index, normalized difference infrared index 5, soil adjusted vegetation index, and topographical indices (aspect and elevation). The RFVI+sup also accounted for missing observations of the thermal index (e.g., ATI) over the mountainous regions. In the comparison between the SM estimates using the new RFVI+sup model and other RF models, the spatial coverage of available estimates increased from 14% to 64% over the study region, the correlation coefficient values were improved to 0.75, the unbiased root-mean-squared difference values decreased to 0.032 m3/m3. Thus, the proposed RF method provided accurate SM estimates with high spatiotemporal resolution over the mountainous regions, by merging multiresource datasets from in situ measurements, remotely-sensed, and topographical indices.


Burkholderia pseudomallei is a Gram-negative bacterium and the causative agent of the disease melioidosis. Melioidosis is endemic in regions of Southeast Asia and northern Australia, with human infection associated with a high mortality rate. The disease can manifest in several forms, including pneumonia, septicaemia or a chronic infection which can affect multiple organs and persist for months or years. This makes treatment of B. pseudomallei infection extremely problematic, complicated further by its inherent antibiotic resistance. For this reason new antimicrobials are required that target novel pathways within the cell. The aim of this study was to evaluate two proteins in B. pseudomallei as future targets for antimicrobial drugs. These proteins included an essential target, inhibition of which would result in cell death, and a second that was predicted to be crucial for virulence. The Min system is responsible for the correct placement of the cell division apparatus. It is made up of three proteins; MinC, MinD and MinE, where MinE is predicted to be essential in B. pseudomallei. The virulence target chosen was PspA, the main effector of the Phage-shock protein (Psp) response. The Psp response is an extracytoplasmic response system that is vital for maintenance of the inner membrane when the cell encounters stressful conditions. In order to validate MinE as an essential target in B. pseudomallei, a number of conditional mutagenesis techniques were used to inactivate the gene. This study found that the min operon was not essential when all three genes were inactivated, but an imbalance any of the min genes did have a detrimental effect on the survival of the bacteria, indicating that this would provide an ideal target for inhibitors. The Psp response was fully characterised by creating a knockout mutant in the pspA gene. Deletion of pspA caused a growth defect during prolonged growth in a liquid culture, also displaying reduced survival in a macrophage infection during this stage of its lifecycle. However, the ?pspA mutant did not show attenuation when tested in multiple infection models and so was not thought to play a major role in the virulence of B. pseudomallei. The results from this study indicate the PspA would not make an effective candidate for an antimicrobial target.


The author conducted a four-week-long field research project in the summer of 2001 among the Narikoravas, a formerly semi-nomadic people, located in one of the civil districts of Tamil Nadu in India. Although regarded as Hindu, their religion consists of unique elements of its own. Based on his own field work, he provides an account of their religious practices.


Isolated pancreatic islet transplantation is a promising alternative to conventional insulin-dependent diabetes treatment but is not yet a practical clinical therapy. In the first few days after pancreatic islet transplantation, substantial donor pancreatic islet dysfunction and apoptosis commonly occur. Islet apoptosis has been documented after extracellular matrix disruption and exposure to proinflammatory cytokines, and during hypoxia before islet revascularization and rejection. These studies show that targeting the apoptosis pathway by adenoviral-mediated gene transfer of the anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 gene exerts a major cytoprotective effect on isolated macaque pancreatic islets. Bcl-2 transfection ex vivo protects these islets from apoptosis induced by disruption of the islet extracellular matrix during pancreatic digestion. Additionally, overexpression of Bcl-2 confers long-term, stable protection and maintenance of functional islet mass after transplantation of macaque islets into diabetic severe combined immunodeficency mice. Notably, genetic modification of pancreatic islets also reduced the islet mass required to achieve stable euglycemia. Ex vivo gene transfer of anti-apoptotic genes has potential as a therapeutic approach to both minimize loss of functional islet mass after transplant and reduce the high donor islet requirement currently needed for successful stable reversal of insulin-dependent diabetes.


Negative thermal expansion, i.e. a type of shrinkage that occurs during heating, was observed in cold-rolled Ti-29Nb-13Ta-4.6Zr alloy (mass%) (TNTZ). The reduction ratio of cold rolling and the angle of the longitudinal axis of specimens with respect to the cold-rolling direction were systematically changed, and then the thermal expansion rate was measured using a dilatometer. Further, the cyclicity of thermal expansion was examined for the cold-rolled TNTZ. From the results, it is observed that with an increase in the reduction ratio of cold rolling, the thermal expansion rate of TNTZ cold-rolled parallel to the rolling direction (RD) decreases, but it increases in TNTZ cold-rolled parallel to the transverse direction (TD). With regard to the anisotropy of thermal expansion, the thermal expansion rate increases with the angle between the longitudinal axis of the specimens and RD. Further, the cyclicity of the above-mentioned anomalous thermal expansion is observed in a temperature range below 473 K, but it is not observed when the specimen is heated above 573 K in the first cycle.


Based on data from the China Statistical Yearbook and China Family Panel Survey (CFPS), this article investigated the influence of regional transportation infrastructure development on family education expectations. Research results show that there is a significant positive correlation between transportation infrastructure and family educational expectations and that the improvement of transportation infrastructure can enhance the family's willingness to engage their children in higher education. According to the results of influencing mechanism analysis, transportation infrastructure development affects family education expectations by increasing family income and changing family reproduction concepts and educational ideas. In addition,  the impact of transportation infrastructure construction on family education expectations is heterogeneous: the positive correlation between them is particularly significant in rural areas with less developed transportation infrastructure, in areas with low average education level of parents and slow information communication, and among families of lower social classes; however, the relationship between the two variables is not prominent in urban areas, in areas where information communication is fast and parents have a higher average education level, and among families with higher social classes. These research findings offer the nation and government new implications for better promoting poverty alleviation through education and rural revitalization in underdeveloped areas.


Recently, the ever-increasing capacity of large-scale annotated datasets has led to profound progress in stereo matching. However, most of these successes are limited to a specific dataset and cannot generalize well to other datasets. The main difficulties lie in the large domain differences and unbalanced disparity distribution across a variety of datasets, which greatly limit the real-world applicability of current deep stereo matching models. In this paper, we propose CFNet, a Cascade and Fused cost volume based network to improve the robustness of the stereo matching network. First, we propose a fused cost volume representation to deal with the large domain difference. By fusing multiple low-resolution dense cost volumes to enlarge the receptive field, we can extract robust structural representations for initial disparity estimation. Second, we propose a cascade cost volume representation to alleviate the unbalanced disparity distribution. Specifically, we employ a variance-based uncertainty estimation to adaptively adjust the next stage disparity search space, in this way driving the network progressively prune out the space of unlikely correspondences. By iteratively narrowing down the disparity search space and improving the cost volume resolution, the disparity estimation is gradually refined in a coarse-to-fine manner. When trained on the same training images and evaluated on KITTI, ETH3D, and Middlebury datasets with the fixed model parameters and hyperparameters, our proposed method achieves the state-of-the-art overall performance and obtains the 1st place on the stereo task of Robust Vision Challenge 2020. The code will be available at https://github.com/gallenszl/CFNet.


Pressure and saturation are of two important parameters to be considered to
evaluate the electrical properties of reservoir rock. As confining pressure can cause
pore space of the rock to collapse and rock properties to change, it is necessary to
examine in details how much the pressure and saturation changes affect the electrical
properties. Investigations of electrical properties of sandstones and carbonates are the
main focus in this work. The effects of pore geometries, confining pressure, and
partial water saturation on electrical properties are investigated. The new electrical
dispersion models from 0.1 Hz until 0.2 MHz for shaly sandstone are also developed.
Petrographic image analysis is carried out to asses pore geometry of the media.
Circularity, pore aspect ratio, pore size distribution and pore angle distribution are
calculated to evaluate their effect on electrical dispersion. Confining pressure and
water saturation observation are then evaluated to obtain their impact on pore
structure and complex resistivity.
The result of this work shows that surface conductivity plays as a dominant factor
particularly in shaly media and it is indicated by electrical resistivity dispersion in low
water saturation. When evaluating surface conductivity, the pore geometry has to be
considered because large structure is easier to saturate rather than small structure.
Moreover, the high water salinity can significantly reduce diffusive layer thickness
and if the pore radii are very small, the diffusive layer thickness will touch each other
and block the anion movement.
In addition to these results, it is found that pore radius distribution provides more
contribution to the electrical resistivity dispersion and becomes a basis to extract
porosity from resistivity. Confining pressure only contributes small changes in pore
geometry of media and the use of imaginary resistivity gives a better detection on it.
Modified D-model and Archie's model are developed to calculate the dielectric
viii
permittivity and effective conductivity in high water salinity saturated-rock as a
function of water saturation degree.


Systems medicine is a paradigm for translating in silico methods developed for modelling biological systems into the field of medicine. Such approaches rely on the integration of as many data sources as possible, both in the dimension of disease knowledge and patient data. This is a challenging task that can only be implemented in clinical routine with the help of suitable information technology from the field of Medical Informatics. For the research project "Clinically-applicable, omics-based assessment of survival, side effects, and targets in multiple myeloma" (CLIOMMICS) we developed a prototypical systems medicine application system. It is based on a three-level-architecture covering data representation, decision support, and user interface. The core decision support component is implemented as a case-based reasoning engine. However, the architecture follows a modular design that allows to replace individual components as needed.


Environmental context. The importance of iron as a limiting micronutrient for primary production in the marine environment and its complex marine biogeochemical cycle necessitate accurate methods for the determination of iron in seawater. Current analytical challenges include the detection of trace concentrations (sub-nanomolar) and the high potential for contamination and matrix interferences. To improve confidence in dissolved iron data, intercomparison exercises of commonly used analytical methods are required that demonstrate their applicability to different water masses. Abstract. A blind intercomparison exercise was carried out to validate a well documented, portable flow injection–chemiluminescence (FI-CL) method for the determination of iron in seawater. This was done by the analysis of a variety of filtered Atlantic Ocean samples using FI-CL and a potential primary method of measurement, isotope dilution–inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ID-ICPMS). To investigate the effect of the seawater matrix at various concentrations of iron, samples were collected at various depths (0–200 m) from different water masses (European Continental Shelf, the South Atlantic Ocean) and filtered through both 0.02- and 0.2-μm pore size filters. The exercise was conducted under controlled conditions using the same bottles transported between laboratories to avoid between-bottle inhomogeneity. The results generally showed good agreement between the two methods for dissolved iron over the concentration range 0.15 to 2.1 nM. However, some samples were not in agreement according to estimated uncertainties and this was attributed to random errors arising from contamination during sample handling and matrix effects (i.e. variable interferences) rather than systematic errors.


The pediatrician serves as an advocate for the children of the community. This advocacy includes a concern for the quality of care of all children. The basic and most important source of child care is parenting. Three significant changes in recent years have affected patterns of parenting: (1) an increase in the number of working mothers; (2) an increase in the number of single-parent families; and (3) a decrease in the availability of extended-family alternatives. When neither parent can provide child care, assistance in parenting must be provided by family support systems, including day care. Today in the United States there is a serious deficiency in day care services-qualitatively and quantitatively. Many children are left with inadequate care during a significant proportion of their developmental years because of the large variation in the quality of day care arrangements. In March 1974, about 6,500,000 children below regular school age required some kind of care while their mothers worked. Yet, estimates indicate that care in licensed centers and homes is available for only a little over 1,000,000. By 1985, 6,600,000 mothers aged 20 to 24, with (one or more) children under age 5, will be working or looking for work. The demand for child care facilities can be expected to increase accordingly. Pediatricians must strive for the further development of high-quality day care programs. The American Academy of Pediatrics supports the continued expansion of these services. The Committee9s publication, Recommendations for Day Care Centers for Infanti and Children, outlines in detail what the pediatrician needs to know about day care.


This study aimed to evaluate dose-response relationships of pulmonary and systemic inflammation with respect to a new model of respiratory Chlamydophila (C.) psittaci infection introduced recently. Four infection dosages (inclusion forming units of strain DC 15) were administered intrabronchially per calf: 10 6 (n = 4), 10 7 (n = 4), 10 8 (n = 4), 10 9 (n = 2). Control animals received medium (n = 4) or the inactivated strain (10 8 ; n = 6). Pulmonary inflammation was assessed by analysing broncho-alveolar lavage fluid (BALF) 2-3 days post inoculation (dpi). As biomarkers of systemic inflammation, acute phase proteins (LBP=lipopolysaccharide binding protein, Hp= haptoglobin, CRP) were measured in serum samples. After challenge with viable chlamydiae, most of inflammatory markers followed dose-response curves (Table). In the lung, recruitment of neutrophil granulocytes increased with increasing doses. In blood, LBP was superior in reflecting host response. Conclusion: In conclusion, pulmonary and systemic inflammation varied from mild (10 6 ifu) to severe (10 9 ifu). For further studies, inoculation of 10 8 ifu per animal is recommended to induce a clinically apparent respiratory disease with local and systemic host responses.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain and better understand some of the challenges and even contradictions in relationships between CSR and stakeholder attitudes by comparing consumer and practitioner perspectives on social responsibility, its role in organisations and its influence on consumer attitudes towards companies. The objective is to understand and evaluate factors influencing the authenticity of social responsibility as a contributor to an organisation's value proposition.

Design/methodology/approach
Focus groups of consumers and practitioners (N = 39) were asked to explore CSR in a semi-structured discussion. Themes were analysed using a constant comparative method.

Findings
These data suggest that rather than existing on a continuum of authenticity, there are clear paths emerging for CSR efforts to be deemed authentic versus inauthentic that can begin to better explain the often-contradictory findings with regard to consumer attitudes towards CSR and an organisation's value proposition. Consumer efficacy to influence an organisation and localised CSR emerge as critical determinants for evaluations of CSR as authentic. Further, these data also suggest practitioners may not understand consumer motivations and attitudes about CSR.

Originality/value
These data provide new insights into evaluations of CSR to explain when and why it can fail to meet its objectives. Ultimately, these data produce testable models for authentic (i.e. motivator) and inauthentic (hygiene) consumer judgements about CSR and draw implications for CSR leadership, learning and management.


This paper gives a brief report on the 21 Byzantine coins recovered during archaeological fieldwork at Hadrianoupolis in southwestern Paphlagonia between 2005 and 2008. One coin is silver and the rest are all bronze or copper alloy. Chronologically, the latter are divided between the Early and the Middle Byzantine periods. Although the assemblage is small, it provides useful information about the distribution of Byzantine coins from one of the more remote rural areas of northern Asia Minor.


Mobile Ad hoc NETworks (MANET) are the wireless networks of mobile computing devices without any support of a fixed infrastructure. Routing in MANET is based on mutual support of nodes in the network. But some nodes from the network acts maliciously, so the routing in network collapses. Most security schemes suggested for MANETs tend to build upon some fundamental assumptions regarding the trustworthiness of the participating nodes and the underlying networking systems without presenting any definite scheme for trust establishment. For defining trustworthiness of the nodes different trust parameters are used by different authors in the literature. In order to calculate more accurate trust value we analyze these different parameters from network as well as MAC layer of protocol stack. Furthermore we also assign some weights to these parameters.


The FLC is a well known concept in the sheet metal forming world. It is used to map the material's formability and the make-ability of a product. The FLC is valid only within certain restrictions. These restrictions are: A: a straight strain path; B: absence of bending; C: absence of through-thickness shear; D: a condition of plane stress.
The formability of a material can be increased significantly if one is allowed to violate any of these restrictions, meaning either: use a complex strain path, incorporate bending, incorporate through-thickness shear, or apply a contact stress. Both shear and contact stress change the stress state, and both lower the yield stress in tension and raise the necking limit up to a certain level. Bending creates a non-uniform stress distribution over the thickness of the sheet, resulting in a reduction of the yield force in tension, and it creates a range of stable elongation depending on the sheet thickness at each passage of the punch. The effect of a complex strain path depends on the particular situation; in incremental sheet forming it is based on non-isotropic hardening.
In general it will not be possible to create such conditions in the entire product at once. However it is possible to do this intentionally in a small, restricted zone by creating special situations there. By moving this zone over the entire product the whole part can be made with increased formability. This technique of incremental forming is explained briefly. The special conditions around the punch indeed violate the FLC restrictions mentioned above. The enhanced formability obtained in incremental sheet forming is illustrated with many examples.


The focus of the thesis is on selection and adaptation processes in bacteria with emphasis on denitrifying bacteria in groundwater. Other nitrogen transformation processes such as dissimilatory nitrate reduction to ammonium (nitrate ammonification) and nitrification of forest soil bacteria are briefly discussed. Intensive fertilisation of agricultural soils in southern Sweden have been performed during the last 20-30 years and has resulted in accumulation of nitrate in many aquifers. Selection of denitrifiers in environments with high nitrate concentrations may occur since nitrate may act as a selective agent to alter gene frequencies in natural denitrifier populations. Selection may be accompanied by a community shift with a larger part of the community being denitrifiers with enhanced activity. In essence, a denitrifier that can utilise increased nitrate concentrations more efficiently than its neighbours, becomes more competitive and can allocate increasing amounts of energy to growth and reproduction which would result in an increase in fitness. The community shift may be reflected in the isolation frequencies in which about 50% of strains isolated from two nitrate contaminated aquifers with in situ nitrate-nitrogen concentrations of 24.1 and 35.2 mg/l, respectively, were denitrifiers compared to about 20% for a pristine site with an in situ nitrate-nitrogen concentration of 6.3 mg/l. Microcosms with sterile sediment and groundwater were inoculated with single denitrifying strains isolated from the three groundwater aquifers and the denitrifying activity was quantified using gas chromatography. The average denitrification activity for strains from the nitrate contaminated sites were twice as high as the activity of the strains from the pristine site. Denitrification were carbon limited and glucose amendment increased the denitrification activity about a 2-fold for all strains. The strain specific differences in denitrification rates increased to a 2.5-fold after carbon addition indicating that the differences in reduction rates cannot be explained by different carbon utilisation rates but rather reflect innate differences in the reductases of the strains. A preliminary identification of the molecular target for adaptation was performed with artificial electron donors and electron acceptors for all enzymatic steps in the denitrification pathway using a spectrophotometrical method. Nitrous oxide reductase activity was significantly higher in denitrifiers from the nitrate contaminated sites. This suggests that nitrous oxide reductase genes may be the molecular target, possibly by mutation or gene duplication, for adaptation to high nitrate concentrations. Two anaerobic denitrifiers from each of the contaminated sites were capable of aerobic denitrification indicating that high nitrate concentrations may select for strains that denitrifies in the presence of both oxygen and nitrate. Microcosm experiments with fertilised coniferous forest soil were performed to elucidate whether selection of denitrifiers, nitrate ammonifiers and nitrifiers have occurred as a response to nitrogen fertilisation. The activity of the nitrogen transformers were quantified using a gas chromatograph coupled to a mass spectrometer. The dominating fate of added 15NO3- and 15NH4+ was immobilisation in microorganisms or organic matter. The activity of denitrifiers, nitrate ammonifiers and nitrifiers were negligible, suggesting that microorganisms that immobilise or mobilise nitrogen control the major fate of fertiliser nitrogen. (Less)


The analysis of Floating-Point-related issues in HPC codes is becoming a topic of major interest. First, parallel computing and code optimization often break the reproducibility of numerical results across machines, compilers and even executions of the same program. Second, mixed precision is more and more used to reduce memory footprint and bandwidth wherever possible, thereby benefiting more from SIMD units. This paper presents how the Verrou tool can help during all stages of the Floating-Point analysis of HPC codes: diagnostic, debugging and optimization. Recent developments of Verrou are presented, along with examples illustrating the interest of these new features for industrial codes. As an example, Verrou allows debugging code aster, an industrial, parallel, mixed-precision code for the simulation of structural mechanics. Re-using existing infrastructure from the non-regression testing process, setting up Verrou requires limited effort. The first useful debugging information can be obtained after only 25 minutes, while the full automated debugging process takes 10 hours to complete.


In this paper, two novel approaches to optically generating high-frequency chirped electrical pulses with tunable chirp rate using a tunable nonlinearly chirped fiber Bragg grating (NL-CFBG) are proposed. In the first approach, a high-frequency electrical chirped pulse is generated based on optical spectral shaping and nonlinear wavelength-to-time conversion using a tunable NL-CFBG. In the second approach, two ultrashort pulses at different wavelengths are dispersed at an NL-CFBG. The beating of the two differently dispersed pulses at a high-speed photodetector generates a chirped electrical pulse with tunable chirp rate. The NL-CFBG used in the proposed systems is produced using a simple technique based on strain-gradient beam tuning. Mathematical models to describe the chirped electrical pulse generation are developed, which are verified by numerical simulations. The first approach is also verified by a proof-of-concept experiment.


The information and communication technology (ICT) is transforming interactions between people, governments, and firms worldwide. In developing countries, farmers receive updated crop prices and public health officials monitor medical inventories by text messages. Women are empowered to make decisions and access new opportunities through online information. Entrepreneurs obtain business licenses in a fraction of the standard time by applying for them through municipal government web sites. And in an increasingly integrated global economy, ICT enables people to access and share knowledge and services around the world. The first report, Information and Communications for Development (IC4D) 2006: global trends and policies, analyzed lessons on developing access to ICT, examined the roles of the public and private sectors in this process, and identified the benefits and challenges of adopting and expanding ICT use in businesses. This second report, IC4D 2009: extending reach and increasing impact, takes a close look at mobile and broadband connectivity. It analyzes the development impact of high-speed Internet access in developing countries and provides policy options for rolling out broadband networks and addressing the opportunities and challenges of convergence between telecommunications, media, and computing. The report also presents a framework of e-government applications and discusses various country experiences with the institutional and policy arrangements for e-government and for the development of the local information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services (ITES) industries. The common thread running through these topics is the development impact of ICT. Finally, the report presents summary tables on ICT sector indicators in 150 economies and introduces new performance measures in terms of access, affordability, and ICT adoption in government and business.


Researchers use fixation identification algorithms to parse eye movement trajectories into a series of fixations and saccades, simplifying analyses and providing measures which may relate to cognition. The Distance Dispersion (I-DD) a widely-used elementary fixation identification algorithm. Yet the "optimality" properties of its most popular greedy implementation have not been described. This paper: (1) asks how "optimal" should be defined, and advances maximizing total fixation time and minimizing number of clusters as a definition; (2) asks whether the greedy implementation of I-DD is optimal, and shows that it is when no fixations are rejected for being too short; and (3) we show that when fixation time rejection criterion are enabled, the greedy algorithm is not optimal. We propose an O(n2) algorithm which is.


Carbon matrix metal organic frameworks (MOFs) hybrid is often used as electrode materials for lithium ion batteries (LIBs). Herein, we report three dimensional (3D) puffed rice inspired porous carbon (3DPRC) supported Co-MOFs derived composite by facile method. Co/C nanoparticles are uniformly dispersed on porous carbon sheets surface, forming unique 3D structures. As anode of LIBs, the prepared Co/C-3DPRC electrode shows excellent electrochemical properties when compared with the pristine Co/C electrode. With capacity of 430 mAh g-1 at 1C and 300 mAh g-1 at 10C is obtained in the composite electrode, respectively. The excellent properties can attribute to the Co/C-3DPRC interconnected porous framework with a high electrical conductivity and large surface area. Our developed design strategies can be extended for fabrication of other heteroatom doped carbon matrix hybrid for environmental energy fields.


Seismic velocities in the shallow crust down to a few kilometers depth show a remarkable sensitivity to stress perturbations due to the presence of compliant pores, cracks, fractures, and faults. Monitoring temporal changes of seismic velocities can thus provide key insights on dynamic processes affecting the shallow crust such as those related to the atmosphere (rainfall, barometric pressure, and temperature) and those with deeper tectonic and volcanic origins. In this work, we investigate the specific response of the near surface down to 300 m depth to atmospheric pressure variations. We conduct a four month passive seismic monitoring experiment in the desert of Oman using continuous noise recorded at geophones located within five wells. The results show a clear, direct correlation between seismic velocities and barometric pressure variations for monthly transients. At a longer, seasonal temporal scale, seismic velocities are stable, whereas atmospheric pressure shows a clear positive trend. We use the undrained coupled poroelastic theory to model these observations and find that the lack of seasonal velocity changes can be partly explained by the atmospheric pressure that diffuses into the pores with a strong hydraulic diffusivity likely higher than 100  m2/s consistent with the local geology referring to carbonates. Finally, the comparison between the modeled and observed velocity changes leads to estimate a velocity–stress sensitivity on the order of 6.3×10−7  Pa−1 which is consistent with previous studies. Using this result for calibration, we find that a sudden step-change drop of velocity of 0.015% occurring in the beginning of October 2019 and corresponding to a stress perturbation likely larger than 240 Pa affected the entire studied area. This small change could be related to a perturbation at greater depth associated with variations in the production rates within the underlying reservoir.


Buoyancy-driven convection is likely the dominant driver of turbulent motions in the universe, and thus, is widely studied by physicists, engineers, geophysicists and astrophysicists. Maybe unsurprisingly, these different communities discuss the gross convective behaviors in different ways, often without significant cross-talk existing between them. Here, we seek to draw connections between these communities. We do so by carrying out a set of basic scale estimations for how heat and fluid momentum transport should behave in non-rotating, slowly rotating and rapidly rotating buoyancy-driven convective environments. We find that slowly and rapidly rotating scalings can be inter-related via one parameter, the so-called convective Rossby number $\RoC$, a dissipation-free parameter measuring the importance of buoyancy driving relative to rotation. Further, we map between non-flux-based and the flux-based, buoyancy-driven scalings used by different groups. In doing so, these scalings show that there are clean connections between the different communities' approaches and that a number of the seemingly different scalings are actually synonymous with one another.


The purpose of this study was to prepare a series of pH‐sensitive hydrogels from 2‐hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), acrylic acid (AA), and ammonium acrylate, NH4Ac, which was obtained by neutralization of AA with ammonium hydroxide. Hydrogels were prepared by free radical copolymerization in aqueous solution in the presence of redox initiators, Na2S2O8/Na2S2O5, and crosslinker, ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, EGDMA. The copolymers were synthesized by varying AA, EGDMA, and NH4OH concentrations. The effect of pH, temperature, ionic strength, concentration of crosslinker, and AA content on the swelling behavior of the copolymeric gels were investigated. Equilibrium swelling studies, in the pH range of 2–8, were performed to determine the polymer mesh size (ξ), 14.17–127.6 Å, molecular weight between crosslinks (M c ), 324–10229 g/mol, and crosslinking density (q), 0.012–0.366, by using the Flory‐Rehner equation. Copolymeric gels exhibited reversible change in their swelling behaviors in response to cycling pH. The diffusional exponent values (n) of the synthesized hydrogels were found in the range of 0.77–0.80, indicating a non‐Fickian diffusion mechanism. FT‐IR spectral analysis was also performed in order to confirm the formation of copolymer from the bands that appeared as a result of functional groups. It was concluded that these hydrogels demonstrated a sharp change in their water absorbency and mesh size of the networks with a change in the pH of the swelling media, suggesting their strong candidature for being used as oral drug delivery systems and ion‐exchangers for removal of metal ions from aqueous media, owing to the carboxylate groups within the polymeric network.


Carbonatites and alkaline magmas are key pieces of the deep carbon cycle and constitute one of the principal resources of rare metals including REE. Several experimental studies have tackled the rare metal partitioning between immiscible carbonate and silicate liquids (Martin et al. 2013; Veskler et al. 1998, 2012). They show negative to massive enrichments in the carbonate liquid. However, no prevailing cause has been clearly isolated as such enrichments can be ruled by experimental conditions (P, T, ƒO 2), melt compositions (water and alkali contents), or technical issues such as unequilibrated experiments. The aim of this study is to simulate, by HP-HT experiments in the nephelinite-carbonatite system, crystal fractionation and immiscibility between carbonate and silicate liquids, in order to assess the factors ruling REE enrichment during the differentiation of alkaline magmas. Thirty experimental charges were synthetized using piston-cylinder and internally heated pressure vessel. The partitioning of REE between carbonate liquids, silicate liquids and crystals (pyroxene, calcite, nephelinite, perovskite, titanite) has been characterized. REE partition coefficients between carbonate and silicate liquid increase while Ca partition coefficient increases, suggesting that both have the same behavior. Also, the more the silicate liquid is polymerized, the more REE are concentrated into carbonate liquids. The Ca partition coefficient has been thus calibrated by an empirical model based on the silicate melt composition. This study reveals the optimum conditions for which carbonatite melts get enriched by >10 times with respect to the residual silicate melts. This predictive approach may serve as guide for prospection of REE-enriched carbonatites.


The effect of the plerocercoid larvae of Spirometra mansonoides on hormone levels and the immune system of intact and hypophysectomized (Hx) rats was studied. Intact rats exhibited a decrease in serum growth hormone (GH) and thyroxine (T4) concentrations and a suppression of the humoral immune response 2 wk postinfection. At 4 and 9 wk postinfection, hormone concentrations and the humoral immune response returned to normal levels in the rats. When rats were infected with plerocercoids and then received daily injections for 2 wk of either GH or T4, the immune response returned to normal in the T4-injected, but not the GH-injected animals. Plerocercoid infection had no effect on the humoral immune response of Hx rats. The results of the present study suggest that PGF may act via an endocrine pathway to suppress the host's immune response enabling the parasite's survival in this host.


The complete reason behind a decision is a Boolean formula that characterizes why the decision was made. This recently introduced notion has a number of applications, which include generating explanations, detecting decision bias and evaluating counterfactual queries. Prime implicants of the complete reason are known as sufficient reasons for the decision and they correspond to what is known as PI explanations and abductive explanations. In this paper, we refer to the prime implicates of a complete reason as necessary reasons for the decision. We justify this terminology semantically and show that necessary reasons correspond to what is known as contrastive explanations. We also study the computation of complete reasons for multi-class decision trees and graphs with nominal and numeric features for which we derive efficient, closed-form complete reasons. We further investigate the computation of shortest necessary and sufficient reasons for a broad class of complete reasons, which include the derived closed forms and the complete reasons for Sentential Decision Diagrams (SDDs). We provide an algorithm which can enumerate their shortest necessary reasons in output polynomial time. Enumerating shortest sufficient reasons for this class of complete reasons is hard even for a single reason. For this problem, we provide an algorithm that appears to be quite efficient as we show empirically.


Background: A recent one-step arthroscopic technique based on bone marrow–derived cell transplantation has achieved good results in repairing osteochondral lesions of the talus (OLTs), overcoming some of the drawbacks of older techniques. Purpose: To report the results after 4 years of a series of patients who underwent a one-step repair of osteochondral lesions of the talar dome, as well as the capability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using a T2-mapping sequence to predict the clinical outcome. Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: Forty-nine patients (age [mean ± SD], 28.08 ± 9.51 y) underwent a one-step repair of OLTs. Patients were evaluated clinically by American Orthopaedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) scores and radiographs and underwent MRI preoperatively and during postoperative follow-ups at predetermined times. In all patients, the cells were harvested from the iliac crest, concentrated, and loaded on a scaffold that was implanted arthroscopically. Results: The overall AOFAS score (mean ± SD) improved from 63.73 ± 14.13 preoperatively to 82.19 ± 17.04 at 48 ± 6.1 months (P < .0005), with best results at the 24-month follow-up. A significant decrease in the clinical score was observed between 24 and 36 months postoperatively (P = .001) and between 24 and 48 months (P < .005). The T2-mapping analysis showed regenerated tissue with T2 values of 35 to 45 milliseconds, similar to hyaline cartilage, in a mean of 78% ± 16% of the repaired lesion area. The time between the occurrence of trauma and surgery was found to negatively affect the clinical outcome at the latest follow-up; patient's age and lesion size influenced the early clinical results but did not affect the outcome at final follow-up. The stability of clinical results over time and the percentage of tissue with values similar to hyaline cartilage evidenced by MRI T2 mapping showed a tendency to correlate at the last follow-up (r = 0.497, P = .06). Conclusion: One-step repair of OLTs had good clinical results that were durable over time, even though there was a slight decrease in AOFAS score at the latest follow-up. The quality of the regenerated tissue detected by MRI T2 mapping directly correlated with the clinical results.


. Since the first work of Thomas Friedrich showing that isometric immersions of Riemann surfaces are related to spinors and the Dirac equation, various works appeared generalizing this approach to more general Spin-manifolds, in particular the case of submanifolds of Spin-manifolds of constant curvature. In the present work we investigate the case of submanifolds of Spin C -manifolds of constant curvature.


Dominance hierarchies play an important role in access to mates or resources in many species. Rank is sometimes correlated with circulating testosterone levels or morphological traits such as body weight. The relationship of glucocorticoid secretion and rank, however, is less clear. In this study, we investigated the relationship of male rank to body weight, circulating testosterone and cortisol concentrations in captive possum triads (Trichosurus vulpecula). We carried out two experiments to examine hierarchy formation and the effects of castration of the dominant male during the non-breeding season. A third experiment measured the effects of removal of the dominant male from a stable hierarchy during the breeding season. We found that dominant male rank was significantly correlated with higher circulating testosterone levels during periods of hierarchy formation and during the breeding season but not during periods of hierarchy stability in the non-breeding season. Lack of correlation between plasma testosterone concentration and rank after male castration suggests that stable social rank is not dependent on hormone level and may be more dependent on behavioural traits. Any biocontrol measures that rely on manipulation of hormone levels may be unreliable when applied to unstable hierarchical situations, including the establishment of territories by subadult males, and the pre-breeding season when circulating testosterone concentrations peak in males and a period of hierarchy establishment may occur.


This study aims to determine the acceptance (acceptedbillity) of behavioral counseling guidelines with self-management techniques to improve students' hard work. this guide is an instrument for counselors in providing counseling guidance services in schools. The development procedure in this study follows the 4D development model which is limited to content validation testing. There are five guidance and counseling experts and practitioners who have tested the feasibility of this guide. The instrument used for the assessment consisted of 22 items that referred to the acceptance of the handbook. Analysis of the results of the assessment uses the formulation of the content validity ratio calculation from Lawshe. The results of the analysis show that the validation of the cognitive behavior counseling manual model has a content validity index (CVI) of 0.94, which means very good or special. has met the eligibility criteria to be used as an instrument in carrying out counseling guidance services.


This article addresses the impacts of performance on scheduling tasks in heterogeneous computing systems. A heuristic, called the enhanced communication-aware task scheduling algorithm, is proposed to exploit the potential of parallel processing, allowing for system heterogeneity. This article also shows that the scheduling performance is affected by the heterogeneity of computational power and that of communication mechanisms. The experimental results reveal the superiority of the proposed algorithm to those presented previously.


Production on high reserves reservoirs will uplift the productivity index; hence increase the economic feasibility of a project. Nowadays, low permeability reservoir is possible to be produced. Production for tight reservoirs require appropriate stimulation jobs to increase the permeability. In this study, hydraulic fracturing is chosen as the stimulation method. With current depletion in conventional resources, many oil and gas players have found hydrocarbons in tight reservoirs as the alternatives. The emergence of hydraulic fracturing has made the United States become the world's largest natural gas producer in 2009.
About the study of hydraulic fracturing, it is important to understand how this stimulation method will affect the productivity index of the well. Researchers have to study the post-fracture behaviour, such as the fracture conductivity in the reservoirs and the fracture half-length and width. To calculate the post-fracture results, productivity improvement factor (PIF) is used as the indicator.
In hydraulic fracturing, a propping agent, usually sand particles, is used as the medium to contain the stresses acting on the fractures. Other than sand, water and chemical additives complete the composition of hydraulic fracturing fluid. In this study, the effect of fracture conductivity, half-length and width on production rate are investigated. Then, the post-fracture production rate will be compared with the initial production rate by calculating the PIF.
In conclusion, this study provides better understanding to the engineers on the minimum requirements of fracture conductivity and fracture half-length that the hydraulic fracturing process must achieve. Also, the study of hydraulic fracturing characteristics in tight formation will give benefits to the surveillance team, which they can predict the outcome and efficiency of the stimulation job.


Bcr is a serine/threonine kinase and is highly expressed in the neointima after vascular injury. Because angiotensin II (Ang II) and inflammation play important roles in the development of intimal proliferation, we hypothesized that Bcr is an important regulator of Ang II-mediated nuclear factor (NF)-κB activation. By transfecting vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) with dominant negative Bcr (DN-Bcr), we demonstrated that DN-Bcr inhibited Ang II-mediated NF-κB activation in VSMCs (82 ± 10% inhibition, n = 3, p < .01). Similarly, we demonstrated that Bcr siRNA inhibited Ang II-mediated NF-κB activation in VSMCs (79 ± 7%, n = 3, p < .01). In a survey of nuclear factors that might regulate NF-κB activation, we found that wild-type (WT) Bcr decreased ligand-mediated peroxisome proliferator-activated γ (PPARγ) activity (86 ± 12% inhibition, p < .01), whereas DN-Bcr significantly enhanced ligand-mediated PPARγ activity (2.4-fold, p < .01). Assessment by in vitro kinase assay demonstrated that Bcr phosphorylates PPARγ. Overexpression of WT-Bcr kinase did not inhibit ligand-mediated PPARγ1 S82A or S82D mutant transcriptional activity, suggesting that Bcr regulates PPARγ activity via S82 phosphorylation. To assess the physiologic role of Bcr, we examined the effect of Ang II on Bcr expression and transcriptional activation. Using VSMCs, we demonstrated that Ang II only weakly increases Bcr kinase activity but significantly increased its expression after 6 hours of Ang II stimulation (4.3 ± 0.8-fold increase, p < .01). In addition, we found that whereas Ang II inhibits PPARγ activation, Bcr siRNA reverses Ang II inhibition of PPARγ. To determine the role of Bcr/PPARγ on Ang II-mediated NF-κB activation, we cotransfected VSMCs with DN-Bcr and DN-PPARγ. We found that DN-PPARγ reversed DN-Bcr-mediated inhibition of NF-κB activation. In addition, WT-Bcr-induced NF-κB activation was inhibited by PPARγ1 S82A mutant but not WT-PPARγ1, strongly suggesting that Bcr-induced inhibition of PPARγ activity reciprocally increases NF-κB activation and regulates Ang II-mediated NF-κB activation. Finally, our preliminary data suggest a decrease in intima to media ratio (0.31 vs 0.73) in Bcr knockout mice compared with controls in a partial ligation model of the left carotid artery. Given our findings that Bcr kinase inhibits PPARγ activation and enhances Ang II-mediated NF-κB transcription, we believe that Bcr acts as an important regulator of the sensitivity of VSMCs to inflammatory stimuli.


Section 1 of this online appendix contains the proof of the technical Lemma (Lemma 2) used in the Proof of Lemma 1 in the main paper, which states that Ω* (.) is continuous and differentiable at R*. Section 2 provides the linear example with cost differences between the principal and the agent in choosing the transferable actions, based on the discussion in Section 4.4 of the main paper. We show that it can still be optimal to allocate all transferable decision rights to the same party even when the other party has a cost advantage for some of these decisions. Section 3 contains the proof of the claim in Section 5 of the main paper that if agents can cooperate in P -mode, they can overcome any attempt by the principal to use team payments to eliminate the double-sided moral hazard problem. Section 4 contains the proof that Lemma 1 still applies in the presence of spillovers. Section 5 provides the derivation of the closed form solutions for the linear model with spillovers used in Section 5.1 of the main paper. Section 6 does likewise for the model with pricing and spillovers used in Section 5.2 of the main paper. Section 7 establishes the result stated at the end of Section 5.1 in the main paper, namely that Proposition 5 continues to hold even if prices are endogenous and contractible, and there are production costs. Finally, Section 8 analyzes the hybrid case in a setting with multiple agents, in which some agents can operate in P -mode and others in A -mode.


Results of an experiment on the preservation of bioprostheses prepared from porcine aortal valves are presented. It is described how the structure of the cusps is affected by autolytic processes, by exposure to various concentrations of glutaraldehyde, and by sequential exposure to glutaraldehyde and papain solutions. Xenogeneic aortal complexes must be processed within the first 24 hours after collection since later on they undergo autolysis whereby the fibroblasts are destroyed and collagen fibrils become damaged. Low glutaraldehyde concentrations preserve the structure of these well enough, although concentrations below 0.5% were found to make the ground substance edematous and cause structural damage to the fibroblasts. Papain treatment without glutaraldehyde pretreatment leads to profound changes in the fibrous structures and in the cells, whereas glutaraldehyde fixation followed by papain treatment assures adequate preservation.


The ligand substitutions that occur during the folding of ferrocytochrome c [Fe(II)cyt c] have been monitored by transient absorption spectroscopy. The folding reaction was triggered by photoinduced electron transfer to unfolded Fe(III)cyt c in guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl) solutions. Assignments of ligation states were made by reference to the spectra of the imidazole and methionine adducts of N-acetylated microperoxidase 8. At pH 7, the heme in unfolded Fe(II)cyt c is ligated by native His18 and HisX (X = 26, 33) residues. The native Met80 ligand displaces HisX only in the last stages of folding. The ferroheme is predominantly five-coordinate in acidic solution; it remains five-coordinate until the native methionine binds the heme to give the folded protein (the rate of the methionine binding step is 16 +/- 5 s-1 at pH 5, 3.2 M GuHCl). The evidence suggests that the substitution of histidine by methionine is strongly coupled to backbone folding.


Sun Microsystems, Inc. has intellectual property rights relating to technology embodied in the product that is described in this document. In particular, and without limitation, these intellectual property rights may include one or more of the U.S. patents listed at http:// www.sun.com/patents and one or more additional patents or pending patent applications in the U.S. and in other countries. This product or document is protected by copyright and distributed under licenses restricting its use, copying, distribution, and decompilation. No part of this product or document may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written authorization of Sun and its licensors, if any. Third-party software, including font technology, is copyrighted and licensed from Sun suppliers. Parts of the product may be derived from Berkeley BSD systems, licensed from the University of California. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd. for its users and licensees. Sun acknowledges the pioneering efforts of Xerox in researching and developing the concept of visual or graphical user interfaces for the computer industry. Sun holds a non-exclusive license from Xerox to the Xerox Graphical User Interface, which license also covers Sun's licensees who implement OPEN LOOK GUIs and otherwise comply with Sun's written license agreements. This article presents a new architecture for the integration of the Sun HPC ClusterTools™ parallel computing environment with distributed resource management systems such as the Sun™ Grid Engine system. This new architecture achieves a tight integration with multiple distributed resource management systems in a uniform and extensible framework, which means that any of the popular management systems may be used to launch and monitor Sun™ MPI parallel jobs. Unlike previously available loose integrations, tight integrations allow a resource manager (RM) to: s Accurately measure resources used by the parallel processes s Terminate jobs that exceed resource limits s Generate accurate accounting information for multiprocess jobs We have implemented tight integrations with Sun Grid Engine software, PBS from Veridian Systems, and LSF from Platform Computing. We provide examples showing correct resource accounting, ease of use to launch and debug Sun MPI jobs under these systems, and the improvements in behavior that result from the tight integration.


Torsional vibration (TV) is one of the major issues and very important calculation for the safe running of internal combustion engines, specifically crankshaft. The properties of parts connected to the crankshaft have significant effect on vibration of the system as well as the crankshaft life. Initial selection of this part is usually specified based on engine designer experience and also the torsional vibration calculation of the crank train. In this paper, the focus is to find optimum tuned mass to connect to the crankshaft from the damper side using CAE tools. It is a mounting disk at the free end of the crankshaft named tuned mass. Therefore, the effect of tuned mass inertia on design criteria, especially crankshaft life, was investigated. The results show high sensitivity of high cycle fatigue safety factor of crankshaft to tuned mass. Therefore, adding a suitable tuned mass to the system can increase the crankshaft life, when needed. The results were presented in the paper in detail.


The objective of the Electric Power Project for Myanmar is to increase capacity and efficiency of gas-fired power generation, and, therefore, help reduce electricity shortages in the country. An additional objective is to support the ministry of electric power and Myanmar electric power enterprise in strengthening their institutional capacity. Some of the question or compliant linked to the construction and operation of the new CCGT Power Plant in Thaton, people can fill in a grievance forms at several entities; Firstly , formally communicate with the entities listed above and introduce them to the objective of the GRM (which is allowing the people to place their grievances regarding the project in a formal way and assuring everyone will receive an answer);The GRM shall treat all grievances the same way, that is, not allowing nor promoting discrimination based on age, gender, income level ,ethnicity ,religion or others; All grievances shall be treated confidentially by EPGE. Some of the mitigation measures are include : (i) provide grievance forms and a pen in locations where the people can have easy access to; (ii) write a small instruction stating that people can fill out the forms in case of any complain related to the project; (iii) EPGE will install billboards or simple paper posters in strategic places within the villages to inform the people that a GRM is available.


Sprague-Dawley rats aged 1 or 15 days were irradiated with a single dose of 200 cGy X-rays and killed at different intervals from 3 to 48 hours (h). Dying cells were recognized by their shrunken and often fragmented nuclei and less damaged cytoplasm in the early stages. On the basis of immunocytochemical markers, dying cells probably represented a heterogeneous population which included neurons and immature cells. In rats aged 1 day the number of dying cells rapidly increased in the hippocampal complex with peak values 6 h after irradiation. This was followed by a gentle decrease to reach normal values 48 h after irradiation. The most severely affected regions were the subplate and the cellular layer of the subiculum, gyrus dentatus and hilus, and the stratum oriens and pyramidale of the hippocampus (CA1 more affected than CA2, and this more affected than CA3). X-ray-induced cell death was abolished with an injection of cycloheximide (2 μg/g i.p.) given at the time of irradiation. X-ray-induced cell death was not changed after the intraventricular administration of nerve growth factor (NGF; 10 μg in saline) at the time of irradiation. Cell death was not induced by X-irradiation in rats aged 15 days. These results indicate that X-ray-induced cell death in the hippocampal complex of the developing rat is subjected to determinate temporal and regional patterns of vulnerability; it is an active process mediated by protein synthesis but probably not dependent on NGF.


This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 201450, "Reducing the Volume of Water Needed For Hydraulic Fracturing by Using Natural-Gas-Foamed Stimulation Fluid," by Raj Malpani, SPE, Chris Daeffler, and Sandeep Verma, SPE, Schlumberger, et al., prepared for the 2020 SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition, originally scheduled to be held in Denver, Colorado, 5–7 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
 Using natural-gas (NG) -foam fracturing fluids reduces the enormous water requirements for stimulation by as much as 60 to 80% and poses benefits for productivity in water-sensitive formations. The study outlined in the complete paper aims to characterize hydraulic-fracture geometry and quantify the expected production when using an NG-foam fracturing fluid. Using validated models, the authors provide a comparative analysis to determine the advantages of using NG foams relative to conventionally used slickwater, linear gel, and crosslinked fluid.

 Although foamed fluids were first used in the 1960s, the use of nitrogen (N2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) foams has not been widely practiced because of cost, complexity, and unproven production benefits. The use of NG-foam fracturing fluid is not widespread either, but this study attempts to identify specific regions and reservoirs where the use of these fluids may lead to economic and long-term production benefits. The authors write that using NG foams is likely to provide long-term sustainable benefits in areas where water procurement and disposal costs are high, where natural gas may be available from a central processing facility through pipelines, and where the reservoir is relatively shallow and contains clay-bearing minerals.
 This work is inspired by a program sponsored by the US Department of Energy to investigate NG as an alternative to N2 and CO2 in foamed fracturing fluids. Initially, the project focused on identifying a thermodynamic path-way to use NG obtained from producing wells and processing plants. The study later extended into laboratory-scale experiments to measure NG-foam-fluid rheology, which was found to be comparable to foams based on N2 and CO2.
 The first step in the work flow is to build a static geological model to capture the reservoir description. The subsequent step is to use the rock characterization to simulate the induced hydraulic fractures. The hydraulic-fracture simulator also predicts the proppant distribution and its conductivity and treating pressure. The simulated treating pressure is matched with observed pressure during stimulation treatment to calibrate the hydraulic-fracture model.
 The hydraulic fractures are then gridded in the static geological model to generate the reservoir model for flow modeling. This is a critical step in the process because the static model is linked to the dynamic simulator without losing the details of the hydraulic fractures. The reservoir simulator is used to match the historical production performance to calibrate the reservoir model and forecast future production profiles. This hydraulic-fracture modeling, followed by the flow-modeling process, is repeated for various pumping schedules and recipes to perform a sensitivity analysis, which is detailed in the complete paper.


Six book reviews in the January 1999 edition of Notes and Records: Archives of the Scientific Revolution. The formation and exchange of ideas in seventeenth-century Europe,Michael Hunter (ed.). Flamsteed's stars, new perspectives on the life and work of the first Astronomer Royal (1646-1719), Frances Willmoth (ed.). M. Basso Ricci, L. Cafaraella, A. Meloni and P. Tucci, Due Secoli di Strumenti Geomagnetici in Italia (1740-1971). Two Centuries of Geomagnetic Instruments in Italy (with a summary in English). Frank Smithies, Cauchy and the creation of Complex Function Theory. The correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 10, 1862. Frederick Burkhardt, Duncan M. Porter, Joy Harvey and Jonathan R. Topham (eds).


This study identified self-reported strategies for indoor wayfinding, and examined their correlation with strategies previously identified for outdoor wayfinding. Relationships of indoor strategies with spatial anxiety and gender differences were also examined. Validity of the self-report measures was assessed in relation to accuracy in an actual pointing task. Results from 278 college students showed that indoor reliance on directional cues correlated with the outdoor orientation strategy and indoor reliance on route information correlated with the outdoor route strategy. Consistent with findings for outdoor strategies, men reported higher use of the indoor orientation strategy and women reported higher use of the indoor route strategy. Indoor and outdoor orientation strategies were associated with low levels of spatial anxiety, and gender, orientation strategies, and spatial anxiety predicted pointing accuracy.


Transcriptome sequencing by high-throughput technologies provides global gene expression levels as well as gene structure information. Moreover, analysis of samples from single individuals allows the detection of allele-specific expression. We investigated the possibility of RNA-Seq analysis using single bovine blastocysts. Embryos were in vitro produced using abattoir-derived, in vitro- matured oocytes, TALP-based fertilization and KSOM embryo culture medium. On Day 7 of culture, 5 expanded blastocysts were collected and stored in RNA extraction buffer at –80°C. Total RNA was extracted from each individual embryo using the Arcturus PicoPure RNA isolation kit including DNAse treatment. Approximately 1.5 ng of high-quality total RNA was obtained per embryo. The RNA was amplified using the SPIA-based Ovation RNA-Seq kit (NuGen, San Carlos, CA, USA). After amplification, 6 μg of cDNA was obtained and directly used for library construction with the NuGen Encore NGS Library I kit. Libraries were submitted to the University of California Davis Genome Center for 40-bp single read sequencing on an Illumina GAIIx apparatus. Data analysis was performed using CLC Genomics Workbench. On average, 38 094 173 good-quality reads were produced from each sample. Removing 9 bp from the 5′ end of the sequences greatly improved read alignment. Mapping of trimmed reads to BTAU 4.0 allowing up to 2 mismatches per read resulted in 88.9 ± 0.3% of reads aligning to the genome. Using an SNP discovery algorithm, a total of 31 993 unique SNP were detected with an average of 12 530 ± 496 SNP per sample, 50% of which were heterozygous. Of the total, 45, 21, 14 and 9% were common to at least 2, 3, 4 and 5 samples, respectively. Allelic expression imbalance, defined as 75% of reads corresponding to one allele of a heterozygous SNP with coverage ≥50, was observed in 22% of SNP among those common to at least 2 samples. Mapping the reads to the transcriptome resulted in 71.8 ± 0.4% of reads aligning to genes present in Ensembl. Among those mapping to RefSeq transcripts, 64.4% corresponded to exons, 7.2% to exon-exon boundaries and 0.3% to exon-intron boundaries, with the remainder mapping to introns. An average of 9746 ± 122 genes with RPKM greater than 0.3 were detected in each sample, with 7982 genes expressed commonly among all 5 embryos. The correlation for RPKM between sample pairs was between 0.978 and 0.993. Genes known to be almost exclusively expressed by pre-implantation embryos were present, including OCT4, NANOG and CDX2 among others. Gene ontology analysis of gene groups, divided into quintiles by level of expression, indicated that the most highly expressed genes are enriched in ribosomal proteins and oxidative phosphorylation. Genes with medium-high levels of expression were enriched in structural components including organelles and the cytoskeleton. Genes at the medium level of expression represented nuclear and chromatin proteins, whereas medium-low and low were related to regulation of transcription and DNA metabolism. We conclude that RNA-Seq from a single bovine blastocyst is possible and represents a powerful tool for understanding the biology and pathologies of pre-implantation embryo development.


Objective: Pharmacological effects of carvacrol such as its anti-inflammatory activities have been shows. In this study the effects of carvacrol on serum levels of total protein (TP), phospholipase A2 (PLA2) and histamine in sensitized guinea pigs was evaluated. Materials and Methods: Sensitized guinea pigs were given drinking water alone (group S), drinking water containing three concentrations of carvacrol (40, 80 and 160 µg/ml) or dexamethasone. Serum levels of TP, PLA2 and histamine were examined I all sensitized groups as well as a non-sensitized control group (n=6 for each group). Results: In sensitized animals, serum levels of TP, PLA2 and histamine were significantly increased compared to control animals (p<0.05 to p<0.001). Significant reduction in TP, PLA2 and histamine levels were observed in treated groups with the two higher concentrations of carvacrol but dexamethasone treatment only decreased serum level of PLA2 (p<0.05 to p<0.001). Although the effect of the lowest concentration of the extract was less than that of dexamethasone (p<0.05 for TP and p<0.001 for PLA2), the effects of the two higher concentrations on PLA2 were similar to dexamethasone and on TP (p<0.01) and histamine (p<0.001) were higher than those of dexamethasone. Conclusion: These results showed that carvacrol reduced serum levels of TP, PLA2 and histamine in sensitized guinea pigs which may indicate an anti-inflammatory effect of this agent in inflammatory disorders such as asthma.


Human locomotion is a phenomenon of the most extraordinary complexity in which so great are the multitude of individual motions occurring simultaneously in the three planes of space that analysis is difficult without some unifying principle. The adoption of the concept that fundamentally locomotion is the translation of the center of gravity through space along a pathway requiring the least expenditure of energy supplies the necessary unifying principle which permits of qualitative analysis in terms of the essential determinants of gait. The six major determinants are pelvic rotation, pelvic tilt, knee and hip flexion, knee and ankle interaction, and lateral pelvic displacement. The serial observations of irregularities in these determinants provides insight into individual variation and a dynamic assessment of pathological gait. Pathological gait may be viewed as an attempt to preserve as low a level of energy consumption as possible by exaggerations of the motions at unaffected levels. Compensation is reasonably effective with the loss of one determinant of which that at the knee is the most costly. Loss of two determinants makes effective compensation impossible and the cost of locomotion in terms of energy is increased threefold with an inevitable drain upon the body economy.


Women are more susceptible to developing cocaine dependence than men, but paradoxically, are more responsive to treatment. The potent estrogen, 17β-estradiol (E2), mediates these effects by augmenting cocaine seeking but also promoting extinction of cocaine seeking through E2's memory-enhancing functions. Although we have previously shown that E2 facilitates extinction, the neuroanatomical locus of action and underlying mechanisms are unknown. Here we demonstrate that E2 infused directly into the infralimbic-medial prefrontal cortex (IL-mPFC), a region critical for extinction consolidation, enhances extinction of cocaine seeking in ovariectomized (OVX) female rats. Using patch-clamp electrophysiology, we show that E2 may facilitate extinction by potentiating intrinsic excitability of IL-mPFC neurons. Because the mnemonic effects of E2 are known to be regulated by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and its receptor, tropomyosin-related kinase B (TrkB), we examined whether BDNF/TrkB signaling was necessary for E2-induced enhancement of excitability and extinction. We found that E2-mediated increases in excitability of IL-mPFC neurons were abolished by Trk receptor blockade. Moreover, blockade of TrkB signaling impaired E2-facilitated extinction of cocaine seeking in OVX female rats. Thus, E2 enhances IL-mPFC neuronal excitability in a TrkB-dependent manner to support extinction of cocaine seeking. Our findings suggest that pharmacological enhancement of E2 or BDNF/TrkB signaling during extinction-based therapies would improve therapeutic outcome in cocaine-addicted women.


Geotechnical investigators are among the first to assess the physical setting of a project. Geotechnical investigations are performed to ascertain the character and variability of the strata underlying the site of the proposed structure and to assess those properties, which may affect the performance of the structure and the choice of method of construction. Deficient geotechnical investigations, faulty interpretation of results, or failure to portray results in a clearly understandable manner may contribute to inappropriate designs; delays in construction schedules, costly construction modifications, and use of substandard borrow material, environmental damage to the site, post construction remedial work, and even failure of a structure and subsequent litigation. Trenchless technology can be defined as the use of construction methods to install and repair underground infrastructure without digging a trench or open cutting. Trenchless projects should never been seen as a simple process but should always be seen as "site specific". Geotechnical is one area in which certain characteristics can change rapidly. Knowing the sub-ground structure that the proposed borehole is to be constructed in, can significantly alter the parameters, design and type of construction method, site location, methodology, costs and expected construction time frame needed to complete the project successfully.


Purpose: To investigate the therapeutic effect of baicalein on papillary thyroid cancer (PTC) cells in vitro and its underlying molecular mechanism.Methods: The human PTC cell line TPC-1 was divided into five groups and treated with distilled water or baicalein at 10, 20, 50, or 100 μM. Next, miR-206, miR-206 inhibitor, the respective negative controls of miR-206 and miR-206 inhibitor, RAP1B small interfering RNA (siRNA), and control vector siRNA were synthesized and transfected into TPC-1 cells. Cell viability, migration, and invasion were measured using the 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2-H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and Transwell assays. miR-206 expression and Ras-related protein (RAP1B) levels were assessed by quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and western blotting, respectively.Results: Baicalein inhibited TPC-1 cell viability, migration and invasion, upregulated miR-206 expression, and reduced the RAP1B level in a concentration-dependent manner (p < 0.01). miR-206 negatively regulated RAP1B expression and increased the baicalein-induced reduction of RAP1B expression. Moreover, RAP1B overexpression relieved the suppression of cell viability, migration, and invasion caused by baicalein (p < 0.01).Conclusion: Baicalein suppresses cell growth in PTC cells by regulating the miR-206/RAP1B pathway, providing a new therapeutic strategy for PTC treatment.
Keywords: Baicalein, Papillary thyroid cancer (PTC), miR-206, RAP1B, Cell viability, Cell invasion


The envelope process is an analytical tool often used to study extremes and wave groups. In an approach to approximate the first passage probability for the underlying response the average number of envelope crossings is used to obtain an upper bound. Vanmarcke (1975) improved this approximation by accounting for the proportion of empty excursions of the envelope. Ditlevsen and Lindgren (1988) proposed an accurate approximation of this proportion by using the Slepian model method. This approximation was further studied in Ditlevson (1994). In the first part of the paper, we review the approach as well as give a brief account of the results. In the second main part of the paper, the method of sampling distribution is applied to the envelope field that is a generalization of the envelope process. The need of considering a field rather than a process is particularly important in these applications for which both spatial and temporal variability has to be taken into account. Here we notice that the envelope field is not uniquely defined and that its statistical properties depend on a chosen version. We utilize convienient envelope sampling distributions to decide for a version that has desired smoothing properties. The spatial-temporal Gaussian sea-surface model is used to illustrate this approach. One intrinsically multivariate problem is studying velocities of moving spatial records. It is particularly important in marine applications as the velocity of the envelope is related to the rate at which energy is transported by propagating waves. Under the Gaussian model we derive sampling properties of the envelope velocity measured at the level contours. By associating the properties of envelope with the properties of group waves we present differences between statistical distributions of individual waves and waves groups.


Background Chrysanthemum morifolium is one of the most economically important and popular floricultural crops in Asteraceae. Chrysanthemums have many different flower colors and shapes. However, the molecular mechanism controlling the development of chrysanthemum floral colors and shapes is still an enigma. We obtained a cut chrysanthemum variety with mutant capitula in which the ray florets became green and the inside pistils became vegetative buds, while normal capitula have many rounds of purple ray florets and few disc florets. Results We conducted whole-transcriptome analysis of differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the mutant and normal capitula using third-generation and second-generation sequencing techniques. We identified DEGs between the mutant and normal capitula to reveal important regulators underlying their differential development. Regulatory genes involved in the photoperiod pathway and the control of floral organ identification as well as important functional genes in the anthocyanin synthesis pathway were also identified. Therefore, a list of candidate genes for studying flower development and anthocyanin synthesis in chrysanthemums was generated. Qualitative analysis of pigments in the florets of normal and mutant capitula revealed anthocyanins were synthesized and accumulated in the florets of normal capitula, but not in the florets of mutant capitula. It was indicated that pistils may be required for anthocyanin synthesis in chrysanthemums. Conclusions These results will help to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of floral organ development and will contribute to the development of techniques for studying flower shape and color regulation to promote breeding in chrysanthemum.


Adenomatoid odontogenic tumors (AOT) make up 3% of odontogenic tumors. This tumor, most commonly found in the maxillary arch, mimics a follicular cyst associated with an impacted tooth. This is a case report of an AOT found in a 14-year-old female undergoing active orthodontic therapy. The surgical removal of the lesion resulted in the exposure of a large bony cavity surrounding the maxillary left canine. Placement of freeze-dried bone and coverage with an expanded polytetrafluoroethylene membrane resulted in rapid and complete healing of the lesion and restoration of osseous support.


To investigate the phytochemical, antimicrobial and antioxidant potentials of Bryonia epigaea (Rottler). The study was performed by using various in-vitro methods such as 1, 1 Diphenyl 2 picryl hydrazyl (DPPH), and Agar well diffusion method for different concentrations of methanolic extracts. Phytochemical constituents of the three extracts (Hexane, Acetone and Methanol) were determined. Total Phenol content was determined by Folin Ciocalteu Method. Yield of extract was determined by caliculating the mass of plant material before minusing the mass of the plant material after the extraction process. Extracts of Bryonia epigaea (Rottler) contained saponins, flavonoids, steroids, tannins, alkaloids, coumarins, phenols and reducing sugars. The antimicrobial activity was moderate. Methanol extract showed good antibacterial activity at 100 mg/ml concentration while antifungal activity against four significant pathogens was moderate. Bryonia epigaea (Rottler) methanol extract exerted significant antioxidant activity and dose dependent effect. The Results showed that the methanol extract showed high amount of antioxidant compounds and exhibit significant antioxidant activity. The antioxidant activity was found to be increased with the concentration of the compound. In the present research work we tried to find out the bioactive properties of ancient medicinal plant Bryonia epigaea (Rottler). The phytochemical, antimicrobial and antioxidant properties have been discussed.

 Key words: Bryonia epigaea (Rottler), phytochemical analysis, antimicrobial properties, antioxidant properties.


Purpose To describe a novel, entirely ipsilateral femoral technique for distal endograft extension using the Gore Iliac Branch Endoprosthesis. Technique Femoral arterial access is obtained on the side of the intended repair, and a 16F sheath is inserted over a stiff wire. A looped wire is used to pre-cannulate the internal gate of the IBE device prior to insertion, and the device is then positioned and deployed. This through-wire guides access over the IBE flow divider and into the internal gate with a steerable sheath. The internal iliac artery is then selected, and a Viabahn VBX balloon-expandable stent (W.L. Gore, Flagstaff, AZ) is advanced into position and deployed. We present the successful completion of this technique in 4 patients. Conclusion This novel technique allows distal endograft extension with an IBE device using only ipsilateral femoral access and is particularly useful for patients with aneurysmal iliac degeneration in the setting of prior open or endovascular aneurysm repair. This eliminates the need for upper extremity access or contralateral femoral access and navigation across the steep flow divider.


The aim of this study is to develop case-study called Allowing Complexity to Complex Project (ACCP) for micro- learning in order to achieve high performance in computer architecture education and to test the legitimacy of classical teaching methods. The Arithmetic/Logic Unit (ALU) design was used as an example of the ACCP which consists of many examples and models aimed at developing students' skills in using complex arithmetic logical shifting and rotation instructions. Moreover, in this study, a real-world project on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) devices was also developed using micro learning (ML). To this end, various hardware and software programs designed for computer architecture education and training were combined with improved instructional and attractive examples.


CSV(Creating Shared Value) introduced by Porter and Kramer in Harvard Business Review in 2011 has now been emphasized in the academic and business communities as the way to promote creative economy and mutual growth among stakeholders. Some may understand that CSV has more advanced concept than CSR(Corporate Social Responsibility), but they have different roles and areas. The main difference of CSR and CSV is in the harmony of economic and social value. This means that the economic value through the main operating activity of company in CSV should contribute to the community through the harmony with social value. The good example is 'Bridge of the Life' in Mapo bridge which Samsung Life Insurance and Seoul City built together for the sake of protecting people's life and having responsibility for people's risk. Mapo bridge had been known for the high frequencies of suicides before Bridge of the Life was built. This example shows CSV which connects the main operating activity of Samsung Life Insurance to the social responsibility activities. Every company does not have to implement CSV in a strategic manner. This is because some company can sufficiently contribute to the community only through social responsibility activities. Company should first recognize a social problem as companywide issue and then need to connect this social problem to the core business activity of the company in order to implement CSV. If this connection is possible, we implement CSV. Otherwise, we just contribute to the community through social responsibility activities. In this study, we introduce some domestic and international cases of CSR. We investigate issues implemented in the CSV perspectives based on cases we introduced. We organize the study as follows. We have introduction in section 1 and literature review of CSR and CSV in section 2. We review domestic and international cases for CSV in section 3 and discuss the ways for cooperation between large and small companies in terms of personal, technological, financial and distributional aspects. We finally discuss implications and limitations and suggest the direction of future research in section 5.


Objective We evaluated the quality of 2-minute continuous chest compressions (CCCs) performed by emergency staff in 30-second intervals to determine the effect of a feedback system on maintaining the quality of CCCs. Methods Two hundred three physicians and nurses were randomised into two groups. Each participant performed 2-minute CCCs both with and without feedback. Group A performed CCCs under the guidance of a feedback device followed by performance without feedback, and Group B performed these tasks in reverse order. The primary outcome was the proportion of optimal compressions; i.e., compressions at both the correct rate (100–120 beats/minute) and correct depth (5–6 cm). Results During 2-minute CCCs, the proportion of optimal compressions was poor in personnel without feedback. The proportion of optimal compressions was unchanged and low from 2.4% (interquartile range, 0.0%–32.8%) in the first 30 seconds to 3.3% (0.0%–47.7%) in the last 30 seconds of the 2-minute period. Use of the feedback device significantly improved and maintained the quality of compressions from the first 30 seconds (53.3%; 29.2%–70.4%) to the last 30 seconds (82.8%; 50.8%–96.2%). Conclusion Use of the feedback device was helpful for maintaining the quality of CCCs.


Under the Serious and Organised Crime (Unexplained Wealth) Act 2009 (SA) the Crown Solicitor, upon request of the Director of Public Prosecutions, may apply to the District Court for a declaration


We investigate a simply typed modal $\lambda$-calculus,
$\lambda^{\to\square}$, due to Pfenning, Wong and Davies, where we define a
well-typed term with respect to a context stack that captures the possible
world semantics in a syntactic way. It provides logical foundation for
multi-staged meta-programming. Our main contribution in this paper is a
normalization by evaluation (NbE) algorithm for $\lambda^{\to\square}$ which we
prove sound and complete. The NbE algorithm is a moderate extension to the
standard presheaf model of simply typed $\lambda$-calculus. However, central to
the model construction and the NbE algorithm is the observation of Kripke-style
substitutions on context stacks which brings together two previously separate
concepts, structural modal transformations on context stacks and substitutions
for individual assumptions. Moreover, Kripke-style substitutions allow us to
give a formulation for contextual types, which can represent open code in a
meta-programming setting. Our work lays the foundation for extending the
logical foundation by Pfenning, Wong, and Davies towards building a practical,
dependently typed foundation for meta-programming.


A graph G of order at least 2n+2 is said to be n-extendable if G has a perfect matching and every set of n independent edges extends to a perfect matching in G. We prove that every pair of nonadjacent vertices x and y in a connected n-extendable graph of order p satisfy degG x+degG y ≥ p - n - 1, then either G is hamiltonian or G is isomorphic to one of two exceptional graphs. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 40: 75–82, 2002


CT imaging of traumatic aortic rupture has been both advocated and disparaged in the current literature as a reliable diagnostic modality. In a retrospective review of blunt chest trauma patients at our institution evaluated by both thoracic CT and arteriography, we found a 17% false negative rate and a 39% false positive rate. Although we feel CT is not sufficiently sensitive at present to evaluate traumatic rupture of the aorta directly, it is an invaluable adjunctive imaging modality for stable blunt chest trauma patients with equivocal chest radiographs or arteriograms. (Ann Vasc Surg 1993; 7:130-139.)


Compared with other imaging probes such as fluorescent dyes and quantum dots, second-harmonic radiating imaging probes (SHRIMPs) provide a unique ultrafast, coherent optical contrast that is free of photobleaching and emission intermittency. Using the second-harmonic signal emitted from SHRIMPs, harmonic holography achieves threedimensional holographic imaging with a color contrast similar to fluorescence microscopy where the uninterested background scattering is efficiently suppressed by an optical filter. The coherent contrast provided by SHRIMPs also enables imaging through turbid media via digital phase conjugation. Here we review the developments and applications of SHRIMPs and harmonic holography.


Purpose: Evaluating drug responses using primary patient-derived cells ex vivo represents a potentially rapid and efficient approach to screening for new treatment approaches. Here, we sought to identify neratinib combinations in HER2 mutant non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patient xenograft-derived organotypic spheroids (XDOTS) using a short-term ex vivo system. Experimental Design: We generated two HER2-mutant NSCLC PDX models [DFCI359 (HER2 exon19 755_757LREdelinsRP) and DFCI315 (HER2 exon20 V777_G778insGSP)] and used the PDX tumors to generate XDOTS. Tumor spheroids were grown in a microfluidic device and treated ex vivo with neratinib-based drug combinations. Live/dead quantification was performed by dual-labeling deconvolution fluorescence microscopy. The most efficacious ex vivo combination was subsequently validated in vivo using the DFCI359 and DFCI315 PDXs and a HER2YVMA genetically engineered mouse model. Results: Both neratinib and afatinib, but not gefitinib, induced cell death in DFCI359 XDOTS. The combinations of neratinib/trastuzumab and neratinib/temsirolimus enhanced the therapeutic benefit of neratinib alone in DFCI315 and DFCI359. The combination of neratinib and trastuzumab in vivo was more effective compared with single-agent neratinib or trastuzumab and was associated with more robust inhibition of HER2 and downstream signaling. Conclusions: The XDOTS platform can be used to evaluate therapies and therapeutic combinations ex vivo using PDX tumors. This approach may accelerate the identification and clinical development of therapies for targets with no or few existing models and/or therapies.


The falling drop mathod for the measurement of small concentrations of D2O has been studied with the object of defining a set of conditions which would given the best results in practice. A particular study has been made of the design of the tube which holds the dropping medium and of the control of temperature. In the range of concentration 01 to 02 g% D2O, the accuracy achieved is of the order of ± 0,0015 g% D2O.


This paper considers the key economic risks associated with nuclear power. The authors observe that the bulk of the risks of a nuclear power station project fall during the roughly five year period of plant construction. This window of risk follows a lengthy siting process and comes before power station operations lasting up to sixty years. As a consequence of the nature of the economic risks, operational nuclear power plants are more attractive targets for initial investment than new build projects. The authors suggest that the first glimmers of a US nuclear renaissance were visible in 2000 when dramatically higher prices were achieved for second-hand nuclear power plants following a period of depressed prices in the 1990s. The paper closes with a consideration of the prospects for nuclear new build in both Europe and the United States and the key financial and economic factors that could drive such developments differently in each case.


In Indonesia, social media offer a site for countering Islamic radicalism and violence. But what kinds of counternarratives or counterdiscourses can be distinguished on social media? This article explores the question by focusing on one social media counterinitiative: that of the 'cyberwarriors', volunteers who battle Islamic radicalism on social media with memes, hash tags, comics, and videos as their weapons of choice. By practicing a threefold 'politics of threat', 'exceptionality', and 'inspiration', cyber warriors construct a counternarrative in which ulama and kyai , traditional figures of religious authority, are transformed into hip, strong, cool, and 'iconic' 'counterstars', whose legacy shields the country from radicalism. In this process, traditional religious authority is simultaneously (re)claimed and further fragmented, while users are offered the tools to model themselves after ulama to help them save the country.


Abstract Background Gonorrhea incidence is increasing rapidly in many countries, while antibiotic resistance is making treatment more difficult. Combined with evidence that two meningococcal vaccines are likely partially protective against gonorrhea, this has renewed interest in a gonococcal vaccine, and several candidates are in development. Key questions are how protective and long-lasting a vaccine needs to be, and how to target it. We assessed vaccination's potential impact and the feasibility of achieving the World Health Organization's (WHO) target of reducing gonorrhea incidence by 90% during 2018–2030, by comparing realistic vaccination strategies under a range of scenarios of vaccine efficacy and duration of protection, and emergence of extensively-resistant gonorrhea. Methods We developed a stochastic transmission-dynamic model, incorporating asymptomatic and symptomatic infection and heterogeneous sexual behavior in men who have sex with men (MSM). We used data from England, which has a comprehensive, consistent nationwide surveillance system. Using particle Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, we fitted to gonorrhea incidence in 2008–2017, then used Bayesian forecasting to examine an extensive range of scenarios. Results Even in the worst-case scenario of untreatable infection emerging, the WHO target is achievable if all MSM attending sexual health clinics receive a vaccine offering ≥ 52% protection for ≥ 6 years. A vaccine conferring 31% protection (as estimated for MeNZB) for 2–4 years could reduce incidence in 2030 by 45% in the worst-case scenario, and by 75% if > 70% of resistant gonorrhea remains treatable. Conclusions Even a partially-protective vaccine, delivered through a realistic targeting strategy, could substantially reduce gonorrhea incidence, despite antibiotic resistance.


This paper aims to stimulate discussion about the potential relevance of the concept of socialism for what we study and the questions we ask. The economic systems of capitalism and socialism are seldom considered subjects of interest in psychology. At this particular time, however, especially in the United States, the relevance of these systems for our theories and research on human behavior, health, and human welfare seem particularly relevant and potentially significant. I argue that discussions of socialism should be helpful in expanding the context of our concerns in psychology and the identification of important new variables. The growing crisis of inequality in the U.S. is the major impetus for this argument.