Background: Patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) often have a poor prognosis despite therapies using second-line chemoimmunotherapy (CIT). Achievement of complete response (CR) with second-line therapy is associated with improved long-term outcomes. Unfortunately, only 25-35% of patients achieve CR with standard CIT regimens alone. The addition of novel targeted agents such as Bruton Tyrosine Kinase inhibitors (BTKi) to second-line therapy may offer improved treatment responses given the importance of B-cell receptor (BCR) signaling in DLBCL. BTK has been shown to be essential for BCR-mediated activation of the NF- κB/Rel family of transcription factors and BCR signaling has been recognized as a key pathway in the pathogenesis of DLBCL. Moreover, NF-κB activity relies upon chronic active BCR signaling in activated B-cell-like DLBCL, which can be potentially blocked by kinase inhibitors targeting BTK. In this study we examine the feasibility and efficacy of adding the BTKi, acalabrutinib (A), to standard second-line therapy to improve disease response in patients with R/R DLBCL. Here we present initial safety and tolerability data for the ongoing study.
 Study Design and Methods: This is an open-label, prospective phase II trial (NCT03736616). Cohort A is open to R/R DLBCL patients eligible for autologous hematopoietic transplantation (HCT). Cohort B is open to R/R DLBCL patients considered ineligible for autologous HCT. The primary endpoint for cohort A is to estimate the confirmed CR rate (RECIL 2017 criteria) prior to autologous HCT in patients undergoing second-line CIT. The primary endpoint for cohort B is defined as the estimate of one-year progression-free survival in patients undergoing second-line induction and maintenance acalabrutinib therapy.
 Cohort A receive 2 cycles of standard RICE salvage CIT in combination with acalabrutinib, 100mg BID days 1-21 of a 21-day cycle (RICE+A). After 2 cycles of therapy, patients undergo autologous stem cell mobilization and collection. Patients then receive a 3 rd cycle of RICE in combination with acalabrutinib. PET-CT (PET3) is to be performed on day 15 of cycle 3 to assess response. Patients with CR or partial response (PR) after PET3 proceed to autologous HCT with BEAM conditioning within 28-42 days of PET3. Post-HCT CR patients receive acalabrutinib 100mg BID as maintenance therapy for 12 additional months. Protocol amendment in May 2021 allows for PET assessment (C2D15) prior to autologous stem cell collection (after cycle 3).
 Cohort B receive 3 cycles of RICE+A in 21-day cycles followed by PET-CT (PET3) on day 15 of cycle 3. Patients without progressive disease at PET3 continue with acalabrutinib maintenance up to 12 additional cycles until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Patients demonstrating progressive disease are withdrawn from study treatment but followed for outcomes.
 Results: Here we report initial safety and tolerability data for the ongoing study with data cutoff July 28, 2021. Twenty-two patients have been screened and 20 patients have received at least 1 cycle of RICE+A. Patient characteristics are shown in Table 1. Fifteen patients (79%) have completed 3 cycles of RICE+A. One patient (5%) discontinued due to an adverse event (AE; recurrent appendicitis), 3 patients (16%) discontinued due to progressive disease, and 1 patient is receiving ongoing RICE+A as of data cutoff. Hematologic AE have been observed in 17 patients (89%) with 74% being Grade 3/4. Amongst these, neutropenia was the most common AE occurring in 47% with all being Grade 3/4, and thrombocytopenia occurring in 32% with all being Grade 3/4. All hematologic AE recovered to baseline or grade 1 in median 7 days. Amongst non-hematologic AE, diarrhea occurred in 21% and 0% were Grade 3/4, nausea 16% with 0% Grade 3/4, and headache in 16% with 0% Grade 3/4. Discontinuation of therapy due to AE occurred in 1 patient (recurrent appendicitis) and dose reduction occurred in 1 patient (Gr 4 neutropenia). Temporary (per protocol) dose holds of A occurred in 9 patients (45%), primarily for cytopenias during concurrent RICE+A. Median duration for dose holds of A was 5.5 days.
 Conclusion: RICE+A is feasible with manageable primarily hematologic AEs similar to those reported for RICE alone. Enrollment and follow up is ongoing for efficacy endpoints and further toxicity assessment.
 Figure 1 Figure 1.

 Bensinger: BMS, Janssen, Poseida, Regeneron, Trillium: Research Funding; Amgen, BMS, Janssen, Sanofi: Speakers Bureau. Glennie: Pharmacyclics/Janssen: Speakers Bureau. Pagel: Pharmacyclics/AbbVie: Consultancy; Incyte/MorphoSys: Consultancy; MEI Pharma: Consultancy; Gilead: Consultancy; Actinium Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy; AstraZeneca: Consultancy; BeiGene: Consultancy; Kite, a Gilead Company: Consultancy; Epizyme: Consultancy. Patel: Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Janssen: Consultancy; Genentech: Consultancy; BeiGene: Consultancy; TG Therapeutics: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; Abbvie: Consultancy; Pharmacyclics: Consultancy; Morphosys: Consultancy; Kite Pharma: Consultancy, Speakers Bureau; AstraZeneca: Consultancy, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; MEI Pharma: Consultancy; ADC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Lilly: Consultancy.

 Acalabrutinib is not FDA approved for treatment of DLBCL and is discussed in the context of an ongoing clinical trial only.


The use of extended daylength to suppress sexual maturation of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in sea cages has been successfully adopted by fish farmers. The same methods when applied to Atlantic cod (Gadus morhua) however, have been disappointing as gonadal development of cod in sea cages exposed to extended daylength is seasonally delayed but not arrested. Results of a set of photoperiod trials using 20 h and 24 h light in sea cages indicated that between 87-100% of fish achieved sexual maturation. The use of lights did however delay sexual maturation such that females were gravid for several months through summer. Grower diets currently used in Atlantic Canada have led to enlarged livers and this may also have played a role in disrupting normal gonadal development and affected gamete quality. Hepatosomatic indices were also well above those of wild cod. In Canada, the fate of drifting eggs from sea cages has not been evaluated. We discuss some of the biological and environmental conditions in the Bay of Fundy near cod cage sites and make inferences about the potential survivorship of embryo "escapes'. The extent of Atlantic cod farming in Canada is in a preliminary phase with limited concentration in the Bay of Fundy and coastal Newfoundland with no escaped juvenile or adult cod reported to date.


Providing communications during disaster relief continues to be a significant challenge. Difficulties associated with communications between responders, disparate agencies and the outside world continue to plague disaster response efforts. Modern disaster response often requires the transmission of various information including text, voice, video and other types of data. One way of providing communications during disaster response is through the use of Hastily Formed Networks. Hastily Formed Networks are rapidly deployable ad-hoc networks which can be generated using a variety of different technologies including 802.11 WiFi, 802.16 WiMAX, and VSAT. Early implementations of these ad-hoc disaster networks were slow, primitive and unreliable. In the past, equipment needed to implement Hastily Formed Networks was expensive, cumbersome and in many cases only available to the military or large corporations. Today, many of these technologies are increasingly available and have matured to provide robust rapidly deployable networks. In many cases these networks can provide interoperability between disparate agencies, provide crucial operational information and support real-time situational awareness. This paper reviews recent advances in technologies associated with providing communications in extreme environments and summarizes practical requirements for implementing Hastily Formed Networks in disaster response environments. We also present a model applicable to communications in disaster response scenarios. Case studies from events such as hurricane Katrina, the Haitian earthquake and major exercises including Strong Angel and Urban Shield illustrate the evolution of these network technologies, inform lessons, and indicate directions for the future of emergency communications.


Theories and practices in pain management: A research on doctors' representations - Pain is a symptom often associated with disease, but several studies indicate that hospital pain management continues to be inadequate. This fact seems to depend on representations of the problem and professional practices which are not likely to change. The purpose of this qualitative study, conducted in two hospitals in the north of Italy, is to analyze pain representations held by doctors, and their implications with respect to the practices adopted in assessment and treatment of pain. The results - expressed by the interviewees - indicate three meanings connected to different professional practices: pain is represented as a clinical cue, as a request for help and for attention and as a symptom to be treated. These different meanings are explained in relation to the bipolar nature of pain representation's nucleus which seems to be structured around the dialectic between subjective and objective pain. Key words: pain, pain-free hospital, doctors, social representations, qualitative research, content analysis Parole chiave: dolore, ospedale senza dolore, medici, rappresentazioni sociali, ricerca qualitativa, analisi del contenuto.


Background Metastasis is the predominant cause of mortality in prostate cancer (PCa); however, the underlying mechanisms are largely uncharted. Here, we found that Parvin alpha (PARVA) is downregulated in PCa and its loss is associated with clinical metastasis. We further explored the mechanistic basis of this finding. Methods The mRNA expression of PARVA was identified by analysis of the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data sets. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis was performed to evaluate the PARVA expression pattern in 198 PCa tissues, and 36 metastatic lymph node tissues. The function and molecular mechanism by which PARVA affects PCa were investigated in vitro using knockdown and overexpression cell lines. The effect of PARVA in cell proliferation, migration, and invasion in PCa cells was detected by MTS assay and Transwell assay. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and Western blot analysis were used to assess the gene expression in mRNA and protein level. Results The microarray data analysis indicated that PARVA was drastically downregulated in primary and metastatic PCa compared with normal and primary samples, respectively (all P<0.001). Multivariate Cox regression analysis suggested that downregulation of PARVA in PCa was an independent prognostic factor for poor biochemical recurrence (BCR)-free survival (P<0.01). IHC analysis confirmed that PARVA was frequently downregulated in metastatic and primary PCa tissues (All P<0.001). Furthermore, PARVA expression was found to be associated with Gleason score, pathological stage, extracapsular extension, and lymph node invasion (All P<0.05). Knockdown of PARVA triggered cell migration and invasion in vitro, whereas overexpression of PARVA reverted the invasive phenotypes. Mechanistic investigations identified that overexpression of PARVA repressed the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) phosphorylation via inhibiting the integrin-linked kinase (ILK) biological function. With knockdown of ILK, the downregulated MAPK/ERK phosphorylation and Myosin Light Chain 2 (MLC2) expression by PARVA overexpression were abolished, indicating that the PARVA effect on PCa is ILK/MAPK/ERK pathway dependent. Conclusions Our study revealed that loss of PARVA expression in PCa promotes metastasis by releasing the inhibition of ILK activity, followed by the activation of MAPK/ERK and MLC2 signaling.


The main goal of this thesis is to construct explicitly, modulo smooth terms, propagators for physically meaningful hyperbolic partial differential equations (PDEs) and systems of PDEs on closed manifolds without boundary, and to do this in a global (i.e. as a single oscillatory integral) and invariant (under changes of local coordinates and any gauge transformations that may be present) fashion. The crucial element in our approach is the use of complex-valued, as opposed to real-valued, phase functions — an idea proposed in the nineties by Laptev, Safarov and Vassiliev. It is known that one cannot achieve a construction global in time using a real-valued phase function due to obstructions brought about by caustics; however the use of a complex-valued one makes it possible to circumvent such obstructions. This is the subject of the first part of the thesis, where we study the global propagator for the wave equation on a closed Riemannian manifold of dimension d ≥ 2 and the global propagator for the massless Dirac equation on a closed orientable Riemannian 3-manifold. Our results allow us to compute, as an application, the third local Weyl coefficient for the massless Dirac operator. A natural way to obtain a system of PDEs on a manifold is to vary a suitably defined sesquilinear form. In the second part of the thesis, we study first order sesquilinear forms acting on sections of the trivial Cm-bundle over a smooth d-manifold. Thanks to the interplay of techniques from analysis, geometry and topology, we achieve a classification of these forms up to GL(m,C) gauge equivalence in the special case of d = 4 and m = 2. Finally, in the last chapter we develop a Lorentzian analogue of the theory of elasticity. We analyse the resulting nonlinear field equations for general Lorentzian 4-manifolds, and provide explicit solutions for the Minkowski spacetime.


Human hair is a huge untapped waste resource whose useful compounds require toxic and environmentally harmful chemicals to extract. Herein, the optical properties of human hair without using such chemicals, turning waste into a site‐selective multicolored display, and a chemical sensor with a visual indicator through tunable fluorescence are transformed. The tunable fluorescence color, which includes both visible light and infrared components, is achieved using a scanning laser beam (microscopic) and hotplate heating at a low temperature of 360 °C for 3 min (macroscopic and large‐scale production). These fluorescing hair readily detects methylene blue molecules within a concentration range of 10−12–10−21 M due to the formation of tryptophan byproducts and electron contributing pyrrolic nitrogen. This work's simple yet impactful consequence lays the foundation on which the industrial applicability of the functionalized human hair waste can be achieved, realizing a possible cyclical economy through sustainable resources.


The 12th Malaysian General Election on the 8th March 2008 ended with the ruling coalition, the National Front suffering a rather humiliating defeat that it ever experienced before. For the first time since independence, the party failed to secure the two thirds majority in the parliament and lost the control five states out of thirteen states that formed the Federation of Malaysia. The significance factor that determined the triumph of the opposition front was the role played by Anwar Ibrahim. In the March election, however, Anwar was barred from standing as a candidate due to legal provision after being convicted and jailed for a sodomy case which he vehemently blames as a
political conspiracy. Following an allegation that Anwar was involved with a new sodomy case with his close aide, his wife, Wan Azizah who is the president of the Justice Party decided to vacate the parliamentary seat in Permatang Pauh to pave way for Anwar to contest. The result of the by-election proved that the support for the opposition was growing and the Prime Minister, Abdullah Badawi was blamed for the continuous decline of the ruling coalition. This led
to his stepping down as the prime minister to pave the way for his deputy Mohd. Najib Razak. After the Permatang Pauh parliamentary by-election, there were two more parliamentary by-elections, in Kuala Terengganu and Bukit Gantang. The results of these by-elections clearly showed that the opposition is maintaining the momentum in the run up to the 13th general election scheduled for 1912/13. This paper will discuss how the scenarios as shown by these three parliamentary by-elections will determine the future political landscape of Malaysia prior to the general election.


Objectives: Current research aims to address the challenges of exchanging healthcare information, since when this information has to be shared, this happens by specifically designed medical applications or even by the patients themselves. Among the problems that the Health Information Exchange (HIE) initiative is facing are that (i) third party health data cannot be accessed without internet, (ii) there exist crucial delays in accessing citizens' data, (iii) the direct HIE can only happen among Healthcare Institutions. Methods: Towards the solution of these issues, a Device-to-Device (D2D) protocol has been specified, running on top of the Bluetooth protocol for efficient data exchange. This research is focused on this D2D protocol, by comparing the different Bluetooth profiles that can be used for transmitting this data, based on specific metrics considering the probabilities of transferring erroneous data. Findings: An evaluation of three Bluetooth profiles takes place, concluding that two of the three profiles must be used to respect the D2D protocol nature and be fully supported by the main market vendors' operating systems. Novelty: Based on this evaluation, the specified D2D protocol has been built on top of state-of-the-art short-range distance communication technologies, fully supporting the healthcare ecosystem towards the HIE paradigm. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-01276 Full Text: PDF


Traffic prediction is of significant importance for telecommunication network planning and network optimization. In this paper, the traffic series from a certain mobile network in Heilongjiang province in China is studied. The characteristics in respect of both trend and periodicity are explored with autocorrelation function. Based on the characteristics exhibited in the traffic series, multiplicative seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average model (ARIMA) is employed to make traffic series prediction. Average daily traffic per month for the province as well as its every sub-region from July to December in 2009 is forecasted and compared with the actual operation data. The mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) for one-step ahead prediction is 1.382%, and MAPE for the 6 steps is within 6%. The prediction result is of high precision. Furthermore, the cause for the big prediction error in 2 regions is analyzed, and the appropriateness of the model is testified on the opposite aspect. This paper also provides an effective method by using correlation coefficients to analyze the cause for significant prediction errors which do not happen in time series prediction applications rarely.


Lestari T, Mustikarini ED, Apriyadi R, Anwar S. 2019. Early stability test of mutant candidates of Bangka local cassava, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 20: 337-342. Cassava production in Indonesia has decreased due to decreased harvest area. Increasing production can be done by improving genetic diversity through gamma-ray irradiation to create high production mutant. The purpose of this study was to determine the optimum irradiation doses in relation to improve production of local cassava from Bangka Island, as well as morphological changes resulting from the irradiation. The research was conducted at the Experimental Garden, the University of Bangka Belitung, Indonesia in September 2017 until April 2018. This experiment was using Split Plot design, with the main plot consisted of 2 levels and subplot have 3 treatment levels, and 4 replications, in total there were 24 experimental units. The results showed that gamma-ray irradiation had very significant effect on plant height, number of leaves, young leaf color, stem color, and number of lobes. Gamma-ray irradiation on 3 Bulan accession showed an improved tuber production, whereas in Malang varieties gamma-ray irradiation decreased tuber production. Gamma-ray irradiation dose of 30 Gray was able to improve the number of tubers, tuber weight and starch content on 3 Bulan cassava accession.


This study will examine gender mainstreaming in disaster risk reduction (DRR) programming by assessing a United Nations Development Program (UNDP) project in Mongolia. In order to do so both programme documents and policy outcomes are analysed according to international standards as well as from the perspective of the targeted population. It is a qualitative study, were data is collected using a combination of literature studies and semi-structured, open-ended interviews. Nine vulnerable women and one man living in the urban region of Ulaanbaatar was interviewed with the aim of getting a better understanding for the disaster risks they faced in their livelihood and what they did in order to mitigate the impact. Interviews were also conducted with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), non-governmental organisations (NGO) and project personal from UNDP as well as other UN agencies in order to examine how gender issues in relation to disaster management are perceived in Mongolia and how the UNDP project came to address differences in vulnerability.In order to get a better understanding of UNDP Mongolia's DRR project a general overview of the Mongolian disaster context will be provided, as well as a definition of what DRR in fact entails according to UNDP's mandate and other international frameworks. A theoretical framework of why gender mainstreaming in DRR is so important will also be offered, by discussing the concept of gender differences in vulnerability, but also the growing notion that women and men's perception of disasters differ and hence came to impact their incentives for preparedness and mitigation. As women tend to consider disasters as more serious threats than men they are also more likely to carry out preparedness activities. Making them important actors in DRR, rather than be considered as merely helpless disaster victims. Finally, the gender issues related to disasters in the specific Mongolian context will be discussed, by examining how Mongolian women's role in society affects their vulnerability in different disaster settings but also how women themselves are mitigating risks. All with the intention to see to what extent UNDP Mongolia's DRR project managed to address gender issues, both in accordance with international standards as well as in relation to the specific Mongolian context. Recommendations will also be offered for future DRR programs how the mainstreaming of gender perspective could be improved.


Ionic liquid (IL) containing solvents can change the structure, dynamics, function, and stability of proteins. In order to investigate the mechanisms by which ILs induce structural changes in a large multidomain protein, we study the interactions of human serum albumin (HSA) with two different ILs, 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate and choline dihydrogen phosphate. Root mean square deviation and fluctuation calculations indicate that high concentrations of ILs in mixtures with water lead to protein structures that remain close to their crystallographic structures on time scales of hundreds of nanoseconds. To overcome potential time scale limitations due to the high viscosity of the solvent, we employed enhanced sampling techniques to estimate the free energy of an experimentally determined important transition within the protein structure. Metadynamics simulations show that the free energy landscape of the unfolding of loop 1 of domain I is different in the presence of ILs than it is in water, consistent with previously published experimental evidence. We then apply essential dynamics coarse graining to systematically predict differences in the dynamics of proteins solvated in IL-water mixtures versus pure water systems. We also demonstrate that the presence of ionic liquids changes the distribution of intermolecular distances among several ligands, indicating that the protein structure swells in the presence of certain ILs, consistent with experimental evidence.


Spectral sensitivities measured by a constant CFF criterion are much narrower at high frequencies than at low frequencies. Neutralizing the chromatic adaptation produced by the test stimulus eliminates this effect. The proposed explanation of spectral narrowing is that R and G cone responses cancel each other at certain frequencies because of wavelength-dependent latency differences.


—In this paper, we propose a two-stage optimization strategy for solving the Large-scale Traveling Salesman Problems (LSTSPs) named CCPNRL-GA. First, we hypothesize that the participation of a well-performed individual as an elite can accelerate the convergence of optimization. Based on this hypoth- esis, in the first stage, we cluster the cities and decompose the LSTSPs into multiple subcomponents, and each subcomponent is optimized with a reusable Pointer Network (PtrNet). After subcomponents optimization, we combine all sub-tours to form a valid solution, this solution joins the second stage of optimization with GA. We validate the performance of our proposal on 10 LSTSPs and compare it with traditional EAs. Experimental results show that the participation of an elite individual can greatly accelerate the optimization of LSTSPs, and our proposal has broad prospects for dealing with LSTSPs.


The purpose of modern dentistry is the early prevention of tooth decay rather than invasive restorative therapy. In recent years, remineralization of the demineralised enamel without using any restorative treatment becomes more important. Nano-sized particles have similarity to the apatite crystals of tooth enamel in morphology and crystal structure. Recently, some reports have shown that nano-hydroxyapatite has some potential to remineralize of enamel lesions. In this review, the effects of nano-hydroxyapatite toothpastes on remineralization were examined and studies on this subject were explained with details.


Abstract In today's globalized world understanding the relationship between "culture and competitiveness" has become a significant area of research. The aim of this paper is to illustrate the synergistic interplay between "culture and competitiveness" through a bibliometric study that systematically examines the literature review. The data is collected from Web of Science (Clarivate Analytics) during 1989-2022 and it is analyzed using VOSviewer software. The study results highlight the most important aspects of the "culture and competitiveness" literature, such as the leading countries, journals, authors, and keywords. Overall, this bibliometric analysis provides a comprehensive study of the research view pertaining to the relationship between "culture and competitiveness". Moreover, this quantitative research outlines gaps and potential prospective study directions for future investigation. Our research outcomes provide valuable contributions to both academic and managerial domains, offering important implications for theory and practice approaches.


Whereas the ; adrenal glands of healthy ferrets produce only limited amounts of androgenic steroids, adrenocortical neoplasms that arise in neutered ferrets typically secrete androgens or their derivative, estrogen. The 17,20-lyase activity of cytochrome P450 17a-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase (P450c17) must increase to permit androgen biosynthesis in neoplastic adrenal tissue. We screened ferret adrenocortical tumor specimens for expression of cytochrome b5 (cyt b5), an allosteric regulator that selectively enhances the 17,20-lyase activity of P450c17. Cyt b5 immunoreactivity was evident in 24 of 25 (96%) adrenocortical adenomas/carcinomas from ferrets with signs of ectopic sex steroid production. Normal adrenocortical cells lacked cyt b5, which may account for the low production of adrenal androgens in healthy ferrets. Other markers characteristic of gonadal somatic cells, such as luteinizing hormone receptor, aromatase, and GATA4, were coexpressed with cyt b5 in some of the tumors. We concluded that cyt b5 is upregulated during gonadectomy-induced adrenocortical neoplasia and is a marker of androgen synthetic potential in these tumors.


Using sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid as electrolyte respectively, TiO2 coatings of different pore size and physical properties were prepared on titanium alloy matrix by potentiostatic anodic oxidation method. On the TiO2 coating, nano-hydroxyapatite (nHA) grain coatings was prepared by electro-deposition under the external magnetic field. When the magnetic field was applied perpendicular to the current density, rod-like nHA crystals with a length scale of about 200 nm and an average diameter of about 50 nm were obtained. But when the magnetic field was parallel to the electric field, the hydroxyapatite grain presented as granular grain was about 50-70 nm in diameter. It was found that the matching degree between nano-hydroxyapatite and TiO2 coatings directly affected the bonding strength between composite coatings and Ti alloy substrate. When the TiO2 coating with a pore diameter of 100 nm was implaned by rod-like nHA crystals, the combination between the two layers was stronger.


Plastic pollution in the aquatic environment has been assessed for many years by ocean waste collection expeditions around the globe or by river sampling. While the total amount of plastic produced worldwide is well documented, the amount of plastic found in the ocean, the distribution of particles on its surface and its evolution over time are still the subject of much debate. In this article, we propose a general fragmentation model, postulating the existence of a critical size below which particle fragmentation becomes extremely unlikely. In the frame of this model, an abundance peak appears for sizes around 1mm, in agreement with real environmental data. Using, in addition, a realistic exponential waste feed to the ocean, we discuss the relative impact of fragmentation and feed rates, and the temporal evolution of microplastics (MP) distribution. New conclusions on the temporal trend of MP pollution are drawn.


The ability of staphylococcal toxins to stimulate large numbers of T cells has led to their designation as a superantigen. Previous studies have indicated that activation of T cells bearing particular V beta elements may be responsible for the toxic effects of these bacterial products. However, the widespread expression of functionally similar proteins by unrelated bacterial species suggests the possibility that these products may represent a successful microbial strategy for subversion of the host antibacterial response. We have examined the effects of the staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) on T cell clones that express different V beta elements. We note that SEB stimulates clones bearing previously defined V beta elements to proliferate and to produce cytokines. In addition, we demonstrate that an interaction between SEB and the TCR of clones that express additional V beta elements, including V beta 2 and V beta 6, results in a sterile form of immunological activation. This activation phenotype is characterized by proliferation without detectable cytokine production and is followed by profound immunological unresponsiveness in vitro and in vivo. We propose that reduced levels of antibacterial responses resulting from this form of T cell unresponsiveness may account for the highly conserved expression of superantigens by diverse bacterial species.


Two-dimensional numerical calculations are used to show the advantages of the use of a symmetrising prepulse at the wavelength exceeding the wavelength of the main heating pulse, which reduces the preheating of the fuel by the first shock wave.


Background: Patients with PD can have disabling visual hallucinations associated with dopaminergic therapy. Sleep disorders, including vivid dreams and REM sleep with motor behaviors (RBD), are frequent in these patients. Methods: The association of hallucinations and REM sleep both at night and during the day was examined in 10 consecutive nondemented patients with long-standing levodopa-responsive PD and hallucinations. Seven patients presented with paranoia and paranoid delusions. Overnight sleep recordings and standard multiple daytime sleep latency test were performed. The results were compared to those of 10 similar patients with PD not experiencing hallucinations. Results: RBD was detected in all 10 patients with hallucinations and in six without. Although nighttime sleep conditions were similar in both groups, hallucinators tended to be sleepier during the day. Delusions following nighttime REM period and daytime REM onsets were observed in three and eight of the hallucinators, and zero and two of the others. Daytime hallucinations, coincident with REM sleep intrusions during periods of wakefulness, were reported only by hallucinators. Postmortem examination of the brain of one patient showed numerous Lewy bodies in neurons of the subcoeruleus nucleus, a region that is involved in REM sleep control. Conclusion: The visual hallucinations that coincide with daytime episodes of REM sleep in patients who also experience post-REM delusions at night may be dream imagery. Psychosis in patients with PD may therefore reflect a narcolepsy-like REM sleep disorder.


This paper presents an in-depth study of the effects of substrate-surface potential on the RF power performance of laterally diffused MOSFETs (LDMOSFETs) fabricated on high-resistivity silicon-on-insulator (HR-SOI). Substrate-surface inversion and accumulation substantially degrade the RF power performance of these devices by providing an RF shunt between source and drain through the substrate surface. The degradation is most prominent under conditions of low gain, high frequency, and high power compression. The potential of HR-SOI for RF applications can only be realized by preventing the appearance of a continuous conducting path at the substrate surface. Under appropriate conditions of substrate-surface depletion, an RF power LDMOSFET on HR-SOI with a peak PAE of 40% at 7.2 GHz is demonstrated


Genetic diversity analysis of 19 coloured and white rice genotypes were conducted using 14 Simple Sequence Repeat (SSR) and 21 Insertion Deletion (INDEL) markers. Among them, polymorphic results were obtained for 9 SSR and 12 INDEL markers. The PIC values ranged from 0.36(RM484) to 0.78 (RM 167) and 0.50 (R9M20) and 0.81 (R9M10) for SSR and INDEL markers respectively. In the case of both SSR and INDEL markers highest genetic diversity was observed between Krishna Kamod (White pericarp) and IRST 1 (Red pericarp) whereas least genetic diversity was observed between Lal Kada (Red pericarp) and Krishna Kamod (White pericarp). However, it was also found that brown, black and red pericarp share more similarity among themselves. It was also observed that INDEL markers reveals greater diversity among the genotypes as compared to SSR markers which was indent from the low average similarity index observed in the former. On the whole INDEL markers were found to be more efficient than SSR markers for diversity analysis.


Plastic surgery is always a fascinating subject on account of the technical difficulties involved, the uncertainty of the result, the exercise of one's ingenuity, and the satisfaction of success, if any, both to the surgeon and to the patient. Few attempts were made before the days of anesthesia. Plastic surgery has been done extensively since then. Most of the plastic work on the urethra and penis has been reported by European surgeons. I have been able to find the report of only a few cases by surgeons in America. Many methods have been described, most of them being for reconstruction in congenital defects; namely, hypospadias and epispadias. A few of them are for reconstruction of defects in acquired conditions. In the literature one finds listed many different kinds of material used as transplants with which to reconstruct the urethra. One of the most unusual reports was by Springle, 1 who in


The aim of this study is to determine the representation of the areas of educational objectives (cognitive, psychomotor, and emotional) measured by the science, chemistry, physics, and biology (2018-2019) examination questions in the State of Kuwait (objective, categorical) and the availability of science operations. Content analysis was used as a method to analyze the final examinations in the lens of the three educational objectives domains. The results of the study showed that the number of questions of the science subjects (chemistry, physics, and biology) for the second semester of the academic year 2018-2019 was 136 questions as 46, 48, and 42and that the average of all questions focused on questions related to lower cognitive levels. The study concluded with a set of recommendations to develop the process of final examinations for secondary schools and to rethink about the process of evaluating students with science concepts rather than limiting the subjects to sets of information from textbooks.


The recipient of the 2002 Joseph A. Cushman Award is Isabella Premoli Silva in celebration of her more than four decades of foraminiferal research, and for her tireless efforts of service to the geologic profession. Professor Premoli Silva is one of the most widely recognized names in foraminiferal paleontology and her research contributions and service to various international committees and commissions are familiar to stratigraphic paleontologists worldwide. She authored or co-authored more than 170 papers concerning micropaleontology, stratigraphy, cyclostratigraphy, paleobiogeography, and paleoceanography, and spanning the geologic record from Paleozoic to Recent. Her special emphasis is on Cretaceous to Miocene planktonic foraminifera. Professor Premoli Silva is the world's leading expert in the identification of planktonic foraminifera in thin-section. Fortunately, she has always been eager to share this knowledge with many students and colleagues.

As a student of Professor Maria Bianca Cita at the University of Milan, Isabella was well grounded in the rich geologic and micropaleontologic heritage of Italy and the Mediterranean region. Her thesis on "Planktonic Foraminifera of the Type Langhian (Northern Italy)" was just the beginning of her own contributions to this storied heritage. She has gone on to contribute voluminously to the Mesozoic-Cenozoic geologic and paleoceanographic history of Italy. Isabella was an instructor at the University …


Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) is a critical, negative regulator of diverse signaling pathways. Lithium is a direct inhibitor of GSK-3 and has been widely used to test the putative role of GSK-3 in multiple settings. However, lithium also inhibits other targets, including inositol monophosphatase and structurally related phosphomonoesterases, and thus additional approaches are needed to attribute a given biological effect of lithium to a specific target. For example, lithium is known to increase the inhibitory N-terminal phosphorylation of GSK-3, but the target of lithium responsible for this indirect regulation has not been identified. We have characterized a short peptide derived from the GSK-3 interaction domain of Axin that potently inhibits GSK-3 activity in vitro and in mammalian cells and robustly activates Wnt-dependent transcription, mimicking lithium action. We show here, using the GSK-3 interaction domain peptide, as well as small molecule inhibitors of GSK-3, that lithium induces GSK-3 N-terminal phosphorylation through direct inhibition of GSK-3 itself. Reduction of GSK-3 protein levels, either by RNA interference or by disruption of the mouse GSK-3β gene, causes increased N-terminal phosphorylation of GSK-3, confirming that GSK-3 regulates its own phosphorylation status. Finally, evidence is presented that N-terminal phosphorylation of GSK-3 can be regulated by the GSK-3-dependent protein phosphatase-1·inhibitor-2 complex.


In this paper, we propose two confidence measures (CMs) in speech recognition: one based on acoustic likelihood and the other based on phone duration. For a decoded speech frame aligned to an HMM state, the CM based on acoustic likelihood depends on the relative position of its output likelihood value in the probability distribution of likelihood value in that particular state. The CM of whole phone is the geometric mean of CMs of all frames in it. The CM based on duration depends on the deviation of the observed duration from the expected duration of the recognized phone. The two CMs are combined using weighted geometric mean to obtain a hybrid phone CM. The hybrid CM shows significant improvement over the CM based on time normalized log-likelihood score. On TI-digits database, at 20% false acceptance rate, the normalized acoustic log-likelihood based CM has a detection rate of 83.8% while the hybrid CM has a detection rate of 92.4%.


There is a whole range of collegiate competitions that present real industry challenges to engineering students in order to provide an opportunity to develop a project from the very beginning, evaluating the requirements and making decisions aiming the best performance in the competition. In particular, many AeroDesign competitions focus on enhancing payload capabilities and efficiency, challenges that are also present in most aeronautical industry projects. To solve this challenges, multidisciplinary optimizations are widely used, assembling knowledge from different areas of an aeronautical project including aerodynamics, performance, structural, stability, controllability, among others. This paper presents an evolutionary approach, based on genetic algorithms, to optimize the wing of an aircraft developed to compete on the advanced class of SAE Brazil AeroDesign 2019, including aerodynamics and performance analysis.


Wegener's Granulomatosis (WG) is a rare, Multisystem disease of the medium and small sized arteries and veins. It most commonly involves the upper respiratory tract, lungs, and kidneys and often presents as chronic fatigue, upper respiratory infection, sinusitis, and otitis media. Symptoms can include fever, weight loss and fatigue, though these are not usually the primary presenting complaints. development of the disease is highly skewed across ethnicities, with up to 98% of cases being reported in caucasians. We present the case of a 56-year-old African-American male who presented primarily with complaints of uncontrollable fever of unknown origin (FUO) for past two weeks with accompanying sore throat, nasal congestion, night sweats, malaise, and unexplained weight loss of 10 pounds over the past month. Treatment with antibiotics for one week prior to admission showed no relief of symptoms. Chest x-ray showed focal course markings in the right upper lobe. Urinalysis revealed microscopic hematuria and leukocyturia. Chest and abdominal CT scans revealed a right lower lobe pulmonary nodule and heterogeneous areas of enhancement in the spleen. Head CT revealed right mastoid opification. Labs revealed proteinase-3 antibody titer > 100, which is characteristic of WG. Steroids and cyclophosphamide were started with relief of presenting symptoms. Renal biopsy showed pauci-immune P-ANCA associated crescentic and focally necrotizing glomerulonephritis and vascilitis. This case is unique in that the patient presented with primary complaint of FUO. WG should be considered as a rule-out in cases of uncontrollable FUO, even if none of the classic triad of symptoms is present. Though rare, WG should be considered in cases involving non-Caucasian patients.


Editor's note: This paper is reprinted with permission from the September 2003 issue of Sea Technology magazine.www.sea-technology.com

The Nansen Field was discovered in May 1999 by Kerr-McGee Corporation and Ocean Energy, on East Breaks Block 602, deepwater Gulf of Mexico. The field is located about 150 miles to the south of Houston, in 3700 ft of water and it is part of the Greater Nansen-Boomvang Field which includes West, North, and East Boomvang as well as Nansen and Navajo Fields with total reserves up to 320 million barrels of oil equivalent (MMBOE). The Nansen Field is the largest of the five, with reserves up to 180 MMBOE (Figure 1). It was fast-tracked and the first production commenced on 28 January 2002, with the world's first truss spar. Daily production of the field is expected to ramp up to a peak of about 40 000 barrels of oil and 80 million cubic feet of gas. Figure 1.
The Greater Nansen-Boomvang Field with time structure map of the Nansen Field.

The Nansen prospect is located on a series of downthrown three-way closures against faults. These closures are on the west flank of a Pliocene-Pleistocene depositional center (mini-basin). The mini-basin is bordered to the west along a north-south trending salt-cored ridge. Most of the faults are trending NNE-SSW, down to the east with significant displacement; some of them reach more than 1000 ft dip-slip, and therefore facilitate large vertical separations down into the mini-basin. The prognosis targets are Pliocene sands situated on the three-way closures with amplitude support. These Pliocene sand reservoirs are tied to the pay intervals in wells Redding and Bate 1 and Kerr-McGee 1 in the North Boomvang Field located in East Breaks Block 643.

To ensure exploration success, the importance of thorough fundamental geologic work and detailed seismic mapping can …


Driving and timing chains are widely used machine elements which are continuously improved regarding wear and energy efficiency. Especially for timing chains, reducing wear is of high importance as it is critical for the function of the combustion engine. To achieve this goal, the wear in the chain joint has to be measured precisely which is usually done by measuring the length of the entire chain. With this method, no information about the distribution of wear between the contacting bodies, pin and bush, is available. An additional measuring and analyzing technique using a standard roundness instrument is developed with which more detailed information about the wear in the chain joint is obtained. With this method, unworn chain joint components are characterized and the wear on worn components is measured and compared for pins with different surface treatments. Furthermore, approaches to use the measured data in simulation and calculation are presented.


Objective of the study: The objective of the research was to identify which types of innovation are most recurrent in Brazilian companies and innovation agencies in interaction and technology transfer actions. Methodology: The methodological premise was theoretical-empirical and descriptive, with analysis of the data extracted by means of questionnaires and interviews from the sample of innovation agencies affiliated to FORTEC and associated companies at ANPEI and ANPROTEC. Originality/Relevance: In the literature, no research has been identified highlighting the most recurrent types of innovation in technology transfer processes between Brazilian companies and innovation agencies. Main results: Incremental innovation was the most recurrent in the interaction processes of companies and innovation agencies, as well as the rates of radical and disruptive innovation obtained a satisfactory average in the interval of the Likert scale. Theoretical/methodological contributions: This research contributed to the identification of innovation models with greater frequency in the interaction between Brazilian innovation companies and agencies, using the method for future surveys of other interactive forms of the surveyed actors. Social/management contributions: The results identified in the research can stimulate actions to intensify the interactions and processes of technological transfer between Brazilian companies and innovation agencies.


Purpose of review This review aims to summarize the most recent advances on different membranes and cartridges used for extracorporeal blood purification in critically ill patients with sepsis or septic shock. Recent findings Despite positive signals from experimental, cases and small clinical studies, blood purification showed no distinct morbidity and mortality benefit in large clinical trials. Summary None of the discussed specific membranes or cartridges can currently be recommended as sole adjunctive treatment in sepsis and septic shock. Any available technique should be timely initiated and adapted to the patient's status. Sickest patients seem to benefit more from blood purification. Patient selection is thus of crucial importance and may be optimized by focusing on disease severity and degree of organ failure. Measurement of endotoxin activity and plasma procalcitonin levels can support the selection process but ideal cutoff values need to be defined. Well-designed prospective randomized clinical trials assessing or comparing the various available membranes and cartridges are eagerly awaited.


Glucose nonfermenting gram-negative bacteria were electrophoretically typed for the extracellular protein spectra. The method permits differentiation on the generic level the cultures of such bacteria, characterized by atypical biochemistry, within 10 hours.


This paper profiles Charlotte Wiser, an American missionary and student of Indian social life, and presents a comprehensive narrative report about the caste and gender relations in rural Uttar Pradesh, India, during the 1920s. The report narrates the abuse of women and the manipulation by men of the rules of pollution and purity as well as economics. It captures deeply rooted ideals of proper females, kinship roles, and caste divisions, which is a compelling snapshot of northern Indian village life in the 1920s. It also presents the dominant status of men in economics and society and how women are unable to unite because of their economic and social positions.


In recent years a number of changes have taken place in Scotland in respect of issues of land management, access and the natural environment. These include the creation of Scotland's first National Park in 2002 and the introduction of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which has enshrined in legislation the principle of responsible access in the countryside. The aim of this study was to consider the implications of these changes for a specific type of recreational land use in Scotland, Long Distance (Walking) Routes (LDRs). Using semi-structured interviews with representatives of a number of agencies and with other individuals closely involved with LDRs, the research considered the extent to which these changes have or may alter the rationale for the provision of LDRs, their funding and their management. The research indicates a need and a willingness to build on existing stakeholder approaches to management with a view to engaging a broader range of communities of interest. The main challenge for those involved with LDRs is how to fund future development of these routes. One aim of a more participatory stakeholder management approach is to help route managers to use public funds to lever funds from other sources.


Learning Classifier Systems (LCSs) are a paradigm of rule-based evolutionary computation (EC). LCSs excel in data-mining tasks regarding helping humans to understand the explored problem, often through visualizing the discovered patterns linking features to classes. Due to the stochastic nature of EC, LCSs unavoidably produce and keep redundant rules, which obscure the patterns. Thus, rule compaction methods are invoked to produce a better population by removing problematic rules. Previously, compaction methods have neither been tested on large-scale problems nor been assessed on the performance of capturing patterns. We review and test the most popular compaction algorithms, finding that across multiple LCSs' populations for the same task, although the redundant rules can be different, the accurate rules are common. Furthermore, the patterns contained consistently refer to the nature of the explored domain, e.g., the data distribution or the importance of features for determining actions. This extends the [O] set hypothesis proposed by Butz et al. [1], in which an LCS is expected to evolve a minimal number of non-overlapped rules to represent an addressed domain. Two new compaction algorithms are introduced to search at the rule level and the population level by compacting multiple LCSs' populations. Two visualization methods are employed for verifying the interpretability of these populations. Successful compaction is demonstrated on complex and real problems with clean datasets, e.g., the 11-bits Majority-On problem that requires 924 different interacting rules in the optimal solution to be uniquely identified to enable correct visualization. For the first time, the patterns contained in learned models for the large-scale 70-bits Multiplexer problem are visualized successfully.


The dichotomy of secular science and religious science changes the mindset of the Muslim community in religion. From the classical period, which saw Islam as a comprehensive teaching, it has turned into an understanding that views Islam as a religion that is only ritual oriented. It is understood that education is a process that has continuity and is consciously carried out to prepare a generation that has balanced knowledge and values. On the other hand, the negative impact of modern life cannot be avoided by modern humans, especially from the aspect of education. For this reason, various elements in education must continue to maintain existing linkages to achieve predetermined goals. Low participation and public concern for the advancement of the world of education must end, along with the realization of the concept of school based management or SBM. Another aspect that must be prepared is the quality of teachers. Conceptually, teachers have three functions, namely cognitive, moral and innovative. In order to become an ideal figure in Indonesia, teachers must meet eight indicators, namely theological principles, formal principles, functional principles, cultural principles, comprehensiveness principles, substantial principles, social principles and identity principles.


??The objective of this study is to analyze the characteristic of thermal environment in the summer season by conducting the field observation of temperature, relative humidity, and globe temperature in some parts of the city. Observation point was divided to a densely populated area, a residential area, a green area, a waterfront green area and a suburban district by the distribution ratio of green area. In this study, the correlation between maximum temperature and globe temperature, study on index for intensity of the tropical night and the temperature distribution characteristic of measurement points by the distribution ratio of green area were analyzed. The results of this study are as follows. ① The difference between temperature and globe temperature by the distribution ratio of green area is confirmed. The difference of nighttime is more clearly that of daytime. ② The average temperature and globe temperature of the densely populated area(29.2℃,33.7℃) are higher than that of the waterfront green area(27.9℃,32. 0℃) by 1.3℃ and 1.7℃, respectively. ③ The number of tropical nights has different days of tropical nights by the distribution ratio of green area of 17days for the Daegu weather station, 14days for a densely populated area, 14days for a residential area, 6days for a green area, 2days for a waterfront green area, and 2days for a suburban district. ④ The results of the slope of trend line for the effects of the temperature on globe temperature change and the intercept for the size of the impact of radiant energy gained around by the analysis of the correlation between the maximum temperature and globe temperature can be utilized objective evaluation index of the each point's artificial effects.


Korean IT industry has been given much weight in national R&D management. A negative side of this fact is that Korean economy is likely to become vulnerable to a condition of the export business in certain items of IT industry which has a serious influence on the national economy. A customized investment strategy through the analysis of technology competitiveness and R&D status in each technology of IT field is required in order to rectify the structural vulnerability and pursue a continuous growth. In this research, a strategic direction to set up an efficient investment strategy is presented. In this process, it draws a portfolio analysis with two axes of technology level and technology life cycle. It also derives a priority order of the national investment considering the degree of technological impact, marketability, and adequacy of public support from AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) method by a survey of IT experts. A portfolio analysis in the prior stage helps the respondents in AHP become more familiar with the alternatives' characteristics so that their decision making process more corresponds with national R&D strategies.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate suppression efficiency of hypoxia inducible factor-1 alpha (HIF-1 alpha) specific siRNA derived from recombinant plasmid (pSUPER(H1-siHIF-1 alpha)) on both HIF-1 alpha mRNA and protein expression and concomitant downregulation of expression of downstream angiogenic factor vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF).

METHODS
Stable pSUPER(H1-siHIF-1 alpha) expression cell lines were constructed by transient transfection of pSUPER(H1-siHIF-1 alpha) eukaryotic expression vector, followed by puromycin selection. Stable expression pSUPER(H1-siHIF-1 alpha) cell line with highest HIF-1 alpha inhibition efficiency determined by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) was cultured under normoxia (20% O(2)) and hypoxia conditions (1% O(2)) together with control cells. RT-PCR, western blot and ELISA were used to measure inhibition ability of pSUPER(H1-siHIF-1 alpha) on HIF-1 alpha and VEGF expression.

RESULTS
Compared to the control cells, both mRNA and protein level of HIF-1 alpha and VEGF were dramatically decreased by pSUPER(H1-siHIF-1 alpha) under hypoxia conditions. Under sufficient oxygen supply situation, HIF-1 alpha mRNA level was downregulated by pSUPER(H1-siHIF-1 alpha), but pSUPER(H1-siHIF-1 alpha) did not cause suppression of VEGF expression.

CONCLUSIONS
pSUPER(H1-siHIF-1 alpha) could decrease HIF-1 alpha expression under both normoxia and hypoxia conditions. VEGF expression was downregulated under hypoxia conditions only. Consequently, pSUPER(H1-siHIF-1 alpha) might be a powerful tool for the inhibition of retinal neovascularization.


The river corridors of Malaysia's heritage river cities have long been contributing to the livelihood of diverse communities within these places. Recently, the speedy city development progress in Malaysia to accommodate the up to date cultural-based heritage economy, coupled with severe climate change and lack of community consultation in designing and developing the river corridors has made a difference to the landscape settings of these places. These have raised concerns among the local community, particularly the local workers who are depending on the resources along the river corridors. This paper explains the strategy in triangulating multiple research methods to identify and assess the important landscape character settings of Malaysia's urban river corridors, which are significant in the routine of the working communities at these places. The experiential landscape survey (ELS) – the phenomenological approaches in landscape assessment created by Thwaites and Simkins was tested. Three inter-connected processes that consist of Process 1 – defining preliminary river corridor boundaries, Process 2 – looking for relevant occupations and individuals (as participants), and Process 3 – identifying and assessing the significant landscape setting successfully strategized in this study. The outcome helps to assess the landscape character in relation to working communities' experience for heritage urban river corridors in Malaysia. It also expands the conventional landscape character assessment through multiple methods, including site observation, ELS, and interviews.


The effects of epidermal pigmentation and hair covering on the relative transparency of various animal tissues to near infrared (NIR) light were examined, and the pathlengths of NIR light through tissues at four wavelengths in the NIR range were subsequently determined. Black hair covering and black or dark-coloured hooves prevented NIR light from penetration sufficient for conduction of pathlength or NIR spectroscopy measurements. Non-pigmented hair covering of the head did not appear to be a barrier to successful NIR light transmission. Tissues sufficiently transparent to NIR light had the differential pathlength factor (DPF, i.e. the ratio of the observed light pathlength and the geometric light source-detector separation) of NIR light determined by intensity modulated spectroscopy at the wavelengths 744, 806, 834 and 860 nm. Horse gluteal muscles had DPFs of 6.2, 6.2, 6.0, and 5.6, whereas forelimb muscles had DPF of 4.7, 4.4, 4.5 and 3.9 at the respective wavelengths. Sheep heads had DPF of 7.2 +/- 0.3, 5.8 +/- 0.5, 5.5 +/- 0.4 and 4.4 +/- 0.6 (+/- SEM) for the above respective wavelengths, of which the pathlengths all differed significantly from the other, except for between 806 and 834 nm, and 834 and 860 nm. The DPF of horse hooves were 4.8 +/- 0.1, 4.8 +/- 0.1, 4.7 +/- 0.1 and 4.4 +/- 0.1 (SEM) for the above noted wavelengths, of which the pathlength at 744 and 806 nm differed from the pathlength at 860 nm (P>0.05). These results show that NIRS is possible through lighter pigmented hair and epidermal tissues, and provide DPFs of horse feet and muscle and the sheep head that enables quantitative NIRS in these species


This paper made an analysis of some numerical integration methods that can be used in electromagnetic transient simulations. Among the existing methods, we analyzed the trapezoidal integration method (or Heun formula), Simpson's Rule and Runge-Kutta. These methods were used in simulations of electromagnetic transients in power systems, resulting from switching operations and maneuvers that occur in transmission lines. Analyzed the characteristics such as accuracy, computation time and robustness of the methods of integration.


Our paper seeks to assess the decision to adopt organic farming practices. More specifically, we use Duration Analysis (DA) to determine why farmers adopt organic farming and the timing of adoption. We extend previous studies by including farmers' objectives, risk preferences and agricultural policies as covariates in the DA model. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is used as a multi-criteria decision-making methodology to measure farmers' objectives. The empirical analysis uses farm-level data collected through a questionnaire to a sample of vineyard farms in the Spanish region of Catalonia. Farmers' objectives are found to influence the conversion decision. Moreover, farmers who are not risk averse are more prone to adopt organic farming. Results also identify the policy changes that have been more relevant in motivating adoption of organic practices.


We consider delayed sums of the type S_{n+an}-Sn where a_n is possibly a positive integer valued random variable satisfying certain conditions and S_n is the sum of independent random variables X_n with distribution functions F_n in {G_1, G_2} . We study the limiting behavior of delayed sums and prove laws of the iterated logarithm of Chover- type. These results extend the results in Vasudeva and Divanji (1992) and Chen (2008).


Based on the findings of Robertiello and Terry (2007) this paper evaluates similarities in sex offender sub-types and proposes grouping similar sub-types together for the purpose of treatment. Those sub-types with similar characteristics or are found to have similar responses to treatment options can be grouped together either in prison, in- patient, or out-patient settings and may prove to be more effective treatment protocols than current "one size fits all" sex offender treatment programs. This paper reviews the past 30 years of research on treatment for specific sub-types and integrates it into a larger framework while offering suggestions for future research on the efficacy of grouping these sub-types together. Finally, this review offers the suggestion of providing sexuality training to sex offenders to promote more healthy sexual interactions post treatment.


The very high-resolution satellite data from IKONOS and QuickBird are in a competition to aerial images today. Although the IKONOS satellite has provided the world's first source of commercially available high-resolution satellite imagery, QuickBird is currently the satellite with the highest resolution for civilian uses. While the IKONOS and QuickBird panchromatic band images with 0.82 and 0.61 meter respectively, provide intelligence quality imagery both for military applications, such as monitoring and assessment, as well as for civilian applications such as urban planning and mapping. The multi-spectral bands of IKONOS and QuickBird multi-spectral images with 3.28 and 2.44 meter respectively provide spectral-radiometric measurements for the many applications in land-use mapping, environmental monitoring and resource development. The successful launch of these two highresolution satellites has narrowed the gap between satellite images and aerial photos. In the near future, it could even replace aerial photos for some applications depending on the resolution and accuracy requirements. In this study, the geometric accuracy analysis has been done with both QuickBird-2003and IKONOS-2002 images for Büyükçekmece region, Istanbul,Turkey. For the accuracy assessment, these two high-resolution images were rectified to UTM coordinate system using 1/5000-scaled orthophotos, GPS and, hand GPS coordinates. The results obtained were tested at the known points and effectiveness of the use of high-resolution data was outlined.


Approximate eigenpairs (quasimodes) of axisymmetric thin elastic domains with laterally clamped boundary conditions (Lame system) are determined by an asymptotic analysis as the thickness ($2\varepsilon$) tends to zero. The departing point is the Koiter shell model that we reduce by asymptotic analysis to a scalar model
that depends on two parameters: the angular frequency $k$ and the half-thickness $\varepsilon$. Optimizing $k$ for each chosen $\varepsilon$, we find power laws for $k$ in function of $\varepsilon$ that provide the smallest eigenvalues of the scalar reductions.
Corresponding eigenpairs generate quasimodes for the 3D Lame system by means of several reconstruction operators, including boundary layer terms. Numerical experiments demonstrate that in many cases the constructed eigenpair corresponds to the first eigenpair of the Lame system.

Geometrical conditions are necessary to this approach: The Gaussian curvature has to be nonnegative and the azimuthal curvature has to dominate the meridian curvature in any point of the midsurface. In this case, the first eigenvector admits progressively larger oscillation in the angular variable as $\varepsilon$ tends to $0$. Its angular frequency exhibits a power law relation
of the form $k=\gamma \varepsilon^{-\beta}$ with $\beta=\frac14$ in the parabolic case (cylinders and trimmed cones), and the various $\beta$s $\frac25$, $\frac37$, and $\frac13$ in the elliptic case.
For these cases where the mathematical analysis is applicable, numerical examples that illustrate the theoretical results are presented.


ASCO 2000 did not offer revolutionary new advances in the treatment of hematologic malignancies. However, reports at the meeting built incrementally on gains established over the past several years. The meeting continued to highlight advances in the targeted therapy of hematologic malignancies. Excitement abounds regarding the clinical development of STI 571, a rationally designed tyrosine kinase inhibitor, for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia. Studies further defined the role monoclonal antibody treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and more mature data were presented on both unconjugated antibody therapy and radioimmunoconjugates. In disease detection, important data were presented to clarify the role of positron emission tomography scans in the staging and follow-up of lymphoid malignancies. The following review summarizes key abstracts presented at the 2000 ASCO meeting and will elaborate on the implications of these findings for disease management.


A common task in many machine learning application domains involves monitoring routinely collected data for 'interesting' events. This task is prevalent in surveillance, but also in tasks ranging from the analysis of scientific data to the monitoring of naturally occurring events, and from supervising industrial processes to observing human behavior. We will refer to this monitoring process with the purpose of identifying interesting occurrences, as event detection. We put together this special issue of the Machine Learning journal with the belief that principled machine learning approaches can and will be a differentiator in addressing event detection tasks, and that theoretical and practical advances of machine learning in this area have the potential to impact a wide range of important real-world applications such as security, public health and medicine, biology, environmental sciences, manufacturing, astrophysics, business, and economics. In the recent past, domain experts in these areas have had the laborious job of manually examining the collected data for events of interest. With the emergence of computers, many efforts have been made to replace manual inspection with an automated process. Data, however, have become increasingly complex, and the quantities of collected data have become extremely large in recent years. Multivariate records, images, video footage, audio recordings, spatial and spatio-temporal data, text documents, and even relational data are now routinely collected. We all expect that advances in machine learning would be well-suited for this class of tasks. However, in practice, the peculiarities of the application often grossly violate the


As the key of human–computer natural interaction, the research of emotion recognition is of great significance to the development of computer intelligence. In view of the issue that the current emotional feature dimension is too high, which affects the classification performance, this paper proposes a modified ReliefF feature selection algorithm to screen out feature subsets with smaller dimensions and better performance from high-dimensional features to further improve the efficiency and accuracy of emotion recognition. In the modified algorithm, the selection range of random samples is adjusted; the correlation between features is measured by the maximum information coefficient, and the distance measurement method between samples is established based on the correlation. The experimental results on the eNTERFACE'05 and SAVEE speech emotional datasets show that the features filtered based on the modified algorithm significantly reduce the data dimensions and effectively improve the accuracy of emotion recognition.


Different ontologies used in semantic web services fields raise numerous interoperation and communication problems with respect to service discovery, composition, and execution. The current approaches for ontology mediation often failed due to their lack of sufficient semantic expressiveness and reasoning capability. In this paper1, we present a novel approach allowing ontologies to provide self-contained semantics for service applications. We show how desired application ontologies can be generated using a new merging algorithm for service ontologies. We also show some experimental results and compare them to the output of the PROMPT ontology merging tool.


A novel implementation of periodic boundary conditions incorporated into the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) technique in both orthogonal and nonorthogonal grids is presented in this paper. The method applied is a field-splitting approach to the discretization of the Floquet-transformed Maxwell equations. As a result, the computational burden is reduced and the stability criterion is relaxed. The results of the two methods are compared to experimental data.


Memristive electronic synapses are attractive to construct artificial neural networks (ANNs) for neuromorphic computing systems, owing to their excellent electronic performance, high integration density, and low cost. However, the necessity of initializing their conductance through a forming process requires additional peripheral hardware and complex programming algorithms. Herein, the first fabrication of memristors that are initially in low‐resistive state (LRS) is reported, which exhibit homogenous initial resistance and switching voltages. When used as electronic synapses in a neuromorphic system to classify images from the CIFAR‐10 dataset (Canadian Institute For Advanced Research), the memristors offer ×1.83 better throughput per area and consume ×0.85 less energy than standard memristors (i.e., with the necessity of forming), which stems from ≈63% better density and ≈17% faster operation. It is demonstrated in the results that tuning the local properties of materials embedded in memristive electronic synapses is an attractive strategy that can lead to an improved neuromorphic performance at the system level.


Timing pattern of intracardiac atrial activity recorded by multipolar catheter in the coronary sinus (CS) provides insightful information about the type and approximate origin of common non-complex arrhythmias. Depending on the anatomy of the CS, the atrial activity can be substantially disturbed by ventricular far field complex preventing accurate segmentation by convential methods. In this paper, we present small clinically validated database of 326 surface 12-lead and intracardiac electrograms (ECG and IEGs) and a simple deep learning framework for semantic beat-to-beat segmentation of atrial activity in CS recordings. The model is based on a residual convolutional neural network (CNN) combined with pyramidal upsampling decoder. It is capable to recognize well between atrial and ventricular signals recorded by decapolar CS catheter in multiple arrhythmic scenarios reaching dice score of 0.875 on evaluation dataset. To address a dataset size and imbalance issues, we have adopted several preprocessing and learning techniques with adequate evaluation of its impact on the model performance.


We study multi-product inventory control problems where a manager makes sequential replenishment decisions based on partial historical information in order to minimize its cumulative losses. Our motivation is to consider general demands, losses and dynamics to go beyond standard models which usually rely on newsvendor-type losses, fixed dynamics, and unrealistic i.i.d. demand assumptions. We propose MaxCOSD, an online algorithm that has provable guarantees even for problems with non-i.i.d. demands and stateful dynamics, including for instance perishability. We consider what we call non-degeneracy assumptions on the demand process, and argue that they are necessary to allow learning.


People tend to attribute the outbreak of the 2008 financial crisis to deregulation. This article challenges this view and presents a unique perspective of the crisis as in fact rooted in the way the residential mortgage market is regulated. Focusing on non-recourse mortgage legislation, which is a unique feature of the US mortgage market dating back to the period following the Great Depression, the article analyzes the contribution of this legislation to the onset of the Great Recession. The discussion shows how regulation that was enacted in response to a major economic crisis not only failed to prevent a large-scale future crisis but also created the conditions for its eventual emergence.Non-recourse laws prevent lenders from seeking a deficiency judgment after foreclosure and impose no personal liability on borrowers in the event of default. They distort risk allocation in the mortgage market as they allow borrowers to externalize the risk of default to third parties. These laws thus create incentives for excessive borrowing, which ultimately resulted in the housing boom and bust of the 2000s. The analysis in this article has important implications for current reforms in leading foreclosure states, such as California and Nevada, where regulators recently expanded the scope of the existing mandatory non-recourse legislation. The insights from the article regarding non-recourse mortgages should serve as a warning to regulators against adopting such legislation.


Basic sanitation facilities are inaccessible to 40 percent of the world's population (World Health Organization 2014). The call to address the Sixth Sustainable Development Goal of "Ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all" has never been so imperative, particularly in a nation such as India where open defecation is most rampant (https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/focussdgs.html, accessed June 14, 2015; World Health Organization and UNICEF 2014). Girls and women in rural India are disproportionately affected by limited access to adequate sanitation (WSSCC et al. 2013). Despite countless attempts to counteract the practice of open defecation in India, the kind of attitudinal and behavioral change necessary to end open defecation on a large and sustainable scale have yet to bring about widespread toilet use (Coffrey et al. 2014). The limited extent to which sanitation projects have achieved social inclusivity among marginalized communities is recognized as a contributing factor to the persistence of poor sanitation in India (UN Water 2008; Coffrey et al. 2014). This paper will discuss early stages of an intervention that places a specific focus on engaging women in rural villages within India in the goal to end open defecation. The project, Women Empowerment: Sanitation (WE: Sanitation) is currently in implementation in seven states throughout India and proposes that the goal of improving sanitation may best be achieved by empowering women through vocational and life skill development. By training India's most unskilled population to build, use and maintain toilets, the problems of poor sanitation, community buy-in, as well as unskilled labor may be simultaneously addressed. This paper will discuss findings from the early stages of the WE: Sanitation intervention in rural villages within the Indian states of: Karnataka, Gujarat and Goa, where previous sanitation efforts have failed to take hold.


In this paper, a number of different image processing algorithms have been applied in order to improve the appearance of an image to the human eye and to achieve a noise reduction. The algorithms were applied to a single fixed image and also to a sequence of images which contained motion. Histogram equalization as described offers a more interesting method of enhancing images than other histogram manipulation operators. That is why the nonlinear mapping function, to re-assign values in the output histogram, offers more possibilities to alter the original shape of the histogram into a desired shape. This method improves the appearance of an image to the human eye, more than a measurable mathematical factor such as the noise reduction factor. Recursive filtering is an important tool to reduce noise on images. The great advantage of recursive filtering is that the realization is not very complicated and the expenditure is relatively small. To obtain certain transfer functions, only a few changes in the programmed algorithms are necessary to provide the user with the desired filter characteristics. The adapted motion technique uses a recursive filter as well and allows one to run a sequence of images without smearing effects and with a high performance in noise reduction. (6 pages)


Online reading strategies have been a crucial issue in EFL learning because reading strategies are essential for students reading comprehension and the increasing penetration of information and communication technology into foreign language learning has transformed reading and current studies have shown that online text reading requires new strategies. This article presented the findings of a systematic review of 20 research on online reading strategies in EFL learning published in 2011-2021. The findings of the studies focusing on the strategy used for EFL online reading show that the most frequently used reading strategies were problem-solving strategies, which is followed by global reading strategies, and finally support strategies as the least frequently used strategies. The findings concerning the correlation of online reading strategies and other variables of reading are inconclusive because each of the studies correlates online reading with different reading variables. Results of studies focusing on the effectiveness of online reading strategies are also inconclusive because each of them investigated the effect of online reading strategies on different variables. Thus, more and more studies are needed to provide a clearer understanding of online reading strategies.


This paper illustrates the implementation of a method to optimize energy regeneration in a variety of dynamic systems. Two control strategies were first simulated on a computer and then tested on an electro-mechanical apparatus. The test apparatus consisted of a battery powered mechanism containing a d-c motor, an electric power converter and a brake, connected to an active load simulator. The simulations and the tests confirmed that in many cases, to maximize regeneration, some power must be dissipated in a brake. For high torque at low speed, regeneration could be achieved only if a brake was used in conjunction with the actuator.


The aim of this study is to investigate the presence of seasonal market anomalies (calendar anomalies) and to analyze their effects on the behavior of financial investors in terms of decisions and profit on the Tunisian market during the entire period that starts on January 2003 and ends on 31 December 2015. This work examines four calendar effects which are the new week of the year (WOY), the day of the week (DOW), the week of the month (WOM) and month of the year (MOY) effects using daily data of Tunisian Stock Market Index (TUNINDEX closing price) and dummy variables based on a GARCH (1,1) regression model adopted by Levy and Yagil (2012) to demonstrate whether the anomalies exist on the Tunisian market. The findings show that the returns for Friday are always positively significant. In contrast, the returns for October are almost negatively significant and low compared to other months. We also find that market calendar anomalies are clues to help investors improving their trading strategies and timing their investments to make abnormal profits.


The tissue distribution of radioactivity in male RFM and BALB/c mice was investigated following a single dose of (/sup 14/C)-labeled diethylnitrosamine (DEN). The radiolabel was associated with all the subcellular fractions, and the majority of the radioactivity was located in the cytosol fraction. The majority of the radiolabel was usually eliminated from the fractions within 16-24 hrs after (/sup 14/C)DEN administration.


The article analyzes the phenomenon of digitalization which rapidly covers almost all spheres of adult activity. It's about the digital economy, digitalization of manufacturing, financial sector, businesses and professions. Education is at the epicenter of digitalization. The most important transformation is currently underway, which is the transition from offline to online environments or digitizing. Global digitalization has a significant impact on increasing the demand for teaching staff. An educator who does not possess modern digital skills and cannot use them in his or her professional activity is unlikely to be able to ensure the quality of the educational process. This actualizes the problem of increasing digital competence of the educator in accordance with the tasks of modernization of education. The research deals with the problem of formation and development of digital competence, which is one of the key competences of educators. The essence of the concept «competence» and different approaches to defining digital competence of educators are analyzed. Scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, observation, description and comparison have been used to determine the peculiarities of the formation and development of educators' digital competence in lifelong learning. The findings confirm that digital competence can be interpreted as a willingness and ability to navigate the digital space, to use digital technologies to access, search, process, evaluate, produce, use, and disseminate information in one's own professional activity. In the process of formation and development of this competence, the educator should acquire knowledge and skills in the field of application of digital technologies; develop digital-based communication skills; be able to navigate the professional digital environment; receive and analyze new information; carry out self-analysis and reflect on professional activities. The author also defines the principles of formation and development of digital competence of educators. An analysis of the European Commission project «Digital Competence of Educators (DigCompEdu)» has been conducted, the content of which defines the directions for enhancing the digital competence of pedagogical staff in the lifelong learning system.


The relation of the total cellular content of sialic acid to phenotypic expression of B16 mouse melanoma cells was examined by using phenotype-modifying reagents and more than 10 cloned cell lines with spontaneous phenotypic variations. The sialic acid content changed in a growth phase-dependent manner with a peak in the early log phase of growth. This peak completely disappeared when cells were treated with 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU), suggesting its relation to quasi-normal phenotypes of the treated cells. BrdU treatment also reduced the cellular sialic acid content itself and resulted in the suppression of the activity of tyrosinase, the key enzyme for melanogenesis, and a considerable increase in cell-to-substratum adhesiveness. Treatment with theophylline, in contrast, markedly elevated the sialic acid content, which was accompanied by dramatic increments in tyrosinase activity and pigmentation as well as a slight increase in adhesiveness. The results show a correlation of sialic acid level with tyrosinase expression but not with cell adhesion. From comparison of spontaneous phenotypic variations, the correlation of sialic acid level with tyrosinase activity was confirmed, while there was only a slight correlation with adhesiveness. It is thus suggested that sialylation/desialylation, being reflected as variations in cellular sialic acid content, is implicated in melanoma cell differentiation in terms of tyrosinase expression.


The maximization of mutual information has been very successful at the registration of images. Unfortunately, mutual information takes only into account the relationship between individual pixels and not those of each pixel's neighborhood. Mutual information ignores spatial information. In this paper, we propose a new similarity metric called enhanced mutual information (EMI), which combines mutual information with a weighting function based on the absolute difference of corresponding pixel values. In order to reduce computational cost we also use multiresolution wavelet decomposition as a search data strategy. Experimental results show that the enhanced mutual information is not only more robust to noise than mutual information but more reliable in the registration of multitemporal images.


Objectives: This study was aimed to assess the impacts of delay treatment of mandibular fracture and its complications. In addition risk variables related such as time to repair, fracture types, substance abuse, causes, surgical management, muddling or complications and duration of clinic stay were also evaluated. Materials and Methods: The data of patients attending the Newcastle General Hospital, UK for the management of mandibular fractures were probed. This retrospective clinical trial conducted over 6 months, included 91 patients attending trauma operating theatre during weekdays or weekends. Data were analyzed for time to admission and treatment and its relationships to various factors using SPSS version 20 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). Results: Time to treatment from the point of admission was 31.50 ± 3.83 h during week days that has been significantly more for patients attending the hospital at weekends or nights. Similar trend was observed for total summative time from the incident to treatment analysis. Conclusions: This investigation has demonstrated that the rate of infection and postoperative complications following surgical treatment of mandible fractures can be eased off by reducing the waiting time from presentation to the emergency and to the operating theater.


Microtubule (MT) ensemble polarity is a diagnostic determinant of the structure and function of neuronal processes. Here, polarized MT structures are selectively imaged with second-harmonic generation (SHG) microscopy in native brain tissue. This SHG is found to colocalize with axons in both brain slices and cultured neurons. Because SHG arises only from noninversion symmetric structures, the uniform polarity of axonal MTs leads to the observed signal, whereas the mixed polarity in dendrites leads to destructive interference. SHG imaging provides a tool to investigate the kinetics and function of MT ensemble polarity in dynamic native brain tissue structures and other subcellular motility structures based on polarized MTs.


We study the issue of localization in the context of isotropic wavelet frames. We define a variance-type measure of localization and propose an algorithm based on calculus of variations to minimize this criterion under the constraint of a tight wavelet frame. Based on these calculations, we design the variance-optimal wavelet (VOW). Finally, we demonstrate the advantage of better localization in a practical image-processing task.


"Pseudo-3D Photo Collage", one of new wed3D techniques, is based on multiple photographs and Spatial-Hyperlinks. A user can design various patterns of HyperPhoto-Networks, for example, linear, loop, tree, grid, rhizome and so on. It is similar to design a website based on HyperText-Networks. We propose several design patterns and those applications to create highly-designed virtual sequences.


CD56bright and CD56dim NK cell subsets have been proposed to represent either phenotypically and functionally distinct NK cell subsets or, respectively, immature and mature stages of the NK cell lineage. To this regard, using FLT3 ligand, IL-15 and IL-21 cytokine combination, we have recently described the in vitro generation of CD56dim/CD117neg NK cells from CD34+ hematopoietic progenitors, but not from immature CD56bright NK cells (Zamai et al. Cytometry A 2012;81:294-302), suggesting that they represent phenotypically and functionally distinct NK subsets. Based on these observations we have analyzed the NK cells developed in vitro from CD34+ progenitors cultured with FLT3-L plus IL-15 and IL-21, trying to distinguish between the two NK cell subsets. CD56bright /CD117+ NK cells generated after 15 days of culture, early expressed natural cytotoxicity receptors (NCRs), NKG2D, CD161 and CD244, while only a subset expressed granzyme-B, perforin, LFA-1, and CD94- CD159a heterodimer. Differently, virtually all CD56dim/CD117neg NK cells expressed perforin, granzyme B, CD94 and LFA-1, and only a subset of them expressed NCR and CD16 antigens. After 25 days of culture, we observed a significative expansion of the CD56bright/CD117+ compartment, while the "CD56dim NK cell lineage" showed the increase of CD56, CD16 and NCR antigen density, indicating their further maturation and activation. Altogether the data suggest that the two NK subsets originate from two distinct progenitors which, along with their differentiation and activation, generate cells with convergent phenotypes and functions.


In a study of the relationship between high school students' perceptions of their science learning environments and their motivation, learning strategies, and achievement, 377 students in 22 introductory science classrooms completed surveys in the fall and spring of their ninth-grade year. Hierarchical linear regression was used to model the effects of variables at both the classroom and individual level simultaneously. High intraclass agreement (indicated by high parameter reliability) on all classroom environment measures indicated that students shared perceptions of the classroom learning environment. Controlling for other factors, shared perceptions that only the most able could succeed in science classrooms and that instruction was fast-paced and focused on correct answers negatively predicted science achievement, as measured on a districtwide curriculum-linked test. Shared perceptions that classrooms focused on understanding and independent thinking positively predicted students' self-reported satisfaction with learning. Implications of these results for both teaching and research into classroom environments are discussed. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 347–368, 2003


Knowledge of the Internet Protocol (IP) address is essential for connection establishment in certain classes of synchronous distributed applications, such as Internet telephony and video‐conferencing systems. A problem of dynamic IP addressing arises when the connection to the Internet is through an Internet service provider, since the IP address is dynamically allocated only at connection time. Proposes and draws a contrast between a number of generic methods that can be classified as online and offline methods for the resolution of dynamic IP addressing. Online methods, which include the World Wide Web, exchange server and the dynamic Domain Name System, are only effective when both the caller and recipient are logged on to the Internet. On the other hand, offline methods, which include electronic mailing and directory service look‐up, provide an additional means to allow the caller to leave messages when the recipient is not logged on to the Internet. Of these methods, the dynamic Domain Name System and directory service look‐up appear to be the best for resolving dynamic IP addressing.


We examine wide receivers drafted into the NFL to assess what attributes explain draft rank and correspond to high salaries and performance in their first year in the league. We find that tangible measures of player quality are valuable signals. Consistent with expectations, faster and more accomplished college receivers are drafted earlier and earn more. However, we find no significant relationship between 40-yard dash times and first year performance for wide receivers. In addition, media exposure received by players prior to the draft is positively related to draft placement and higher earnings even after controlling for measured physical attributes.


Artificial Intelligence enabled classroom teaching is the core driving force of classroom reform in the era of information 2.0. In this process, how to understand the conflict between Artificial Intelligence and teacher's role and position the teacher's role in the new technology environment is an important basis for leading the deep integration of Artificial Intelligence and education and teaching. In this context, "man-machine collaboration" will be an important trend of future education. Artificial intelligence technology, with its application in the field of education of intelligent platform, intelligent tools, and intelligent services, has brought challenges and dilemmas to teachers' professional roles. As an assistant teacher and analyst in classroom teaching, artificial intelligence has greatly contributed to the high efficiency, accuracy, and diversity of teaching. Teachers should be the designers, decision makers and educators of classroom teaching, so as to promote the all-round development of students and make them the talents needed by the contemporary society.


We present the calculation of the inclusive x_F-distributions of charmed hadrons, produced in high-energy $\Sigma^-$-beam. Our calculation is based on the modified mechanism of charmed quarks fragmentation as well as on the mechanism of c-quark recombination with the valence quarks from initial hadrons.


We investigate the quantum dynamics of a periodically kicked Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) confined in a one-dimensional (1D) box both numerically and theoretically, emphasizing on the phenomena of quantum resonance and antiresonance. The quantum resonant behavior of BEC is different from the single particle case but the antiresonance condition (Tau = 2pi and alpha = 0) is not affected by the atomic interaction. For the antiresonance case, the nonlinearity (atom interaction) causes the transition between oscillation and quantum beating. For the quantum resonance case, because of the coherence of BEC, the energy increase is oscillating and the rate is dramatically affected by the many-body interaction. We also discuss the relation between the quantum resonant behavior and the Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser (KAM) or non-KAM property of the corresponding classical system.