There are widespread concerns that anthropogenic climate change will become a major cause of global biodiversity loss. However, the potential impact of climate change on the extinction risk of species remains poorly understood, particularly in comparison to other current threats. The objective of this research was to examine the relative impact of climate change on extinction risk of upper montane tree species in the tropical Andes, an area of high biodiversity value that is particularly vulnerable to climate change impacts. The extinction risk of 129 tree species endemic to the region was evaluated according to the IUCN Red List criteria, both with and without the potential impacts of climate change. Evaluations were supported by development of species distribution models, using three methods (generalized additive models, recursive partitioning, and support vector machines), all of which produced similarly high AUC values when averaged across all species evaluated (0.82, 0.86, and 0.88, respectively). Inclusion of climate change increased the risk of extinction of 18–20% of the tree species evaluated, depending on the climate scenario. The relative impact of climate change was further illustrated by calculating the Red List Index, an indicator that shows changes in the overall extinction risk of sets of species over time. A 15% decline in the Red List Index was obtained when climate change was included in this evaluation. While these results suggest that climate change represents a significant threat to tree species in the tropical Andes, they contradict previous suggestions that climate change will become the most important cause of biodiversity loss in coming decades. Conservation strategies should therefore focus on addressing the multiple threatening processes currently affecting biodiversity, rather than focusing primarily on potential climate change impacts.


We consider initial value problems of nonlinear dynamical systems, which include physical parameters. A quantity of interest depending on the solution is observed. A discretisation yields the trajectories of the quantity of interest in many time points. We examine the mapping from the set of parameters to the discrete values of the trajectories. An evaluation of this mapping requires to solve an initial value problem. Alternatively, we determine an approximation, where the evaluation requires low computation work, using a concept of machine learning. We employ feedforward neural networks, which are fitted to data from samples of the trajectories. Results of numerical computations are presented for a test example modelling an electric circuit.


In the course of the crisis in the Ukraine, most leading politicians in Eastern European countries, such as Poland, the Baltic States and Ukraine itself, identified the high dependency on natural gas imports from Russia as a threat to energy security. Hopes of independence through extraction of domestic shale gas resources, which evolved after the US shale gas revolution and the substantial resource estimations for Polish shale gas (published by the EIA in 2011 and updated 2013), are more topical than ever. However, there are several factors, which dim the hope for repetition of the US "shale gas revolution" in Eastern Europe. First, international companies such as Shell, ExxonMobil or Chevron withdrew from Poland and Ukraine due to poor exploration results. Additionally, because of environmental legislation and population density, the obstacles for commercial shale gas production within Europe, compared to the US, are very high. In this paper, the Global Gas Model (GGM) (Egging, 2013) is used to simulate future patterns of the Eastern European gas supply. Shale gas scenarios show that Poland and the Baltic States would lower their dependency with an annual production of 8 bcm (Poland) and 2 bcm (Baltic States) because of their relatively low natural gas consumption. This means, conversely, that a failing production of shale gas would lead to ongoing dependence on natural gas imports. In Ukraine, however, a potential shale gas production of 5 bcm/a does not have major consequences with respect to an annual consumption of up to 60 bcm. As for LNG scenarios, US LNG exports do barely reach the Eastern European gas market in the Base Case scenario. Only in the projected period between 2035 and 2040 Poland receives 4.9 bcm of US LNG. However, the Polish natural gas market is sensitive to provided subsidies. A 30% subsidy on transportation increases the total amount of exported LNG to Poland up to 8 bcm. In contrast, the Ukrainian and Baltic natural gas market, however, barely react to subsidies from the US. A minimum of 60% is needed to export US natural gas under economically rational conditions to both regions. Modeling results show that the increasing natural gas demand in Ukraine, the Baltic States and Poland is in need of either domestic shale gas production or an increase of pipeline or LNG imports.


The interest of this study is to explore the relationship between a dichotomous response, learning style preferences by university students of Sidhu School, Wilkes University, as a function of the following predictors: Gender, Age, employment status, cumulative grade point assessment (GPA) and level of study, as in usual generalized linear model. The response variable is the students' preference for either Behaviorist or Humanist learning style. Four different binomial regression models were fitted to the data. Model A is a logit regression model that fits all the predictors, Model B is a probit model that fits all the predictors, Model C is a logit model with an effect modifier, while Model D is a probit model also with an effect modifier. Models A and B appeared to have performed poorly in fitting the data. Models C and D fit the data well as confirmed by the non-significant chi-square lack of fit with p-values 0.1409 and 0.1408 respectively. Among the four models considered for fitting the data, Model D, the probit model with effect modifier fit best. There was a marginal difference in the measure of goodness-of-fit for models C and D. Since probit model usually do not lend itself to ease of interpretation, model C was focused on for interpretation of results. The four variables that made significant contributions to model C were gender, age, employment status and the interaction variable. Academic performance of the students measured by their GPA and the level of study of the students were not significant predictors of the learning style preference by the students. The results of Model C revealed that the likelihood that a student prefers Behaviorist learning style is negatively related to his or her gender, age, employment status, GPA and level of study. However, the likelihood is positively related to the interaction term: Gender* Age. The result also showed that every one year increase in age of the students leads to decrease in the log-odds of preference for Behaviorist learning style. Also the odds of an MBA student preference for Behaviorist learning style are 1.1925 times greater than the odds of an undergraduate student. The association between gender and age was significant, so that gender modifies the association between age and preference. The interaction term showed that both the male and female odds ratio indicate an increase of odds of Behaviorist learning style, with increasing age of students, but the rate of increase is greater for male students. Plots of residuals and other diagnostic procedures conducted further confirmed that models A and B did not yield good fit, while both models C and D though identified an outlier which was not influential, but the functional forms of the models appeared suitable and seemed to fit the data well, and were therefore considered adequate. The residual mean deviance of model C was slightly above 1 which an indication of a slight overdispersion problem in the model. Important issues arising from the study were also discussed.


This paper deals with the contaminability and the permeability of Pu with varying soiling time and acidity of the soiling solution applied to pig skin.It was found that the contaminability of Pu was affected by the formation of colloidal substances in soiling solution, as in the case of Pm, Sb, Po and U, described previously. It was also found that 0.05% of the Pu penetrated through the pig skin with pH 1 soiling solution after 60 min.


ABSTRAK Wicaksono, Langgeng Aji.2017. Linguistic Incongruity in the Internet Memes: Study of Humor. Undergraduate Thesis, English Department, faculty of Letters, Universitas Negeri Malang. Advisors: 1) Maria Hidayati, S.S, M.A. and 2) Dr. Johannes A. Prayogo, M.Pd, M.Ed. Keywords: linguistic incongruity, Internet meme, humor Humor has existed for quite long time with its unique characteristics. We cannot deny that humor is also a part of our social life. Through humor we socialize, communicate, criticize, even satirize about certain issues in our daily life. That shows how humor is close to our life. We can easily find humor in every place. With the advance development of technology, especially with the discovery of the Internet, humors nowadays give entertainment in the Internet as well. This created a new phenomenon of Internet meme. This study focuses on studying one particular meme known as pun dog meme. The aims are to analyze the linguistic incongruity, the puns and the forms of humor used in the pun dog meme. The research design of this study is descriptive qualitative. The data of this study are taken from the biggest and popular website named imgflip (imgflip.com). The researcher selected 20 data of pun dog memes out of 70 most recent postings in the website from January to February 2017. After getting the data, the researcher started to analyze and categorize the linguistic incongruity that occurs in the pun dog memes. The final step was concluding the types of incongruity, the forms of humor, and the placement of the puns. The findings and data analysis show that the most used type of linguistic incongruity is Phonology-oriented incongruity with the percentage of 80% and followed with Lexis-oriented incongruity with the percentage of 20%. Phonology-oriented incongruity manipulate sound strings of words or phrases and also the homophony and homonym of words. Meanwhile, lexis-oriented incongruity deals more with coinage word used to create humor. Moreover, the findings also show seven (7) data that use the one-liner form and thirteen (13) data use the riddle form of humor. In other words, the humor in pun dog memes are mostly constructed by using a question and an unpredictable answer since the most used form is the riddle form. Additionally, four data (4) are found to place the puns at the setup and sixteen (16) data found to place the puns at the punchline. It makes the punchline easier to identify and make it funnier. This study suggests the students of linguistics to take a closer look to the study of humor since there are many interesting aspects of it that can be studied. For people in general can also learn humor deeper because it helps them to understand humor better than before. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */
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We have developed a modelling framework that synthesizes various types of field measurements at different spatial and temporal scales. We used this modelling framework to estimate monthly means and their standard deviations of gross photosynthesis, total ecosystem production, net primary production (NPP) and net ecosystem production (NEP) for eight regions of the Australian continent between 1990 and 1998. Annual mean NPP of the Australian continent varied between 800 and 1100 Mt C yr−1 between 1990 and 1998, with a coefficient of variation that is defined as the ratio of standard deviation and mean between 0.24 and 0.34. The seasonal variation of NPP for the whole continent varied between 50 and 110 Mt C month−1 with two maxima, one in the autumn and another in the spring. NEP was most negative in the winter (a carbon sink) and was most positive (a carbon source) in the summer. However, the coefficient of variation of monthly mean NEP was very large (> 4), and consequently confidence in the predicted net carbon fluxes for any month in the period 1990–1998 for the whole continent was very low. A companion paper will apply atmospheric inverse technique to measurements of CO2 concentration to further constrain the continental carbon cycle and reduce uncertainty in estimated mean monthly carbon fluxes.


This chapter reports on the crowdfunding phenomenon and expounds its principles, trends and issues. Based on analyses of primary and secondary French data, we illustrate and discuss the recent academic literature on crowdfunding. We stress the relationships between crowdfunding and crowdsourcing. The advantages and disadvantages of crowdfunding are also presented. We show that crowdfunding is an ecosystem still under construction. We rely on 'multisided platform theory' to explain the strategies implemented by competing platforms and give some prescriptions to mobilize a crowd and to finance a project successfully.


OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to quantify the interaction between increased intra-abdominal pressure and Positive-End Expiratory Pressure. METHODS: In 30 mechanically ventilated ICU patients with a fixed tidal volume, respiratory system plateau and abdominal pressure were measured at a Positive-End Expiratory Pressure level of zero and 10 cm H2O. The measurements were repeated after placing a 5 kg weight on the patients' belly. RESULTS: After the addition of 5 kg to the patients' belly at zero Positive-End Expiratory Pressure, both intra-abdominal pressure (p<0.001) and plateau pressures (p=0.005) increased significantly. Increasing the Positive-End Expiratory Pressure levels from zero to 10 cm H2O without weight on the belly did not result in any increase in intrazxabdominal pressure (p=0.165). However, plateau pressures increased significantly (p< 0.001). Increasing Positive-End Expiratory Pressure from zero to 10 cm H2O and adding 5 kg to the belly increased intra-abdominal pressure from 8.7 to 16.8 (p<0.001) and plateau pressure from 18.26 to 27.2 (p<0.001). Maintaining Positive-End Expiratory Pressure at 10 cmH2O and placing 5 kg on the belly increased intra-abdominal pressure from 12.3 +/− 1.7 to 16.8 +/− 1.7 (p<0.001) but did not increase plateau pressure (26.6+/−1.2 to 27.2 +/−1.1 −p=0.83). CONCLUSIONS: The addition of a 5kg weight onto the abdomen significantly increased both IAP and the airway plateau pressure, confirming that intra-abdominal hypertension elevates the plateau pressure. However, plateau pressure alone cannot be considered a good indicator for the detection of elevated intra-abdominal pressure in patients under mechanical ventilation using PEEP. In these patients, the intra-abdominal pressure must also be measured.


Plastic pollution has become a major environmental concern worldwide. As the circular economy is increasingly seen as a means for achieving sustainable development, it is imperative to promote the more efficient use of plastics worldwide. An integral part of the circular economy model, trade in waste, and the scrap for recovery is a part of the solution to achieve sustainability. This paper studies the changing geography of the international trade in plastic waste. It reveals increasingly complex patterns of the transboundary trade in plastic waste over more than two decades. The movement of plastic waste from high-income countries to developing nations has been the largest flow, but trade flows of other directions turn out to be significant. The findings of the paper debunk the North–South or core–periphery dichotomy that is embedded in the international environment justice tradition (including the ecologically unequal exchange theory) as well as in international environmental regulatory regimes such as the Basel Convention. The paper contributes to the discussions about value that are central in political economic approaches to global trade (e.g., the global value chain and global production network) by demonstrating the relative, spatial, and dynamic nature of the concept. As the transboundary trade in plastic waste has exacerbated pollution and marine litter in some major receiving countries, it needs to be better monitored and regulated to ensure it is conducted in a transparent and environmentally sound manner. The paper also explores several policy measures that could help tackle the plastic pollution crisis and achieve sustainable development.


Video-to-Video synthesis (Vid2Vid) has achieved remarkable results in generating a photo-realistic video from a sequence of semantic maps. However, this pipeline suffers from high computational cost and long inference latency, which largely depends on two essential factors: 1) network architecture parameters, 2) sequential data stream. Recently, the parameters of image-based generative models have been significantly compressed via more efficient network architectures. Nevertheless, existing methods mainly focus on slimming network architectures and ignore the size of the sequential data stream. Moreover, due to the lack of temporal coherence, image-based compression is not sufficient for the compression of the video task. In this paper, we present a spatial-temporal compression framework, \textbf{Fast-Vid2Vid}, which focuses on data aspects of generative models. It makes the first attempt at time dimension to reduce computational resources and accelerate inference. Specifically, we compress the input data stream spatially and reduce the temporal redundancy. After the proposed spatial-temporal knowledge distillation, our model can synthesize key-frames using the low-resolution data stream. Finally, Fast-Vid2Vid interpolates intermediate frames by motion compensation with slight latency. On standard benchmarks, Fast-Vid2Vid achieves around real-time performance as 20 FPS and saves around 8x computational cost on a single V100 GPU.


DARPA is sponsoring the Tactical Language Project as part of its training superiority program, nicknamed DARWARS. As part of the project, scientists at the University of Southern California Center for Research in Technology for Education (CARTE) are creating an interactive, video game-based program designed to teach troops on post-war missions how to communicate in Levantine Arabic. In parallel development, the researchers are creating a second tutor for Iraqi Arabic. All a user needs is headphones, a computer with a good graphics card, and about 80 hours to use the program, which has two parts: an interactive game based on the popular unreal tournament and an interactive tutorial.


Abstract Frequent repetition of vocabulary is essential for effective language learning. To increase exposure to learning content, this work explores the integration of vocabulary tasks into the smartphone authentication process. We present the design and initial user experience evaluation of twelve prototypes, which explored three learning tasks and four common authentication types. In a three-week within-subject field study, we compared the most promising concept as mobile language learning (MLL) applications to two baselines: We designed a novel (1) UnlockApp that presents a vocabulary task with each authentication event, nudging users towards short frequent learning session. We compare it with a (2) NotificationApp that displays vocabulary tasks in a push notification in the status bar, which is always visible but learning needs to be user-initiated, and a (3) StandardApp that requires users to start in-app learning actively. Our study is the first to directly compare these embedding concepts for MLL, showing that integrating vocabulary learning into everyday smartphone interactions via UnlockApp and NotificationApp increases the number of answers. However, users show individual subjective preferences. Based on our results, we discuss the trade-off between higher content exposure and disturbance, and the related challenges and opportunities of embedding learning seamlessly into everyday mobile interactions.


Aberrant DNA methylation is deeply involved in various human disorders. Contrary to our initial expectation, aberrant methylation is now known to possess several unique characteristics different from mutations, including target gene specificity. Specific cancers have methylation of specific genes, and specific inducers of methylation, such as Helicobacter pylori infection, induce methylation of specific genes. Mechanistically, it has been known that low levels of transcription of a gene promote its methylation. Multiple studies have shown that high levels of trimethylation of histone H3 lysine27 in normal cells are associated with a risk of becoming methylated during carcinogenesis. We recently demonstrated that genes with high levels of binding of RNA polymerase II, regardless of transcription levels, are resistant to induction of aberrant methylation. Now, epigenetic destiny can be predicted by these factors, and interference with these factors might be able to change the destiny.


Electrophysiological recordings from spinal cord slices have proven to be a valuable technique to investigate a wide range of questions, from cellular to network properties. We show how to prepare viable oblique slices of the spinal cord of young mice (P2 - P11). In this preparation, the motoneurons retain their axons coming out from the ventral roots of the spinal cord. Stimulation of these axons elicits back-propagating action potentials invading the motoneuron somas and exciting the motoneuron collaterals within the spinal cord. Recording of antidromic action potentials is an immediate, definitive and elegant way to characterize motoneuron identity, which surpasses other identification methods. Furthermore, stimulating the motoneuron collaterals is a simple and reliable way to excite the collateral targets of the motoneurons within the spinal cord, such as other motoneurons or Renshaw cells. In this protocol, we present antidromic recordings from the motoneuron somas as well as Renshaw cell excitation, resulting from ventral root stimulation.


This article presents a derivation of a new relative fractal dimension spectrum, DRq, to measure the dissimilarity between two finite probability distributions originating from various signals. This measure is an extension of the Kullback-Leibler (KL) distance and the RA©nyi fractal dimension spectrum, Dq. Like the KL distance, DRq determines the dissimilarity between two probability distibutions X and Y of the same size, but does it at different scales, while the scalar KL distance is a single-scale measure. Like the RA©nyi fractal dimension spectrum, the DRq is also a bounded vectorial measure obtained at different scales and for different moment orders, q. However, unlike the Dq, all the elements of the new DRq become zero when X and Y are the same. Experimental results show that this objective measure is consistent with the subjective mean-opinion-score (MOS) when evaluating the perceptual quality of images reconstructed after their compression. Thus, it could also be used in other areas of cognitive informatics.


BACKGROUND
Colorectal cancers (CRC) with high level of microsatellite instability (MSI-H) are characterized by lower metastasis propensity and better prognosis than their stable microsatellite (MSS) counterpart. It was hypothesized that the difference in cancer progression might be related to distinct gelatinase-tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinase (TIMPs) balance in MSI-H and MSS sporadic CRC.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Levels of gelatinase-A (MMP-2) and -B (MMP-9), TIMP-1 and -2 and membrane-type matrix metallo-proteinase-1 (MT1-MMP) were compared in tumors and normal mucosa from patients with MSI-H and MSS CRC.

RESULTS
Active levels of MMP-2 and -9, normalized to normal mucosa, were lower in MSI-H than MSS CRC. There was a trend for higher levels of TIMP-1 and TIMP-2 within MSI-H tumors compared with MSS tumors (p=0.08 and p=0.15, respectively), while TIMP-2 amounts were significantly higher in adjacent normal tissue (p<0.001) in patients with MSI-H vs. MSS cancers. There was also a trend for lower MT1-MMP activity in MSI-H than in MSS CRC.

CONCLUSION
Our data suggest that the distinct invasive and metastatic behaviors of MSI-H and MSS CRC may be related to different patterns of gelatinase secretion and regulation.


In-depth, practical and up-to-date, The Law and Regulation of Finance provides a comprehensive account of the law of finance. Covering every major financial market, including foreign exchange, stock-lending and repos, this book provides a uniquely in-depth overview of derivatives and securities regulation. The new edition explains the EU and UK regulatory systems, including the changes made to the UK financial regulatory system by the Financial Services Act 2012 and the Banking Act 2009. It also considers each of the principal financial markets, their standard market documentation, and the way in which the law and regulation applies to them. New to the 2nd edition: A full analysis of the regulatory changes in the UK: the new Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulatory Authority, and the Financial Policy Committee; Analysis of the Financial Services (Banking Reform) Bill 2013; A full analysis of EU developments, especially the Larosiere Report; the introduction of the regulation of derivatives, and the changes effected by EMIR and MIFIR; the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive; The litigation and criminal prosecutions stemming from the financial crisis; and a full analysis of the various strains of litigation which have resulted from the crisis and its aftermath; Approximately 100 new cases analysed; Increased coverage of the interpretation of contracts and insolvency law.


Aflatoxins are a group of carcinogenic mycotoxins produced by Aspergillus flavus, A. parasiticus, and A. nomius. Due to the ubiquitous occurrence of aflatoxins, preventive and remediative measures are necessary including detoxification techniques. Physical and chemical decontamination strategies are inconvenient. In this study a biological detoxification strategy was tested using bacteria of the Lactobacillus species collected from the biotechnology laboratory at University of Ibadan, Nigeria. Maize grains with moisture content of 17% were artificially inoculated with toxigenic A. flavus (LA 32G_28) and atoxigenic A. flavus (LA32_79) at ambient temperature and four samples of bulk maize grains were prepared at aflatoxin B1 concentrations of 50, 100, 200, and 500 ng/g. To evaluate the detoxifying potential of lactic acid bacteria five different cultures consisting of Lactobacillus acidophilus, L. brevis, L. casei, L. delbruekii, and L. plantarum were used to inoculate the aflatoxin B1–contaminated maize samples at 37°C. After 5 days, the residual aflatoxin B1 on maize was determined. All treatments showed significant reductions (P< 0.05) in aflatoxin B1. Lactic acid bacteria decreased the pH of the medium from 5.0 to 4.0. Pronounced aflatoxin B1 reduction was observed in maize contaminated at 50 ng/g (44.5%), while maize contaminated at 500ng/g was the least reduced (29.9%). L. plantarum was the most efficient organism in degrading aflatoxin B1. Use of lactic acid bacteria, which already has Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS) status, should be encouraged for use as a bio-detoxification agent for aflatoxins.


Aim : The aim of this study was to assay the most common signs, symptoms, and positive paraclinical findings in pancreatic cancer. Background : It seems that the most available method for early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is using clinical history and especially appearance of early signs and symptoms. Patients and methods : In this descriptive study, all pancreatic cancer patients referred to Taleghani Hospital between 2000 and 2006 were included. Data were gathered from medical charts and entered to SPSS software. Results : In total, 50 patients with pancreatic cancer (60% male and 40% female) during six years were included in the study. The most frequent age was the seventh decade (62%). The most common signs and symptoms were weight loss (82%), abdominal pain (78%), jaundice (74%), and itching (28%), respectively. The most important laboratory findings included anemia (58%), increased level of bilirubin (66%), and abnormal LFTs (70%). The ultrasound and CT scan findings had abnormalities in all cases (100%). The reports of ERCP had abnormalities in 79% of patients. There were no abnormal findings in 70% of endoscopic investigations. Conclusion : In our study, the most common findings in signs and symptoms were weight loss, abdominal pain and jaundice, which mostly appear in advanced stage of pancreatic cancer. In addition, laboratory findings are usually nonspecific. The imaging evaluation of the pancreatic cancer is usually done in advanced stage of disease. Therefore, it is suggested to study populations, especially high-risk populations, for early signs and symptoms of pancreatic cancer for decreasing the mortality and increasing the survival of these patients.


The explosive growth of recommender systems has resulted in realization of individualized service as commercial patterns and research prototypes. However, the traditional recommendation approaches are overemphasized the similarity between user preference and items feature. They are completely ignored affectivity that was a crucial factor. Our study focuses on exploring a new affective recommendation approach of semantic associated extension by integrating the Spreading Activation model with knowledge of cognitive psychology for the real-time preference-aware . This paper presents an affectivity-base d recommendation approach to eliciting a characteristic sequence consisted of color nodes mapping the relationships between user preference with his mood and items feature. Predominance of our proposal was illustrated through an instantiation of movie recommender system that was developed based on the proposed approach. The testing results of performance show that our affectivity-base d recommendation approach outperformed the traditional collaborative filtering approach in terms of the accuracy. This paper also presents a novel insight into exploitation of rich repository of domain-specific knowledge to provide real-time recommendation for user. p


The PIKTAM study evaluated the efficacy and safety of the PI3K inhibitor buparlisib in combination with tamoxifen in hormone receptor-positive (HR+), HER2-negative advanced breast cancer patients after failure of prior endocrine therapy. In this open-label, single-arm phase II trial, 25 patients were enrolled in 11 sites in Germany. Patients were stratified according to PIK3CA mutation status (tissue and cfDNA from serum samples) and/or loss of PTEN expression. Patients received buparlisib (100mg) and tamoxifen (20mg) once daily on a continuous schedule (28-day cycle) until progression or unacceptable toxicity. Primary endpoint was overall 6-month progression-free survival (PFS) rate. Key secondary endpoints included the 6-month PFS rate in subpopulations, PFS, overall survival, overall response rate (ORR), disease control rate (DCR), and safety. Overall, the 6-month PFS rate was 33.3% (n/N = 7/21, one-sided 95% CI 16.8–100) and median PFS was 6.1 (CI 2.6–10.6) months. The ORR and DCR were 12.5% and 44%. The PIK3CA-mutated subgroup consistently showed the highest 6-month PFS rate (62.5%, n/N = 5/8), median PFS (8.7 months), ORR (40%), and DCR (80%). No new safety signals emerged. Most common adverse events were gastrointestinal disorders (56%), psychiatric/mood disorders (48%), skin rash/hypersensitivity (44%), cardiovascular (40%), and hepatic (32%) events. The trial was prematurely terminated due to the substantially altered risk – benefit profile of buparlisib. Nevertheless, PIK3CA mutations emerged as a clinically feasible and useful biomarker for combined PI3K inhibition and endocrine therapy in patients with HR+ breast cancer. Further biomarker – stratified studies with isoform – specific PI3K inhibitors are warranted. EudraCT No: 2014–000599–24.


[1] Circumferential depressions enclosing mesas and plateaus in the northern Kasei Valles and in the Tartarus Colles regions of Mars are interpreted as indicators of the former extent of lobate debris aprons, thought to be mixtures of ice and clastic particles. These former lobate debris aprons existed about 1 Ga ago and were embayed by lavas or other flow deposits. After the lobate debris aprons had been removed by sublimation and deflation, topographic depressions with a depth of 50 m and a width of several kilometers were left behind between the mesa or plateau scarp and the solidified flow materials. These depressions or moats are located equatorward of ±30° at significantly lower latitudes than generally observed for occurrences of modern, intact lobate debris aprons. This observation provides evidence that the paleoclimate at that time was different than today, probably due to a higher averaged obliquity of the planet's rotational axis.


It has been recognized that design knowledge is scattered around technology and target domains. One of the two major reasons for it is that different frameworks (viewpoints) for conceptualization of design knowledge are used when people try to describe knowledge in different domains. The other is that several key functional concepts are left undefined or even unidentified. In this paper, I first overview the state of the art of ontological engineering which I believe is able to make a considerable contribution to resolving these difficulties. I then discuss our enterprise aiming at systematization of functional knowledge used for synthesis. We discuss ontologies that guide conceptualization of artifacts from the functional point of view. The framework for knowledge systematization is based on an extended device ontology and a functional concept ontology built on top of the device ontology. The utilization of the systematized functional knowledge in several application systems is also discussed together with its advantages.


In the northern peripheral part of the Carpathian Foredeep, the Middle Miocene (Badenian) gypsum deposits comprise two major, laterally extensive members: the lower is mostly autochthonous, of selenitic facies and the upper is allochthonous, of clastic facies and cumulate deposits. Towards the south, gypsum is replaced in the subsurface by anhydrite which displays relict textures of the primary gypsum. The facies variation and succession throughout the gypsum section, as well as geochemical indicators, reflect varied sedimentary conditions on the basin margin. Deposition took place on the periphery of a platform made up of a system of widespread shallow-water lagoons (sub-basins) separated by fault-controlled, NW-SE elongated islands or shoals. In these physiographically differentiated palaeoenvironments, facies relationships were largely diachronous. The water depth varied from a few metres to some tens of metres, and subaerial exposure episodically affected the gypsum deposition, as suggested from the sedimentary record and comparison of the facies with modem evaporitic environments. Variations in brine depth, salinity and water dynamics are expressed in the cyclic succession of the progressively changing facies associations. Sedimentary conditions changed drastically at the boundary of the lower (selenitic) and upper (clastic) members, and at the end of sulphate deposition, following major sea-level changes.


Procainamide remains one of the most widely used antiarrhythmic agents in clinical practice. Currently, it is widely used alone or in combination with class I agents (eg, mexiletine or tocainide) to prevent recurrent ventricular tachycardia or symptomatic nonsustained ventricular tachycardia. Procainamide is also used for short-term treatment of ventricular tachycardia and a variety of supraventricular tachycardias, primarily atrial flutter and atrial fibrillation. Long-term procainamide therapy is limited by a number of systemic side effects, primarily lupus-like syndrome, gastrointestinal disturbances, and autoimmune blood dyscrasias. Procainamide levels can be useful in initial dose titrations; however, QRS and QT interval measurements help prevent drug toxicity. It is recommended that patients being started on antiarrhythmic therapy with procainamide be admitted to the hospital for monitoring to ensure that their QT interval is not excessively prolonged.


! The WHO originally introduced defined daily doses (DDD) for drug quantity comparisons. The term DDD describes the quantity of a drug administered as the daily maintenance dose. In Germany, DDD, multiplied with the average price of the active pharmaceutical ingredient, are used as daily therapy costs (Ta-gestherapiekosten) to draw a price comparison between drugs in order to establish an economical / cost effective prescription mode. This application of direct costs without regarding indirect costs and drug effectiveness leads to incomplete assessment of drug efficiency. It has been demonstrated with Paricalcitol how unspecific and differentiated this method of cost calculation can be. In contrast, cost-bene-fit-analyses, as internationally accepted, are mandatory to asses the costs of a medical treatment. Since the act for business competition between the statutory health insurances (Gesetz zur St(cid:1)rkung des Wettbewerbs in der gesetzlichen


In the context of autonomous vehicles on highways, one of the first and most important tasks is to localize the vehicle on the road. For this purpose, the vehicle needs to be able to take into account the information from several sensors and fuse them with data coming from road maps. The localization problem on highways can be distilled into three main components. The first one consists of inferring on which road the vehicle is currently traveling. Indeed, Global Navigation Satellite Systems are not precise enough to deduce this information by themselves, and thus a filtering step is needed. The second component consists of estimating the vehicle's position in its lane. Finally, the third and last one aims at assessing on which lane the vehicle is currently driving. These two last components are mandatory for safe driving as actions such as overtaking a vehicle require precise information about the current localization of the vehicle. In this survey, we introduce a taxonomy of the localization methods for autonomous vehicles in highway scenarios. We present each main component of the localization process, and discuss the advantages and drawbacks of the associated state-of-the-art methods.


ABSTRACT Growth hormone (GH), whose synthesis and release are mainly regulated by intracellular signals mediated by growth hormone-releasing hormone receptor (GHRHR), is one of the major pituitary hormones and critical regulators of organism growth, metabolism, and immunoregulation. Pig GHRHR splice variants (SVs) may activate different signalling pathways via the variable C-terminal by alternative splicing, and SVs have the potential to change microRNA (miRNA) binding sites. In this study, we first confirmed the existence of pig GHRHR SVs (i.e., GHRHR, GHRHR SV1 and SV2) and demonstrated the inhibitory effects of critical pituitary miRNAs (i.e., let-7e and miR-328-5p) on GH synthesis and cell proliferation of primary pituitary cells. The SVs of GHRHR targeted by let-7e and miR-328-5p were predicted via bioinformatics analysis and verified by performing dual-luciferase reporter assays and detecting the expression of target transcripts. The differential responses of let-7e, and miR-328-5p to GH-releasing hormone and the changes in signalling pathways mediated by GHRHR suggested that let-7e and miR-328-5p were involved in GH synthesis mediated by GHRHR SVs, indicating that the two miRNAs played different roles by different ways. Finally, results showed that the protein coded by the GHRHR transcript regulated GH through the NO/NOS signalling pathway, whereas that coded by SV1 and SV2 regulated GH through the PKA/CREB signalling pathway, which was confirmed by the changes in signalling pathways after transfecting the expression vectors of GHRHR SVs to GH3 cells. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to report pituitary miRNAs regulate GH synthesis by targeting the different SVs of GHRHR.


Robustness of biological systems is crucial for their survival, however, for many systems its origin is an open question. Here we analyze one sub-cellular level system, the microtubule cytoskeleton. Microtubules self-organize into a network, along which cellular components are delivered to their biologically relevant locations. While individual microtubule are highly dynamic with their dynamics depends on the organism environment and genetics, network sensitivity to this dynamics would result in pathologies. Combining mathematical modelling with genetic manipulations in Drosophila, we show that the microtubule self-organization indeed does not depend on dynamics of individual microtubules, and thus is robust on the tissue level. We demonstrate the origin of this robustness via a mathematical model, suggesting this being a generic mechanism.


Software fault prediction plays a vital role in software quality assurance. Identifying the faulty modules helps to better concentrate on those modules and helps improve the quality of the software. With increasing complexity of software nowadays feature selection is important to remove the redundant, irrelevant and erroneous data from the dataset. In general, Feature selection is done mainly based on filter and wrapper. In this paper a hybrid feature selection method is proposed which gives a better prediction than the traditional methods. NASA's public dataset KC1 available at promise software engineering repository is used. To evaluate the performance of the software fault prediction models Accuracy, Mean absolute error (MAE), Root mean squared error (RMSE) values are used.


If we look at the literature about judicial decision-making and interpretation of law, we can find many texts which are dedicated to legal arguments, logic and legal reasoning – in those texts the rationality, analytical and logical thinking is glorified and an interpretation seems 'just' as a logical operation where judges subsume certain facts under general legal norm or norms, those norms are formulated linguistically, so it seems that the whole job of judges is to analyze texts. What we can see more rarely are discussions and texts exploring the role of intuitions, feelings and emotions and their role in judicial decision-making – at least in the Czech Republic. Those of our faculties are seen as the source of bias and distortion. Even if we look to the past, those themes are not so common among legal theorists and philosophers – especially in our tradition where we are still influenced by Hans Kelsen and František Weyr and their normative theory – but we can find exceptions and those are the American legal realists. In this paper, we will show that their observations and insights seem to be right. How can we know it? Because in last decades cognitive scientists have made big progress in the area of decision-making and it seems that we are not so rational as we thought us to be. They have explored that our thinking does not take place only through the deliberative system but, surprisingly, there is also another one system which influences our decisions. This system is automatic, fast, and intuitive – some call this system S1, Seymour Epstein an experiential system. This automatic system is more influential than our deliberative system because it is always heard – we can use Jonathan Haidt's metaphor of an elephant and a rider. S1, the intuitive, experiential system, is an elephant and S2, the deliberative, analytical system is the rider – in legal theory, we have talked about the rider a lot but we do not explore the elephant sufficiently. This paper will try to uncover the nature of the elephant.


The investigation was performed in winter 1990 and 1991 when measurements were taken in 16 dwellings of patients, recruited from a pulmologic outpatient centre. Patients suffered from repeated respiratory irritations which they attributed to dwelling conditions. Inhabitants reported by means of questionnaires and standardized scales the dwelling situation and their dwelling behaviour, subjective ratings of indoor environmental quality as well as ratings of wellbeing. The load of indoor pollutants (CO2, CO, NO2, HCHO), biological agents (fungal spores, house dust mites) as well as indoor climate factors were assessed. The measurements revealed an evident load at least in one parameter; in the majority of dwellings combined loads of air pollutants and biological agents were apparent. Homes supplied with gas as main energy source had significantly higher concentrations of CO2, CO and NO2. At noon, exposure limits of CO2 and NO2 were frequently exceeded. Inhabitants of homes being supplied with electricity instead of gas gave significantly better air quality ratings. The correlations between the average score concerning the rated health quality of their homes and the rate of excess of exposure limits are significant: The health quality ratings are significantly related to the concentrations of "air quality indicators", which induce the feeling of stale air (CO2) and mucosa irritations (NO2). Ratings of wellbeing are significantly connected to objective parameters, i.e. NO2 baseline load, fungal spores in the air and the difference between wall-air temperature. Our study suggests that people suspecting a connection between their health impairment and dwelling conditions should be taken serious. The measurement program proved to be a suitable screening procedure to assess adverse environmental influences in homes. More homes should be investigated to further support our findings.


This study utilized mixed methods approach, specifically convergent design to determine the influence of organizational citizenship behavior and adversity quotient on the management competence of the school heads in Region XI. The participants of the study were the school heads in public secondary schools in Region XI. The data were gathered from the participants who were chosen purposively to participate both in the quantitative and qualitative phase of this study. Sets of adapted survey tools with a five-point Likert scale and an interview guide were used to extract data relative to the research questions. The mean, standard deviation, and linear regression were used as statistical tools. In the qualitative phase, thematic analysis in phenomenology was employed. Results showed that the status of organizational citizenship behavior, adversity quotient and management competence of the school heads were rated very high. Further, results showed that there was a significant relationship between organizational citizenship behavior, adversity quotient and management competence. In the qualitative phase of the study, four essential themes emerged as regards the lived experiences of school heads and these were: integral duties and responsibilities of school heads, leadership skills through commitment and dedication to service, a proactive leader, and leadership capabilities. Further, the nature of data integration revealed mergingconverging.


Competing using analytics is often heralded as a new concept spurned by advances in high-speed computing, the digital age and the internet. However, evidence for using analytics as the basis for gaining a competitive advantage exists much earlier. In his key paper written in 1953 William Edwards Deming wrote that better quality through the use of statistical techniques can lead to a competitive advantage for firms. He also pointed out that for a more effective use of these techniques, top management should not only become familiar with the results of statistical methods; they should study also the problems of organization by which to achieve a wider and more effective use of these methods. Similarly, quality guru Joseph Juran also a Deming contemporary noted that the Japanese learned to compete on quality which is something the Americans did not understand until it was too late and they lost market share. This paper explores Juran's and Deming's thoughts on competing on quality and evaluates its usefulness and lessons to the modern post-industrial world and one in which BIG DATA is being collected and used by many firms across a variety of industries in an effort to develop a competitive advantage from the use of statistical analysis. It also debunks the common misconception that competing on analytics is something new and novel which represents a call to action for managers in analytically challenged companies since they will now be under investing in function that has been around for over half a century.


Nitrous oxide (N2O) was found responsible for genetic and reproductive toxicities, whereas it is widely used in paediatric care units where most healthcare providers are women of childbearing age. This motivated investigating occupational overexposure and overexposure factors in several paediatric hospital units. A cross-sectional study was carried out in seven healthcare units. On each of 34 healthcare providers, air samples were extracted (portable pumps and Tedlar® bags) and N2O quantified (gas chromatography, pulsed discharge ionization detection, and infrared spectrometry). The data allowed calculating mean instantaneous exposures. The mean instantaneous exposure was: i) four times higher in closed vs. open treatment rooms; ii) two times higher in case of use vs. non-use of N2O; iii) significantly higher in junior vs. senior healthcare providers (by 12%); and, iv) higher during presumably short vs. presumably long procedures (by 20%). Overexposures to N2O were mainly seen in the emergency unit and in day hospitals for thoracic/abdominal diseases and nephrology. Overexposures were frequent during short-duration procedures; among 88 N2O measurements, 77 (87.5%) exceeded the 200 ppm threshold over 15 minutes. The overexposures call for dedicated treatment rooms (with adequate equipment and ventilation), more efficient anaesthetic practices, appropriate training, and regular checks.


The South American genera of the Cimbicidae are reviewed. Five genera and nine species are recognized. Redescriptions of all genera and an identification key to all species are provided. All species are illustrated, including both sexes and aberrant specimens when relevant. The South American Cimbicidae are grouped in the subfamily Pachylostictinae, but there is substantial morphological divergence at the genus level. This and the isolated geographic and phylogenetic position relative to the other subfamilies of Cimbicidae indicates that the Pachylostictinae have evolved in isolation for a substantial amount of time. Host plant records are known for only one species, Pseudopachylosticta subflavata, which is mainly found in the Chacoan subregion. The distribution of the remaining species falls almost exclusively within the range of the Parana subregion forest provinces, a biome that has been much reduced by human activity in the past half millennium. It is likely that these rarely collected wasps are threatened by habitat degradation.


Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is among the most powerful laboratory tools available to the analytical geochemist. Its strength lies in SIMS' ability to produce high precision trace element and isotope ratio data on sample masses as small as 100 picograms. The Helmholtz-Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences operates a fully equipped, large geometry SIMS instrument, which is supported by a comprehensive spectrum of peripheral instrumentation. This facility operates as an open user facility which supports the needs of the global geochemical community.


Introduction: Transsphenoidal resection of pituitary tumors is a surgery performed through the nose and sphenoid sinus to remove pituitary tumors. Disorders of sodium balance are common after transsphenoidal surgery involving the pituitary gland. Here, we report the clinical features of an original case of acute onset parkinsonism later confirmed to be secondary to transsphenoidal resection of pituitary adenoma. Patient concerns: A 36-year-old female had received transsphenoidal pituitary resection for pituitary adenoma. Eight days after the surgery, she suffered from acute onset general weakness and nausea/vomiting. She was diagnosed with hyponatremia for which she was treated. Acute onset ataxia, bilateral hand tremor, and dysarthria were then noted on the 4th day of hyponatremia treatment. Diagnosis: Based on history, clinical manifestation, and MRI brain images, a diagnosis of acute parkinsonism caused by isolated extrapontine myelinolysis (EPM) was made. Interventions: Patient was treated with levodopa/carbidopa. Outcomes: Patient's symptoms and signs improved gradually and 2 month follow-up MRI brain showed significant resolution of the bilateral lentiform nuclei hyperintensities on the T2-weighted images. Her neurological deficits had subsided completely. Lessons: This case highlights an unexpected association between transsphenoidal resection of pituitary tumors and acute parkinsonism which is a treatable manifestation of EPM. Correction of hyponatremia following transsphenoidal pituitary resections should be preceded cautiously because even gradual correction of hyponatremia can produce myelinolysis.


Second messenger molecules relay, amplify, and diversify cell surface receptor signals. Two important examples are phosphorylated D-myo-inositol derivatives, such as phosphoinositide lipids within cellular membranes, and soluble inositol phosphates. Here, we review how phosphoinositide metabolism generates multiple second messengers with important roles in T-cell development and function. They include soluble inositol(1,4,5)trisphosphate, long known for its Ca(2+)-mobilizing function, and phosphatidylinositol(3,4,5)trisphosphate, whose generation by phosphoinositide 3-kinase and turnover by the phosphatases PTEN and SHIP control a key "hub" of TCR signaling. More recent studies unveiled important second messenger functions for diacylglycerol, phosphatidic acid, and soluble inositol(1,3,4,5)tetrakisphosphate (IP(4)) in immune cells. Inositol(1,3,4,5)tetrakisphosphate acts as a soluble phosphatidylinositol(3,4,5)trisphosphate analog to control protein membrane recruitment. We propose that phosphoinositide lipids and soluble inositol phosphates (IPs) can act as complementary partners whose interplay could have broadly important roles in cellular signaling.


Intramolecular formal [4+2] cycloaddition between 3-ethoxycyclobutanones and a carbon-carbon double bond to the corresponding bicyclo[4.n.0]alkan-2-one derivatives proceeded effectively by using ethylaluminium dichloride.


Abstract Scattering techniques (i.e. light scattering, X-ray scattering, or neutron scattering) are very powerful tools to gain insights into structural and thermodynamic properties of matter which often cannot be obtained by other methods. While classical thermodynamics is independent of length scale or applies for indefinitely long length scale, scattering can disclose thermodynamic properties like the free energy or free enthalpy as functions of length scale. Scattering is caused by density or composition fluctuations, which are functions of the length scale in one- or multicomponent systems. Therefore scattering techniques can give informations about the size, shape and molecular weight of scattering objects, their thermodynamic interactions with a surrounding matrix and their dynamics if correlations of the fluctuations as function of time are investigated (i.e. dynamic light scattering). As scattering techniques are less intuitive in comparison to complementary techniques, i.e. microscopic techniques, the aim of this article is to highlight some relevant relationships with a focus on polymer systems. This may encourage polymer scientists to consider the use of scattering techniques to learn more about the thermodynamics of their systems and/or to gain informations about their structural properties.


Materiel managers have virtually unlimited opportunities to gain support through a measurable quality and service focus. This support can be achieved through organizational strategies, organizational development, customer service, advanced inventory management and purchasing systems, the power and use of information and, ultimately, mutually beneficial partnerships with distributors and manufacturers.


Purpose: High precision within quantitative imaging studies is required to define biological targets for dose painting, and to evaluate responses to therapy. However, within PETimaging systems there are position‐dependent systematic fluctuations in contrast‐recovery. The objective of this study was to determine the impact of patient set‐up on PET‐based quantification of heterogeneous tumors. Methods: Ten dogs with sinonasal tumors received six repeated [18F]FDG‐PET scans. Between each PET acquisition, known set‐up errors were produced by varying patient position in precisely controlled 1.0±0.5 mm steps. Imagenoise was investigated by retrospectively varying acquisition time of a stationary scan. Resulting changes in SUVmax and PET‐based target volumes were evaluated. Correlation between corresponding voxels of co‐registered images determined repeatability of spatial distributions. A theoretical upper limit of repeatability was estimated from simulated PETimages using empirical models of position‐dependent contrast‐recovery. Results: From the simulated PETimages, a theoretical upper limit of 0.90 was estimated for the repeatability of spatial distributions when set‐up errors are present. When only imagenoise was varied between [18F]FDG‐PET scans, repeatability of spatial distributions was measured at 0.95. However, set‐up errors lead to significant decreases (p < 0.01) in voxel correlations. Introducing set‐up errors between [18F]FDG‐PET acquisitions reduced the repeatability of spatial distributions to 0.80, and caused changes of 5% in SUVmax and 10% in volumes of PET‐based targets. Conclusions: Set‐up errors as small as a few millimeters (< 3mm) reduced the reproducibility of quantitative PETimaging of heterogeneous tumors. PET‐based quantitative values generally varied within 10%, but target volumes within some tumors changed by 30%. Errors during PET acquisition will lead to uncertainty in quantifying changes in tumor function, and to limited accuracy and precision of PET‐based biological target volumes. Therefore, tumor delineation must be independent of SUV thresholds and uncertainty margins are required for PET‐based response quantification.


The Authors report the results of a study on 87 patients; among them some were drug dependent and others were already drug-free. This study has in object the consequences of some drugs use (psycoanaleptics, psycoleptics, psychodysleptics) in the sexual behavior and male fertility. Abuse of these drugs seems to be able to cause impotence by psychologic and organic factors. As it concerns the drugs effects on male fertility, we have observed O.T.A. during the dependence period, that seems to be reversible after detoxification. Our purpose is to further investigate the andrological aspects of drug dependence.


Clear cell hidradenoma is a relatively common, benign eccrine neoplasm with rare presentations in the foot and ankle. Variable clinical and histopathologic characteristics of the tumor warrant careful consideration over primary and recurrent malignancy, particularly eccrine carcinoma. The first known case of primary benign clear cell hidradenoma of the ankle is presented with imaging studies, surgical management, and clinicopathologic correlation, distinguishing the neoplasm from its malignant counterparts.


Estimates of household expenditures directly obtained from the Family Income and Expenditure Survey (FIES) and household final consumption expenditures from national accounts have discrepancies, with their divergence generally growing across time. Such discrepancies have consequences to policy: poverty can be overestimated and income inequality can be underestimated if survey-based estimates are biased downward. There is no assurance that national accounts estimates, which also have measurement errors (just like survey-based estimates), are more accurate. This paper considers how estimates are derived from both surveys and national accounts, as well as other related measurement issues, i.e., undercoverage of wealthy households and the underestimation of their expenditures. The study recommends the use of an acceptable protocol for triangulating estimates of national accounts and survey-based estimates of household expenditure. Further, it also encourages the conduct of other data collection protocols such as 1) administering special surveys for tracking and monitoring income and expenditure patterns of the missing wealthy, 2) splitting the FIES into a family income survey and household expenditure survey, and 3) asking field enumerators of the Philippine Statistics Authority to directly observe electricity meter readings of households targeted for interview to help researchers model adequately the expenditures (or incomes) of all households.


This paper discusses the development of an in-house computer code for the thermal analysis of satellites. The code uses Thermal Network Method (TNM) in conjunction with the Method of Lines (MOL) for the solution of the energy equation in the presence of radiative heat transfer. The predictive accuracy of the code is demonstrated on a test problem involving a cubic satellite with two solar panels and a single representative payload at its center to account for all other possible equipments in the satellite. The results produced by the present code were compared with the predictions of commercial thermal analysis software on the same test problem and a good agreement between the two sets of results was obtained. The code is a promising tool for the thermal analysis of satellites.


Using the polarization dependence of laser output powers, we measured the characteristics of the birefringence, such as the magnitude of phase retardation, the ellipticity, and the off axis angle to the fiber optical axis, inside the ring type fiber laser cavity.


OVERVIEW: Patent dealers have achieved exceptional growth in scale and scope of operations; today, their approaches to patent value affect intellectual property strategies for companies in many industries, even beyond the high-technology sector. To clarify the strategy patent dealers use, we studied a set of 392 U.S. patents sold to a patent dealer by a global consumer electronics firm; the dealer then sold the patents during 2010 and 2011. The analysis shows that under the strategy employed by patent dealers, patent value is driven by the threat of litigation—the higher the threat of litigation, the greater the monetary value of the patent. The evidence suggests that broadly drafted, older patents that cover mainstream technology and for which evidence of infringement may be ambiguous present a greater threat of litigation, and therefore carry a higher value.


Introduction: The ACE I/D polymorphism was mostly investigated in association with intima-media thickness, rarely with severe atherosclerotic phenotype. Materials and methods: We investigated the association of I/D polymorphism with severe carotid atherosclerosis (CA) (stenosis > 70%) in asymptomatic and symptomatic patients undergoing carotid endarterectomy. The 504 patients subjected to endarterectomy and 492 healthy controls from a population in Serbia were investigated as a case-control study. Results: The univariate logistic regression analysis revealed ACE DD as a significant risk factor for severe CA (odds ratio [OR] = 1.3, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.0–1.7, p = 0.04). After adjustment for the common risk factors (age, hypertension, smoking, and HDL) ACE was no longer significant. However, we found a significant independent influence of DD genotype on plaque presence in a normotensive subgroup of patients (OR 1.8, CI 1.2–3.0, p = 0.01, corrected for multiple testing). In symptomatic patients D allele carriers were significantly more frequent compared with asymptomatic patients (OR 1.6 CI 1.0–2.6, p = 0.05). Conclusions: Our data suggests that ACE I/D is not an independent risk factor for severe CA. On the other hand, a significant independent genetic influence of ACE I/D appeared in normotensive and symptomatic patients with severe CA. This should be considered in further research toward resolving the complex genetic background of severe CA phenotype.


This article focuses on aggregation and auctions, two key litigation developments in the selection of counsel under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. After reviewing some of the background concerns, including collective action problems presented by the class action structure and issues regarding the award of attorneys fees, the article explains how the lead plaintiff provision, adopted by Congress, addresses these concerns through a model of client empowerment. The article then explains two recent trends: the use of lead counsel groups, in which courts appoint multiple investors and aggregate their holdings, and the use of an auction procedure to select lead counsel and determine counsel fees. The trends deal with facially separate issues, yet they are disturbing for the same reasons. First, both aggregation and lead counsel auctions weaken the relationship between the lead plaintiff and class counsel and specifically reduce the ability of the lead plaintiff to exert control over litigation decisionmaking. Second, both trends lead to serious problems in implementing the lead plaintiff provision. Finally, the trends maintain an active judicial role in supervising the conduct of the litigation. The article challenges the propriety of aggregation and auctions under the PSLRA, arguing that neither development is supported by the statutory text or legislative history. The article further argues that these approaches are inconsistent with and likely to frustrate the objectives of the PSLRA. Courts that appoint groups of unrelated investors as lead plaintiffs will face difficult questions of appropriate group size and composition. Lead plaintiff groups are unlikely to function in accordance with the statutory design; in particular, they are unlikely to select or monitor class counsel effectively. Selection of lead counsel by auction is not an attractive alternative. Lead counsel auctions present substantial issues in design and implementation, and there is little reason to believe that a judicially conducted auction can replicate the market process or result in a selection decision and fee award more appropriate than the decisions made by a suitable lead plaintiff. Finally, the article argues that both developments are based on the mistaken perception that class action abuses can be addressed through judicial oversight. In adopting the lead plaintiff provision, however, Congress expressly rejected this premise. The effect of both aggregation and lead counsel auctions is to maintain judicial empowerment at the expense of client control. This approach undermines the potential for client empowerment to achieve meaningful litigation reform.


Aryl hydrocarbon hydroxylase (AHH) was induced 15-fold in Ambystoma tigrinum by intraperitoneal injection of 3-methylcholanthrene in corn oil, or 10-fold by addition of aromatic polycyclic hydrocarbons to the aqueous environment of the neotene animal. The cytochrome P-450-associated microsomal enzyme is similar to the inducible, one-gene, autosomal-dominant system typical in the laboratory mouse and man. Differences in optimal temperature for enzyme induction and activity were noted in organ culture of human and Ambystoma tissues, and ratios of benzpyrene metabolites differed between Ambystoma and Mus. The half life of enzyme activity induced in vivo was related to the excretion of hydrocarbon metabolites.


Punjab Local Government Ordinance (PLGO) 2001empowered District governments with power and authority to play an effective and efficient role for institutional development. The aimed at finding out the magnitude of educational institutional development especially in rural areas of Punjab province. The research methods employed in this study were qualitative in nature. Itwas survey study covering the four districts of Punjab. The results show that school management may be more empowered for decision making process as mostly decisions are being made by politicians and often they are forced to implement the decision taken by top management.


A reproducible scheme has been developed for the preparation of rat liver thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase (EC 18.104.22.168) by using assays based on reduction of insulin and 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid), respectively. Both proteins were purified to homogeneity, as judged from polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. Thioredoxin had a molecular weight of 12 000 and contained about 110 amino acids including 4 half-cystines and an NH2-terminal valine. Peptide maps of reduced and carboxymethylated thioredoxin showed that the protein had the active center sequence -Cys-Gly-Pro-Cys-Lys-Met- characteristic of thioredoxins also from procaryotes. Prolonged air oxidation of fully reduced thioredoxin created inactive, aggregated disulfide-containing molecules. Thioredoxin reductase showed a subunit molecular weight of 58 000 and a native molecular weight of 116 000. The enzyme was highly specific for NADPH with a Km of 6 microM. It contained FAD as prosthetic group and was sensitive to inhibition by arsenite. Thioredoxin reductase had a Km of 2.5 microM for rat and calf liver thioredoxin and a Kcat of 3000 min-1.


Hypertension is one of the most common condition seen in general clinical practice. Hypertension if not treated can lead to many serious complications such as stroke, myocardial infarction, renal failure and eventually death. The incidence of resistant hypertension defined as the inability to achieve target blood pressure despite optimal doses of 3 or more antihypertensive drugs, including one diuretic is increasing. Resistant hypertension further increases the risk of cardiovascular complications. The diagnosis of resistant hypertension is mainly by exclusion criteria. White coat syndrome and poor adherence to treatment should be excluded. Management involves multiple approaches such as lifestyle interventions and pharmacological treatment. Initial pharmacological treatment begins with optimization of diuretic use. Other first line drugs are calcium channel blockers, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin-receptor blockers. Combination of other drugs is used as per individual patient need. Spironolactone has shown promising results in the management. Various device therapies like chronic electrical stimulation of the carotid sinus and Catheter-based renal sympathetic denervation have been tried in the management of resistant hypertension though the success is still eluding. The endothelin receptor antagonists and minodoxil are being evaluated in the management of resistant hypertension.


This paper presents the method of variable-feedrate intelligent segmentation as an enhanced approach to feedrate optimization in micromilling that overcomes detrimental scale effects in the process and leads to improved stability and decreased machining time. Due to the high tool-size to feature-size ratio present in micromilling, the maximum allowable feedrate is limited by the sampling rate of the real-time trajectory generation and motion control system. The variable-feedrate intelligent segmentation method is proposed to compensate for the feedrate limitation by intelligent selection of the interpolation technique applied to segments along the tool path in order to reduce the trajectory generation computation time and enable increased sampling frequency. The increased sampling frequency allows higher maximum feedrates providing for increased productivity and improved process stability. The performance of the novel intelligent segmentation approach was benchmarked against recent non-rational B-splines (NURBS) feedrate optimization techniques. Results from the numerical evaluation of the intelligent segmentation technique have demonstrated significant reductions in machining time, with a maximum reduction of over 50% recorded. Furthermore, the results from the study demonstrate the advantages of the intelligent segmentation method in enhancing process stability and maintaining, or marginally decreasing, process error. The variable feedrate intelligent segmentation method developed in this study provides, therefore, an enhanced methodology for path planning in high-speed, high-precision micromilling operations.


In this paper, a model of a bearingless permanent magnet synchronous motor is proposed, the expressions of radial suspension forces are derived, and an accurate model is established. Furthermore, decoupling and basic linearization are carried out for the radial suspension forces using the theory of differential geometry, and a sliding mode controller with fractional order based on a neural network is designed for the decoupled, pseudolinear subsystem. Finally, a simulation experiment is conducted for the designed control system and the feasibility of this decoupling control approach is validated. The simulation results indicate that the application of the proposed control scheme to a bearingless permanent magnet synchronous motor modeled using differential geometry can achieve steady and independent control of radial suspension forces


Abstract The effects of drought on stream invertebrates have been reviewed, but the effects of artificially reduced flows have not. We addressed this knowledge gap by reviewing the literature on the effects of natural low flows and artificially reduced flows (without complete cessation of flow). We considered the effects of low water volume on habitat conditions and on invertebrate community structure, behavior, and biotic interactions. Decreases in discharge usually cause decreased water velocity, water depth, and wetted channel width; increased sedimentation; and changes in thermal regime and water chemistry. Invertebrate abundance increases or decreases in response to decreased flow, whereas invertebrate richness commonly decreases because habitat diversity decreases. Invertebrates differ in their environmental tolerances and requirements, and any loss of habitat area or alteration of food resources from decreased flow can influence organism behavior and biotic interactions. Invertebrate drift often increases immediately after flow reduction, although some taxa are more responsive to changes in flow than others. Natural low flows and artificially reduced flows have similar effects on invertebrates, but the severity (duration and magnitude) of the flow decrease can influence invertebrate responses. Certain invertebrate taxa are especially sensitive to flow decreases and might be useful indicators for reduced flows or flow restoration. The effect of low flow on streams is an important issue, but few empirical studies of the impacts of decreased flow on stream ecosystems have been done, and more manipulative experiments are needed to understand the ecological consequences of decreased flow.


The rapidly growing market of eSports has become a lucrative industry. Sim racing is one of the traditional sports that gain increasing popularity in eSports. With raising profits, lucrative sponsoring contracts, and competitive price money, incentives for fraud are also on the upraise. This is further facilitated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to the substitution of live eSport events by virtual formats. Particularly, in sim racing it becomes increasingly challenging to verify the contestants identity in virtual events. Here, we propose and evaluate a generic workflow to identify personal driving style by transforming raw racing data (including measurements extracted from the simulation software and connected simulator hardware) into a comparable representation (fingerprint). As data base we used an extensive collection of telemetry data recorded from the racing simulation Assetto Corsa on 3 immersive motion simulators. The set contains over 2,000 laps of seven player recorded in weekly sessions. The experiments demonstrate the feasibility to distinguish players using the proposed method on different tracks, car models, and motion simulators. Due to the extensive experiments, we could achieve a driver separation score of up to 89%. The raw data and the raw results are made publicly available on Github.


THE lesions were minute yellowish cups, six in number, grouped upon the outer surface of the right leg. Each cup was about -1in. in diameter, and showed characteristic felt work of mycelium. The cultures grew rapidly on the maltose agar medium, and presented a circular, white downy appearance closely resembling the cultures of the Microsporon Audouinii. The scalp was unaffected. The source of the infection was not traced.


We presented 2 cases of craniopharyngioma, which showed sebaceous differentiation. Both cases shared the following features: 1) neuroradiological detection of a cystic tumor accompanied by calcification, 2) clear yellowish fluid detected in the cyst during surgery, 3) histological rating as an adamantinomatous type, 4) the presence of a nest-like distribution of multivacuolated cells in the innermost layer of the cyst.


The coding sequence for the 97-amino-acid-residue-long immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable (VH) regions of the mouse apparently arose as repeats of the two short building blocks. Three of the recognizable copies of the one 21-base-long prototype sequence A-C-T-G-G-A-T-A-T-G-A-C-C-T-G-G-A-G-T-G-G are invariably found to occupy the fixed positions within the 5' half of each VH coding sequence. Interestingly, the first and third copies specify the relatively invariant regions represented by the 7th to 13th and 41st to 47th amino acid residues (the first and second framework regions), whereas the second copy specifies the first hypervariable region (31st to 35th amino acid residues). These copies maintain at least 57.2% (12 out of 21) base sequence homology to the above-noted prototype building block. Base sequences of the other 14- to 15-base-long prototype building block differ from each other by as much as 60% between individual VHS. Yet one of its copies invariably occupies the terminal region of each VH coding sequence, thus specifying the very invariant third framework region. Other copies occupy unfixed positions in the VH and its attendant hydrophobic leader coding sequence as well as in adjacent noncoding sequences. The homology thus revealed between the VH coding sequence and its adjacent noncoding sequences suggests their concordant evolution.


We have developed the method of images for the solution of two hyperspheres in d dimensions in a uniform field in order to study the O(c2) coefficient κ in the dielectric constant of the medium. The method employs extensions of image theory for classical charges and dipoles for dielectric spheres, which produce novel line charge and line dipole densities. Numerical results for κ with arbitrary integer d are consistent with our previous paper I (this issue), and demonstrate that the image method shows superior convergence properties. Although computationally less convenient, the procedure is, in principle, calculable term–by–term and leads to useful analytic results in the weak scattering limit. This work also produces a simple algebraic approximation that is useful everywhere.


Stress is an unspecified response caused by a stressor in which the trigger comes from internal or external factors. Nurses who experiences stress can have some impacts on their lives and performance well being in hospital. Mindfulness is the ability of a person to be aware of any problems they encountered, so theywill be more focus on solving any problems through changing the behavior of the individual and not giving judgment to the problem. This study aims to determine the correlation between mindfulness and stress levels in nurses at Sultan Agung Islamic Hospital. The type of this research is correlation research with cross sectional approach. The sampling technique used proportional sampling with sample size of 84 respondents. Data were collectedby using the Five Facet Mindfuless Questionnaire (FFMQ) and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS) questionnaire. The results showed that the majority of nurses at Sultan Agung Islamic Hospital have the mindfulness ability that tends to be high and the stress levels are normal. There is no correlation between mindfulness ability with stress levels in nurses (p-value = 0.180). Nurses were advised to maintain the ability of mindfulness, that it can improve the quality of life among nurses.


Up to 50% of patients who undergo curative resection for colon cancer relapse and ultimately die of metastatic disease. Adjuvant chemotherapy given after surgery reduces the risk of disease recurrence in patients with stage II/III disease, and considerable progress of adjuvant chemotherapy in these patients has been reported. Clinical studies evaluating chemotherapy regimens continue, as do trials that use specific, molecularly targeted agents that have shown promising results in patients with advanced colon cancer. Ongoing important issues to be addressed relate to the optimal schedule and/or choice of chemotherapeutic regimens, and the efficacy of the combination of molecular agents with conventional chemotherapy.


In this paper, the image motion introduced by the staring action itself during optical remote sensing satellites staring imaging with area-array detectors is studied. The image motion is decomposed into the angle-rotation image motion caused by the change of observation angle, the size-scaling image motion caused by the change of observation distance, and the Earth-rotation image motion caused by the rotation of the ground object with the Earth. The theoretical derivation of the angle-rotation image motion and size-scaling image motion is conducted, and the numerical analysis of the Earth-rotation image motion is carried out. Based on the comparison among the characteristics of the three types of image motions, the conclusion is drawn that, for general staring imaging scenes, the angle-rotation image motion is dominant, followed by the size-scaling image motion and the ignorable Earth-rotation image motion. On the condition that the image motion does not exceed 1 pixel, the allowed maximum exposure time for area-array staring imaging is analyzed. It is found that the large-array satellite is not suitable for long-exposure imaging, as its allowed exposure time decreases rapidly with the increase of roll angle. A satellite with a 12k×12k area-array detector and 500 km orbit is taken as an example. The allowed exposure time is 0.88 s when roll angle of the satellite is 0°; it decreases to 0.02 s when the roll angle increases to 28°.


ABSTRACT The aim of this study is to focus on the verbal stimuli of the Vocabulary subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV). To our knowledge, this is the first research to examine whether the abstractness/concreteness and the lexical category of the words in the WAIS-IV vocabulary subtest influence the ability to explain their meaning. In the first step, we collected ratings of the degree of abstractness/concreteness and the lexical category of the 27 verbal stimuli of vocabulary subtest. From the second step, the results showed that the ability to explain the meaning of words for 497 participants (aged 19–89) was better with concrete concepts than with abstract ones; and the concreteness effect, i.e., the advantage in the processing of the concrete over the abstract terms, does not disappear with age. More specifically, the ability to define the abstract words does not decline with age. Still, this ability is maintained likely because linguistic knowledge is preserved in healthy elderly. Besides, the correctness in defining nouns is always superior to that in defining adjectives and verbs across all age groups. The nouns are defined more correctly than adjectives in the all age groups. The verbs are defined more correctly than adjectives in the all age groups except for the groups over 60 years of age, although at 80–89 years of age the verbs are statistically more difficult to define than adjectives.


Cancer subtype identification is important to facilitate cancer diagnosis and select effective treatments. Clustering of cancer patients based on high-dimensional RNA-sequencing data can be used to detect novel subtypes, but only a subset of the features (e.g., genes) contains information related to the cancer subtype. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the clustering should be based on a set of carefully selected features rather than all features. Several feature selection methods have been proposed, but how and when to use these methods are still poorly understood. Thirteen feature selection methods were evaluated on four human cancer data sets, all with known subtypes (gold standards), which were only used for evaluation. The methods were characterized by considering mean expression and standard deviation (SD) of the selected genes, the overlap with other methods and their clustering performance, obtained comparing the clustering result with the gold standard using the adjusted Rand index (ARI). The results were compared to a supervised approach as a positive control and two negative controls in which either a random selection of genes or all genes were included. For all data sets, the best feature selection approach outperformed the negative control and for two data sets the gain was substantial with ARI increasing from (−0.01, 0.39) to (0.66, 0.72), respectively. No feature selection method completely outperformed the others but using the dip-rest statistic to select 1000 genes was overall a good choice. The commonly used approach, where genes with the highest SDs are selected, did not perform well in our study.


Abstract: Introduction: Sexuality is characterized as a device of power and Medicine plays a key role as one of the main action institutions. Medical education tends to ratify the heteronormative discourse and diagnose deviant patterns as a pathology. It is based on the binary categorization of individuals as an implication of their sexuality. The assessed medical course assumes the methodological proposal of the constructivist spiral, which seeks to guarantee the protagonism of the students, as well as the dialogue with their previous knowledge, using the concept of Meaningful Learning. Objective: To analyze the students' experiences in the development of the competence profile related to gender and sexuality during medical school. Method: It is a qualitative research using focus groups with students attending the sixth year of the medical course. Result: The study indicates the students' perception of the importance of active methodologies, as well as the early inclusion in the fields of practice. However, the thematic of gender and sexuality needs to be proposed in the list of triggers for the use of the constructivist spiral. Conclusion: The active teaching-learning methodologies can constitute a counter-hegemonic strategy in the face of the device of sexuality in guaranteeing biopower, as there is a reorientation of these contents in the curriculum.


In recent years there has been growing interest in the use of low-temperature atmospheric pressure plasmas for biomedical applications. Currently, however, there is very little fundamental knowledge regarding the relevant interaction mechanisms of plasma species with living cells. In this paper, we investigate the interaction of important plasma species, such as O3, O2 and O atoms, with bacterial peptidoglycan (or murein) by means of reactive molecular dynamics simulations. Specifically, we use the peptidoglycan structure to model the gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus murein. Peptidoglycan is the outer protective barrier in bacteria and can therefore interact directly with plasma species. Our results demonstrate that among the species mentioned above, O3 molecules and especially O atoms can break important bonds of the peptidoglycan structure (i.e. C–O, C–N and C–C bonds), which subsequently leads to the destruction of the bacterial cell wall. This study is important for gaining a fundamental insight into the chemical damaging mechanisms of the bacterial peptidoglycan structure on the atomic scale.


The frequency and duration of heatwaves are steadily increasing as climate change becomes more serious. These changes particularly endanger the health of those who must work outdoors in hot environments. This study introduces a novel approach to monitor the heat-health of airport outdoor workers using infrared thermography. The faces of airport workers who were refueling airplanes in extreme heat conditions were monitored using a thermal infrared thermometer during their work cycle throughout the day. Changes in temperature on their exposed faces (e.g., the ear, cheek, chin) were monitored throughout the day over a two-month period. In every test, the subject's face temperature increased, then suddenly dropped for a short time, and then continued increasing. Subjects were also asked to assess their thermal perception of the work each time they were tested throughout the study. They reported that they felt discomfort in terms of thermal comfort when the facial skin temperature went down temporarily before the temperature rose. These results show that the physical measurement criteria when outdoor workers' thermal health is in jeopardy can be based on the results of facial skin temperature measurements.


Introduction: Exacerbations are one of the major factors that may influence natural history of COPD. However, little is known about clinical characteristics and determinants of exacerbation of COPD in a Japanese population. Aim: To examine characteristics and determinants of exacerbation in Japanese patients with COPD in a 5-year observational cohort study. Methods: A total of 279 patients with COPD participated in the Hokkaido COPD cohort study (AJRCCM 2012) and 268 subjects (GOLD 1, 26%; GOLD 2, 45%; GOLD 3, 24%; GOLD 4, 5%) who had clinical data of multiple visits were analyzed for this analysis. Exacerbation was defined in four ways: symptom criteria, requiring prescription change (prescription criteria), requiring antibiotics treatment (antibiotics criteria), and requiring hospital admission (admission criteria). Exacerbation frequency was observed over a period of 5 years. Results: Exacerbation event frequency was 0.24±0.47/yr (symptom criteria), 0.20±0.43/yr (prescription criteria), 0.13±0.28/yr (antibiotics criteria), and 0.06±0.19/yr (admission criteria). Cox proportional hazard model showed that an increase in SGRQ total score was significantly associated with short exacerbation-free period defined by all criteria and a decrease in body mass index (BMI) was also associated with short exacerbation-free period defined by antibiotics and admission criteria. Subjects who experienced hospital admission >1/yr tended to have rapid annual decline in FEV1 (p=0.07). Conclusion: While exacerbation frequency is low in our cohort subjects, poor health-related quality of life and low BMI are independent risk factors for the development of exacerbation of COPD.


Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) is a severe complication occurring after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). It is caused by alloreactive T cells contained in the graft, and associated with severe morbidity and mortality. Glucocorticoids (GC) are the gold standard for first-line treatment of GvHD but once patients become steroid-refractory, they need to be treated with second-line therapies such as extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP). ECP is an immunomodulatory therapy currently used in the clinic for treating patients suffering acute GvHD (aGvHD) or chronic GvHD (cGvHD). During ECP therapy leukocytes from the patient are collected by apheresis procedure and treated with 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) and ultraviolet light type-A (UV-A) generating apoptotic cells which are then reinfused into the patient. These apoptotic cells are taken up by myeloid dendritic cells (mDCs) and may lead to cross-tolerization of T cells. Whether ECP therapy could be modified by using leukocytes from healthy blood donors instead of the patient's own cells has not yet been explored although this option would offer the possibility to avoid the exhausting apheresis procedure.
In this study, established mouse models of aGvHD (C57BL/6->BALB/c) and cGvHD (B10D2->BALB/c) were used to evaluate the effects of 8-MOP/UV-A (PUVA)-treated splenocytes derived from healthy genetically different mouse strains. ECP therapy using C3H mice as donors of splenocytes had a significant therapeutic effect on the course and severity of aGvHD whereas this was not the case for splenocytes with BALB/c and C57BL/6 origin. ECP therapy of cGvHD was successful when apoptotic splenocytes from B10D2 were used. Flow cytometric analysis did not reveal any cellular signature of cGvHD. Overall, the obtained results suggest that the therapeutic effect of ECP therapy might be achieved when there are extensive disparities in the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) haplotype between ECP recipient and cell donors.
In addition, efforts were made to identify biomarkers that could predict the risk to develop GvHD and the patient's response to ECP therapy. Several potential biomarkers were analyzed in peripheral blood by flow cytometry or enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Reference values were determined for each potential biomarker in healthy blood donors and compared to the values measured in patients suffering from hematological malignancies before HSCT and after engraftment and in cGvHD patients before as well as three and six months after initiation of ECP therapy. Dependent on the time points of blood sampling we found significant differences in the percentages or cell counts of regulatory T (Treg) cells, immature B cells, mDCs, soluble interleukin-2 receptor-α (sIL-2Rα), soluble tumor necrosis-factor receptor 1 (sTNF-R), and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) between healthy controls, HSCT patients and ECP patients.
Taken together, the combination of GvHD mouse models and the analysis of patient material represent a promising strategy to optimize the clinical application of ECP therapy in the future and should thereby contribute to a safer application of HSCT in patients suffering from hematological malignancies.


: Geotechnologies allow natural resources to be surveyed more quickly and cheaply than traditional methods. This paper aimed to produce a digital soil map (DSM) based on Landsat time series data. The study area, located in the eastern part of the Brazilian Federal District (Rio Preto hydrographic basin), comprises a representative basin of the Central Brazil plateau in terms of pedodiversity. A spectral library was produced based on the soil spectroscopy (from the visible to shortwave infrared spectral range) of 42 soil samples from 0–15 cm depth using the Fieldspec Pro equipment in a laboratory. Pearson's correlation and principal component analysis of the soil attributes revealed that the dataset could be grouped based on the texture content. Hierarchical clustering analysis allowed for the extraction of 13 reference spectra. We interpreted the spectra morphologically and resampled them to the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper satellite bands. Afterward, we elaborated a synthetic soil/rock image (SySI) and a soil frequency image (number of times the bare soil was captured) from the Landsat time series (1984–2020) in the Google Earth Engine platform. Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) was used to model the SySI, using the endmembers as the input and generating a DSM, which was validated by the Kappa index and the confusion matrix. MESMA successfully modeled 9 of the 13 endmembers: Dystric Rhodic Ferralsol (clayic); Dystric Rhodic Ferralsol (very clayic); Dystric Haplic Ferralsol (loam-clayic); Dystric Haplic Ferralsol (clayic); Dystric Petric Plinthosol (clayic); Dystric Petric Plinthosol (very clayic); Dystric Regosol (clayic); Dystric Regosol (very clayic); and Dystric, Haplic Cambisol (clayic). The root mean squared error (RMSE) varied from 0 to 1.3%. The accuracy of DSM achieved a Kappa index of 0.74, describing the methodology's effectiveness to differentiate the studied soils.


Constructing network models of genomic regulation from data can help to better understand the manner in which genes interact in an integrative and holistic way within a given genome. One of the major impediments for the practical application of such models is their structural and computational complexity. Thus, it is sometimes necessary to construct computationally tractable sub-networks while still carrying sufficient structure for the application at hand. Hence, there is a need for size reducing mappings. This paper focuses on constrained reduction mappings for a particular class of network models that are inferred from non-temporal data. The constraints arise naturally from the structural and dynamical properties of the considered models.