W HILE a certain degree of frequently asymptomatic vaginal prolapse follows probably every hysterectomy, not too infrequently a marked or even complete prolapse of the vagina is seen. The patient afflicted with this condition has often already undergone one or more previous surgical procedures by the vaginal route for the purpose of correcting a large cystocele associated with urinary-stress incontinence and a large rectocele. The prolapse may have developed gradually over a period of years, and while the patient originally was able to adjust to her symptoms, she eventually is brought to the physician by complaints of a constant bearing-down feeling, pelvic pressure, discomfort on walking and sitting, urinary stress incontinence, and inability to empty her rectum without replacing a large rectocele digitally. An enterocele can frequently be detected on vaginal examination above a protruding rectocele. Decubital ulcers may be present over the posterior vaginal wall causing discharge or even


A total of 22 contributions conforms this Special Issue that covers a wide spectrum of contemporary issues in urological cancer, a group of neoplasms with high incidence, prevalence, and mortality rates, especially in the male population of Western countries [...].


In the capstone design courses, the instructor can choose among different strategies of assigning students to project teams. One of these strategies allows the students select the project they would like to work on from a list. This sometimes proceeds in an ad-hoc manner. Currently, literature offers limited research that looks at the reasons why students select certain projects. Furthermore, the work examining the impact of this selection on team performance is also limited. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of the students' project selection on team performance. This is carried out by (1) investigating the rationalization students undertake during the selection process, and (2) analyzing data concerning the influence of the selection on team performance. Two instruments are presented in this paper that can be used to analyze the impact of student selection of design projects on the team performance. These instruments are also used to track the types of projects the students select, such as faculty projects, industry supported projects, student initiated projects, and projects for design competitions. A systematic methodology, based on the students' rankings of all the projects for assigning students to their preferred choice of projects, is also presented. Whereas the data presented shows that students generally read carefully the project description, the majority of students prefer the project clients to make short presentations. To analyze the impact of project choice on team performance, four categories, based on the student project choice, were proposed. Teams whose majority did not get their first choice of project, showed the largest drop between the mid-semester peer ratings compared to end-of-semester peer ratings. This study was performed at two universities.


This paper describes a navigation system for underwater vehicles (UV) using bathymetric profiles. The UV localisation by matching a local bathymetry within a reference map aims to avoid the use of transponder-based positioning systems which need a costly preparation. Terrain based navigation concerns, using a vehicle-borne multibeam echosounder, to build a local map of the bottom and to match it to a previously constructed terrain map. Bathymetric image restoration and segmentation are necessary before extracting characteristic points from the two maps. These points are matched by the means of rotational and translational invariant attributes. An iterative algorithm estimates the position and the orientation of the local bathymetry and actualizes the set of matched points, The real time estimation of attribute variances allows the use of probabilistic tools like the Mahalanobis distance (threshold) and the Kalman filter (position estimation).


Background and Objective: Stroke accompanied by psychiatric disorder and mental performance is one of the most disabling neurological diseases in adults and depression is the most common psychical complication among them. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and risk factors of early depression after stroke. Materials and Methods: Using a convenient sampling method throughout this descriptive study, data gathering was done via check lists and DSM-IV-TR criteria. Interviews along with observations were also applied to collect the data.The study population consisted of 80 stroke patients referred to Imam Sajjad and Tonekabon Shaheed Rajaei Hospitals over the years of 2010-2012. Anatomic location of the lesion was determined by MRI and CT-scan after examining and diagnosis. Descriptive and inferential statistics (t-test, ANOVA, and chi-square) were used to analyse the collected data. Results: The overall incidence of early post stroke depression was 45%. There was no significant correlation between early post stroke depression and age, sex, involved vascular line, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, heart disease, multiplicity of stroke attacks and anatomical place of stroke. There was a significant correlation of early post stroke depression with type of stroke (p=0.023) and diabetes (p=0.027). Conclusion: The results showed high prevalence depression in patients after stroke attack. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to depression symptoms and its risk factors for accelerating recovery and decreasing the risk of subsequent stroke and mortality.


In this paper, a new algorithm for lossless compression of hyperspectral images is proposed. The spectral redundancy in hyperspectral images is exploited using a context-match method driven by the correlation between adjacent bands. This method is suitable for hyperspectral images in the band-sequential format. Moreover, this method compares favorably with the recent proposed lossless compression algorithms in terms of compression, with a lower complexity.


Contents: Preface. Introduction-What Makes Sports a Unique Business? The Structure of Professional Team Sports. The Structure of Individual Sports. The Structure of College and High School Sports. The International Sports System. Sports Contracts. Labor Relations in Sports. Sports Agents. Team Relocation and Facility Issues. Sports Injuries. Drug Testing in Sports. Discrimination in Sports. Intellectual Property and Sports. Traditional and New Media and Sports.


Blurred edges appear sharper in motion than when they are stationary. We proposed a model of this motion sharpening that invokes a local, nonlinear contrast transducer function (Hammett et al, 1998 Vision Research 38 2099–2108). Response saturation in the transducer compresses or 'clips' the input spatial waveform, rendering the edges as sharper. To explain the increasing distortion of drifting edges at higher speeds, the degree of nonlinearity must increase with speed or temporal frequency. A dynamic contrast gain control before the transducer can account for both the speed dependence and approximate contrast invariance of motION sharpening (Hammett et al, 2003 Vision Research in press). We show here that this model also predicts perceived sharpening of briefly flashed and flickering edges, and we show that the model can account fairly well for experimental data from all three modes of presentation (motion, flash, and flicker). At moderate durations and lower temporal frequencies the gain control attenuates the input signal, thus protecting it from later compression by the transducer. The gain control is somewhat sluggish, and so it suffers both a slow onset, and loss of power at high temporal frequencies. Consequently, brief presentations and high temporal frequencies of drift and flicker are less protected from distortion, and show greater perceptual sharpening.


Maps have become a key tool to guide priorities for biodiversity conservation, the maintenance of ecosystem services, but much less so for critical action against further service loss in critical areas. Biological invasions are important disruptors of ecosystem services given that they directly or indirectly affect human well being, as they are an important cause of biodiversity loss worldwide and interfere with the provision of many ecosystem services. Here, we propose a general model to identify regions where the probability of plant invasion is higher and can cause and/or aggravate negative effects upon ecosystems. We then apply the general model to Mexico. Our model of probability of invasion considers 4 main variables: propagule availability, vegetation type, anthropic disturbance and native plant species richness. We calculated an invasion risk index combining all factors. We produced 5 maps, one for each variable and another constructed with our model of combined risk, for a grid of 0.5° × 0.5° grid across the whole country. We validated our model with State level data on exotic plants per State and obtained a significant correlation (r= 0.73, p< 0.001) between our invasion risk index derived from the model and the observed density of exotic species. Areas with greater susceptibility to invasion are closer to large human settlements and to areas of intensive agriculture. Very high risk corridors and islands were detected in our maps, as well very high risk areas in high diversity regions such as Chiapas and the Puebla-Veracruz border where we suggest attention should be focused. Our model although simple, provides a useful tool for policy design to detect areas within a specific region or country where biotic invasions are likely to have a large effect. Locating these areas is important in order to maximize return on monetary and human resources and to minimize damaging effects of plant invasions.


In a modern hybrid vehicle where several switched converters are connected to a common high voltage DC-bus, current and voltage harmonics will arise due to the switching events in the inverter. In order to determine the behavior of the complete system, models that include switching characteristics, control parameters of each device and high frequency behavior of the cabling and the battery must be incorporated. The complete system model can then be used to e.g. quantify ripple components and analyze resonance effects. In this paper, a model of a drive system is set up and the results are verified by measurements. The model is then used to verify the interaction of the different subsystems and to investigate the complete system behavior. It is concluded that interaction of the different systems can be foreseen and that the battery inductance in combination with the DC-link capacitance contribute most to the DC-bus current ripple.


OBJECTIVES
North Mesopotamia has witnessed dramatic social change during the Holocene, but the impact of these events on its demographic history is poorly understood. Here, we study this question by analysing genetic data from the recently excavated Late Iron Age settlement of Çemialo Sırtı in Batman, southeast Turkey. Archaeological and radiocarbon evidence indicate that the site was inhabited during the second and first millennia BCE. Çemialo Sırtı reveals nomadic items of the Early Iron Age, as well as items associated with the Late Achaemenid and subsequent Hellenistic Periods. We compare Çemialo Sırtı mitochondrial DNA profiles with earlier and later populations from west Eurasia to describe genetic continuity patterns in the region.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A total of 16 Çemialo Sırtı individuals' remains were studied. PCR and Sanger sequencing were used to obtain mitochondrial DNA HVRI-HVRII sequences. We studied haplotype diversity and pairwise genetic distances using FST , comparing the Çemialo Sırtı population with ancient and modern-day populations from west Eurasia. Coalescent simulations were carried out to test continuity for specific population comparisons.

RESULTS
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotypes from 12 Çemialo Sırtı individuals reveal high haplotype diversity in this population, conspicuously higher than early Holocene west Eurasian populations, which supports the notion of increasing population admixture in west Eurasia through the Holocene. In its mtDNA composition, Çemialo Sırtı shows highest affinity to Neolithic north Syria and Neolithic Anatolia among ancient populations studied, and to modern-day southwest Asian populations. Based on population genetic simulations we cannot reject continuity between Neolithic and Iron Age, or between Iron Age and present-day populations of the region.

DISCUSSION
Despite the region's complex sociopolitical history and indication for increased genetic diversity over time, we find no evidence for sharp shifts in north Mesopotamian maternal genetic composition within the last 10,000 years.


Vision-and-language tasks are gaining popularity in the research community, but the focus is still mainly on English. We propose a pipeline that utilizes English-only vision-language models to train a monolingual model for a target language. We propose to extend OSCAR+, a model which leverages object tags as anchor points for learning image-text alignments, to train on visual question answering datasets in different languages. We propose a novel approach to knowledge distillation to train the model in other languages using parallel sentences. Compared to other models that use the target language in the pretraining corpora, we can leverage an existing English model to transfer the knowledge to the target language using significantly lesser resources. We also release a large-scale visual question answering dataset in Japanese and Hindi language. Though we restrict our work to visual question answering, our model can be extended to any sequence-level classification task, and it can be extended to other languages as well. This paper focuses on two languages for the visual question answering task - Japanese and Hindi. Our pipeline outperforms the current state-of-the-art models by a relative increase of 4.4% and 13.4% respectively in accuracy.


Land surface emissivity (LSE) is a key parameter for the determination of land surface temperature (LST) from thermal remotely sensed data. A new LSE product has been developed at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), College Park, MD, USA, to enhance the LST product for the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) and the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series (GOES-R) missions as well as to support the forecasting models. A 1-km resolution bare ground emissivity was derived from the historical Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Emissivity Dataset (ASTER-GED) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) LSE product. It is then spectrally adjusted to the split window (SW) channels of Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) onboard JPSS and Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) from GOES-R. VIIRS daily green vegetation fraction and snow fraction products are subsequently used to account for the dynamic variations. Validation results indicate that the product has a good agreement with in situ observations, with an emissivity difference less than 0.006 at the bare surface sites and a difference less than 0.007 at one cropland site with three growth stages. The intercomparison with NASA VIIRS daily LSE product proves a good agreement with a standard deviation of less than 0.012. To evaluate the LSE performance in LST retrieval, a whole year VIIRS LST is produced and validated over the SURFace RADiation budget observing network (SURFRAD) sites. The results indicate that the LSE works well with LST RMSE of 1.78 (daytime) and 1.58 K (nighttime). The new LSE algorithm has been integrated to NOAA-20 LST with the status of provisional maturity and will be applied on GOES-16/17 LST product in the near future.


In this paper, a time-frequency filter is designed, which can detect the frequency, amplitude and phase of any order harmonics and interharmonics in signal by means of time domain convolution. The theory analysis are carried to this method and the calculate formula are concluded, the spectral leakage and the barrier domino offect are shun, the non-integer order wave are eluded, which are engendered in Fourier domain. Experiment simulation results show that time-frequency filtering convolution fluctuation can be designed and realized neatly and conveniently; the influences of fundamental frequency fluctuation on harmonic analysis are restrained by using the approach presented in this paper; the relative errors of calculating fundamental frequencies with many order harmonics and interharmonics are no more than 0.00008%, the relative erors of calculating amplitudes are no more than 0.00013%, and those of calculating initial phases are no more than 0.078%.


Background: Many species of hallucinogenic mushrooms have been found in the genus Psilocybe. The main psychoactive chemicals of Psilocybe mushrooms are psilocin and its phosphoryloxy derivative, psilocybin. In addition to its psychedelic effects, psilocybin is an effective agent to lift the mood of depressed patients with terminal cancers. Objective: To study the dispositional kinetics of 14 C-psilocin in pregnant rats after intravenous injection, to calculate tissue dose surrogates i.e., tissue 14 C concentration and area under the concentration-time curve using the experimental data, to quantify trans-placental passage of psilocin and/or its metabolites, and to identify new psilocin metabolite(s) in rat urine. Methods: A group of 15 pregnant Wistar rats weighing between 0.30-0.36 kg was used in the study. Each rat was given a single dose of 7.5 mg/kg 14 C-psilocin i.v. Three rats were randomly selected and sacrificed at 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, and 8.0 hr post-dosing. The maternal and fetal tissues were quickly removed and the radioactivity in these tissues determined by liquid scintillation counting. In a separate study, urine samples were collected from 6 male Wistar rats after administering 15 mg/kg of unlabeled psilocin i.p. The urine samples were collected and extracted by chloroform-methanol (9:1 v/v) and analyzed using a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer. Results: 14 C-Psilocin crossed the placental barrier of pregnant rats readily after i.v. administration; maternal tissue 14 C concentrations were found to be much higher than those in fetal tissues. The areas under the curve for maternal tissues also were much higher than the fetal tissues. In general, maternal tissues could be divided into the fast eliminating organ group, which Functional Foods in Health and Disease 2014; 4(5):232-245 included the brain (elimination half-life <13 hr) and the slow eliminating organ group, which included all fetal tissues (elimination half-life >13 hr). A new psilocin metabolite tentatively identified as dihydroxyindoleacetic acid was found in the urine. Conclusion: Our study showed that psilocin readily crossed the placental and blood-brain barriers of pregnant rats. Because psilocin was eliminated slowly from the fetal tissues of rats, human consumption of magic mushrooms should be avoided during pregnancy.


Diuretics block different electrolyte transporters in renal tubular cells. Their predominant action is inhibition of renal sodium chloride reabsorption, however, and achievement of a negative body sodium balance is the principal goal of diuretic therapy in patients with hypertension and edema. Several classes of diuretics can be distinguished with respect to the sites of sodium reabsorption along the nephron, but loop diuretics and distal-tubular diuretics (incl. thiazides) are the most widely used. The latter have a less potent natriuretic effect than loop diuretics, but their long duration of action predispose them for treatment of patients with uncomplicated hypertension. In conditions of gross edema, e.g. heart and/or renal failure, distal-tubular diuretics lose their efficacy and must be replaced by or combined with loop diuretics ("sequential nephron blockade"). Aldosterone antagonists are unique among diuretics because they improve survival in patients with heart failure independently of their effect on sodium metabolism.


Industrial wastewaters often contain mobile and toxic anions that cannot be removed by precipitation techniques and most known adsorbents. Layered double hydroxides (LDH) are excellent scavengers of anions; however, their use in real applications is of minor importance owing to their swelling behavior and high cost of production. The performed research shows the possibility of obtaining Mg/Fe LDH using natural magnesite. Moreover, heterostructured LDH/halloysite materials were synthesized. The adsorption efficiency of these materials was very high in both single- and multi-element systems, confirming the LDH selectivity. This was with the exception of wastewaters containing a high concentration of chlorides, which clearly hampered the removal of Cr(VI) and S(VI). The measurements indicated that LDH dissolution took place to a small extent (<10 wt%). The LDH/halloysite materials showed lower efficiency than the raw LDH; however, the clay presence has several benefits in terms of future applications: (i) it significantly reduces the pH, especially in contrast to the calcined LDH, which enables the reuse or safe disposal of purified water; (ii) it reduces swelling of the composite, which opens the possibility for applications in column adsorption; (iii) it induces dual adsorption properties through additional cation adsorption; and (iv) it substantially lowers the price of the adsorbent.


Two subjects are discussed: the use of placebo controls in clinical trials and informed consent. Particularly in trials of drugs for disorders for which there exist effective treatments, the use of placebo is still controversial, although anyhow in violation of the Declaration of Helsinki. Informed consent aims at giving a subject all the necessary information to allow him to decide, with full knowledge, whether to accept a particular treatment or experimental protocol. Its importance would seem, albeit essential, to be rather illusory.


This study combined In-111 antimyosin Fab (AM) with Tc-99m sestamibi (MIBI) to assess myocardial viability in the subacute stage of infarction. In 9 pigs, the LAD was occluded for 45 min. Seventy-four MBq of AM were injected after 48 h of reperfusion and 740 MBq of MIBI 24 h later. In myocardial specimens, activity relative to normal myocardium (n = 35) in the region of necrosis (n = 35) was found to be 3.96 +/- 2.48 for AM and 0.30 +/- 0.20 for MIBI, in the intermediate zone of macrohistochemically reversibly damaged myocardium (n = 35) 2.79 +/- 1.29 and 0.83 +/- 0.28, respectively. Discriminant analysis classified all 105 specimens with a sensitivity of 83% and specificity of 96%. On the scans, the intermediate zone presented as overlap between both tracers. Twelve patients aged 40 to 76 years with invasively documented acute myocardial infarction (4 x anterior, 8 x inferior) were injected also with 74 MBq of AM 27 to 110 h after the onset of chest pain and with 740 MBq of MIBI 21 to 26 h later. In 8 patients, the infarct vessel was open not later than 5 h after the onset of chest pain. MIBI markedly supported reconstruction of the sections and localization of the lesions with AM on simultaneous double-nuclide single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). In 7 patients both tracers overlapped. Four patients showed only faint AM uptake. This demonstrates that in experimental infarction AM overestimates the region of necrosis while the combination with MIBI allows the delineation towards the intermediate zone and normal myocardium. In patients, SPECT shows similar patterns of tracer distribution. MIBI facilitates AM SPECT.


This thesis describes the synthesis and characterisation of novel small organic molecules with potential optoelectronic and energy storage applications. The first chapter presents an introduction about organic semiconductors, their working principle and the common types of technological applications to be utilized in. Examples of some of the best performing materials for each technology are also described.
The second chapter describes the synthesis of new thiophene containing small molecules as potential active materials for organic photovoltaics (OPVs). 3,4-Ethylenedioxythiophene (EDOT) is a thiophene derivative with promising optical and electrochemical properties that show potential application as a p-type material in OPVs. The chapter reports the synthesis and the performance of the first generation of EDOT p-type derivatives, SAM-72 and SAM-80 with a FF of ⁓60% and PCEs over 2%. An attempt to synthesise a second generation of these materials aiming to improve the PCE of the first generation is also described in this chapter. The synthesis of a class of thieno[3,4-c]pyrrole-4,6-dione (TPD) based materials that show potential application as p-type for OPVs are also reported along with their optical and electrochemical properties.
The third chapter describes the synthesis and characterization of tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) based organic small molecules for OPV and ORFB applications. Among these, two molecules containing TTF fused with benzothiadiazole moiety as p-type materials for OPVs are described. The materials showed instability very likely to be caused by light exposure which prevent further studies on OPV devices. The chapter also describes the synthesis and characterization of a novel TTF-based small molecule for aqueous organic redox flow batteries (ORFBs).
The fourth chapter reports the synthesis of small molecules based on the triphenylamine (TPA) unit as potential hole transporting materials (HTMs) for perovskite and solid-state dye-sensitized solar cells (ss-DSSCs). The materials combine TPA unit with either ferrocene (Fc) or TTF moieties due to their promising redox properties. Among these materials, compound 191 that was fabricated for both perovskite and ss-DSSCs and obtained PCE of over 6% and 0.158% for both applications, respectively. The chapter also reports the synthesis and the characterization of TPA-based small molecules as a potential p-type for OPVs. The synthesis of a cross-linkable TPA-based small molecule functionalized with styrene unit is also described, along with its optical and electrochemical properties.
3
Finally, the last chapter describes the synthesis of several violanthrone derivatives in order to explore their potential as n-type materials for OPVs. Three simple small molecules were synthesised, and their optical and electrochemical properties are studied. Among these materials, compound 222 that was utilized as n-type active material for OPVs and showed a low PCE of less than 0.1%. The low efficiency was attributed to the low solubility of the material hindering its fabrication with p-type materials of appropriate energy level alignment. Solubility optimization of the material was reported along with the fabrication of 231 derivative for organic field-effect transistors (OFETs). Surprisingly, the material showed a preference for p-type charge conductivity which might explain the poor performance in OPVs.


Background and purpose: Presence of heavy metals in water resources is of great concerns due to adverse effects on human health. The aims of this study were to evaluate the efficiency of coagulation process using Polyaluminum Silicate Chloride (PASiC) in removal of hexavalent chromium and Cadmium from aqueous solutions and comparing that to the standards. Materials and methods: Experiments were carried out by Jar test using PASiC coagulant. The applied pH range in this study was 4 to 11, and different PASiC dosage (15 to 187.5 mg/l), heavy metal concentrations (5 to 100 mg/l), and settling times (10 to 90 minutes) were investigated. All experiments were repeated three times for accuracy and precision. Results: The optimum conditions for chromium removal was in PASiC dose of 150 mg/l, pH= 5, and settling time= 45 minutes, which decreased the chromium concentration (from 10 mg/l initial concentration) to 3.118 ± 0.29 mg/l and this was more than the standard levels of wastewater discharge into receiving water. The PASiC in 75 mg/l could reduce the cadmium level to 0.019 ± 0.01 mg/l (from 5 mg/l) in optimum condition (pH= 8 and settling time= 30 minutes). This level of cadmium removal was less than the standard levels of wastewater discharge into the receiving water. Conclusion: The PASiC coagulant was found to be more effective in removing cadmium than chromium from aqueous solutions and could be applied for cadmium removal from water and wastewater.


Background Agreement between questionnaires and accelerometers to measure physical activity (PA) differs between studies and might be related to demographic, lifestyle, and health characteristics, including disability and depressive symptoms. Methods We included 1,410 individuals aged 51–94 years from the population-based Rotterdam Study. Participants completed the LASA Physical Activity Questionnaire and wore a wrist-worn accelerometer on the nondominant wrist for 1 week thereafter. We compared the Spearman correlation and disagreement (level and direction) for total PA across levels of demographic, lifestyle, and health variables. The level of disagreement was defined as the absolute difference between questionnaire- and accelerometer-derived PA, whereas the direction of disagreement was defined as questionnaire PA minus accelerometer PA. We used linear regression analyses with the level and direction of disagreement as outcome, including all demographic, lifestyle, and health variables in the model. Results We observed a Spearman correlation of 0.30 between questionnaire- and accelerometer-derived PA in the total population. The level of disagreement (ie, absolute difference) was 941.9 (standard deviation [SD] 747.0) minutes/week, and the PA reported by questionnaire was on average 529.4 (SD 1,079.5) minutes/week lower than PA obtained by the accelerometer. The level of disagreement decreased with higher educational levels. Additionally, participants with obesity, higher disability scores, and more depressive symptoms underestimated their self-reported PA more than their healthier counterparts. Conclusion We observed large differences in PA time derived from the LASA Physical Activity Questionnaire and the wrist-worn accelerometer. Differences between the methods were related to body-mass index, level of disability, and presence of depressive symptoms. Future studies using questionnaires and/or accelerometers should account for these differences.


Recent developments in underwater image recognition methods have received large attention by the ocean engineering researchers. In this paper, an improved bi-dimensional empirical mode decomposition (BEMD) approach is employed to decompose the given underwater image into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and residual. We developed a joint algorithm based on BEMD and Canny operator to extract multi-pixel edge features at multiple scales in IMFs sub-images. So the multiple pixel edge extraction is an advantage of our approach; the other contribution of this method is the realization of the bi-dimensional sifting process, which is realized utilizing regional-based operators to detect local extreme points and constructing radial basis function for curve surface interpolation. The performance of the multipixel edge extraction algorithm for processing underwater image is demonstrated in the contrast experiment with both the proposed method and the phase congruency edge detection.


The interrelationships between tubulointerstitial immune deposits (TID), interstitial inflammation, glomerular changes, renal function, and prognosis were assessed in the renal biopsies from 93 patients with lupus nephritis. The prevalence of TID was 33% by immunofluorescence and 23% by electron microscopy. Although predominantly detected along and within tubular basement membranes, extraglomerular immune deposits were also present in the wall of renal interstitial capillaries and small arteries as well as in Bowman's capsule. The prevalence of TID correlated with the activity of glomerular lesions and, to a lesser extent, with the severity of proliferative lupus nephritis (WHO classes II-IV). TID were much less common in the membranous form (WHO class V). The severity of interstitial inflammation correlated with the degree of renal insufficiency and was an accurate prognostic indicator of progressive deterioration of renal function. However, there was no correlation between prevalence of TID and prevalence and severity of interstitial inflammation, suggesting that the latter is not necessarily secondary to the presence of immune complexes and that other pathogenetic mechanisms may be involved.


The life insurance sector is an important sector of the economy all over the world. Life insurance provides the economy and the individuals as well, a variety of fundamental financial services. Regardless the importance it has all around the world, life insurance market in Albania is still underdeveloped comparing not only to the Western European countries, but to the region countries as well. The comparative analysis of insurance market is carried out by means of two indexes: insurance density and penetration index. The life insurance market in Albania is facing several problems which will be further explained in the paper, together with some recommendations to be taken in account by Albanian insurance companies and the Albanian government as well.


The mid-Ludfordian pronounced, positive carbon isotope excursion (CIE), coincident with the Lau/kozlowskii extinction event, has been widely studied so far in shallow-water, carbonate successions, whereas its deep-water record remains insufficiently known. The aim of this research is to reconstruct the sedimentary environments and the palaeoredox conditions in the axial part of the Baltic-Podolian Basin during the event. For these purposes, the Paslek IG-1 core section has been examined using microfacies analysis, framboid pyrite diameter and carbon isotope measurements. The prelude to the event records an increased influx of detrital dolomite interpreted as eolian dust, coupled with a pronounced decrease in the diameter of the pyrite framboids, indicating persistent euxinic conditions across the event. The event climax is recorded as the Reda Member and consists of calcisiltites, composed of calcite microcrystals ('sparoids'), which are interpreted as suspensoids induced by phytoplankton blooms in the hipersaturation conditions present in the epipelagic layer of the basin. Both the prelude and climax facies show lamination, interpreted as having resulted from periodical settling of marine snow, combined with hydraulic sorting within a 'benthic flocculent layer', which additionally may be responsible for a low organic matter preservation rate due to methanogenic decomposition. Contrary to the observed basinward CIE decline in the benthic carbonates in the basin, the Reda Member records an extremely positive CIE (up to 8.25‰). Given the pelagic origin of the sparoids, the CIE seems to record surface-water carbon isotope ratios. This points to a large carbon isotope gradient and kinetic fractionation between surface and bottomwaters during the mid-Ludfordian event in a strongly stratified basin. The Reda facies-isotope anomaly is regarded as undoubtedly globally triggered, but amplified by the stratified and euxinic conditions in the partly isolated, Baltic-Podolian basin. Hence, the common interpretation of the basin record as representative for the global ocean needs to be treated with great caution.


Upon binding to the egg's zona pellucida, capacitated spermatozoa will undergo a calcium-dependent exocytotic event called acrosome reaction. During this process, Ca2+ depletion from internal stores is followed by an important rise in [Ca2+]i due to a massive Ca2+ influx. Previous reports have shown that the acrosome can act as a Ca2+ store and that depletion of thapsigargin-sensitive stores induces acrosome exocytosis in capacitated spermatozoa from different mammalian species. The effect of thapsigargin, a specific inhibitor of sarcoplasmic/endoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPases (SERCAs), suggests the presence and implication of SERCA in the active Ca2+ uptake during mammalian sperm capacitation. Although the presence of a thapsigargin-sensitive Ca2+-ATPase has been debated, the aim of this study was to clearly determine whether SERCAs are present in mammalian spermatozoa. Using three different anti-SERCA 2 antibodies, mono- and polyclonal, which recognised the same protein, we successfully identified and localised SERCA 2 in human, mouse and bovine sperm. Western blot analysis suggests that more than one SERCA 2 splice variant are present, one detected in the fraction containing the outer acrosomal membranes and another one present in the subcellular fraction containing the sperm midpiece. These results were confirmed by indirect immunofluorescence where SERCA 2 was observed in the acrosome and midpiece regions of human sperm. SERCA 2 immunohistochemical studies on human testis and PCR-amplification of mRNA encoding for each SERCA 2 splice variant in spermatogenic cells support the presence of this Ca2+-ATPase family in mature spermatozoa. In this paper, we clearly demonstrate, for the first time, the presence of SERCA 2 in mammalian sperm.


We propose a simple method that combines neural networks and Gaussian processes. The proposed method can estimate the uncertainty of outputs and flexibly adjust target functions where training data exist, which are advantages of Gaussian processes. The proposed method can also achieve high generalization performance for unseen input configurations, which is an advantage of neural networks. With the proposed method, neural networks are used for the mean functions of Gaussian processes. We present a scalable stochastic inference procedure, where sparse Gaussian processes are inferred by stochastic variational inference, and the parameters of neural networks and kernels are estimated by stochastic gradient descent methods, simultaneously. We use two real-world spatio-temporal data sets to demonstrate experimentally that the proposed method achieves better uncertainty estimation and generalization performance than neural networks and Gaussian processes.


Samples of single-wall carbon nanotubes containing tubes with an "armchair" wrapping have been produced and exhibit metallic behavior with an intrinsic resistivity which increases approximately linearly with temperature over a wide temperature range. Here we study the coupling of the conduction electrons to long-wavelength torsional shape fluctuations, or twistons. A one-dimensional theory of the scattering of electrons by twistons is presented which predicts an intrinsic resistivity proportional to the absolute temperature. Experimental measurements of the temperature dependence of the resistivity are reported and compared with the predictions of the twiston theory.


Modern multi- and many-core systems are prone to concurrency-related bugs that surface only at system level. Detecting these bugs might require dealing with low-level hardware (HW) protocols and/or software (SW) inter-task interactions. Virtual platforms (VPs) offer a vehicle to conveniently debug HW/SW functionality, yet developers are mostly limited to manually breakpoint, step and interact with the system. To ease debugging during integration at system level, this paper introduces SWAT, an assertion-based debugging framework that checks and correlates system-wide interactions among HW and SW components. SWAT is used together with VPs to enable detecting HW/SW concurrency bugs with lower effort than traditional manual techniques. Our proposed approach is evaluated on two state-of-the-art platforms running real-world SW stacks.


Introduction: Since the 1960s, the stroke morality rate in Japan has declined significantly. Although several risk factors for stroke have become more evident due to increasingly Westernized lifestyle, there have been no population-based registry data on recent time trends in stroke incidence in Japan. The purpose of this study is to determine these trends in stroke incidence using a population-based registry. Methods: Data were obtained from the Takashima Stroke Registry, which covers approximately 50,000 residents in Takashima City, Japan. The age- and sex-standardized stroke incidence rate was estimated using the direct method. Average annual relative changes of stroke incidence were estimated using Poisson regression models. Results: We identified a total of 2,371 patients with first-ever stroke during the period 1990–2010. Crude incidence rates of total stroke (per 100,000 person-years) were 225 in the early period (1990–2001) and 187 in the late period (2002–2010), and the mean age at onset of stroke increased from 71.9 years in the early period to 74.8 years in the late period. Age- and sex-standardized incidence rates of stroke (per 100,000 person-years) decreased from 327 in the early part of this study period and 206 in the later period. During the 21-year period, age- and sex-standardized average annual relative reduction in stroke incidence was statistically significant (−3.7% per year). When stratified into early and late periods, the adjusted annual relative reduction in stroke incidence was observed during the early period (−2.1% per year), and there were no significant changes during the late period. Conclusions: In this population-based registry, there was a significant reduction in incidence of stroke from 1990 to 2010. Although the speed of reduction in stroke incidence appears to have slowed down after 2000, continuous public health measures are required to provide further protection against stroke.


Ozone and particulate matter levels in Southern European countries are particularly high, exceeding the established limit values, and the information and alert thresholds (in the case of ozone). Therefore, it is relevant to develop a good prediction methodology for the concentrations of these pollutants. Statistical models based on Multiple Regression (MR) analysis and classification and regression trees analysis were developed successfully. The models were applied in forecasting the average daily concentrations for particulate matter and average maximum hourly ozone levels, for next day, for the group of existing air quality monitoring stations in the Metropolitan Area of North Lisbon in Portugal.


The response of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] to foliar fertilization during early growth stages has received little attention. Recent Iowa research showed a 15% probability of positive yield response to a 3-15-8 (N-P-K) fertilizer applied at the V5 growth stage. This study evaluated the effects of fertilizers varying in N-P-K ratio on soybean grain yield and tissue nutrient composition. Twenty-seven field trials were conducted in soils that tested at or above optimum soil P and K levels for soybean. Six treatments included a control and nonfactorial combinations of rates and application frequency of 28 to 56 L ha -1 of 3-8-15, 10-4-8, and 8-0-7 fertilizers sprayed at the V5 stage. Differences between treatments were inconsistent across sites. Some or all treatments increased or decreased yields significantly at six sites. The mean yield, increase or decrease for responsive sites was 400 kg ha -1 . The 3-8-15 fertilizer caused no leaf damage and other fertilizers caused little or no damage, although the damage was not clearly related with yield decreases. Analyses by site showed that fertilization seldom increased tissue N-P-K composition, nutrient uptake, photosynthesis, or plant weight measured at the R2 growth stage. Multivariate analyses across sites showed that 27% of the variation in yield response was explained by a combination of N, P, and K availability, vegetative growth, and rainfall. Positive yield responses tended to occur when soil or weather conditions reduced plant growth and nutrient availability. Foliar fertilization across all conditions will not offset the application costs.


Five cases of severe meningococcal infection in children and young adults with gangrene leading to major amputation are described. They are associated with necrosis of the skin and soft tissue, intravascular coagulation and shock. The surgical options, prosthetic implications and the consequent rehabilitation outcome are discussed.


A generalisation of the twistor construction of Einstein manifolds to the non-self-dual case is given. Specifically, it is shown that a complex Riemannian manifold is conformally Einstein if and only if there is a non-vanishing section of a certain rank-2 holomorphic vector bundle over its space of null geodesics.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the influence of postoperative lens status on intraocular pressure elevation and corneal endothelial cell loss in patients who underwent pars plana vitrectomy with silicone oil injection for the management of complex retinal detachment.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The medical records of 80 eyes of 79 patients who underwent silicone oil removal were reviewed retrospectively. For analysis, eyes were divided by postoperative lens status into 2 groups: pseudophakic eyes (IOL group) and aphakic eyes(aphakic group).

RESULTS
There was a significantly greater decrease in intraocular pressure after silicone oil removal in the aphakic group but not in the IOL group. As compared with the IOL group, the aphakic group showed a significant reduction in endothelial cell density at the time of silicone oil removal.

CONCLUSION
Patients who underwent silicone oil injection with pseudophakic eyes may have a lower risk of intraocular pressure elevation and corneal endothelial cell loss than those with aphakic eyes.


This study examined whether inclusion of a neighborhood domain improved prediction and classification in an existing risk assessment tool. Logistic regression and analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with random effects were conducted using a sample of individuals under community supervision (N = 10,548) to determine whether a neighborhood domain improved the predictive validity of the Ohio Risk Assessment System-Community Supervision Tool (ORAS-CST). In five of our six models, inclusion of the neighborhood domain did not significantly improve the predictive validity of the ORAS-CST regardless of whether it was considered as an additive variable or moderator. One model found that the addition of a neighborhood domain improved prediction; however, the relationship was opposite from what was theoretically expected. The findings suggest that individual-level factors remain the most meaningful predictors in correctional risk assessment tools for those under community supervision. Future research is needed on whether neighborhood indicators improve assessment tools for individuals under other forms of supervision.


Similar to vehicles on roadways, trains frequently kill wildlife via collisions along railways. Despite the prevalence of this mortality worldwide, little is known about the relative importance of wildlife attractants associated with railways, including spilled agricultural products, enhanced vegetation, invertebrates, and carcasses of rail-killed ungulates. We assessed the relative importance of several railway attractants to a provincially-threatened population of grizzly bears (Ursus arctos) in Banff and Yoho National Parks, Canada, for which rail-caused mortality has increased in recent decades without known cause. We examined the relationship between the use of the railway and diet by fitting 21 grizzly bears with GPS collars in 2011–2013 and measuring the stable isotope values (δ15N, δ34S) derived from their hair. We also examined the importance of rail-associated foods to grizzly bears by analyzing 230 grizzly bear scats collected from May through October in 2012–2014, some of which could be attributed to GPS-collared bears. Among the 21 collared bears, 17 used the rail rarely (<9% of the days they were monitored), and only four bears (which included the three smallest bears and the largest bear in our sample) used the rail frequently (>20% of their monitored days). We found no significant relationships between δ15N and δ34S values measured from the hair of grizzlies and their frequency of rail use. Instead, δ15N increased with body mass, especially for male bears, suggesting large males consumed more animal protein during hair growth. All four bears that used the railway frequently produced scats containing grain. Almost half the scats (43%) collected within 150 m of the railway contained grain compared to only 7% of scats found >150 m from the railway. Scats deposited near the rail were also more likely to contain grain in the fall (85% of scats) compared to summer (14%) and spring (17%), and those containing grain were more diverse in their contents (6.8 ± 2.2 species vs. 4.9 ± 1.6, P < 0.001). Lastly, scats collected near the rail were more likely to contain ungulate hair and ant remains, especially in the summer. Our results support local management knowledge that some bears in the region use the railway to forage and supplement their diets with spilled grain, but that individual use of the railway and associated foods were highly variable. We suggest that managers continue to reduce the risk of bears being killed by trains by reactively removing grain and ungulate carcasses from the railway, reducing the amount of grain spilled by trains, and target mitigation to the specific individuals and locations that attract recurrent rail-based foraging.


Genomic DNA is chemically reactive and therefore susceptible to damage by many exogenous and endogenous sources. Lesions produced from these damaging events can have various mutagenic and genotoxic consequences. This Perspective follows the journey of one particular lesion, 1,N6-ethenoadenine (εA), from its formation to replication and repair, and its role in cancerous tissues and inflammatory diseases. εA is generated by the reaction of adenine (A) with vinyl chloride or lipid peroxidation products. We present the miscoding properties of εA with an emphasis on how bacterial and mammalian cells can process lesions differently, leading to varied mutational spectra. But with information from these assays, we can better understand how the miscoding properties of εA lead to biological consequences and how genomic stability can be maintained via DNA repair mechanisms. We discuss how base excision repair (BER) and direct reversal repair (DRR) can minimize the biological consequences of εA lesions. Kinetic parameters of glycosylases and AlkB family enzymes are described, along with a discussion of the relative contributions of the BER and DRR pathways in the repair of εA. Because eukaryotic DNA is packaged in chromatin, we also discuss the impact of this packaging on BER and DRR, specifically in regards to repair of εA. Studying DNA lesions like εA in this context, from origin to biological implications, can provide crucial information to better understand prevention of mutagenesis and cancer.


Background: This study aims to present a critical review of the existing literature on the effect of core training on athletes' skill performance, and to provide recommendations and suggest future research directions for both coaches and researchers. Methods: The data in this study were reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guideline. We collected studies in the literature using prominent academic and scientific databases such as Ebscohost, Scopus, PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Only 16 of the 119 studies met all of the inclusion criteria, and were thus included in the systematic review. Each study's quality was determined using the PEDro scale. The scoring of 16 studies ranges from 2 to 5. Results: Core training could potentially improve skill performance among football, handball, basketball, swimming, dancing, Karate, Muay Thai, gymnasts, volleyball, badminton, and golf players. Conclusion: Compared with the traditional training methods, core training is a new strength training method. Strong core muscles function as hubs in the biological motor chain, which create a fulcrum for the four limbs' strength and establish a channel for the cohesion, transmission, and integration of the upper and lower limbs. In other words, core training optimizes the transfer and overall control of motion and force to the terminal segment within athletic actions. Meanwhile, core training could increase stability and stiffness in the spine to reduce unrequired "energy leaks" and torso movement during the exertion of external loads. This mechanism could help athletes achieve better skill performance. Therefore, this review suggests that core training should be considered integrated into athletes' daily training routines. Systematic Review Registration: [https://inplasy.com/], identifier [INPLASY2021100013].


This dissertation consists of three chapters examining three different dimensions of foreign exchange risk. In chapter one, I deal with currency redenomination risk in the Eurozone, that is, the risk that euros held in a particular Eurozone country are converted into a new national currency once the country leaves the currency union. This conversion exposes holders of euro-denominated assets in that country to foreign exchange risk. I extract empirical measures of redenomination risk from asset prices and show that redenomination risk in France and Italy spikes around plebiscites in 2017 and 2018. French redenomination risk is associated with redenomination risk in other Eurozone countries, while Italian redenomination risk does not co-move with similar risks in other countries. These results are consistent with the interpretation that a French|unlike an Italian|exit from the Eurozone is associated with a Eurozone break-up. Chapter two is conjoint work with Ian Martin. We present a new identity that relates expected exchange rate appreciation to the currency's (risk-neutral) covariance with equity markets, and use it to motivate a currency forecasting variable based on the prices of quanto index contracts. We show via panel regressions that the quanto forecast variable is an economically and statistically significant predictor of currency appreciation and of excess returns on currency trades. Out of sample, the quanto variable outperforms predictions based on uncovered interest parity, on purchasing power parity, and on a random walk as a forecaster of differential (dollar-neutral) currency appreciation. In the third chapter, as in chapter two, I examine the exposures of different currencies to equity market risk. In contrast to the second chapter, chapter three analyses the link between risk exposures and speculative trading patterns, rather than measuring conditional risk exposures to forecast returns. I find, in a post-crisis sample, that currencies are more positively correlated with equity market returns, when hedge funds are long the currency future and vice versa for short positions.


Liver fibrosis is a severe health problem, threatening the life quality and causing death, raising great concerns worldwide. Shi-Wei-Gan-Ning-Pill (SWGNP) is a traditional Tibetan recipe used to treat hepatic injuries; however, its hepatoprotective mechanism has not yet fully clarified. In this study, histological staining, biochemical assays, and elements determination were applied to evaluate the anti-fibrotic efficacy of SWGNP on a carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) induced hepato-fibrosis rat model. NMR-based metabolomics combined with orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA), canonical regression analysis, and correlation networks analysis was used to characterize the potential biomarkers as well as metabolic pathways associated with the hepatoprotective activity of SWGNP. The results showed that SWGNP could significantly attenuate the pathological changes and decrease the levels of fibrosis markers (ColIV, HA, LN, and PCIII), and regulate the disordered elements distribution. Multivariate analysis and correlation network analysis revealed that SWGNP could protect rats against CCl4-induced liver fibrosis through anti-oxidation, repairing the impaired energy metabolisms and reversing the disturbed amino acids and nucleic acids metabolisms. In conclusion, this integrated metabolomics approach provided new insights into the mechanism of the hepatoprotective effect of SWGNP in liver fibrosis disease.


We introduce a new approach to the enumeration of rational slope parking functions with respect to the area and a generalized dinv statistics, and relate the combinatorics of parking functions to that of affine permutations. We relate our construction to two previously known combinatorial constructions: Haglund's bijection exchanging the pairs of statistics (area,dinv) and (bounce,area) on Dyck paths, and Pak-Stanley labeling of the regions of k-Shi hyperplane arrangements by k-parking functions. Essentially, our approach can be viewed as a generalization and a unification of these two constructions. We also relate our combinatorial constructions to representation theory. We derive new formulas for the Poincare polynomials of certain affine Springer fibers and describe a connection to the theory of finite dimensional representations of DAHA and nonsymmetric Macdonald polynomials.


During ten-year period 1191 patients with perforative pyloroduodenal ulcer were operated on. Palliative intervention was conducted in 206 patients, conventionally radical one--in 677 and radical--in 308. Postoperative mortality have constituted 5.2%.


Synopsis The geochemistry of the Lewisian and Moinian of the Borgie area is compared and contrasted. Using various element plots (TiO2/SiO2,TiO2/total Fe, CaO/Y, CaO/Ce, Rb/Sr), it is shown that the Moinian and Lewisian are clearly distinguishable. Furthermore the Borgie Lewisian can be divided into Scourian and Laxfordian areas on the basis of characteristic element ratios (K/Rb, K/Sr, K/Ba, Rb/Sr, Ba/Rb), the wider implications of which are briefly discussed.


High-frequency stimulation (HFS) in the globus pallidus is used to ameliorate clinical symptoms of Parkinson's disease, dystonia, and other disorders. Previous in vivo studies have shown diverse static effects of stimulation on discharge rates and firing patterns of neurons along the corticobasal ganglia loop. In vitro studies, together with other experimental and theoretical studies, have suggested the involvement of synaptic plasticity in stimulation effects. To explore the effects of HFS on synaptic transmission, we studied the dynamic changes in neuronal activity in vivo, using multielectrode recordings during stimulation in the globus pallidus of 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-treated primates. Stimulation effects evolved over time and were pronounced during the first 10 s of stimulation, where 69% of the 249 recorded neurons changed their firing rate and 61% displayed time-locked firing. The time-locked response faded away in 43% of the responding neurons, and its pattern was altered in the remaining cells: the peak response shifted away in time from the stimulus onset, and its amplitude decreased. Repetition of the stimulation protocol revealed a full resetting of the effect, implying short-term synaptic depression. This evolving response is indicative of the transient plasticity of the corticobasal ganglia network in vivo during HFS. Therefore, short-term depression of synaptic transmission may contribute to the mechanism underlying the effects of stimulation during the resulting steady state, altering the balance of neuronal interactions and interfering with pathological information transmission.


Background Tocilizumab (TCZ) is a humanized anti-IL-6 receptor-blocking monoclonal antibody used for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), idiopathic juvenile arthritis (IJA) and off-label in Adult Onset Still Disease (AOSD). The development of anti-TCZ antibodies could reduce treatment efficacy or induce treatment failure. Objectives To analyse TCZ serum levels and antidrug antibodies (ADA) in a cohort of RA, IJA and AOSD patients treated with TCZ, and to evaluate its relationship with Disease Activity Score using a 28-joint count (DAS28), C-reactive protein (CRP) levels and the presence of combined treatment with glucocorticoids or DMARDs. Methods Cross-section study including all patients undergoing chronic treatment with TCZ in a tertiary academic hospital. Referral area: 850,000 inhabitants. Twenty-two patients were included. TCZ serum and ADA levels were measured by ELISA (Theradiag) at baseline (before infusion), 15 days and 30 days after infusion. Results Twenty-two patients were studied: 18 RA, 3 IJA and 1 AOSD, 81.8% female; mean age and mean disease duration: 54.2 (±13) and 15.5 (±12) years respectively; 73% of the RA patients were positive for anti-CCP and 70% for rheumatoid factor, mean DAS28-CRP at day 0 and 30: 2.9 and 2.6 respectively. Fifteen patients were treated with TCZ for more than 1 year (range 12-58 months), 19 were treated with TCZ at 8 mg/kg, 2 at 6mg/kg, and one at 5mg/kg every 4 weeks due to low disease activity. Thirteen patients received TCZ in monotherapy, 9 received DMARDs combined treatment, 10 with glucocorticoids (mean dose 4mg/day, range 2-10mg). TCZ serum levels were at baseline: 1.2- 61.7 μg/ml, 15 days: <1-130.1 μg/ml and 30 days: <1-97.1 μg/ml. No patient showed presence of ADA. No correlation was found with DAS28-CRP, but there was inversely relation between CRP and TCZ serum levels (p=ns). The mean CRP levels were 14.4, 64.2 and 17.6 mg/dL at day 0, 15 and 30. TCZ Serum levels were higher in patients with combined therapy with DMARDs than those with monotherapy at day 15 and 30 (p=ns, 71 vs 55 μg/mL/23 vs 12 μg/mL, respectively). Patients treated without glucocorticoids had high levels of TCZ (68.62 vs 59.96 μg/mL at day 15 and 20.2 vs 13.68 μg/mL at day 30, p=ns) Conclusions Levels of TZC were heterogeneous. Our patients showed no presence of ADA, this data suggest that TCZ has a low immunogenic potential. No correlation was found in disease activity and TCZ serum levels, but we found a relation with CRP levels. Patients with DAMRDs or without glucocorticoids showed higher levels of TCZ. We did not find correlation between combined treatment with DMARDs or glucocorticoids and levels of TCZ. Our study was limited due to a low sample size; we cannot exclude the correlation between TCZ and DAS28-CRP in a higher sample of patients. References Dougados M, Kissel K, Conaghan PG et al. Clinical, radiographic and immunogenic effects after 1 year of tocilizumab-based treatment strategies in rheumatoid arthritis: the ACT-RAY study. Ann Rheum Dis. 2014;73(5):803-9 Van Herwaarden N, Herfkens-Hol S, van der Maas A, et al. Dose reduction of tocilizumab in rheumatoid arthritis patients with low disease activity. Clin Exp Rheumatol. 2014;32(3):390-4 Disclosure of Interest None declared


Binary knapsack problems are some of the most widely studied problems in combinatorial optimization. Several algorithms, both exact and approximate are known for this problem. In this paper, we embed heuristics within a branch and bound framework to produce an algorithm that generates solutions with guaranteed quality within very short times. We report computational experiments that show that for the more difficult strongly correlated problems, our algorithm can generate solutions within 0.01% of the optimal solution in less than 10% of the time required by exact algorithms.


The popularity of populist parties has increased worldwide, and disproportionate media attention for these parties arguably fueled their success. We empirically test our theoretical argument that political satire—with its humor, focus on internal contradictions, and lack of journalistic principles regarding objectivity and facticity—may be an effective antidote to populism's success. Using a representative panel survey that functions as a natural experiment in the context of the Netherlands, we show that consumption of the satire show Zondag met Lubach (ZML) indeed lowered support for a right-wing populist party (PVV), its leader (Wilders), and the perceived capability of this party. Specifically, this study shows how satirically revealing the "weak spot" of populism (i.e., lacking concrete treatment recommendations) lowers populist support particularly among citizens already inclined to vote for populist parties. These findings have important democratic implications as they reveal that satire can have a real-life impact on the political decisions that voters make.


This review provides a summary statement of recommended implementations of arterial spin labeling (ASL) for clinical applications. It is a consensus of the ISMRM Perfusion Study Group and the European ASL in Dementia consortium, both of whom met to reach this consensus in October 2012 in Amsterdam. Although ASL continues to undergo rapid technical development, we believe that current ASL methods are robust and ready to provide useful clinical information, and that a consensus statement on recommended implementations will help the clinical community to adopt a standardized approach. In this review, we describe the major considerations and trade‐offs in implementing an ASL protocol and provide specific recommendations for a standard approach. Our conclusion is that as an optimal default implementation, we recommend pseudo‐continuous labeling, background suppression, a segmented three‐dimensional readout without vascular crushing gradients, and calculation and presentation of both label/control difference images and cerebral blood flow in absolute units using a simplified model. Magn Reson Med 73:102–116, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


e Eigenvalues on Polyhedra Martin COSTABEL & Monique DAUGE Abstract. In a convexpolyhedron, a part of the Lam e eigenvalues with hard simple support boundary conditions does not depend on the Lam e coe cients and coincide with the Maxwell eigenvalues. The other eigenvalues depend linearly on a parameter s linked to the Lam e coe cients and the associated eigenmodes are the gradients of the Laplace-Dirichlet eigenfunctions. In a non-convexpolyhedron, such a splitting of the spectrum disappears partly or completely, in relation with the non-H2 singularities of the Laplace-Dirichlet eigenfunctions. From the Maxwell equations point of view, this means that in a non-convex polyhedron, the spectrum cannot be approximated by nite element methods using H1 elements. Similar properties hold in polygons. We give numerical results for two L-shaped domains.


Abstract MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level and play a critical role in many important biological processes of plants. Wheat stripe rust is one of the most destructive fungal diseases of wheat worldwide, yet the roles of wheat miRNAs in response to Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici (Pst) are largely unknown. Here, we report a simple array platform that could detect 188 plant miRNAs in 95 miRNAs families from eight plant species. We identified two new members of conserved miRNAs families and five known miRNAs using the platform and RNA gel blot analysis. The transcript accumulation of seven miRNAs was detected in wheat leaves 'Suwon 11' inoculated with Pst using stem-loop real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR). By analysing their predicted target genes, we discuss and propose the basal roles for miRNAs in the interaction between wheat and Pst, with most of the target genes being stress-related.


Burnout is recognized as a syndrome that has a long-term impact on the employee, on his/her peers at work, and also on the productivity and efficiency. Returning to work after suffering from burnout syndrome is a big challenge for the employee, and for the employer also. The person who recovered usually has changed personality, views, values, and behaviours connected with work. She or he has to receive the necessary support from co-workers and leaders, especially in terms of understanding him/her and partially adapting his/her responsibilities at work when they return. A part of building resilience consists of an inner strength, which is the sum of the personality traits that supports the employee to deal successfully with stressful situations once back to work. In Slovenia the study focused on building resilience after suffering from burnout syndrome was conducted. Its results indicated a need for implementing organized and systematic forms of assistance spread between leaders, peers, friends, family, and the system as a whole.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the present study was to review the experience in management of neonates with gastroschisis and analyze the differences in the clinical outcome during a 24-year period.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
A retrospective study of patients with gastroschisis treated at Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health (QSNICH) between 1986 and 2009 was conducted. Patients' information was compared between the first period (1986-1997) and the second period (1998-2009) regarding demographic data, modes of operative procedures and results of the treatment. The statistical differences were analyzed by the Chi-square, Fisher exact and student t-test with a p-value less than 0.05 considered significant.

RESULTS
During a 24-year period, 919 neonates with gastroschisis were treated at QSNICH; 342 cases (161 males and 181 females) in the first 12-year period and 577 cases (295 males and 282 females) in the second 12-year period. The incidence of gastroschisis at Rajavithi Hospital was 0.26: 1,000 live births in the first period and 1.03: 1,000 live births in the second period. Average birth weight of the patients and average maternal age in both periods were not significantly different (p > 0.05). Congenital anomalies were found in approximately 15% of the patients in each period. Regarding modes of the operative treatment, primary closure of the abdominal wall defect was attempted in 23.7% of the patients during the first period and increased to 44% in the second period. The overall survival rate in the second period was better than the first period with statistical significance (92.4% vs. 75.4%, p < 0.001). In addition, complications in the second period were less than those in the first period, except for necrotizing enterocolitis, which was more frequent in the second period.

CONCLUSION
The obvious differences in patients with gastroschisis during the 24-year period were the increased incidence, increased successful primary closure of the abdominal wall defect and increased overall survival rate between 1998-2009. Improvement of the clinical outcomes reflected improved neonatal care including surgical techniques, parenteral nutrition, respiratory care and anesthetic practice.


In order to examine the effects of Korean cucurbitaceous plants on sonic hedgehog pathway and growth of cancer cells with over-activated hedgehog pathway, we measured the sonic hedgehog conditioned medium (shh-CM) induced alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity and cell viability of pancreatic cancer cell lines by treatment of cucurbitaceous plants. Among the tested cucurbitaceous plants, Actinostemma lobatum Maxim, Cucumis sativus L., Momordica charantia L., Schizopepon bryoniaefolius Maxim and Trichosanthes kirilowii Max, var. japonica Kitam showed the potent inhibitory effects (> 50 % at 20 μg/mL) on shh-CM induced ALP activity. We also evaluated the cell viability of pancreatic cancer cells treated with the cucurbitaceous plants. The tested cucurbitaceous plants showed the very weak effects on cancer cell proliferation but, T. kirilowii Max, var. japonica Kitam presented the inhibitory effect of 72.7 % on the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells at 20 μg/mL. Taken together, we screened the effects of Korean cucurbitaceous plants on shh-CM induced ALP activity and cell viability of pancreatic cancers to search for the modulators of the hedgehog pathway leading to the inhibition of cancer cell proliferation. T. kirilowii Max, var. japonica Kitam, among the tested cucurbitaceous plants, showed the inhibitory effects on the shh-CM induced ALP activity and the proliferation of pancreatic cancer cells.


Although the EDCA access mechanism of the 802.11e standard supports legacy DCF stations, the presence of DCF stations in the WLAN jeopardizes the provisioning of the service guarantees committed to the EDCA stations. The reason is that DCF stations compete with Contention Windows (CWs) that are predefined and cannot be modified, and as a result, the impact of the DCF stations on the service received by the EDCA stations cannot be controlled. In this paper, we address the problem of providing throughput guarantees to EDCA stations in a WLAN in which EDCA and DCF stations coexist. To this aim, we propose a technique that, implemented at the Access Point (AP), mitigates the impact of DCF stations on EDCA by skipping with a certain probability the Ack reply to a frame from a DCF station. When missing the Ack, the DCF station increases its CW, and thus, our technique allows us to have some control over the CWs of the legacy DCF stations. In our approach, the probability of skipping an Ack frame is dynamically adjusted by means of an adaptive algorithm. This algorithm is based on a widely used controller from classical control theory, namely a Proportional Controller. In order to find an adequate configuration of the controller, we conduct a control-theoretic analysis of the system. Simulation results show that the proposed approach is effective in providing throughput guarantees to EDCA stations in presence of DCF stations.


We report the development of recurrent hyponatremia after intrathecal methotrexate that was not associated with elevated levels of antidiuretic hormone. We speculate that a central nervous system natriuretic peptide may be involved in the pathogenesis of the naturesis following intrathecal methotrexate.


Objective: To analysis the clinical and follow-up data of the early colorectal carcinoma (ECC) after endoscopic resection, and explore the long-term outcome of patients who underwent the endoscopic resection. Methods: During June 2008 to June 2016, data of endoscopic resection for 550 cases of ECC were collected, including general information and follow-up data. The influence factors of disease-free survival rate of ECC after endoscopic resection were analyzed and the risk factors on long-term outcomes such as submucosa invasion depth, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma, vascular invasion and positive vertical margin were investigated. Results: The mean follow-up time of 550 patients treated with endoscopy was (60.7±36.8) months. Among them, 433 cases were high-level intra-mucosal neoplasia, 117 cases were submucosa invasion carcinoma (the invasion depth <1 000 μm were 33 cases, ≥1 000 μm were 84 cases), 461 cases were curative resection, while 89 cases were non-curative resection. During the follow-up, 6 patients occurred recurrence or metastasis, including 2 patients with local recurrence (1 patient accompanied by lymph node metastasis) and 4 patients with lymph node metastasis (2 patients accompanied by distant metastasis). The overall 5-years disease-free survival rate was 98.8%, the 5-years disease-free survival rate was 100.0% for patients with curative resection and 93.3% for patients with non-curative resection. A total of 89 cases underwent non-curative resection were accompanied with invasion depth ≥1 000 μm, vascular invasion, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma and positive vertical margin. Among them, 62 cases were accompanied with 1 risk factor, 23 cases with 2 risk factors and 4 cases with 3 risk factors. The risks of lymph nodes and distant metastasis raised with the increase of risk factors. Conclusions: The incidence of lymph node metastasis in ECC is extremely low. Endoscopic treatment can achieve a good long-term outcome. Close follow-up should be conducted after endoscopic treatment, and additional treatment should be selected reasonably for the early colorectal carcinoma after endoscopic non-curative resection to improve the therapeutic efficacy of endoscopic resection.


Hypoxia elicits hyperventilation and hypothermia, but the mechanisms involved are not well understood. The nitric oxide (NO) pathway is involved in hypoxia-induced hypothermia and hyperventilation, and works as a neuromodulator in the central nervous system, including the locus coeruleus (LC), which is a noradrenergic nucleus in the pons. The LC plays a role in a number of stress-induced responses, but its participation in the control of breathing and thermoregulation is unclear. Thus, in the present study, we tested the hypothesis that LC plays a role in the hypoxia-induced hypothermia and hyperventilation, and that NO is involved in these responses. Electrolytic lesions were performed bilaterally within the LC in awake unrestrained adult male Wistar rats weighing 250-350 g. Body temperature and pulmonary ventilation (V E) were measured. The rats were divided into 3 groups: control (N = 16), sham operated (N = 7) and LC lesioned (N = 19), and each group received a saline or an N G-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME, 250 microg/microl) intracerebroventricular (icv) injection. No significant difference was observed between control and sham-operated rats. Hypoxia (7% inspired O2) caused hyperventilation and hypothermia in both control (from 541.62 +/- 35.02 to 1816.18 +/- 170.7 and 36.3 +/- 0.12 to 34. 4 +/- 0.09, respectively) and LC-lesioned rats (LCLR) (from 694.65 +/- 63.17 to 2670.29 +/- 471.33 and 36 +/- 0.12 to 35.3 +/- 0.12, respectively), but the increase in V E was higher (P<0.05) and hypothermia was reduced (P<0.05) in LCLR. L-NAME caused no significant change in V E or in body temperature under normoxia, but abolished both the hypoxia-induced hyperventilation and hypothermia. Hypoxia-induced hyperventilation was reduced in LCLR treated with L-NAME. L-NAME also abolished the hypoxia-induced hypothermia in LCLR. The present data indicate that hypoxia-induced hyperventilation and hypothermia may be related to the LC, and that NO is involved in these responses.


Abstract The article discusses conceptual and methodological issues related to environmental risks and health problems, in the context of environmental injustice and conflicts. In doing so, we use the conceptual frameworks of political ecology and what we call political epistemology. We propose a comprehensive vision of health that relates not only to illness and death, but also to life, nature, culture and fundamental human rights. We summarize this as health and dignity, echoing the voices of countless people who have been fighting for the right to life and the commons, and against the impacts of mining, agribusiness and the oil industry. Therefore our concept of health is intrinsically related to the capacity of affected communities and their democratic allies to face environmental conflicts (the exploitation of natural resources and the workforce with the systematic violation of rights related to work, land, environment and health). Mobilizations for environmental justice also struggle for the autonomy of communities, their cultures, and the right to maintain indigenous or peasant livelihoods. The way knowledge is produced plays a fundamental role in environmental justice mobilizations since issues of power are related to epistemological disputes and counter-hegemonic alternatives. Political epistemology is an alternative way of confronting crucial questions related to knowledge production, uncertainties and the manipulations of those who generate environmental injustices. Finally, we point to some strategies for strengthening the shared production of knowledge and the mobilization of communities that organize to confront environmental injustices. Key words: political epistemology, political ecology of health, health and dignity


This study aims to verify the relationship between of social exclusion of older people living in rural areas and their depression, taking experiences of discrimination into consideration, as a meditated effect. Data from a survey taken from 800 elderly people, 65 years old and older and living in rural areas, were used. Frequency analysis, descriptive statistical analysis, and path analysis were conducted using STATA13 and MPLUS 7. Based on the results of path analysis, medical exclusion did not directly affect depression, except when mediated by experiences of discrimination. Lifelong education exclusion and material exclusion had a direct influence on depression. Residential exclusion not only directly affected depression, it was also influential when mediated by experiences of discrimination. Results suggested policies and interventions to prevent the incidence of depression incurred by social exclusion of the elderly in rural areas.


A novel method for the synthesis of spherical molecularly imprinted polymer (MIP) beads by suspension polymerization in mineral oil is described. The usefulness of the method was demonstrated by the synthesis of a propranolol imprinted MIP library. The composition of the library was generated by statistical experimental design. Multivariate data analysis correlated the screening data, obtained by a radioligand binding assay, to the composition of the MIPs.


The statistical theory of speckle is presented in detail including discussions of the transmission functions for a surface roughness type of diffuser and the associated characteristic function. The correlation function for the output amplitude is calculated for a variety of optical systems. These second-order moments are written for two states of position and temporal-frequency variables so that one can analyze both the spatial and the wavelength dependence of speckle. We parallel the usual cases which are treated in Fourier optics summarizing the following configurations: Space-Variant, Fourier Transform, Far-Zone, and Imaging.


Chlorobisphenolic epoxy resins in crystalline form, e.g., bisglycidyl ether of 2,2-bis(p-hydroxyphenyl)-1,1,1-trichloroethane (BGECBP) and the system sulfur–N-cyclohexyl-2-benzothiazolesulfonamide were used as crosslinking agents for vulcanization of butadiene–styrene and butadiene–acrylonitrile rubber. The density of crosslinking was determined by the equilibrium swelling method and on the basis of the Mooney-Rivlin equation which gives the relation between stress and elongation. The dynamic properties, namely, G′ and G″ and mechanical loss factor δ, were determined. On the basis of these results, mechanisms for the crosslinking reaction were advanced, the activation energy was determined, and comparisons between crosslinking rates by different systems were made. It was found that vulcanizates crosslinked by BGECBP possess higher heat aging resistance and lower glass transition temperatures in comparison with those crosslinked by means of sulfur in the presence of N-cyclohexyl-2-benzothiazolesulfonamide.


A Cu(II)-salen complex encapsulated in MWW-framework as an efficient chiral organocatalyst was developed for the synthesis of 3,4-dihydropyrimidin-2-(1H)-one (DHPMs) derivatives via an asymmetric pathway. In order to confirm its structural properties, single-crystal X-ray diffraction, powder XRD, BET, XPS, FE-SEM, EDX, UV-Vis, and FTIR spectra were used. Using computer-assisted DFT calculations, the Cu(II)-salen complex has been fine-tuned to fit into the pocket of the porous MWW support while keeping its chirality. This organocatalyst was shown to be a potent catalyst for the formation of the desired DHPMs product under short reaction times. Furthermore, this green protocol allows rapid and simple isolation of active MWW-trapped Cu(II)-salen scaffolds and its reusability in at least five consecutive runs without losing much of its activity.


Extracts from the whole plant of Indigofera tinctoria Lin were investigated for their anthelmintic activity against Pheretima posthuma. Various concentrations (50 and 100 mg / ml) of each extract were tested in the assay, which involved the determination of paralysis time and death time of the organisms. The methanol extract exhibited a maximum anthelmintic activity comparable to standard drug Piperazine citrate (10 mg/ml). The petroleum ether and chloroform extracts exhibited a modest activity. The Preliminary phytochemical analysis indicated the presence of various phytoconstituents in all the tested extracts..


We have synthesized nanocrystalline thin films of Cu, Zn, TiN, and WC having uniform grain size in the range of 5 to 100 nm. This was accomplished by introducing a couple of manolayers of materials with high surface and have a weak interaction with the substrate. The hardness measurements of these well-characterized specimens with controlled microstructures show that hardness initially increases with decreasing grain size following the well-known Hall-Petch relationship (H∝d−½). However, there is a critical grain size below which the hardness decreases with decreasing grain size. The experimental evidence for this softening of nanocrystalline materials at very small grain sizes (referred as reverse Hall-Petch effect) is presented for the first time. Most of the plastic deformation in our model is envisioned to be due to a large number of small "sliding events" associated with grain boundary shear or grain boundary sliding. This grain-size dependence of hardness can be used to create functionally gradient materials for improved adhesion and wear among other improved properties.


The development of the information technology and of the communication systems has created the best environment for the organizations to develop a better and a longer relationship with consumers. The stronger the competition becomes the harder it is for the organizations to target ant retain the clients. The development of the customer relationship management has become an important tool for creating better value for the customers. With the help of CRM and of CRM related software, it has become much easier to target the consumer. This paper present several definitions to CRM as well as some different approaches with regard to this aspect. We also present several aspects with regard to the evolution of the CRM software world wide.


- Robotics automation is a promising solution for the fab- rication of structures made out of reinforced concrete. The reinforcement is often installed directly in the form and bar- by-bar. Using bigger pre-fabricated units (cages) may be ben-eficial for saving construction time and better labor safety. In this paper, we focus on the problem of automating the generation of a plan for the installation of rebars, given the digital twin of a desired reinforcement cage design, and of its basic components. More specifically, the plan describes the assembling order for the rebars such that (i) it is possible to fabricate the reinforcement cage by the robots, and (ii) the end product is the final reinforcement cage, ready for installation in the form for the concrete structure. In this paper, we propose an algorithm to automatically compute a feasible installation order for a generic rebar cage. The feasibility of the generated order is also case studied and simulated on a simplified rebar cage under the given assumptions.


The common European Information and Communications Technology sector vision for 5G is that it should leverage on the strengths of both optical and wireless technologies. In the 5G context, a wide spectra of radio access technologies—such as millimetre wave transmission, massive multiple‐input multiple‐output and new waveforms—demand for high capacity, highly flexible and convergent transport networks. As the requirements imposed on future 5G networks rise, so do the challenges in the transport network. Hence, 5G‐XHaul proposes a converged optical and wireless transport network solution with a unified control plane based on software defined networking. This solution is able to support the flexible backhaul and fronthaul—X‐Haul—options required to tackle the future challenges imposed by 5G radio access technologies. 5G‐XHaul studies the trade‐offs involving fully or partially converged backhaul and fronthaul functions, with the aim of maximising the associated sharing benefits, improving efficiency in resource utilisation and providing measurable benefits in terms of overall cost, scalability and sustainability. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Aim: To compare symptoms and blood test results prior to cancer diagnosis in individuals who developed lung cancer and those who did not. Patients & methods: Nested case-control study, lung cancer patients were matched to up four controls with no record of cancer. Differences in symptoms and blood test results were investigated in the 2-year period prior to diagnosis. Results: 26,379 lung cancer patients were matched to 92,125 controls. Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) was independently predictive of lung cancer at every 2-month interval 12 months prior to diagnosis. Elevated CRP in conjunction with at least one symptom was associated with greater than fourfold higher odds of lung cancer. Conclusion: CRP may be a prediagnostic marker for lung cancer, and when present with other symptoms could facilitate the investigation of high-risk individuals.


The unique mapping of structural brain connectivity (SC) and functional brain connectivity (FC) on cognition is currently not well understood. It is not clear whether cognition is mapped via a global connectome pattern or instead is underpinned by several sets of distributed connectivity patterns. Moreover, we also do not know whether the spatial distributions of SC and FC that underlie cognition are overlapping or distinct. Here, we study the relationship between SC and FC and an array of psychological tasks in 609 subjects (males, 269; females, 340) from the Human Connectome Project. We identified several sets of connections that each uniquely map onto cognitive function. We found a small number of distributed SCs and a larger set of corticocortical and corticosubcortical FCs that express this association. Importantly, the SC and FC each show unique and distinct patterns of variance across subjects as they relate to cognition. The results suggest that a complete understanding of connectome underpinnings of cognition calls for a combination of the two modalities. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Structural connectivity (SC), the physical white-matter inter-regional pathways in the brain, and functional connectivity (FC), the temporal coactivations between the activity of the brain regions, have each been studied extensively. Little is known, however, about the distribution of variance in connections as they relate to cognition. Here, in a large sample of subjects (N = 609), we showed that two sets of brain–behavior patterns capture the correlations between SC and FC with a wide range of cognitive tasks, respectively. These brain—behavior patterns reveal distinct sets of connections within the SC and the FC network and provide new evidence that SC and FC each provide unique information for cognition.


The silicon pixel sensor (SPS) is one of the key components of hybrid pixel single-photon-counting detectors for synchrotron radiation X-ray detection (SRD). In this paper, the design, fabrication, and characterization of SPSs for single beam X-ray photon detection is reported. The designed pixel sensor is a p+-in-n structure with guard-ring structures operated in full-depletion mode and is fabricated on 4-inch, N type, 320 μm thick, high-resistivity silicon wafers by a general Si planar process. To achieve high energy resolution of X-rays and obtain low dark current and high breakdown voltage as well as appropriate depletion voltage of the SPS, a series of technical optimizations of device structure and fabrication process are explored. With optimized device structure and fabrication process, excellent SPS characteristics with dark current of 2 nA/cm2, full depletion voltage < 50 V and breakdown voltage >150 V are achieved. The fabricated SPSs are wire bonded to ASIC circuits and tested for the performance of X-ray response to the 1W2B synchrotron beam line of the Beijing Synchrotron Radiation Facility. The measured S-curves for SRD demonstrate a high discrimination for different energy X-rays. The extracted energy resolution is high (<20% for X-ray photon energy >10 keV) and the linear properties between input photo energy and the equivalent generator amplitude are well established. It confirmed that the fabricated SPSs have a good energy linearity and high count rate with the optimized technologies. The technology is expected to have a promising application in the development of a large scale SRD system for the Beijing Advanced Photon Source.


In the first stage of the proposed scheme the quadrature mirror filter (QMF) bank is used as the wavelet transform to decompose the texture image into subbands. Gray scale transform invariant features are then extracted from each subband image. In the second stage, the sequence of subbands is modeled as a hidden Markov model (HMM), and one HMM is designed for each class of textures. During recognition, the unknown texture is matched against all models. The best matched model identifies the texture class. The angles of rotation in the experiments are selected randomly in between -90 degrees and 90 degrees . Up to 95% classification accuracy is reported.<<ETX>>


Background and aims: Noise has many psychological effects. Although different studies have so far focused on various psychological effects, they have not evaluated communication skills and cognitive triad. Thus, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of noise exposure and noise annoyance on communication skills and cognitive triad. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 65 workers in 2021. The equivalent sound level (LeqA) was determined using dosimetry. Based on LeqA, noise exposure was divided into permissible and impermissible types. Noise annoyance was measured by the numerical rating scale recommended by ISO/TS 15666:2003. The Communication Skills Questionnaire and Cognitive Triad Inventory were used for data collection. Finally, the obtained data were analyzed by SPSS 24 using an independent samples t test and Spearman correlation test. Results: The mean (±standard deviation) age of workers was equal to 33.87 (±5.95) years. The results of the correlation test showed a positive and significant relationship between LeqA and noise annoyance (P<0.001, r=0.82). Based on the results of the independent samples t test, there was no significant difference in the scores of communication skills (P=0.11) and cognitive triad (P=0.93) in the two groups. Conclusion: In this study, a positive and significant relationship was found between noise exposure and noise annoyance. In addition, communication and cognitive skills were not significantly different in the two study groups. To accurately determine the relationships of variables, it is recommended to conduct similar studies with larger sample sizes while considering variables such as personality traits and social intelligence.


In order to address pressing issues such as climate change, energy crises, and economic disparity, it is pertinent to include local community members within AEC education. In this paper, we explore how breaking the comfort zone of students can facilitate a broader perspective on sustainability. This new perspective can cultivate innovative and creative solutions to 21st century problems. This paper documents the experience and impacts of student participation in an education abroad program focused on sustainable buildings and infrastructure. The program took place in January 2019 in Costa Rica with the collaboration of Colorado State University (USA) and EARTH University (Costa Rica). In this program, students directly communicate with low-income community members who worked with a local developer during the construction of a new neighboring building. Qualitative interviews with students, as well as ethnographic observations of class discussions, illustrates that this partnership helped students see a new perspective on how to deal with the life cycle of construction projects. The preliminary results indicate that the collaboration between the community members and the developer was a key component of expanding students' perspectives. This research illustrates the importance of building community collaborations that are mutually beneficial in the classroom and beyond. In particular, the results suggest that educational experiences which integrate community concerns into solutions are key to expanding students' worldviews.


In this chapter, we review and discuss the transformation of AI technology in HCI/UX work and assess how AI technology will change how we do the work. We first discuss how AI can be used to enhance the result of user research and design evaluation. We then discuss how AI technology can be used to enhance HCI/UX design. Finally, we discuss how AI-enabled capabilities can improve UX when users interact with computing systems, applications, and services.


As the Internet has grown in popularity, so have efforts to control and monitor its use. Countries such as China [46] and Saudi Arabia [25] already block certain kinds of content and more may follow as censorship tools become increasingly sophisticated. In response, Feamster et al. have proposed Infranet [10], a system allowing clients to retrieve sensitive content through a distributed network of secretly cooperating web servers. Infranet differs from other anti-censorship system in that it surreptitiously embeds requests and responses for sensitive content inside what appear to be innocuous web transactions. It is the first anti-censorship system that attempts to achieve covertness in addition to confidentiality. This thesis presents several challenges that we encountered while implementing the first public release of Infranet. Our research has yielded a variety of innovative techniques to improve the speed, security, and scalability of Infranet. We describe a new technique for generating probabilitistic models of client behavior, as well as algorithms that leverage this knowledge to provide more efficient communication between clients and servers. We explore several attacks a censor might mount and propose defenses to counteract these measures. Our work is freely available [18] and can be built using open source tools for either Windows or Linux based systems. Thesis Supervisor: Hari Balakrishnan Title: Associate Professor