PI3K/Akt is an important pathway implicated in the proliferation and survival of cells in the CNS. Here we investigated the participation of the PI3K/Akt signal pathway in cell cycle of developing retinal progenitors. Immunofluorescence assays performed in cultures of chick embryo retinal cells and intact tissues revealed the presence of phosphorylated Akt and 4E-BP1 in cells with typical mitotic profiles. Blockade of PI3K activity with the chemical inhibitor LY 294002 (LY) in retinal explants blocked the progression of proliferating cells through G2/M transition, indicated by an expressive increase in the number of cells labeled for phosphorylated histone H3 in the ventricular margin of the retina. No significant level of cell death could be detected at this region. Retinal explants treated with LY for 24 h also showed a significant decrease in the expression of phospho-Akt, phospho-GSK-3 and the hyperphosphorylated form of 4E-BP1. Although no change in the expression of cyclin B1 was detected, a significant decrease in CDK1 expression was noticed after 24 h of LY treatment both in retinal explants and monolayer cultures. Our results suggest that PI3K/Akt is an active pathway during proliferation of retinal progenitors and its activity appears to be required for proper CDK1 expression levels and mitosis progression of these cells.


Ocean surface rain rate information is crucial for quality control (QC) research in wind scatterometry. High-quality precipitation retrievals from microwave instruments are available from the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM). In addition, rain rates can be estimated with high spatiotemporal resolution from geostationary passive visible-infrared imagers such as the Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) onboard the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellites. The two products are complementary in observing time and regions. We compare them at different spatial scales, and show that the best consistency is obtained for grids with a size of 25 km or larger; where 25 km corresponds to a common scatterometer wind vector cell size. The results show that correlation coefficient of rain rates from GPM and MSG products for rain rates less than 5 mm/h is about 0.2 and ranges from 0.2 to about 0.5 for rain rates higher than 5 mm/h, while bias and root mean square deviation fluctuate about 2 and 3 mm/h, respectively. Also, QC indicator performances are analyzed with references to MSG and GPM rain rates respectively, for tropical regions. References to these QC indicators further indicate better consistency with both products at rain rates higher than 5 mm/h. The effectiveness of a newly proposed QC indicator has been confirmed as well. The three-way comparison of rain products and scatterometer QC indicators provides a reliable reference for research and for the application of corrections for rain effects on scatterometers.


In Perthshire (Scotland), Black Grouse Tetrao tetrix broods less than 3 weeks old preferred herb-rich grassy flushes with Bog Myrtle Myrica gale, whereas in the northern Pennines (England), all broods were found on grass-dominated moorland or enclosed rough grazing habitats chiefly of grass and rushes. In both areas, broods used habitats with taller vegetation that had more invertebrates, particularly moth caterpillars and sawfly larvae (Sym-phyta, Hymenoptera). Within preferred habitats, broods were found in vegetation containing more flies (Diptera), plant bugs (Hemiptera) and ichneumon flies (Hymenoptera) than at randomly chosen sites. The main hatch of Black Grouse chicks in Perthshire coincided with the peak availability of moth caterpillars preferred by chicks. Broods in the Pennines hatched 1 week later than those in Scotland, and this later breeding in the south may be an adaptation to utilize the later peak biomass of sawfly larvae, the chief insect prey there. Data collected for Capercaillie Tetrao urogallus suggest a similar degree of synchronization between their peak hatch and the availability of moth caterpillars on Bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus.


of entertainment. Copious first-hand accounts trace the parallel development of French and Italian theatrical troupes in Paris and the provinces down the centuries until the Italian presence on the Paris theatre scene came to an end in 1780. From documents such as 'Evidence of Audience Makeup in the 1630s', 'Actors Talk Shop in 1633: Casting, Recruiting, Terms of Employment', or 'Lekain Calls for the Abolition of On-stage Seating', we may visualize almost every gesture of the actors and the spectators, both on and off the stage. Theoretical issues are adequately covered, but as the intention is that this should be a selection of documentary material in the strict sense, it is not surprising that practical and technical considerations prevail. The development of theatrical genres from the humanist drama of Jodelle and Gamier at the Bourgogne, through farce and street-shows on trestle tables, the splendours of court ballets at the Tuileries and the Louvre or of Moliere's plays at Versailles, to the tearful comedy, domestic drama, opera, and opera-comique of the late eighteenth century is but the backdrop. Of particular interest is the section by Howarth and John Golder on Parisian and provincial theatre architecture at the time of the great innovators, Soufflot, Ledoux, and Blondel, when with the grand provincial playhouses at Lyon, Besangon, and Bordeaux and the new Comedie-Francaise, Palais-Royal Opera, and the highly ornate Opera at Versailles France could at last offer theatrical structures worthy to house the works of its greatest dramatists and composers. Not the least virtue of the volume as a whole, however, is the determination to keep in view forms of amateur and public theatre such as the fairground, which were never as marginal as might be supposed. It might have been interesting to know more about documents set aside in the collation of material for this volume, where the policy has apparently been to prefer unfamiliar material, but most useful of all would be a companion volume in French.


A novel method has been developed to study the functional roles of individual vaccinia virus gene products that is neither limited by the possible essentiality of the target gene nor by the availability of conditional lethal mutants. The system utilises the E. coli lac repressor protein, the operator sequence to which it binds and the specific inducer IPTG. It allows the generation of recombinant viruses in which the expression of any chosen gene, and hence virus replication, can be externally controlled. In principle, this system is broadly applicable to the functional analysis of genes in any large DNA virus. This approach has demonstrated that the gene encoding the 14 kDa membrane protein of vaccinia virus is non-essential for the production of infectious intracellular virus particles, but essential for the envelopment of intracellular virions by Golgi membrane and for egress of mature extracellular viral particles. This is the first vaccinia virus protein shown to be specifically required for these processes. In vivo this system may prove useful as a means of attenuating recombinant vaccinia virus vaccines by preventing virus spread without reducing the amount of the foreign antigen expressed in each infected cell. Attenuation of other live virus vaccines may be developed in a similar way.


Recently, growing electrical energy market and increasing integration of renewable energy sources (RES) in power systems have lead to new challenges on network planning step and operation, thus it is required to investigate and analyze properly the impacts of integrated RES on the power system. In this paper, the electricity transmission network with wind farms (WF) is modeled. For the grid model, a part of Izmir region is chosen due to the amount of installed generation plants based RES especially wind energy in this region. The comparison between unexpected variations to voltage profile of the power system before and after RES integration to the power system is demonstrated. In the modeling of the electricity transmission network with RES, Digsilent/Power Factory is used as software. The different case studies in integration of different amounts of RES are implemented on the developed grid model. As a result of the conducted case studies, effects of RES on existing power system are evaluated and graphics obtained from the simulation are presented. Especially, the voltage profile of power system is examined.


To investigate RNA degradation in live cells, detection methods that do not require RNA extraction from cells are necessary. In this study, we examined the utility of fluorescence lifetime measurements using a probe attached to the end of an RNA molecule for detecting RNA degradation. We optimized a short fluorescein-labeled RNA sequence whose fluorescence lifetime varied significantly before and after degradation. The selected HHG-fluorescein sequence (H = U, C, or A) is a promising RNA labeling unit (fluorescence lifetime probe) for live cell imaging of RNA degradation.


Protein quality and stability are critical during protein purification for X‐ray crystallography. A target protein that is easy to manipulate and crystallize becomes a valuable product useful for high‐throughput crystallography for drug design and discovery. In this work, a single surface mutation, D355R, was shown to be crucial for converting the modestly stable monomeric ligand binding domain of the human thyroid hormone receptor (TR LBD) into a stable dimer. The structure of D335R TR LBD mutant was solved using X‐ray crystallography and refined to 2.2 Å resolution with Rfree/R values of 24.5/21.7. The crystal asymmetric unit reveals the TR dimer with two molecules of the hormone‐bound LBD related by twofold symmetry. The ionic interface between the two LBDs comprises residues within loop H10‐H11 and loop H6‐H7 as well as the C‐terminal halves of helices 8 of both protomers. Direct intermolecular contacts formed between the introduced residue Arg 355 of one TR molecule and Glu 324 of the second molecule become a part of the extended dimerization interface of 1330 Å2 characteristic for a strong complex assembly that is additionally strengthened by buffer solutes. Proteins 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Background: In 2019, Ethiopia had a total fertility rate of 4.2 births per woman with the rates varying significantly across regions. The Federal Ministry of Health of Ethiopia announced "Ethiopia FP 2020" to address the high fertility rate, aiming to reduce it to 3.0 by 2020. This study aimed to identify the determinants of the use of modern family planning services in the Amhara, Oromia, and Somali regions.Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional mixed methods study was conducted, using quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data were subjected to binary logistic regression analyses. Participants included over 4,117 married men and women aged 15-65 years old.Results: Respondents in Oromia were 8.673 times more likely to have modern family planning methods than those in Somali. Participants in Amhara were 5.183 times more likely to have modern family planning methods than their Somali counterparts. Women, married respondents, and recipients of media messages were more likely to have family planning experience. Family planning discussions with Health Extension Workers and health professionals played a significant role in modern family planning. Conclusion: Establishing a family planning strategy that considers the sociocultural characteristics of each region might help address regional contexts. Everyone in Somali—especially husbands and religious leaders—must be educated in family planning and funds be made available to deploy advanced measures for the same.


Abstract Music's allure lies in its power to stir the emotions. But the relation between the physical properties of an acoustic signal and its emotional impact remains an open area of research. This paper reports the results and possible implications of a pilot study and survey used to construct an emotion index for subjective ratings of music. The dimensions of pleasure and arousal exhibit high reliability. Eighty-five participants' ratings of 100 song excerpts are used to benchmark the predictive accuracy of several combinations of acoustic preprocessing and statistical learning algorithms. The Euclidean distance between acoustic representations of an excerpt and corresponding emotion-weighted visualizations of a corpus of music excerpts provided predictor variables for linear regression that resulted in the highest predictive accuracy of mean pleasure and arousal values of test songs. This new technique also generated visualizations that show how rhythm, pitch, and loudness interrelate to influence our appreciation of the emotional content of music.


Diabetic nephropathy is the most frequent cause of end-stage renal disease worldwide. Dialysis patients with diabetes mellitus (DM) have more complications and shorter survival duration than non-DM dialysis patients, requiring more clinical attention and difficult management. The registry committee of the Korean Society of Nephrology has collected data about dialysis therapy in Korea through an on-line registry program and analyzed the characteristics of patients. A survey of dialysis patients in 2016 showed that 50.2% of new dialysis patients had DM nephropathy as the cause of end-stage renal disease. The proportion of patients receiving hemodialysis (HD) for more than 5 years was 38% in DM patients and 51% in non-DM patients. The mean pulse pressure in DM HD patients was 71.5 mmHg, compared with 62.6 mmHg in non-DM patients. The proportion of DM patients with native vessel arteriovenous fistula as vascular access for HD was lower than that of non-DM patients (73% vs. 78%). Mean serum creatinine of DM and non-DM dialysis patients was 8.4 mg/dL and 9.5 mg/dL respectively. As vascular access of the DM HD patients was poor, the dialysis adequacy of DM patients was slightly lower than that of non-DM patients. The 5-year survival rate for DM HD patients was 53.9%, which was much lower than that of chronic glomerulonephritis patients (78.2%). The proportion of patients with a full-time job was 17% for DM patients and 28% for non-DM patients.


Abstract The new Albanian law of 2014 "On the Right of Information" fully reformed the existing system regarding the obligation of the public-administration institutions to make available public data to any interested party. Inspired by Western European countries' models like the UK, Sweden, Spain, Germany, etc. it created the Information and Data Protection Commissioner. Considered a special form of external control, the new Institution has the obligation to guarantee the citizens' right to access public data and, at the same time, to have their personal data protected. The 2014 law makes considerable changes compared with the previous law by liberalizing the citizens' access on public data, making it possible for anyone to request and obtain information considered public, without the need to explain their motives. Notwithstanding, the main novelty is the Information Commissioner, whose main role is to supervise, control and assist the new law implementation. Bearing this in mind, the aim of the paper is to analyze the activity of the Information Commissioner and its decision-making, in order to answer the question whether this new institution will be able to implement the new law and its ambitious objectives. The available data on complaints addressed to the Commissioner, their resolution's modalities and the willingness of the Commissioner to decide when deemed necessary will help in assessing how effective the implementation of the new law and the new institution has been so far, considering that transparency is one of the main pillars of a responsible public administration.


A chemically defined medium containing selenium was further improved, and the improved medium showed excellent ability to support growth and colony formation of a human hepatoma cell line, HuH-7. The improved defined medium (designated as IS-RPMI) contained small amounts of unsaturated fatty acids, inorganic trace elements including selenium, and HEPES buffer. Many of these additions exert only a small individual effect on the growth of cells, but their cumulative effects were substantial. HuH-7 cells replicated continuously with a doubling time of 47-51 hr in IS-RPMI. A conditioned medium from a semiconfluent population increased the colony-forming ability of HuH-7 cells in IS-RPMI. The addition of insulin to the medium gave good colony growth, thus duplicating the effect of the conditioned medium. Although some alterations of morphological and growth characteristics of HuH-7 cells were observed, the differentiated liver functions, as revealed by production of plasma proteins including high levels of alpha 1-fetoprotein, were maintained for a period of more than 3 years and through 70 passages under the above culture conditions.


This work aims to develop a novel computational framework for automatic or semi-automatic modeling of gene regulatory networks, in which possible connections between genetic structural knowledge and other forms of knowledge available about GRNs can be explored. To perform the modeling of such networks, we consult computing services available through portals on the Internet. Some of these portals are: GeneOntology, PDB, HGNC, PathwayCommons, UniProt, PubMed, Mesh, among others. The mentioned sites provide services that make possible automatic access and can, therefore, be used to organize knowledge bases that integrate their resources. Our team has developed a prototype system that allows such an integration and the analysis of information so obtained in different modalities. In our case, the knowledge automatically gathered and modeled, expresses the identity of the objects on a network and their interactions, as well as their biological functions, biological processes and cellular components. In this sense, our proposal aims at the semantic modeling of GRNs by layers, each layer representing a standard level of description. It starts with a basic level for the model of the transcription regulatory region and goes up to a level for extra-cellular objects. Our platform consolidates all the information obtained from the different sources mentioned into one integrated representation. This representation can then be used for the discovery of biological signaling pathways and the discovery of regulatory sub-networks. At the moment, we are running processes to model and analyze the Bile Acid and Xenobiotic System (BAXS), and some results are already available. For instance, given a set of ligands, a couple of proteins and their related DNA sequences, it is possible: a) to discover a GRN describing how the given proteins regulate each other; and b) to produce sets of user-validated pathways for the proteins under consideration. Details about our system, named biopatternsg (biopatterns searching), can be viewed at:  https://github.com/biopatternsg/biopatternsg.


Inspired by the "transnational turn" in history writing, this essay reviews recent scholarship dealing with industrial relations from a transnational perspective. The essay starts with conceptual reflections on the merits and potential pitfalls of a transnational approach, and suggests that that such an approach should include not only the study of actors, networks and processes at the transnational level (top down perspective), but also that of the impact of transnational factors on industrial relations in specific countries and locations (bottom up perspective). The main part of the essay critically reviews the available scholarship with regard to this two-pronged agenda and makes suggestions for future research.


What is the relationship between detailed critical analysis and the background assumptions made by a given theory of film spectatorship? In this article, I approach this question by looking at Vittorio Gallese and Michele Guerra's The Empathic Screen in the light of the method of triangulation—the coordination and integration of phenomenological, psychological, and neuroscientific evidence, as set out in my Film, Art, and the Third Culture. In particular, I examine Gallese and Guerra's arguments concerning the role of camera movement in prompting immersive, embodied simulation, as well as critiques of these arguments from David Bordwell and Malcolm Turvey. I focus on the special, irreducible role of critical analysis in these arguments. Detailed analysis of film form and style plays an essential role, I argue, in demonstrating the plausibility (or otherwise) of the thesis advanced by Gallese and Guerra. Such analysis is where the rubber of theoretical assumptions meets the road of the material work.


Cadmium and nickel have been classified as carcinogenic to humans by the World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer. Given their prevalence in the environment, the fact that cadmium and nickel may cause diseases including cancer even at low doses is a cause for concern. However, the exact mechanisms underlying the toxicological effects induced by low-dose exposure to cadmium and nickel remain to be elucidated. Furthermore, it has recently been recognized that integrative analysis of DNA, mRNA and proteins is required to discover biomarkers and signaling networks relevant to human toxicant exposure. In the present study, we examined the deleterious effects of chronic low-dose exposure of either cadmium or nickel on global profiling of DNA copy number variation, mRNA and proteins. Array comparative genomic hybridization, gene expression microarray and functional proteomics were conducted, and a bioinformatics tool, which predicted signaling pathways, was applied to integrate data for each heavy metal separately and together. We found distinctive signaling networks associated with subchronic low-dose exposure to cadmium and nickel, and identified pathways common to both. ACTB, HSP90AA1, HSPA5 and HSPA8, which are key mediators of pathways related to apoptosis, proliferation and neoplastic processes, were key mediators of the same pathways in low-dose nickel and cadmium exposure in particular. CASP-associated signaling pathways involving CASP3, CASP7 and CASP9 were observed in cadmium-exposed cells. We found that HSP90AA1, one of the main modulators, interacted with HIF1A, AR and BCL2 in nickel-exposed cells. Interestingly, we found that HSP90AA1 was involved in the BCL2-associated apoptotic pathway in the nickel-only data, whereas this gene interacted with several genes functioning in CASP-associated apoptotic signaling in the cadmium-only data. Additionally, JUN and FASN were main modulators in nickel-responsive signaling pathways. Our results provide valuable biomarkers and distinctive signaling networks that responded to subchronic low-dose exposure to cadmium and nickel.


BACKGROUND
This study evaluated the toxicity of high-dose epirubicin and cyclophosphamide plus r-met-HUG-CSF (G-CSF) given every 2 weeks and compared the dose-intensity achieved with this schedule with that obtained in a previous study we conducted in which the same regimen was given every 3 weeks without G-SCF (EC 21). The secondary objective was to explore the activity of this regimen.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Between December 1991 and March 1994, 41 patients (pts), 19 with locally advanced breast cancer (LABC) and 22 with metastatic breast cancer (MBC), were given high-dose epirubicin (Hd-Epi) (120 mg/m2) and cyclophosphamide (CTX) (600 mg/m2) on day 1 every 14 days (EC 14) plus granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) (5 mcg/kg/d s.c. on days 2-12). A total of 8 cycles in LABC pts (4 pre- and post-surgery), and 6-8 cycles in MCB pts were administered. The results were compared with those obtained in the previous study.

RESULTS
The incidence of WHO grade 3-4 neutropenia was significantly reduced in the EC 14 + G-CSF regimen (25.2% vs. 46.8% in 214 and 250 evaluable cycles, respectively, p<0.0001), as well as the incidence of neutropenic fever (7% vs. 3%, p=0.05). Grade 3-4 anemia (36.6% vs. 8% pts, p=0.001) and grade 3-4 thrombocytopenia (17.1% vs. 0 pts, p=0.002), were significantly more frequent in EC 14 + G-CSF. No significant differences in the other side effects were found. A total of 17 of 207 of the cycles (8.2%) were delayed in the EC 14 + G-CSF vs. 58/271 (21.4%) in the EC 21 (p<0.0001). The main reasons for these treatment delays were neutropenia (1% vs. 15%), anemia (3% vs. 0) and thrombocytopenia (1% vs. 0). As a result of treatment acceleration and differences in dose delays, the patients on EC 14 + G-CSF received a higher dose-intensity (Epi 58.51 mg/m2/wk vs. 36.8 mg/m2/wk; CTX 292.52 mg/m2/wk vs. 182.9 mg/m2/wk). A complete response at surgery was obtained in 9/19 (47.4%) LABC pts. An objective CR was obtained in 11/22 MBC pts (50%) and a partial response in 8/22 (36.4%), yielding an overall response rate of 86.4%.

CONCLUSIONS
Hd-Epi + CTX is very active against both LABC and MBC. The administration of G-CSF allows dose intensification of both drugs (a 59.5% increase of the actual dose intensity) with acceptable clinical tolerance (a lower incidence of neutropenia but a higher incidence of anemia and thrombocytopenia). Only a specifically designed phase III trial will lead to definitive conclusions regarding the greater antitumor activity of accelerated CSF-including regimens as compared to standard chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer.


Simulating the time evolution of physical systems is pivotal in many scientific and engineering problems. An open challenge in simulating such systems is their multi-resolution dynamics: a small fraction of the system is extremely dynamic, and requires very fine-grained resolution, while a majority of the system is changing slowly and can be modeled by coarser spatial scales. Typical learning-based surrogate models use a uniform spatial scale, which needs to resolve to the finest required scale and can waste a huge compute to achieve required accuracy. In this work, we introduce Learning controllable Adaptive simulation for Multi-resolution Physics (LAMP) as the first full deep learning-based surrogate model that jointly learns the evolution model and optimizes appropriate spatial resolutions that devote more compute to the highly dynamic regions. LAMP consists of a Graph Neural Network (GNN) for learning the forward evolution, and a GNN-based actor-critic for learning the policy of spatial refinement and coarsening. We introduce learning techniques that optimizes LAMP with weighted sum of error and computational cost as objective, allowing LAMP to adapt to varying relative importance of error vs. computation tradeoff at inference time. We evaluate our method in a 1D benchmark of nonlinear PDEs and a challenging 2D mesh-based simulation. We demonstrate that our LAMP outperforms state-of-the-art deep learning surrogate models, and can adaptively trade-off computation to improve long-term prediction error: it achieves an average of 33.7% error reduction for 1D nonlinear PDEs, and outperforms MeshGraphNets + classical Adaptive Mesh Refinement (AMR) in 2D mesh-based simulations. Project website with data and code can be found at: http://snap.stanford.edu/lamp.


Background:  Maintaining financial stability is vital for all financial institutions, as it fosters public trust and confidence in the entire system contributing to a healthy and well-operating economy in a country. Therefore, banks and other financial institutions must uphold their financial soundness and stability, given their crucial economic role.
Objective:  The study examines the influence of macroeconomic factors such as Inflation (INF), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, Inflation Rate (INF), the Exchange rate (ER), Money Supply (M2), and NEPSE Index on bank stability of commercial banks in Nepal.
Method:  The study obtained data from the Nepal Rastra Bank, which published a quarterly economic bulletin and database on the Nepalese economy from 2001 to 2022, and applied the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) technique for evaluation and interpretation.
Result:  The findings from this study indicate that the interest rate and money supply (M2) have a positive and significant impact on bank stability. Similarly, the NEPSE index has a positive but insignificant impact on bank stability. However, bank stability is negatively and statistically significantly impacted by both the exchange and inflation rates.
Conclusion:  The primary findings of the research indicate the presence of a sustained and stable association between bank stability and macroeconomic variables. The ARDL techniques analysis demonstrates that GDP growth, inflation, effective exchange rate, and NEPSE index are statistically significant factors, implying that they have a robust capacity to clarify the evolution of bank stability in Nepal.
Implications:  Therefore, the study suggests that policymakers and regulators need to pay close attention to macroeconomic indicators such as inflation, interest rates, money supply (M2), and exchange rates to ensure the stability and soundness of the banking system. The research also highlights the need for commercial banks to closely monitor macroeconomic developments and adjust their strategies accordingly to mitigate risks and maintain stability.


This study was conducted to provide the fundamental data based on the agronomic characteristics of domestic aroma rice, widely cultivated domestic rice and foreign aroma rice for breeding of functional aromatic rice. Among the 104 varieties, all of domestic aroma rice and widely cultivated rice varieties were headed, 24 of 84 varieties of foreign aroma rice were not headed. The average heading date of domestic aroma rice Japonica types of domestic rice was later as 136 day, and Tongil types of domestic aroma rice were faster as 122 day. The average culm length of Indica types of foreign aroma rice was longer as 130 ㎝, and Tongil types of were shorter as 74 ㎝. The average panicle length of domestic aroma rice and traditional rice were about 21 ㎝, and Indica types of foreign aroma rice were longer as 29.5 ㎝. The average 1,000 grain weight of Tongil types of domestic aroma rice and was not a difference with the domestic aroma rice and was more 2.5 g than the Indica types of foreign aroma rice. The average ratio of grain width and length of Indica types of foreign aroma rice were highest as 3.29 (W/L), and the domestic traditional rice was lowest as 1.7 (W/L). The average fertility rate of the domestic aroma rice, the widely cultivated domestic rice, and the Japonica types of foreign aroma rice were above 89.7%, but the Indica types of foreign and the Tongil types of domestic aroma rice were below 65.4%. The average germination rate of foreign aroma rice were above 83.7%, and domestic aroma rice were above 90.4%. The non-glutinous rice were 64 varieties (84.2%) of total 104 accessions of material rice and the waxy rice were 7 varieties (1%). In the domestic aroma rice, Hyangmi2ho and Aranghyangchalbyeo has a mild aroma grade. In the foreign aroma rice, 22 of 40 varieties of Indica types and 9 of 16 varieties of Japonica types has a lightly aroma grade. And 13 varieties of widely cultivated domestic rice has a non-aroma grade.


Macrofauna can produce contrasting biogeochemical effects in intact and reconstructed sediments. We measured benthic fluxes of oxygen, inorganic carbon, and nitrogen and denitrification rates in intact sediments dominated by a filter and a deposit feeder and in reconstructed sediments added with increasing densities of the same organisms. Measurements in reconstructed sediments were carried out 5 days after macrofauna addition. The degree of stimulation of the measured fluxes in the intact and reconstructed sediments was then compared. Results confirmed that high densities of bioturbating macrofauna produce profound effects on sediment biogeochemistry, enhancing benthic respiration and ammonium recycling by up to a factor of ~3 and ~9, respectively, as compared to control sediments. The deposit feeder also increased total denitrification by a factor of ~2, whereas the filter feeder activity did not stimulate nitrogen removal. Moreover, the effects of deposit feeders on benthic fluxes were significantly higher (e.g., on respiration and ammonium recycling) or different (e.g., on denitrification) when measured in intact and reconstructed sediments. In intact sediments, deposit feeders enhanced the denitrification coupled to nitrification and had no effects on the denitrification of water column nitrate, whereas in reconstructed sediments, the opposite was true. This may reflect active burrowing in reconstructed sediments and the long time needed for slow growing nitrifiers to develop within burrows. Results suggest that, in bioturbation studies, oversimplified experimental approaches and insufficient preincubation time might lead to wrong interpretation of the role of macrofauna in sediment biogeochemistry, far from that occurring in nature.


Ralph Millard's bookCleft Craft1outlines the tremendous advances that have been made in the surgery of the cleft palate in recent decades. Nevertheless, the surgical technique and timing of procedures remains highly variable from institution to institution. This reflects the absence of randomized studies to evaluate the function of the palate after repair. After palatoplasty, the ultimate outcome measure is speech. A speech evaluation is, by its nature, subjective. Therefore, making comparisons from institution to institution or even within the same institution over time are difficult. Consequently, palatoplasty remains an art. The techniques and minor modifications are passed from teacher to student and modified throughout one's career. This article will not deal with the controversies regarding the timing of repair or staging of repair. It will focus on two types of repair that have gained popularity in the last two decades. Both the intravelar veloplasty and the double-reversing


In this paper, the influences of the depth and width of the oxide trench isolation between pixels, pixel epitaxial layer thickness for different impurity doping concentrations, and light exposure time on electrical crosstalk are characterized in an array of pinned photodiode CMOS image sensor pixels. The simulation results show that with a proper and simultaneous selection of epitaxial layer doping concentration and epitaxial layer thickness, the electrical crosstalk at long wavelengths can be reduced above 66%. The use of oxide trench isolation depth less than pixel p-well depth leads to an increase in electrical crosstalk of more than 12%. The effect of increasing light exposure time on increasing electrical crosstalk can be minimized by selecting proper epitaxial layer thicknesses.


: Superantigens are microbial products which are immunostimulatory and disease causing. They stimulate a large fraction of T cells unlike conventional antigens. These superantigens include various staphylococcal enterotoxins, streptococcal toxic shock syndrome toxins, viral proteins etc. The superantigen family comprise of proteins that range from 22-29 kDa in size and highly resistant to proteases and heat denaturation. Superantigens posses an N- and C- terminal domain divided by a long, solvent accessible α -helix which spans the centre of the molecule and contains several hydrophobic residues in its solvent-exposed regions while the C-terminal domain adopts a β grasp motif. Various human diseases are caused by superantigens as food poisoning, toxic shock syndrome, Kawasaki disease and some autoimmune disorders. Different approaches have been developed for the effective protection and treatment of superantigens based diseases. The ability of superantigens to stimulate a large population of T-cells has been explored for cancer immunotherapy and treatment of infection and autoimmune diseases.


The mission of higher education institutions is to prepare well-developed, competent new generation specialists who possess not only professional but soft skills, a high level of communication culture, critical thinking, ability to make non-standard decisions, work in a team, model and project the results of professional activity. Outlined tasks are facilitated by the use of interactive learning technologies in the training of future social workers. The purpose of the article is to substantiate the expediency of using interactive training technologies in the process of forming the communicative and vocational competence of future social workers in higher education institutions. Playing learning technologies play an important role in shaping the communicative and vocational competence of future social workers. Thanks to the game, future social workers have the opportunity to experience different professional roles, to put themselves in the place of the interlocutor, to better understand him. Created in the course of the game, the communicative situation helps to form the ability to navigate in communication conditions, to choose language, communication strategies and tactics, to ask questions and to answer them. The main purpose of game technologies in the process of training students, future social workers, is to create professionally oriented communication and speech situations, during which students master the practical skills of interpersonal interaction, conducting dialogue, which is the basis of professional work of a social worker. Modeling of professionally directed situations in the process of forming communicative and vocational competence of future social workers is aimed at conscious attitude towards the future profession. The efficiency of mastering the material, the result of the game and the performance of tasks depends on the purpose and task, the equipment selected, the content of professional situations in solving various problems, a positive focus on learning.


Author(s): Northrup, Oliver Burton | Advisor(s): Farkas, Donka | Abstract: This dissertation proposes a novel approach to tracking not-at-issue contributions to discourse by bringing together several strands of research concerning evidentiality, illocutionary discourse particles, and speaker bias marking, all of which concern phenomena that indicate the relationships between speakers and the information they express in conversation. I argue that the overall discourse effects in each case should be captured in terms of commitments that are conditioned on various evidential bases. These bases derive from the speaker's private beliefs, his interlocutors' discourse commitments, and other contextually-rooted sources. They share the common purpose of publicizing the reliability of the commitments that invoke them.The body of this dissertation provides arguments for this approach from several empirical domains. Chief among these are the sentence-final discourse particles of Japanese, and biased polar questions in English. For Japanese, I argue that the particles yo, ne, and their combination yone publicize the speaker's beliefs about his relative authority to sponsor the content of the particle-marked utterance, compared to that of his interlocutors. These simple conditions, encoded in the evidential base, interact with the default effects of an utterance to derive the total discourse effects of the particle-marked utterances, including the ways that these particles seem to limit possible felicitous responses, and why they are disallowed with certain sentence forms but not others. For English biased questions, I argue that high negation polar questions (HNPQs) and two kinds of tag questions (TQs) weakly commit the speaker to one or both answers, depending on the question's form. These weak commitments can be based on either a prior or current version of their default evidential base, which contains the totality of their private beliefs and any public contextual evidence. The notion of weak commitment is defined in terms of the evidential base's resistance to change in light of future discourse moves. %With both empirical domains, novel data is brought to bear to contrast the analysis advanced here to previous literature.The results of this investigation are threefold. First, I argue thanks to novel data that each of the above phenomena---as well as others including English polarity particles and the Singapore Colloquial English (Singlish) particle lah—receive superior empirical coverage under the individual analyses advanced here, compared to previous literature. Second, because the general architecture of each solution is shared, the discourse model advanced here allows for a more parsimonious explanation of the formal pragmatic effects of these phenomena. Third, by highlighting the commonalities among these domains and their relationship to evidentiality, the model allows for greater insight into the way that linguistic discourse is organized, the differences between default and non-default utterances, and more broadly, the distinction between formal pragmatics and general reasoning about language use.


Using novel micromachining technology, various three-dimensional (3D) on-chip inductors have been fabricated to achieve high performance and small area occupation for GHz applications. We have obtained 14 nH, a peak Q of 38 at 1.8 GHz with area occupation of 500 /spl mu/m by 500 /spl mu/m excluding pads (56 nH/mm/sup 2/) from a stacked spiral inductor on a glass substrate. Also, 1.75 nH and a peak Q of 57 at 10 GHz have been obtained from a levitated spiral inductor.


Mobile health poses an entrepreneurial opportunity for healthcare providers, especially physicians who run their clinics individually or jointly. Based on entrepreneurship literature, this study examines the adoption of mobile health technologies in terms of the factors that influence the decisions of physicians to exploit the opportunity. Compared with other health information technologies, the direct users of mobile health technologies are patients rather than clinicians. Thus this study discusses the important roles that demand-side factors related to patient-centered care play in physicians' adoption of mobile health technologies. To facilitate future empirical studies, it proposes a research model of mobile health entrepreneurship with testable research propositions. The framework fills the gap in existing technology adoption studies that typically do not differentiate technology adopters and end-users. It also contributes to the entrepreneurship literature that considers mainly the characteristics of entrepreneurs in the investigation of opportunity exploitation.


The Egyptian cobra, Naja h. haje, is the largest of the African cobras and is a member of a successful and medically important species complex found throughout Africa, north and south of the Sahara, as well as across the Arabian Peninsula to Oman. Although its phylogenetic position and venom characteristics have been well studied, its development has not. Here, we present a normal staging table for N. h. haje, based on external features. Comparison with firstly the Asian monocled cobra, Naja kaouthia, and then with the small number of other oviparous snake species, allowed us to examine whether differences between two species in the same genus were of the same type and magnitude as those between unrelated genera. In fact, at least with respect to external features, we found a similar level of disparity. N. h. haje embryos lagged behind those of N. kaouthia in body and head scale development, size in ovo and hatchling length, despite having a slightly shorter incubation period and a somewhat larger adult size. Some of these differences may have been the result of differing incubation temperatures. Nonetheless, there does appear to be a broadly conserved pattern of in ovo development in at least macrostomatan snakes.


The impact of non-domestic wastewater (nDWW) on water bodies every day is increased, considering the different pollutants that are entering and these are not regulated, also that the effects of these are not known in the ecosystems. In the case of the pharmaceutical industry, the various products they generate can contribute from non-steroidal anti-inflammatory analgesics (NSAIDs), antihypertensives, hormones, antibiotics, among others; they are being detected in surface waters and it is necessary to create strategies to improve treatment systems and thus reduce their effects on water systems. In this work, the native microorganisms from nDWW of the pharmaceutical industry were used to evaluate their ability to influence the removal of organic matter, working in mixed culture, where it was evidenced that in a 24 hours they could remove 45.82 % of the organic matter measured by the chemical oxygen demand (COD) and at 48 hours 90.59 % removal. The above shows that the use of microorganisms can contribute to the reduction of COD and pollutants in an effective, environmentally friendly and, more efficient way than conventional methods. Besides, the qualities of tolerance to four NSAIDs by 16 morphotypes are evidenced, and how they can be profiled in the future to be potentialized and reach the mineralization of these emerging pharmaceutical pollutants.


OBJECTIVES
Deaths from prescription opioids have reached epidemic levels in the United States, yet little is known about how insurers' coverage policies may affect rates of fatal and nonfatal overdose among individuals filling an opioid prescription.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective cohort study using 2010-2016 Medicare claims data for beneficiaries with 1 or more filled prescriptions for a Schedule II opioid.

METHODS
Outcomes were opioid volume dispensed in morphine milligram equivalents (MME), number of days supplied, and number of pills dispensed on each prescription and emergency department or inpatient stay associated with an opioid overdose during a prescription or within 7 days of the end of the prescription.

RESULTS
A total of 7.03 million prescriptions for Schedule II opioids were dispensed over 1.87 million Part D beneficiary-years. The 7.03 million opioid prescriptions were associated with 8.5 opioid overdoses per 10,000 prescriptions. Prior authorization was associated with larger opioid volumes per prescription (103.6 MME; 95% CI, 36.2-171.0). Step therapy was associated with a greater number of days supplied (0.62 days; 95% CI, 0.10-1.13) and more pills dispensed (6.12 pills; 95% CI, 2.17-10.1). Quantity limits were associated with smaller opioid volumes (24.3 MME; 95% CI, 12.3-36.3) and fewer pills dispensed (2.35 pills; 95% CI, 1.77-2.93). In adjusted models, beneficiaries filling an opioid requiring prior authorization experienced 3.3 fewer overdoses per 10,000 prescriptions (95% CI, 0.41-6.2).

CONCLUSIONS
Opioid utilization management among these beneficiaries was associated with mixed effects on opioid prescribing, and prior authorization was associated with a decreased likelihood of subsequent overdose. Further work exploring the impact of utilization management and insurer policies is needed.


This paper presents a theory of how industry structure and beliefs about Internet marketplace use have driven choice and ownership of marketplaces. The theory's predictions suggest that surviving Internet marketplaces will be those with strong historical linkages in an industry and those owned by or affiliated with major commodity buyers. Comparisons of these predictions with actual outcomes provide validation of the theory. Where predictions differ from results, observations are made as to the nature of the deviations.


This paper deals with the stability problem for a weighted diamond of real quasi-polynomials. We show that under certain conditions on the weights and coefficients in the exponents, the stability of the weighted diamond follows from the stability of eight one-parameter families (edges) of quasi-polynomials. In order to check the diamond for stability, it is sufficient to examine only eight one-parameter families of quasi-polynomials in contrast to the case of a rectangle of quasi-polynomials, which requires checking the stability of an exponential number of one-parameter families of quasi-polynomials.


Panic patients are vulnerable to induction of panic attacks by sub—threshold interoceptive stimuli such as intravenous (i.v.) sodium lactate infusions. Facilitation of serotonergic signaling with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors can suppress anxiety and panic-like responses, but the mechanisms involved are not clearly defined. We investigated the effects of i.v. 0.5 M sodium lactate or saline, in control and panic-prone rats on c-Fos expression in serotonergic neurons within subdivisions of the midbrain/pontine raphe nuclei. Rats were chronically infused with either the GABA synthesis inhibitor l-allylglycine into the dorsomedial hypo thalamus to make them panic-prone, or the enantiomer d-allylglycine (d-AG) in controls. Lactate increased c-Fos expression in serotonergic neurons located in the ventrolateral part of the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRVL) and ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (VLPAG) of control, but not panic-prone, rats. The distribution of lactate-sensitive serotonergic neurons in d-AG-treated rats is virtually identical to previously defined pre-sympathomotor serotonergic neurons with multisynaptic projections to peripheral organs mediating 'fight-or-flight'-related autonomic and motor responses. We hypothesized that serotonergic neurons within the DRVL/VLPAG region represent a 'sympathomotor control system' that normally limits autonomic/behavioral responses to innocuous interoceptive and exteroceptive stimuli, and that dysfunction of this serotonergic system contributes to an anxiety-like state and increases vulnerability to panic in animals and humans.


The Litter -TEP (Thematic Exploitation Platform), which was developed by ARGANS Ltd, with a grant of CMEMS, aimed at forecasting litter introduction by rivers and marine drift on the European North-Western Shelf so as to help local coastal communities i. schedule beach cleansing and ii.  assess the potential origin of materials collected. It needed a litter beaching model, in addition to a drift model, for that. ARGANS benefited from a grant of IFREMER through the European interregional project MARITTIMO-SICOMAR plus, to study litter beaching processes on the Corsican shoreline, owing to the extensive survey performed in 2016-2017 by IFREMER and the localization of hot spots, i.e. locations with more than 10 litter pieces on a distance of 2-to-30m alongshore. After a gross analysis of data by CMEMS for winds, currents and waves, 3 areas were selected among the 6 main litter accumulation areas, i.e. La Maddalena, Capo di Feno, the Ajaccio Gulf, the Gulf of Propriano, Bastia shores and the Agriate Desert, to try to understand the reason for the location of the litter hot spots, but focusing exclusively on i. transport by waves and ii.a swash on the shore or ii.b picked up by longshore currents along the beach then swashed (ii.a) —without knowing the litter sources, as if the sources were disposed uniformly offshore linearly along the coast.

To get the transport component, the incoming waves were simulated with the spectral model SWAN, at a 25 m resolution, using inputs from WAVEWATCH III; to get the beaching per se, i.e. the surf zone dynamics that would deposit litter on the shore, we used a SWASH model that was nested in the former at a spatial resolution of 1 to 10 m. SWASH was originally discarded in favor of the XBeach model, a short-wave averaged and wave-group resolving model that we use for civil engineering calculation, because a computing-efficient model and its ore approximations fit the purpose (motions at the shore break are dominated by long wave). Yet, despite the possibility to action the ‘surf-beat’ mode of XBeach, allowing resolving the short wave variations on the wave group scale and getting the wave-driven currents (longshore current, rip currents), long(infragravity) waves, and runup and rundown of long waves (swash), we switched back to SWASH, as it does not consider a depth-averaged flow and seemed to resolve better the incident-band (short wave) runup on intermediate dissipation shores.

In the three AOIs, 67 hotspots were identified during the ground survey, and 90 hotspots were forecasted. Out of the 67s, 59 were forecasted: 42 at the right location and 17 with slight error which is probably due to the lack of proper VHR bathy-topography and sedimentological maps to perform the simulations. 8 surveyed hotspots were not foreseen, and 31 forecasted hotspots were not identified on ground. As such, the probability of detection was 88% and the probability of false alarms 32%. Better rates are expected using the new LITTO3D lidar surveys of Corsican nearshores, and a priori knowledge of litter sources.


Multi-stage ranking pipelines have been a practical solution in modern search systems, where the first-stage retrieval is to return a subset of candidate documents and latter stages attempt to re-rank those candidates. Unlike re-ranking stages going through quick technique shifts over the past decades, the first-stage retrieval has long been dominated by classical term-based models. Unfortunately, these models suffer from the vocabulary mismatch problem, which may block re-ranking stages from relevant documents at the very beginning. Therefore, it has been a long-term desire to build semantic models for the first-stage retrieval that can achieve high recall efficiently. Recently, we have witnessed an explosive growth of research interests on the first-stage semantic retrieval models. We believe it is the right time to survey current status, learn from existing methods, and gain some insights for future development. In this article, we describe the current landscape of the first-stage retrieval models under a unified framework to clarify the connection between classical term-based retrieval methods, early semantic retrieval methods, and neural semantic retrieval methods. Moreover, we identify some open challenges and envision some future directions, with the hope of inspiring more research on these important yet less investigated topics.


SETTING
Tomsk, Russia, where multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is prevalent.

OBJECTIVES
To report rates of recurrence following successful treatment of MDR-TB in a program providing individualized treatment regimens designed according to the current global standard of care.

DESIGN
A retrospective cohort study of 408 adults successfully treated for pulmonary MDR-TB from 10 September 2000 to 1 November 2004, and followed for up to 6 years post-treatment. We used Poisson regression with generalized estimating equations to assess whether recurrence rates changed significantly with time.

RESULTS
We analyzed 399 (97.5%) patients with at least one follow-up visit (15 850 person-months of observation [PMO]). Baseline resistance to second-line drugs was common (65.2%); 398 patients (99.7%) were human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) negative. In the first year of post-treatment follow-up, there were six episodes of recurrence (1.4/1000 PMO, 95%CI 0.5-3.0). After the first post-treatment year, there were 21 episodes of recurrence (1.8/1000 PMO, 95%CI 1.1-2.8). The rate did not change significantly with time.

CONCLUSION
Individualized regimens designed according to the current global standard of care achieved low rates of MDR-TB recurrence among non-HIV-infected persons treated in a programmatic setting.


Major advances in enabling function and symptom management have occurred in the past decade. Older adults who would have been bed-bound at the end of life now can be offered interventions to help them live well until they die. People who once would have suffered from pain can expect to be kept comfortable with aggressive symptom management. Palliative care nursing is the art and science of quality end-of-life care. Appropriate interventions for competent palliative care often are not initiated for dying older adults and their families. Nursing professionals are beginning to assume leadership roles to ensure that comprehensive, holistic end-of-life care is available to all patients and families experiencing life-threatening progressive illnesses.


The Appalachian fold-thrust belt consists of allochthonous Paleozoic sedimentary cover rocks transported by late Paleozoic Alleghenian thrust faults. Local variations in stratigraphy in Alabama and west Georgia indicate episodic, synsedimentary, structural movement during much of the Paleozoic. To provide a base map for interpreting prethrust stratigraphy, a new palinspastic map was constructed from a series of balanced and restored cross sections. Local thickness variations suggest that synsedimentary deformation was associated with high-angle basement faults, and some basement faults are confirmed by seismic data. Two major phases of synsedimentary basement fault movement account for most of the local thickness variation: (1) Early and Middle Cambrian, and (2) Early Mississippian to Early Pennsylvanian. The Upper Cambrian-Lower Ordovician Knox Group is a regionally pervasive carbonate unit that reflects tectonic quiescence. The interval from Middle Ordovician to Lower Mississippian is characterized by thin, laterally variable, shallow marine units. The section includes several unconformities that locally coalesce, thus completely removing this succession. Different expressions of facies and unconformities locally suggest both synsedimentary and postdepositional structural basins. Minor reactivation of basement faults evidently occurred during the middle Paleozoic. Relative locations of early synsedimentary structures and later Alleghenian thin-skinned structures suggest both strike-parallel and cross-strike basement faults more » that locally correspond to frontal and lateral decollement ramps, respectively. Thus, Paleozoic basement-related, thick-skinned, synsedimentary structures probably controlled the location and geometry of some decollement ramps generated during Alleghenian thrusting. « less


The rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence and Internet of Things (AIoT) demands the development of ultra-low-power devices for future advanced technology. In this study, we introduce a capacitive piezotronic sensor specifically designed for tactile sensing, which enables an ultra-low-voltage operation at nearly 0 reading bias conditions with a consistent response within a wide voltage range. This sensor directly detects capacitance changes induced by piezocharges, reflecting perturbation of the effective depletion width, and ensures ultralow power capability by eliminating the necessity of turning on the Schottky diode for the first time. The dynamic response of the sensor demonstrates ultralow power capability and immunity to triboelectric interference, making it particularly suitable for tactile sensing applications in robotics, prosthetics, and wearables. This study provides valuable insights and design guidelines for future ultra-low-power thin-film-based capacitive piezotronic/piezophototronic devices for tactile sensing.


We review the nature of superfluid ground states and the universality of their properties with emphasis to the Bose Einstein condensate (BEC) systems in atomic physics. We then study the superfluid Mott transition in such systems. We find that there could be two types of Mott transitions and phases. One of them was described long ago and corresponds to the suppression of Josephson tunneling within superfluids sitting at each well. On the other hand, the conditions of optical lattice BEC experiments are such that either the coherence length is longer than the interwell separation, or there is too small a number of bosons per well. This vitiates the existence of a superfluid order parameter within a well, and therefore of Josephson tunneling between wells. Under such conditions, there is a transition to a Mott phase which corresponds to the suppression of individual boson tunneling among wells. This last transition is in general discontinuous and can happen for incommensurate values of bosons per site. If the coherence length is small enough and the number of bosons per site is large enough, the transition studied in the earlier work will happen.


In patients with confirmed Alzheimer's disease--a condition for which no active treatment is available--the practitioner's first duty is to abstain from prescribing useless of harmful drugs that would make the situation worse. There is a long list of such potential nuisances. The most badly tolerated drugs unquestionably are anticholinergics, but one must also beware of tricyclic antidepressants, neuroleptics (sometimes unavoidable, however) and also, to a lesser extent, benzodiazepines, beta-blockers and so forth. Yet medical support is far from being ruled out. The benefits of placebos and drugs of undemonstrated value are not negligible, but above all it is mandatory to help the relative understand the truly pathological nature of almost unbearable behaviours. It is also very useful to advise the family on the life organization at home in order to perdure, on the legal safeguards, on whether or not the patient should be institutionalized, and similar topics. Inside institutions, keeping a sensible attitude between relentless therapy and euthanasia is the best way to ensure that the dignity of the demented patient will be preserved.


The Nonlinear Progressive Wave Equation (NPE) (McDonald and Kuperman, 1987) computer code was coupled with a linear normal mode code in order to study propagation from a high-intensity source in either shallow or deep water. Simulations using the coupled NPE/linear code are used to study both harmonic (high-frequency) and parametric (low-frequency) generation and propagation in shallow or deep water with long-range propagation paths. Included in the modeling are both shock dissipation and linear attenuation. The results of these studies are presented. 24th Seismic Research Review – Nuclear Explosion Monitoring: Innovation and Integration


Mining generalized association rules is closely related to the taxonomy(is-a hierarchy) data which exists widely in retail, geography, biology and financial domains. If we use traditional method to mine the generalized association rules, it becomes inefficient because the itemsets will be huge along with the items and levels of taxonomy increasing, and it also wastes lots of time to calculate the support of redundant or unnecessary itemsets. In this paper, we proposes a new efficient method called CBP to partition the transaction database into several smaller ones level by level using correlation of itemsets, which make the mining more efficient by reducing the scanning size of transaction database. By experiments on the real-life transaction database, the results show that our CBP_based algorithms outperform the well-known algorithms.


Abstract Purpose To evaluate the targetability of late-stage cervical cancer by magnetic resonance-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound (MRgHIFU)-induced hyperthermia (HT) as an adjuvant to radiation therapy (RT). Methods Seventy-nine cervical cancer patients (stage IIIB–IVA) who received RT with lesions visible on positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) were retrospectively analyzed for targetability using a commercially-available HT-capable MRgHIFU system. Targetability was assessed for both primary targets and/or any metastatic lymph nodes using both posterior (supine) and anterior (prone) patient setups relative to the transducer. Thirty-four different angles of rotation along subjects' longitudinal axis were analyzed. Targetability was categorized as: (1) Targetable with/without minimal intervention; (2) Not targetable. To determine if any factors could be used for prospective screening of patients, potential associations between demographic/anatomical factors and targetability were analyzed. Results 72.15% primary tumors and 33.96% metastatic lymph nodes were targetable from at least one angle. 49.37% and 39.24% of primary tumors could be targeted with patient laying in supine and prone positions, respectively. 25°–30° rotation and 0° rotation had the highest rate of the posterior and anterior targetability, respectively. The ventral depth of the tumor and its distance to the coccyx were statistically correlated with the anterior and posterior targetability, respectively. Conclusion Most late-stage cervical cancer primaries were targetable by MRgHIFU HT requiring either no/minimal intervention. A rotation of 0° or 25°–30° relative to the transducer might benefit anterior and posterior targetability, respectively. Certain demographic/anatomic parameters might be useful in screening patients for treatability.


: A lognormal double-peak pattern of ascorbic acid content distribution within rat daily urine and the presence in the population of vitamin C hypo-, hyper-, and normally producing individuals have been established. Radiation-induced changes in the C-vitamin status of rats during their lifetime were assessed by average geometrical levels of acid excretion. A 1.5-3-fold decrease in providing vitamin C producing animals with vitamin C was demonstrated a year after intrapulmonary incorporation of 239PuO2.


The curtain of depression is rising on the cancer drama. Although many scientific and emotional events will surely recur before the green curtain of hope will totally replace that purple curtain of sorrow and despair, progress is being made. One of the attitudes that is changing and adding to that change is evidence that cancer is not an "inevitable" disease. As has been the case with other "malignant" diseases like tuberculosis and rheumatic fever, mechanisms can and will be identified, removed, or frustrated before the end result, an incurable malignancy, has developed. A method of tracking down these inciting or promoting agents is epidemiological study. The text presents mortality statistics of specific cancers. These mortality statistics are studied from many vantage points. The evaluation of cancer mortality in relationship to age, sex, color, marital status, geographical area, urbanization, social and economic status, and origin of birth are all looked at


The Freeze-Tag Problem (FTP) arises in the study of swarm robotics. The FTP is a combinatorial optimization problem that starts by locating a set of robots in a Euclidean plane. Here, we are given a swarm of n asleep (frozen or inactive) robots and a single awake (active) robot. In order to activate an inactive robot in FTP, the active robot should either be in the physical proximity to the inactive robot or ``touch`` it. The new activated robot starts moving and can wake up other inactive robots. The goal is to find an optimal activating schedule with the minimum time required for activating all robots. In general, FTP is an NP-Hard problem and in the Euclidean space is an open problem. In this paper, we present a recursive approximation algorithm with a constant approximation factor and a linear running time for the Euclidean Freeze-Tag Problem.


The Editors of The International Tinnitus Journal (ITJ) are pleased to present in this issue advances that we consider significant, both from basic science and clinical medicine perspective, for the diagnosis and treatment of the tinnitus patient. We are also pleased to announce that all articles will be indexed by EmbaselExcerpta Medica and Chemical Abstracts (CAS). Their coverage will start retroactively with Volume 3. In addition to the regular articles, this issue will publish Part I of the papers presented at the 25th Anniversary Meeting ofthe Neurootological and Equilibriometric Society (NES), Bad Kissingen, Germany, March 19-22, 1998 and the International Tinnitus Forum (ITF), San Antonio, Texas, September 12, 1998. This issue will also publish the abstracts of the NES meeting. The International Tinnitus Journal is the official journal of NES. The remaining papers will be published as Part II in the next issue of The International Tinnitus Journal (Volume 5, Number 1, 1999). We hope that this current issue of The International Tinnitus Journal shows the current international developments and encourages future directions in tinnitus research worldwide, which will benefit the tinnitus patient.


A single dose of botulinum toxin (BoTX) was injected subcutaneously to induce neuromuscular blockade in the triceps surae muscles of the hindlimbs of neonatal and adult rats. The efficacy of the toxin in producing complete neuromuscular blockade of the lower limb muscles, assessed by blockade of (a) postural and flexor reflexes and (b) muscle contraction in response to nerve stimulation, was dose dependent at all ages over a BoTX dose range of 10-60 ng/kg. However, BoTX was dramatically more toxic in adult animals resulting in a decline in body weight and lethal consequences in 25% of adult animals 1 week after administration of BoTX doses as low as 40 ng/kg. In contrast, neonatal animals, given the same dosage, continued to grow and no mortalities were observed. The differences in toxicity of BoTX in adult and neonatal rats are readily accounted for by the short duration of effect in the younger animals, which, in turn, is probably the result of more rapid generation of new and functional nerve terminals.


A single intramuscular injection of kainic acid (12 micrograms/g body weight, dissolved in 0.1 ml of aqua pro injectione) was administered to adult, sexually mature, male mice. Control mice received equivalent amounts of aqua pro injectione only. Experimental animals were killed 24, 72, 120, and 192 h after the injection, and those of the control group simultaneously with the final experimental one. As determined cytophotometrically, in all the experimental groups a significant increase in the cytoplasmic RNA content of nucleus arcuatus neurons took place, this increase being highest 72 h after kainic acid treatment.


In this podcast recorded at the Case for Content conference run as part of the Federal Government's Innovation Month in July 2016, the Assistant Secretary of Digital Communications for the Department of Communications and the Arts, Kim Ulrick, discusses the government's communication strategies. Ulrick has worked as Assistant Secretary of Border and Counter Terrorism Policy within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, National Manager of Strategy Policy and Stakeholder Engagement at the Australian Crime Commission, and Assistant Secretary of Marketing and Communication for the Department of Human Services.


We show several pieces of Raman spectroscopic evidence that are indicative of local structure formation in imidazolium-based ionic liquids. Low-frequency Raman spectra of C n mimX, where C n mim stands for 1-alkyl(C n H 2 n+1 )-3-methylimidazolium cation and X represents the anion, exhibit broad bands assignable to collective modes of local structures. Spatial distributions of coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) signals from C n mim[PF 6] are consistent with local structures whose size increases with increasing n. Picosecond Raman spectra of S 1 trans-stilbene as a "picosecond Raman thermometer" show microscopic thermal inhomogeneity ascribable to local structure formation in C 2mimTf 2N and C 4mimTf 2N. We also describe two novel phenomena that we believe are relevant to extraordinary nanoenvironments generated by local structures in a magnetic ionic liquid C 4mim[FeCl 4].


Preface Ra pid technological progress in information technologies poses new issues for copyright law. Today, a digital file can be copied and instantaneously distributed worldwide through the Internet, thus potentially depriving the copyright holder of revenue from licensed sales. As a result, holders of copyright on creative works in digital format are contesting the right of consumers to make personal copies of copyrighted materials. At the same time, consumers are beginning to chafe at copyright owners' use of digital technologies to prevent or deter copying and other unauthorized uses of copyrighted works. As digital processing grows more powerful and the high-speed distribution of digital content becomes more pervasive, the debate over copyright issues—in particular, whether copyright law has achieved the appropriate balance between incentives to engage in creative activity and the social benefits that arise from the widespread use of creative works—is likely to intensify. Yet the implications of any change to copyright law extend beyond the producers and consumers of copyrighted material to society at large. Investments in the computer hardware and communications industries, for example, are linked in part to the availability of creative content in digital form. How the current copyright debate is resolved, therefore, is likely to influence the growth of those related sectors of the economy. Potential revisions to copyright law may also have an impact on broader social concerns such as individual privacy. Revisions to copyright law could impose mandated costs on producers and consumers of copyrighted material, as well as the providers of goods and services used in conjunction with copyrighted works. This Congressional Budget Office (CBO) paper reviews current copyright law in the United States and considers the unique aspects of digital technology's challenge to that law. It also examines the prospects for a market-based resolution to copyright disputes over digital content and explores the effect of potential revisions to copyright law on economic efficiency and equity. While this analysis suggests some issues and concerns that the Congress may wish to consider during its deliberations about any changes in copyright law, in keeping with CBO's mandate to provide objective, impartial analysis, the paper makes no policy recommendations. Juyne Linger edited the paper, and Christine Bogusz proofread it. Angela McCollough prepared the tables and graphs. Maureen Costantino designed the cover, produced the figures, and prepared the paper for publication. Lenny Skutnik produced the printed copies, and Annette Kalicki prepared the electronic versions for …


Due to their superior material properties, wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductors enable the application of power electronics at higher temperature operation, higher frequencies, and higher efficiencies compared to silicon (Si). However, the commonly-used aluminum wire bonding as topside interconnection technology prevents WBG semiconductors from reaching their full potential, due to inherent parasitic inductances, large size, heat dissipation, and reliability issues of wire bonding technology. Therefore, this article presents a comprehensive review of topside interconnection technologies of WBG semiconductor power devices and modules. First, the challenges and driving factors for the interconnection of WBG semiconductor dies are discussed. Second, for each widely commercially used WBG semiconductor, i.e., silicon carbide and gallium nitride, technical details and innovative features of state-of-the-art interconnection techniques in packages are reviewed. Then, the majority of existing topside interconnection materials for WBG semiconductors are categorized and compared, followed by a discussion of their advantages, challenges, and failure modes. Based on this elaborate discussion, potential future directions of the interconnection technology development are given. It is concluded that the superior performance of WBG semiconductors can be obtained by combining novel materials with innovative designs for the topside interconnections.


The UK aims to reduce its carbon emissions focusing on the renovation of its existing building stock, particularly on the residential sector. Within this group, social housing is an excellent candidate for retrofits, but faces specific challenges. The cases presented in this study are social housing tower blocks in the City of Portsmouth, which are destined to be retrofitted but present particularities within its architecture, heating system, and occupants' behaviour and comfort perception. This study presents an analysis of the thermal performance of these buildings after different retrofit intervention scenarios were undertaken to evaluate heating loads, comfort and overheating. A dynamic simulation model was developed using the software TRNSYS and included performance evaluation under future climate change scenarios. Firstly, the buildings were modelled under different occupier energy profiles and the results in all cases, show that the physical properties of the building lead to a high level of energy consumption and discomfort. Moreover, the simulation of possible retrofits demonstrated that improving the building envelope to meet 2010 Building Regulations or stricter standards would result in a decrease of more than 80% of the heating load but would result in overheating if no adequate shading is installed. The analysis indicates that the best performing retrofit corresponded to a mixed system of MHRV for heating and natural ventilation during the summer. The paper concludes that (a) existing buildings are inefficient and a retrofit would result in a complete change in their energy performance and (b) that a thorough economic appraisal is required to select the best environmentally and economically viable interventions.


This study provides principles for designing new corrosion resistant high entropy alloys. The theoretical framework is a percolation model developed by Newman and Sieradzki that predicts the ability of an alloy to passivate, i.e., to form a protective surface oxide, based on its composition. Here, their model is applied to more complex materials than previously, namely amorphous CrFeNiTa and CrFeNiW alloys. Furthermore, the model describes a more complex passivation process: reforming the oxide layer above the transpassive potential of Cr. The model is used to predict the lowest concentration of Ta or W required to extend the passive region, yielding 11–14 at% Ta and 14–17 at% W. For CrFeNiTa, experiments reveal a threshold value of 13–15 at% Ta, which agrees with the prediction. For CrFeNiW, the experimentally determined threshold value is 37–45 at% W, far above the predicted value. Further investigations explore why the percolation model fails to describe the CrFeNiW system; key factors are the higher nobility and the pH sensitivity of W. These results demonstrate some limitations of the percolation model and offer complementary passivation criteria, while providing a design route for combining the properties of the 3d transition metal and refractory metal groups.


PURPOSE
Studies of later-life families have revealed that sibling tension often increases in response to parents' need for care. Both theory and research on within-family differences suggest that when parents' health declines, sibling relations may be affected by which children assume care and whether siblings perceive that the parent favors some offspring over others. In the present study, we explore the ways in which these factors shape sibling tension both independently and in combination during caregiving.

DESIGN AND METHODS
In this article, we use data collected from 450 adult children nested within 214 later-life families in which the offspring reported that their mothers needed care within 2 years prior to the interview.

RESULTS
Multilevel analyses demonstrated that providing care and perceiving favoritism regarding future caregiving were associated with sibling tension following mothers' major health events. Further, the effects of caregiving on sibling tension were greater when perceptions of favoritism were also present.

IMPLICATIONS
These findings shed new light on the conditions under which adult children are likely to experience high levels of sibling tension during caregiving. Understanding these processes is important because siblings are typically the individuals to whom caregivers are most likely to turn for support when assuming care of older parents, yet these relationships are often a major source of interpersonal stress.


Abstract: Biodiversity of fish parasites is a field of significant growth worldwide, whether due to the advancement of fish farms or the important role of these organisms as indicators of environment quality and ecosystem health, making them useful tools in the conservation and maintenance of the biodiversity as a whole. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the structure and composition of the parasitic fauna of Prochilodus lineatus collected from two structurally distinct stretches of the Batalha River. Fifty specimens of P. lineatus were collected between June 2015 and June 2016. Of these 50 hosts, 875 parasite specimens were collected, divided into 30 species, belonging to seven groups: Myxozoa, Monogenea, Digenea, Acanthocephala, Nematoda, Copepoda and Hirudinea. In addition to new records of known parasites of P. lineatus for this locality, 13 species were newly recorded parasitizing this fish, including a new monogenean species (Tereancistrum sp. n.), with Monogenea being the most representative class in the study. The findings of this study expands the known geographic distribution of these parasite species and helps to increase the knowledge of the biodiversity of these organisms in different hosts and environments. In general, the structure and composition of the P. lineatus parasitic fauna did not seem to be influenced by the structural characteristics of the two stretches studied, due to the migratory habits of the host.


Footrot is a highly contagious disease of the feet of animals, characterized by the separation of keratinous hoof from the underlying tissue. Co-infection of Dichelobacter nodosus and Fusobacterium necrophorum is the main reason of footrot in clinical. Environmental factors, such as warm and wet weather and pasture quality, etc. all are conducive for indirect transmission of bacteria among individuals. Fusobacterium necrophorum, which product several virulence factors such as leukotoxin, hemolysin, hemagglutinin, play an essential role in the infection process. Moreover, a lot of potential differential expression (PDE) proteins were found in plasma samples from dairy cattle with footrotsome of which may be valuable for use as diagnostic biomarkers, the possible mechanism which these proteins involved in the pathogenesis of footrot were analyzed in this paper.


Despite concern on the part of policy makers to raise managerial capability in SMEs, there is little evidence on the key drivers of owner-manager participation in management development programmes. The authors argue that such participation is poorly understood. The paper develops a predictive model of the drivers of participation in sources of learning by owner-managers. It tests a theoretical model, based on the small firm as a learning organization, which posits that participation is driven by owner-managers' learning orientation and the extent of their belief in self-improvement. The implications of the results are discussed in light of the provision of management development programmes.


The advantages of terahertz (THz) imaging are well known. They penetrate well most non-conducting media and there are no known biological hazards, This makes such imaging systems important for homeland security, as they can be used to image concealed objects and often into rooms or buildings from the outside. There are also biomedical applications that are arising. Unfortunately, THz imaging is quite expensive, especially for real time systems, largely because of the price of the detector. Bolometers and pyroelectric detectors can each easily cost at least hundreds of dollars if not more, thus making focal plane arrays of them quite expensive. We have found that common miniature commercial neon indicator lamps costing typically about 30 cents each exhibit high sensitivity to THz radiation [1-3], with microsecond order rise times, thus making them excellent candidates for such focal plane arrays. NEP is on the order of 10-10 W/Hz1/2. Significant improvement of detection performance is expected when heterodyne detection is used Efforts are being made to develop focal plane array imagers using such devices at 300 GHz. Indeed, preliminary images using 4x4 arrays have already been obtained. An 8x8 VLSI board has been developed and is presently being tested. Since no similar imaging systems have been developed previously, there are many new problems to be solved with such a novel and unconventional imaging system. These devices act as square law detectors, with detected signal proportional to THz power. This allows them to act as mixers in heterodyne detection, thus allowing NEP to be reduced further by almost two orders of magnitude. Plans are to expand the arrays to larger sizes, and to employ super resolution techniques to improve image quality beyond that ordinarily obtainable at THz frequencies.


Recent studies have tracked eye movements to assess the cognitive processes involved in fraction comparison. This study advances that work by assessing eye movements during the more complex task of fraction addition. Adults mentally solved fraction addition problems that were presented on a computer screen. The study included four types of problems. The two fractions in each problem had either like denominators (e.g., 3/7 + 2/7), or unlike denominators exhibiting one of the following relationships: one denominator was a multiple of the other denominator (e.g., 2/3 + 1/9), both denominators were prime numbers (e.g., 2/7 + 3/5), or both denominators had a common divisor larger than one (e.g., 5/6 + 3/8). Self-reports, accuracy, and response times confirmed that participants adapted their strategy use according to problem type. We analysed the number of eye fixations on each fraction component, as well as the number of saccades (rapid eye movements) between fixations on components. We found that participants predominantly processed the fraction components separately rather than processing the overall fraction magnitudes. Alternating between the two denominators appeared to be the dominant process, although in problems with common denominators alternating between numerators was dominant. Participants rarely used diagonal saccades in any of the problems, which would indicate cross-multiplication. Our findings suggest that adults adapt their cognitive processes of fraction addition according to problem type. We discuss the implications of our findings for numerical cognition and mathematics education, as well as the limitations of our current understanding of eye movement patterns.


BACKGROUND
Moebius syndrome (MS) is a rare congenital condition that is characterised by facial hypomimia and congenital strabismus caused by complete or partial impairment of the 6th and 7th cranial nerves. MS may be further associated with other nerves or malformations, mainly involving the extremities. The objective of this study was to quantify the decrease in oral motor performance in people with MS compared with normoreactive individuals using the Oral Motor Assessment Scale (OMAS).

METHODS
The study group comprised 33 subjects between the ages of 2 and 20 years (average age: 10 ± 5 years) with MS along with 46 age- and gender-matched control subjects.

RESULTS
The study group displayed a lower average functional score than the control group (P < 0.0001). A significant lack of lip closure (P = 0.03) and anterior lingual seal during swallowing (P = 0.03) occurred in the study group; in most cases, the individuals with MS were classified as 'subfunctional'. In addition, individuals with MS in the older age group displayed better functional scores than those in the younger group (P = 0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
Functional damage to oral motor function in individuals with MS is evident, but differs among patients with respect to severity and the movements that are compromised. However, overall, improvements in the functional patterns of these individuals can be observed as they mature in age.


The popular use of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in the production of commercial odor-control and antibacterial textile products has raised questions about their washing durability. Poor durability not only deteriorates product performance but also results in unknown amounts of Ag NPs leaching into sewage- and water-treatment systems. Therefore, it is necessary to have a quick and easy method for detecting Ag NPs in washing solutions for assessment of washing durability. In this study, we have developed a practical surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method for measuring the concentrations of Ag NPs in water and a detergent solution. To improve the sensitivity and reproducibility of SERS signals from the complexation of an indicator molecule (ferric dimethyl-dithiocarbamate, in this study) with NPs, the "coffee ring effect" was utilized. The active SERS "hot spots" in the aggregated NPs along the coffee ring effectively intensified the signature SERS response, even with NPs of about 10 nm in diameter and a concentration as low as 0.01 mg L−1. The linear relationships between SERS intensity and Ag NP concentration (R2 > 0.99) successfully quantified the amount of Ag NPs released from Ag NP-treated cotton fabrics during washing as well as other Ag speciation formed in a detergent solution.


Pentaquine, SN-13,276, has been found to be one of the most promising members thus far studied of a series of antimalarial drugs related to pamaquin. It has the property, also possessed by toxic doses of pamaquin (plasmochin), of eradicating vivax infections, accomplishing this with doses which produce only mild reactions in most individuals. This paper describes the therapeutic trials upon which these conclusions are founded. Pentaquine, (5-isopropylaminoamylamino) -6methoxy-quinoline, differs constitutionally from pamaquin in the structure of the aliphatic side chain in the 8-position (Figure 1). The drug was supplied 3 and used in the form of the monophosphate salt which is 75.5 per cent base. All dosages recorded in this paper are in terms of the base


The main objective of the work is to develop a new, simple and economical method for the simultaneous estimation of omeprazole and dicyclomine hcl by using RP-HPLC technique In this method mobile phase of composition Phosphate buffer 0.02M,p H 6.5 and acetonitrile in the ratio of 65:35 was pumped with a flow rated of 1ml/min through C18 250mm column which was maintained at 25°C temperature. The wavelength 223nm was optimized as the both drugs have optimum absorbance. Volume of injection was 10μl. The retention time of the omeprazole and dicyclomine hcl was 2.02min and 9.93min respectively with appreciable resolution of 9.15. Using the above method the run was performed and the system suitability parameters were calculated and were within the limits. So the method was set for validation, the method was found to be specific in the determination of drug without any interference. The method was observed to be precisied as the %RSD was 0.59 and 0.63 for omeprazole and dicyclomine hcl respectively. Recovery studies were performed and found to be 99.45% for omeprazole and 100.35% for dicyclomine hcl. Calibration curve was plote and correlation coefficient was 0.999. The method was also found to be robust. The method was valid as all the parameters were passed. This method was precise, accurate and accurate, this method can be used in the regular assay of the formulations.


Because there are conflicting data regarding the effect of different temperatures and durations of storage on the stability of the activities of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), a new study has been conducted to re-examine this important issue. Blood obtained from patients with varying aminotransferase levels was centrifuged, the resultant serum was divided into aliquots, the samples were stored at room, refrigerator, and freezer temperatures, and the aminotransferases measured on days 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 30. In all but one circumstance, both AST and ALT activities declined markedly beginning within 24 hr of venipuncture; the temperature of storage did not significantly affect the rate or degree of loss of enzyme activity. The exception was the evidence that ALT activity in samples obtained from individuals with initially normal values showed a rise during the first 3 to 4 days, followed thereafter by a decline to below baseline values. Thus, to ensure accuracy of aminotransferase measurement, testing of samples should be conducted on the day of venipuncture.


Failure risk assessment of pressure vessels and piping systems is an important part of their integrity management. Obviously, there are many shortcomings in risk analysis using only traditional procedures, which are mostly qualitative or conservative by nature. This study develops a novel limit analysis method using quantitative magnetic measurements to determine the failure risk of steel vessels. Firstly, the correlation between the physico-mechanical properties of a pressurized steel cylinder and the magnetic coercive force was obtained by hydraulic tests, it is found that increasing internal pressure leads to an increase in the coercive force, and the magnetomechanical behaviour can be described by a linear general expression. By solving the inverse problem, it is possible to diagnose the transition of the structure to the yield region or the fracture region based on the measurements of coercivity, which enables us to conduct the risk assessment prior to the failure of a pressurized cylinder, validated by a full-scale hydrostatic burst test. Finally, a quantitative criteria for identifying the structural failure of the pressurized cylinder was established based on coercivity measurements.


The present invention relates to moulded bodies containing builder substances, alkali carriers, bleaching agents, enzymes and surfactants. Particularly powerful moulded bodies with a high degree of storage stability, a good scent profile and a defined solubility profile are obtained when an area corresponding to no more than 40 vol. % of the moulded body contains more than 80 wt. % of the total amount of an active substance (I) contained in the moulded body with an ingredient from the group of surfactants.


Avenanthramides have been shown to have beneficial properties such as strong antioxidant activity and anti-inflammatory effects in humans, and are a key defence molecule for oats. The goal of this project was to create and validate a method for quantification of avenanthramides in oats that would take less than 20 minutes. A new extraction method and new liquid chromatography method were tested, as well as the introduction of an internal standard to improve quantification. We found that the internal standard selected was not stable during extraction and that it was necessary to use an external standard curve. We found that the liquid chromatography method was reproducible for standard compounds and that we could get separation of the three main avenathramides in oats for a total run time of 15 minutes. The extraction component of the method requires further work to improve recovery and stability before this method can be used for quantification of avenanthramides in oats.


Traditionally, discrete event simulation is associated with logistic system analysis due to its role as an operations research method. In this article, we consider a multiple case study on the alternative use of simulation for operations management education. When stressing the role of the student or trainee instead of operations—as in operations research—alternative demands on model set up and use arise. Identifying such demands and ways to deal with them extends simulation methodology by showing how to exploit existing simulation knowledge and tools for pedagogic purposes. Our multiple case study evaluates four simulation-based games reflecting operations systems in health care and manufacturing. Respective games target learning activities of a different nature. Outcomes of the evaluation provide insights on modelling requirements, and guidelines and good practices that are supportive in meeting these.


We present a new algorithm for cooperative reinforcement learning in multiagent systems. Our main concern is the correct coordination between the members of the team: We seek to obtain an optimal solution for the team as a whole while keeping the learning as much decentralized as possible. We consider autonomous and independently learning agents that do not store any explicit information about their teammatesý behavior, as well as possibly different reward functions for each agent. Coordination between agents occurs through communication, namely the mutual notification algorithm.


The core-cladding boundary in step-index plastic optical fibers is imperfect. Surface irregularities locked in during the manufacturing process couple the guided modes by reflecting them in directions that deviate unpredictably from the expected directions. This causes an additional loss as the multiple reflections from surface elements with directions randomized around the nominal for the cylinder transfer the power to the radiation modes that are carried away from the core into the cladding. We model such loss and mode coupling by ray tracing. The irregular core-cladding interface is represented by nominally cylindrical surface elements with orientations randomly perturbed around two geometric axes. The results show mode coupling and relative loss per unit fiber length caused by the core-cladding interface irregularities. The loss is high close to the input fiber end where mode coupling is intense. It drops farther along the fiber as mode coupling slows down and stabilizes where the equilibrium mode distribution is reached.