Keyword-based search techniques are currently used to identify assets packaged for reuse. Unfortunately, these techniques are not suitable for searching large asset repositories, as they are known of having low precision and recall. One way to improve the search accuracy, is to identify reusable assets using their architecturemodels, since models based on similar architecture decisions, will most probably lead to developing similar solutions. However, informality and heterogeneity in designing architecture models remains a major obstacle for this identification approach. To overcome this problem, this paper proposes use of e-business patterns for reusable asset identification instead of architectural models. As e-business patterns are common to every designer, they could be used as an architecture design reference for comparing assets architecture layouts. Therefore, we propose amodel to capture such architecture layouts in a machineunderstandable format using a graph of the adopted business,integration, and application e-business patterns, thereby assets could be rapidly identified based on the matching status of their architecture layout graphs. We believe the proposed approach provides better precision and recall when compared to unstructured keyword-based approaches.


BCL6 translocations involve not only immunoglobulin (IG) genes but also a number of non-IG loci as partners. Junctional sequences of three IG/BCL6 translocations were readily obtained by long-distance PCR. In cases where partner loci were not determined, we developed a long-distance inverse PCR method, which amplifies unknown fragments flanked by known BCL6 sequences. Using these two long-distance PCR-based approaches, we cloned junctional areas of BCL6 translocations from a total of 58 cases of B-cell tumors. Nucleotide sequencing and database searches revealed that 30 cases involved IGs as partners: IG heavy chain gene in 22, IG kappa light chain gene in 1, and IG lambda light chain gene in 7. In contrast, 23 cases affected non-IG loci, including the H4 histone gene, heat shock protein genes HSP89alpha and HSP90beta, and PIM-1 proto-oncogene. On der(3) chromosomes, complete sets of the promoters of these partner genes replaced that of BCL6 in the same transcriptional orientation. These results suggest that BCL6 gene affected by the translocation is transcriptionally activated by a variety of stimuli, including cell cycle control, changes in the physical environment, and response to cytokines. Break points on BCL6 occurred within the major translocation cluster, and we identified a 120-bp hyper-cluster region a short distance from the 3' end of exon 1. Gel mobility-shift assay suggested the presence of a protein(s) that bound to this particular region.


Spanning nearly 500 years, "The American Catholic Experience" describes the Catholic experience from the arrival of Columbus and the other European explorers to the present day. Jay P. Dolan discusses Catholicism as it spread across the New World, transforming - and being transformed by - the land and its people. The book traces the evolution of the urban ethnic communities by examining the vital contributions of the immigrant church to Catholicism. Finally, Dolan examines the controversy of the modern church and the extraordinary changes in the Catholic consciousness as it comes to grips with such contemporary social and theological issues as war and peace, the arms race, abortion, social justice, the ordination of women, and a married clergy.


In this paper, a nonlinear filter with a suitable transfer function is used at the front of the video compression transmitter. This filter reduces the range of relative amplitudes between the input sample amplitudes which results in increasing the discrete cosine transform (DCT) and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) abilities to concentrate the signal information in the lower frequency band and hence increasing the image compression ratio. In the receiver, an inverse filter is used after the inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) or inverse discrete wavelet transform (IDWT) to regain the signal information. The error due to neglecting high frequency bands was found to be approximately equal for each of the samples. Because the error is either positive or negative, using one bit of the quantization word will be very helpful to add the transmitted average error correctly at the receiving end with a very small negative effect on the quantization error due to the small difference between the sample amplitudes.


The influence of regional and local processes on community structure is a major focus of ecology. Classically, ecologists have used local-regional richness regressions to evaluate the role of local and regional processes in determining community structure, an approach that has numerous flaws. Here, we implemented a novel trait-based approach that treats local and regional influences as a continuum, rather than a dichotomy. Using hylid frogs (Hylidae), we compared trait dispersion among members of local species assemblages to the trait dispersion in the regional assemblage from which they were drawn. Similarly, we compared trait dispersion in the regional assemblages to dispersion in the continental species pool. We estimated the contributions of local and regional filters, and we compared their strength in temperate and tropical zones. We found that regional and local filters explained 80% of the total variation among local assemblages in community body size dispersion. Overall, regional filters reduced trait dispersion, and local filters increased it, a pattern driven by particularly strong antagonistic effects in temperate zones that reduced the realized total variation by more than 40%. In contrast, local and regional filters acted in concert in tropical regions. Patterns within the tropics did not differ from the random expectation based on a null model, but within the temperate zone, local community filtering was stronger than expected by chance. Furthermore, in temperate regions, antagonistic regional and local filtering masked from 76% to 90% of the total variation in trait dispersion. Together, these results suggest that there are fundamental differences in the scale and identity of the processes determining community structure in temperate and tropical regions.


Harlequin ichthyosis (HI) is a rare fatal type of congenital ichthyosis with autosomal recessive inheritance pattern. We report an uncommon presentation of a case of HI in a neonate, who was the second outcome of the dizygotic twin pregnancy of a Pakistani female. Whilst the first twin remained alive and healthy, HI baby was not able to survive beyond the third day of her life. Although very few cases of HI from Pakistan have been reported in the past; but this case being one of the outcomes of twin pregnancy is unique in its presentation; and to the best of authors' knowledge, has not been reported earlier. Key Words: Harlequin ichthyosis, Autosomal recessive, Congenital ichthyosis, Twin pregnancy.


Background: The primary treatment for patients with acromegaly has traditionally been transsphenoidal surgery, with decreasing reliance on radiotherapy (RT) due to advancements in pharmacotherapy (PT). Despite these advancements, a substantial portion of patients still face persistent acromegaly, necessitating novel treatment approaches. This study investigates the role of CyberKnife Stereotactic Hypofractionated Radiotherapy (CK-HFRT) in persistent acromegaly. Objective: The primary objective was to assess the impact of CK-HFRT on endocrine remission (ER) rates while maintaining acceptable toxicity levels. Methods: The study retrospectively analyzed 31 consecutive patients with acromegaly who received CK-HFRT following multiple unsuccessful surgeries and prolonged PT without ER. Various CK-HFRT dose fractionation regimes were administered, and dose volume histograms were evaluated. Tumor control, cured disease (CD), endocrine remission (ER) rates, and overall survival were estimated at a median follow-up of 62 months. Acute and late toxicity, including pituitary insufficiency and radiation-induced optic neuropathy (RION), were also assessed. Results: At 62 months of follow-up, the study group demonstrated excellent tumor control with 100% nonprogressive adenomas. Endocrine remission was achieved in 86.7% of patients, with a 22.4% CD rate at five years. Pituitary insufficiency occurred in 32.3% of patients, and no cases of RION were reported. The study observed three deaths related to cardiovascular diseases, all in patients receiving PT. Overall survival at five years was 79.2%. Conclusion: CyberKnife stereotactic hypofractionated radiotherapy, as an adjunct to PT, provides a viable treatment option for patients with persistent acromegaly following unsuccessful surgeries. The therapy results in substantial ER rates and tumor control while minimizing the risk of permanent radiation-induced optic neuropathy. However, the decision to administer CK-HFRT should be individualized, considering the patient's overall condition and treatment history.


The first edition of this atlas appeared in 1939 and was immediately received as an excellent volume in the teaching of surgical techniques. Cutler and Zollinger, teacher and pupil in the 1930's, shared equally in the preparation of the first edition. The volume was but one expression of Cutler's desire to make available to students and house staff, who were dearer to him than any professional associate, the visual description of the usual and the unusual surgical procedures. The second and third editions have been the responsibility of Zollinger, whose interest in the surgeon-to-be is as apparent as was that of his teacher. Although I have never performed any more extensive surgery than to lance a boil in the preantibiotic days, I, too, was interested in the earlier editions as excellent teaching volumes. The third edition, extensively revised, maintains the high standards set.


The paper presents color texture segmentation using FCM for color texture segmentation based multi-resolution image fusion. First, a color texture images are decomposed of multi-resolution representation by wavelet transform, adaptive fusion weight value of wavelet coefficients are resolved using PCA, then fused images is formed by inverse transforming and combining all wavelet coefficients, the proposed algorithm should keep the information of global structure and significant features from the color texture images. Finally, the Fuzzy C-means clustering algorithm has been used for unsupervised segmentation. The experimental results show the proposed procedure work well in the image segmentation for color texture.


Since the surge in popularity of Android smartphones, creating Android applications and using location data in these applications have soared. Due to how quickly Android applications are being created, it is difficult for companies who have created forensics tools to keep updating their programs in a timely manner for investigators to use. This has created a need for a forensics tool which allows forensic investigators to analyze a new Android application themselves since, in most cases, criminal investigations are a time sensitive matter. The purpose of this research is to introduce a prototype for a tool which would allow investigators to identify where important data is being stored on an Android device and update the forensics tool themselves in order to assist other investigators in the future.


A case of 26-years old man with symptoms of infectious mononucleosis syndrome is presented. In the course of the disease: high temperature, weakness, loss of appetite, sore throat, myalgia, hepatomegaly, splenomegaly and some laboratory changes (leucocytosis with presence of atypical lymphocytes, elevated aminotransferase activity) have been observed. Serological tests have shoved: slighthly positive PBD-test in the first examination (second-negative) and the presence of IgM antibodies against CMV in a high titer with four-time decrease of the titer during the course of the disease. Because of the incomplete symptom complex for infectious mononucleosis caused by EBV we have put the diagnosis of cytomegaly coursed as a infectious mononucleosis syndrome.


Rice analog is expected could reduce the dependency on consuming rice in Indonesia. Th e study aimed to characterize lindur fl our, determine formulation of rice analog with hedonic score, then characterize selected analog rice product. Several phases of the study were production and characterization of lindur fl our; formulations of rice analog; and characterization of selected product. Th e results showed that the content lindur fl our contained carbohydrate (86.10%), tannin (0.21%), amylose (29.96%), total sugar (14.75%), and HCN (1.98 ppm). Th e best formulation of analog rice was combination of lindur fl our (70%), sago fl our (30%), and addition of chitosan (0.5%). Th e characteristic of selected analog rice contained physically carbohydrate (81.58%), density (0.80 g/mL), one thousand grain weights (18.08 g), amylose (20.36%), dietary fi ber (8.16%), gross energy (3,240 kal/g) and starch digestibility (55.22%).


ABSTRACT Objective Farshchian Heart Center is the fifth health-promoting hospital and the first center of its type in Western Iran that officially joined the International Network of Health Promoting Hospitals and Health Services (HPH) in 2016. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the health promotion standards at this center in 2018. Methods We conducted this cross-sectional study at Farshchian Heart Center of Hamadan. The main data collection instruments included questionnaires obtained from indicators of five different main standards of health-promoting hospitals developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) which were evaluated from three different perspectives: Management staff, hospital employees, and patients. The data were analyzed by SPSS version 21 software. Results We evaluated 111 hospital employees, 109 patients, and 6 management staff. Nurses (46.8%) comprised the majority of the hospital staff respondents. Less than half (42.3%) of the hospital staff expressed awareness of hospital health promotion policies; however, only 13.5% had attended various health promotion programs. Only 51.4% of patients knew about the hospital health promotion policies and 17.4% of them participated in relevant programs. The mean score for patient satisfaction with the hospital health promotion programs according to the visual analogue scale (VAS, range: 0–10) was 7.16 ± 2.45, which was significantly higher in outpatients (8.16 ± 1.85) compared to inpatients (6.44 ± 2.59, p = 0.001). Two thirds (66.7%) of the management staff expressed awareness of implementation of these programs. Conclusion The results of this study demonstrated that health promotion policies based on WHO standards were not well-recognized among patients, hospital employees, and management staff in Farshchian Heart Center of Hamadan, Iran.


Bounding the tree-width of a Bayesian network can reduce the chance of overfitting, and allows exact inference to be performed efficiently. Several existing algorithms tackle the problem of learning bounded tree-width Bayesian networks by learning from k-trees as super-structures, but they do not scale to large domains and/or large tree-width. We propose a guided search algorithm to find k-trees with maximum Informative scores, which is a measure of quality for the k-tree in yielding good Bayesian networks. The algorithm achieves close to optimal performance compared to exact solutions in small domains, and can discover better networks than existing approximate methods can in large domains. It also provides an optimal elimination order of variables that guarantees small complexity for later runs of exact inference. Comparisons with well-known approaches in terms of learning and inference accuracy illustrate its capabilities.


I welcome the opportunity to address the members of the Computer Society in COMPUTER — particularly since I was not given the opportunity to do this in SPECTRUM. When I learned that the Regional Directors had been asked to make a statement on the referendum in the September issue of SPECTRUM I felt that the cards were being stacked somewhat by the anti-referendum forces. Therefore, I requested space for a message as the Director of Division 5 but was told that it was past the deadline — despite the fact that statements were still being accepted from Regional Directors.


Six tufted ducks were trained to dive for food at summer temperatures (air, 26°C, water, 23°C) and at winter temperatures (air, 5.8°C, water 7.4°C). The mean resting oxygen consumption (Voo2) a t winter temperatures (rwin) was 90% higher than that at summer temperatures (Tsum), but deep body temperatures (Tb) were not significantly different.

Diving behaviour and mean oxygen consumption for dives of mean duration were similar at Twin and at Tsum, although the mean oxygen consumption for surface intervals of mean duration was 50% greater at Twin and Tb was significantly lower (1°C) at the end of a series of dives in winter than it was in summer.

There appears to be an energy saving of 67 J per dive during winter conditions and this may, at least partially, be the result of the metabolic heat produced by the active muscles being used to maintain body temperature. While at rest under winter conditions, this would be achieved by shivering thermogenesis. Thus, the energetic costs of foraging in tufted ducks in winter are not as great as might be expected from the almost doubling of metabolic rate in resting birds.


Social activity of older people can be associated with deterioration as motor function (ability to stand on one leg, walk heel to toe), motor dexterity (grasping power, the tapping-test). At the same time, deterioration in motor functions is due to the fading of social activity, and as a result, deterioration of cognitive functions. Greater involvement in social life can slow the deterioration of motor functions and to maintain daily quality of life.


According to Hinga (2002), many factors influence algae growth. One of these factors, according to Sardans and Penuelas (2015), is that different nutrients, especially potassium, greatly influences algae growth. Based on this knowledge, researchers in this experiment sought to understand the effect of potassium nitrate on algae growth. Researchers manipulated the potassium nitrate levels of three out of the four bottles (the fourth bottle served as the control group). It was hypothesized that as potassium levels increased algae growth would increase as well. After one week, researchers found that the cell density of each sample increased. This data supports our hypothesis. However, future research is needed to measure other factors such as light, O2, and temperature's influence on cell density.


Selective leaching of phases in charge chrome is used in a variety of industrial processes for the production of chromium chemicals. A mineralogical study was made of a range of local charge chrome samples, at various stages of leaching in sulphuric acid (20g/l at 90i?½C), using mainly a scanning electron microscope (SEM) together with an energy-dispersive spectroscopy analyzer (EDS), and X-ray diffraction techniques. It was found that the leaching behaviour of the different types of charge chrome depends largely on the nature of the secondary phases, which in turn depends upon whether the silicon content is above or below 4 per cent by mass. The leaching behaviour of highchromium ferrite is anomalous, and it is postulated that the process is analogous to the corrosion of brass by dezincification. Keywords: charge chrome leaching, scanning electron microscope


The quadratic response formalism is used to derive an expression for the photoelectron and the Auger electron currents in the spirit of the sudden approximation. We find that the centre of gravity and relative weight of the satellites in the Auger spectrum depend strongly on the life-time of the initial hole. The shape of the plasmon gain peaks in the Auger spectra of simple metals is calculated and compared with experiment. Finally, we discuss the information contained in Auger-photoelectron coincidence spectroscopy.


"We must reckon first with the fact that Americans take for granted their right to do on their own property anything they please regardless of their neighbors," Edward Bassett told his compatriots in the New York City zoning movement in 1913.Appended Report, Zoning and Districting, Minutes of the Heights of Buildings Commission, June 9, 1913, Heights of Buildings Commission, New York City Municipal Archives, Box 2507. Bassett, who has come to be known as the father of zoning, captured the thoughts of many planning advocates when he criticized the legal system for giving real estate owners almost total control over the use of their property. American cities would remain ugly, disorderly, and inefficient, Bassett and other aspiring planners feared, because the law did not adequately permit municipal authorities to regulate the use of private property.


The stochastic Navier-Stokes equation solves the mysteries underlying the macroscopic morphogenetic processes of human beings, which include brain, legs, arms, internal organs. (Naitoh, 2001, 2008, 2010, 2011) This is possible because main part of the living beings is filled with water flow. The theoretical studies (Naitoh, 2008, 2010, 2011) also explain the reason why inner organs such as heart and liver are left-right asymmetric at the later stage of the developmental process. Our computational results (Naitoh and Kawanobe, 2011) also reveal the morphogenetic process of main blood vessels. Here, first, we examine the morphogenetic processes of bones and main nerve systems. Next, further thought experiments based on statistic fluid mechanics (Naitoh, 2008, 2011) and biological data reveal the standard network pattern common to neural networks inside the brain and various bio-molecular networks for the morphogenetic process of the human system. It is stressed that the standard network is basically constructed with only six groups of molecules and neurons. The physical equation describing the dynamics of the standard pattern shows the temporal oscillations appearing in various phenomena such as differentiation and proliferation in cell divisions and memory systems. Third, statistic fluid dynamics based on the quasi-stability principle and the indeterminacy principle (Naitoh, 2001, 2008, 2010, 2011) reveals the inevitability of the supermagic numbers including symmetric ratio of 1:1 and asymmetric ratios such as about 1.27:1, 1.35:1, 1.41:1, 1.44:1, 1.78:1, 2.1:1, 2.5:1, 3.6:1, and 4.54:1, in various pairs of flexible-particles in natural and living systems. The present report reveals the role of the magic numbers inside the human brain system, which are related to music, fine-arts, poem, and language.Thus, the fluid-dynamics proposed in our previous reports will bring a new insight on the spatiotemporal structure of ontogeny and also a new technology of cyberneology, which will result in artificial brain system living over millennium in super-computers.© 2012 ASME


Perceived union support and union instrumentality have been shown to uniquely predict union loyalty. This study was the first to explicitly examine the relation between perceived union support and union instrumentality. Surveys were completed by 273 union members and 29 union stewards. A comparison of 2 models, 1 based on organizational support theory and 1 based on union participation theories, found that the model based on organizational support theory, in which union instrumentality was an antecedent to perceived union support and led to union loyalty and subsequently union participation, best fit the data. The model based on union participation theories, in which perceived union support was an antecedent of union instrumentality and led to union loyalty and subsequently union participation, was not supported. Union instrumentality was related to union commitment, but the relation was completely mediated by perceived union support.


For foreign students, the Mandarin time aspect "着zhe" is a common and relatively difficult grammar point to grasp. The research method used is a quantitative method and a qualitative descriptive method to describe, identify the types of mistakes made by Indonesian learners in the learning time aspect "着zhe". The data collection technique used is purposive sampling, i.e. Mandarin language learners at the University of Nanchang, China, which had received writing, grammar and structure, and syntax courses. The purpose of this technique is to obtain relevant data in order to solve the problem of learning Mandarin, especially regarding the time aspect "着 zhe". The results of the relevant questionnaire show that Indonesian students lack basic knowledge of time aspects and they did not understand or forget the rules of time aspect. So, they use Indonesian grammar to answer the Mandarin time aspect  "着 zhe" questionnaire. This is indicated by the results of the questionnaire given, there are 3 forms of performance errors above 50%, i.e. misuse error has 65%, a misordering error has 60%, an added error has 55% and there is 1 form error below 50% namely omission error, has 45%. The Conclusions of time aspect Mandarin "着 zhe" is a form of Mandarin grammar that is often used. This time aspect "着 zhe" has several rules in matching with other words. To understand this, Indonesian students need to learn step by step and perseverance in study and practice, so they can understand the uses of time aspect "着 zhe".


While lattice vector quantization (LVQ) can solve the complexity problem of LBG based vector quantizers, and also yield very general codebooks, a single stage lattice VQ, when applied to high variance vectors result in very large and unwieldy indices, making it unsuitable for applications requiring successive refinement. The goal of this work is to develop a unified framework for progressive uniform quantization of vectors, without having to sacrifice the mean-squared-error advantage of lattice quantization. A successive refinement uniform vector quantization paradigm is developed, where the codebooks in successive stages are all lattice codebooks, each in the shape of the Voronoi region of the lattice at the previous stage. The Voronoi shaped lattice codebook at each stage is called Voronoi lattice VQ (VLVQ). Measures of efficiency of successive refinement are developed. The developed methodology is applied to successively refine vectors of wavelet coefficients in the vector set-partitioning (VSPIHT) framework to obtain an embedded bitstream. The results are compared against the previous successive approximation wavelet vector quantization (SA-W-VQ) results of Sampson, da Silva, and Ghanbari (see IEEE Trans. Image Processing, vol.5, no.2, p.299-310, 1996) for image coding.


The presence of delay-sensitive traffic in QoS-aware MANETs (mobile ad-hoc networks) results into increased TCP spurious timeouts, thus wasting their scarce bandwidth. Furthermore, the different dynamics used by a routing protocol in discovering and maintaining routes have a significant impact on TCP and MANETs in general. In this paper, we investigate the combined effect of contention- induced spurious timeouts and the routing protocol dynamics on the resource efficiency of TCP in the presence of prioritised VoIP traffic. Through simulation study, TCP performance is contrasted against that of our proposed enhancement to limit spurious timeouts in QoS-aware MANETs (RE-TCP). Our simulations results show that although proactive protocols deliver TCP traffic with the smallest delay and retransmit fewer TCP segments, reactive protocols are able to achieve better throughput and reduce TCP starvation in presence of high priority VoIP traffic. It has also been shown that RE-TCP is able to achieve a 10% gain in bandwidth utilization.


La Cueva intrusive complex shows a remarkable sequence of sodic igneous rocks. The major rocks, in order of intrusion, are: (1) quartz monzonite, (2) sodic syenite and gabbro of the differentiated series, and (3) sodic microsyenite. Most of the other igneous rocks exposed are part of a younger series of hypabyssal rhyolitic intrusions. La Cueva intrusive complex is within La Cueva dome. Striking changes in dips along the flanks of the dome result largely from multiple intrusion and variation in the shape of individual intrusive masses. Field relationships indicate forceful emplacement of the main mass of the complex in three stages: (1) early laccolithic intrusion of quartz monzonite, (2) intrusion of the differentiated series which tilted and broke through the laccolith, thrusting aside the country rock, and (3) intrusion of a pluglike body of microsyenite through the center of the differentiated series. Field associations suggest that the rocks may have been derived from the same regional magma, but the proportion of felsic to mafic rocks is unusually high. The large volume of rhyolitic rock may be the result of dilution of rising gabbroic magma by assimilation of constituents of the basement rocks that melt at low temperatures. The silica-deficient rocks may have been isolated in a subsidiary magma chamber, where they underwent a divergent trend of differentiation.


Interactions between interleukin (IL)-8 and its receptors, CXCR1, and CXCR2, serve crucial roles in inflammatory conditions and various types of cancers. Inhibition of this signaling pathway has been exploited as a promising strategy in treating these diseases. However, most studies only focused on the design of allosteric antagonists-bound receptors on the intracellular side of IL-8 receptors. Recently, the first cryo-EM structures of IL-8-CXCR2-Gi complexes have been solved, revealing the unique binding and activation modes of the endogenous chemokine IL-8. Hence, we set to identify small molecule inhibitors for IL-8 using critical protein-protein interaction between IL-8 and CXCR2 at the orthosteric binding site. The pharmacophore models and molecular docking screened compounds from DrugBank and NCI databases. The oral bioavailability of the top 23 ligands from the screening was then predicted by the SwissAMDE tool. Molecular dynamics simulation and free binding energy calculation were performed for the best compounds. The result indicated that DB14770, DB12121, and DB03916 could form strong interactions and stable protein-ligand complexes with IL-8. These three candidates are potential IL-8 inhibitors that can be further evaluated by in vitro experiments in the next stage.


Service-learning (SL) has become a popular teaching strategy to work with individuals with disabilities in adapted physical education/ physical activity (APE/APA) courses. Despite the increasing popularity of the use of SL in APE/APA courses, little is known about kinesiology students' experiences in these contexts. This study examined kinesiology students' experiences in an SL project for children with disabilities. Thirty-three undergraduate kinesiology students who were enrolled in an APE course participated in an SL project in which they provided children with disabilities with individualized and developmentally appropriate physical activity. Data were collected from a post-SL project reflection essay. Each reflection essay was evaluated via a directed approach to qualitative content analysis. Five main themes emerged from the data: (a) contact and prior experience, (b) personal growth and academic learning, (c) future career aspirations, (d) biased language, and (e) recommendations for APE SL. The results of this study provide several implications for the design and structure of SL projects in APE/ APA courses. Subscribe to TPE


We present a definition of the Riemann-Liouville fractional calculus for arbitrary time scales through the use of time scales power functions, unifying a number of theories including continuum, discrete and fractional calculus. Basic properties of the theory are introduced including integrability conditions and index laws. Special emphasis is given to extending Taylor's theorem to incorporate our theory.


The dual-process model of the mind predicts that religious belief will be stronger for intuitive decisions, whereas reflective thinking will lead to religious disbelief (i.e., the intuitive religious belief hypothesis). While early research found intuition to promote and reflection to weaken belief in God, more recent attempts found no evidence for the intuitive religious belief hypothesis. Many of the previous studies are underpowered to detect small effects, and it is not clear whether the cognitive process manipulations used in these failed attempts worked as intended. We investigated the influence of intuitive and reflective thought on belief in God in two large-scale preregistered experiments (N = 1,602), using well-established cognitive manipulations (i.e., time-pressure with incentives for compliance) and alternative elicitation methods (between and within-subject designs). Against our initial hypothesis based on the literature, the experiments provide first suggestive then confirmatory evidence for the reflective religious belief hypothesis. Exploratory examination of the data suggests that reflection increases doubts about beliefs held regarding God's existence. Reflective doubt exists primarily among non-believers, resulting in an overall increase in belief in God when deciding reflectively.


Quality Improvement Success Stories are published by the American Diabetes Association in collaboration with the American College of Physicians and the National Diabetes Education Program. This series is intended to highlight best practices and strategies from programs and clinics that have successfully improved the quality of care for people with diabetes or related conditions. Each article in the series is reviewed and follows a standard format developed by the editors of Clinical Diabetes. The following article describes a project to build a point-of-care tool for assessing patients' adherence to their prescribed medications.


A 47-year-old woman experienced sudden onset of severe left flank pain. By computed tomography (CT) and arteriography, her condition was diagnosed as a ruptured angiomyolipoma of the left kidney. She did not have tuberous sclerosis. Using polyvinyl alcohol foam (Ivalon) particles, immediate embolization of a main artery feeding the tumor--the posterior branch of the left renal artery--was performed. Three months after embolization, intravenous digital subtraction angiography (IVDSA) showed this main feeder was still occluded. This case and others encountered in our review of the literature underscore the usefulness of therapeutic embolization for renal angiomyolipoma.


Immunotherapy for renal cell cancer (RCC) has witnessed several developments for more than two decades. Checkpoint inhibitors, including anti-CTLA-4 and anti-PD-1/PD-L1 blockers, have changed the treatment landscape for patients with advanced RCC in the past 3 years. Despite these advances, more than 55% RCC patients become resistant to different immunotherapies without other treatment combination. Among various attempts at overcoming resistance to immunotherapy, stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has been found to potentiate the activity of immunotherapy agents through several potential mechanisms, including normalization of microvessels to alleviate tumor hypoxia, improvement in efficient delivery of drugs, abundant neoantigen exposure, and recruitment of antitumor immune cells to alter the immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Preclinical studies and clinical case reports have predicted that the combination of SBRT, an immunotherapy, may lead to remarkable results. This review aims to provide the biological basis for the feasibility of combining SBRT to overcome immunotherapy resistance and to review the currently available clinical evidence of this combination therapy in patients with advanced RCC.


This qualitative study was positioned within an emerging scientific field concerned with the interaction between biblical text and the psychological profile of the preacher. The theoretical framework was provided by the sensing, intuition, feeling and thinking (SIFT) approach to biblical hermeneutics, an approach rooted in reader-perspective hermeneutical theory and in Jungian psychological type theory that explores the distinctive readings of sensing perception and intuitive perception, and the distinctive readings of thinking evaluation and feeling evaluation. The empirical methodology was provided by developing a research tradition concerned with applying the SIFT approach to biblical text. In the present study, a group of 17 Anglican clergy were invited to work in psychological type-alike groups to explore two of the biblical passages identified by Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary for the Feast of Christ the King. Dividing into three workshops, according to their preferences for sensing and intuition, the clergy explored Psalm 93. Dividing into three workshops, according to their preferences for thinking and feeling, the clergy explored John 18:33–37. The rich data gathered from these workshops supported the hypothesis that biblical interpretation and preaching may be shaped by the reader's psychological type preference and suggested that the passages of scripture proposed for the Feast of Christ the King may be a joy for intuitive thinking types, but a nightmare for sensing feeling types. Contribution: Situated within the reader perspective approach to biblical hermeneutics, the SIFT method is concerned with identifying the influence of the psychological type of the reader in shaping the interpretation of text. Employing this method, the present study contributes to the fields of homiletics and hermeneutics by demonstrating how some readers (sensing types) may struggle more than others (intuitive types) to interpret the scripture readings proposed by the lectionary for the Feast of Christ the King.


This paper presents the modelling and simulation of Static Var Compensator (SVC) in power system studies by MATLAB. In the first step, we have modeled mathematically with MathCAD how to analyze the rating of SVC. In second step, we have conferred modelling of SVC in power system to analyze its behaviour operating with in control range and outside of control range and how to perform power system studies which is anchored with load flow analysis for SVC realization. In the third step, we have been modelling separately the SVC transfer functions with open control loop in the respective control elements: measuring module, thyristor susceptance control module and voltage regulator module, and we have used lag/led compensators theories to configure open and close loop transfer function with respective gain/phase margin. At the final step, we have controlled the voltage and the reactive power transit in the power system, by SVC device.


The finding that meningeal solitary fibrous tumors (SFTs) and meningeal hemangiopericytomas (HPCs) are both characterized by NAB2‐STAT6 gene fusion has pushed their inclusion in the WHO 2016 Classification of tumors of the central nervous system (CNS) as different manifestations of the same entity. Given that the clinical behavior of the CNS SFT/HPC spectrum ranges from benign to malignant, it is presently unclear whether the grading criteria are still adequate. Here, we present the results of a study that analyzed the prognostic value of an updated version of the Marseille Grading System (MGS) in a retrospectively assembled cohort of 132 primary meningeal SFTs/HPCs with nuclear overexpression of STAT6. The median patient follow‐up was 64 months (range 4–274 months); 73 cases (55%) were MGS I, 50 cases (38%) MGS II and 9 cases (7%) were MGS III. Progression‐free survival (PFS) and disease‐specific survival (DSS) were investigated using univariate analysis: the prognostic factors for PFS included MGS, extent of surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy and mitotic activity ≥5/10 high‐power field (HPF). Moreover, MGS, radiotherapy, mitotic activity ≥5/10 HPF, and necrosis were the prognostic factors measured for DSS. In multivariate analysis, extent of surgery, mitotic activity ≥5/10 HPF, MGS I and MGS III were the independent prognostic factors measured for PFS while necrosis, MGS III and radiotherapy were the independent prognostic factors for DSS. In conclusion, our results show that assessing the malignancy risk of SFT/HPC should not rely on one single criterion like mitotic activity. Therefore, MGS is useful as it combines the value of different criteria. In particular, the combination of a high mitotic activity and necrosis (MGS III) indicates a particularly poor prognosis.


Low-frequency density fluctuations in the outer region of the TORTUR Tokamak are observed by microwave scattering. The frequency spectrum, measured for a fixed wave vector, is very broad and can be explained by drift waves, predominantly of the collisionless types. A considerable enhancement of this kind of turbulence is found after the application of fast high-voltage current pulses on top of the current plateau, showing a proportionality with the square of the plasma current.


Background: Reluctance of the multinational pharmaceutical companies to join the Medicines Patent Pool plan for HIV drugs (antiretrovirals-ARVs) might undermine its desirable objective of scaling up long-term, extended access to novel, affordable and appropriate ARV formulations in resource-limited settings.
Methods: This paper makes an analysis of conflicting issues and calls for a trade context facilitating a reverse of multinational drug manufacturers' reluctance to join patent pool. To this aim, partnerships between multinational companies are urged first to make cutting edge brand fixed-dose combination (FDC) ARVs promptly available, and secondly, to allow patent pool agreements to be negotiated immediately afterwards. This context rejects clauses that exclude middle-income countries from sharing in the patent pool.
Expected results: The suggested trade context can help speed up the participation of originator pharmaceutical companies in the Medicines Patent Pool, while allowing them to maintain competitiveness, take advantage of incoming joint venture opportunities and circumvent the need for additional incentives. This context potentially tackles in an appropriate way the directions of evolution in emerging markets, while bringing benefits to resource-limited populations, multinational drug corporations and manufacturers from middle-income countries.
Conclusions: This study mixes analysis of health needs and of changing dimensions both in legislation and the pharmaceutical industry, with a political economy focus that considers the interests and capacities of key participants in global HIV treatment. So compounded, this study offers practical suggestions to stimulate the current debate


Proliferative cells have an increased need for macromolecular precursors required to sustain proliferation. Therefore, alteration of metabolic pathway flux and metabolite consumption is a hallmark of the transformed state. We have begun to investigate the specific metabolic pathway rewiring that occurs in the transformation of human breast cells, and the different metabolic phenotypes exhibited in breast cancers of specific molecular subtypes. These efforts have focused on the contribution of proper amino acid management in supporting breast tumor metabolism. For example, we have observed that ER-negative breast cancers exhibit activation of the serine biosynthetic pathway, controlled primarily by the expression of the enzyme PHGDH. ER-negative breast cancer cell lines with high PHGDH expression depend on its continued expression to maintain viability, and PHGDH expression permits cells to survive in the absence of extracellular serine. We have also identified the enzyme SHMT2, responsible for catabolizing serine for use in cellular methylation reactions, as an important determinant for cellular survival in low oxygen conditions. Finally, we have uncovered a key enzyme required to catabolize cysteine for the biosynthesis of iron-sulfur clusters, as being required for breast cancer cells to proliferate in high-oxygen environments, or under conditions of oxidative damage. We will discuss our development of mouse models to both investigate the contribution of these metabolic pathways to breast tumorigenesis and develop strategies to impact breast cancer growth and development. This work is supported by a Susan G. Komen Career Catalyst grant. Citation Format: Richard Possemato. Breast tumor metabolism. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Breast Cancer Research; Oct 17-20, 2015; Bellevue, WA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Res 2016;14(2_Suppl):Abstract nr A45.


We introduce the wavelet scattering spectra which provide non-Gaussian models of time-series having stationary increments. A complex wavelet transform computes signal variations at each scale. Dependencies across scales are captured by the joint correlation across time and scales of wavelet coefficients and their modulus. This correlation matrix is nearly diagonalized by a second wavelet transform, which defines the scattering spectra. We show that this vector of moments characterizes a wide range of non-Gaussian properties of multi-scale processes. We prove that self-similar processes have scattering spectra which are scale invariant. This property can be tested statistically on a single realization and defines a class of wide-sense self-similar processes. We build maximum entropy models conditioned by scattering spectra coefficients, and generate new time-series with a microcanonical sampling algorithm. Applications are shown for highly non-Gaussian financial and turbulence time-series.


The evolving architecture of high-performance computing nodes poses new challenges to low-level system software components running on the nodes. New multicore and many-core designs put strain on system scalability; the introduction of nonvolatile memory forces a rethink of the memory and storage hierarchy in extreme-scale systems; the overall increase in the component count requires careful consideration of power management and fault tolerance approaches. The International Workshop on Runtime and Operating Systems for Supercomputers (ROSS), held in cooperation with the ACM Special Interest Group on High Performance Computing (SIGHPC), provides a forum for researchers to exchange ideas and discuss research questions that are relevant to low-level system software on current and future-generation supercomputers. This special issue presents significantly extended versions of the best papers from the 2013 edition of the workshop, which was held in conjunction with the ACM International Conference on Supercomputing (ICS) in Eugene, Oregon, USA, on June 10, 2013. In his keynote address Characteristics of Adaptive Runtime Systems in HPC, Sanjay Kale examined the features that are necessary or desirable to empower adaptive runtime systems, using Charm++ and the Adaptive Message Passing interface (MPI) as examples. Nine regular papers and one invited talk were also presented at the workshop in three sessions on exascale and energy, memory and tasking, and big data. Levy et al., in their paper A Study of the Viability of Exploiting Memory Content Similarity to Improve Resilience to Memory Errors, propose a novel runtime for transparently exploiting memory content similarity to reduce the rate of fatal memory errors by examining memory snapshots from HPC operating systems and applications. In Collective I/O under Memory Constraints, Lu et al. introduce a new collective I/O strategy to combat the problem of the decreasing amount of memory available per CPU core, by considering the capacity and bandwidth constraints, restricting aggregation data traffic, coordinating I/O accesses, and choosing aggregators at run time. These research efforts identify major challenges facing OS and runtime system developers and propose promising solutions to address them. We hope that the principles and techniques presented in this special issue will play an important role in the design and development of specialized operating systems for the exascale era.


The purpose of this paper is to show that, using the crossed cartesian product of multivalued operators, one can obtain several results, old and new, from different topics (best approximation, coincidence point and fixed point theory) in nonlinear analysis.


A new vasopressin analogue, [His1,6]AVP, was synthesized and characterized by potentiometric measurements as well as by UV-Vis, CD and EPR spectroscopy. At the physiological pH the peptide forms a stable complex with Cu2+ ions which is characterized by the {NH2, NIm, NIm(macrochelate)} binding mode. The replacement of both Cys by His residues in the vasopressin sequence results in a very significant increase in the efficiency of Cu2+ binding.


This study deals with the application of numerical methods in solving the Fuzzy Boundary Value Problems (FBVPs) which is discretized to derive second order fuzzy finite difference approximation equation. Then this fuzzy approximation equation is used to generate the fuzzy linear system. In addition to that, the fuzzy linear system will be solved iteratively by using Gauss-Seidel (GS), Full-Sweep Successive Over-Relaxation (FSSOR), Half-Sweep Successive Over Relaxation (HSSOR) and Quarter-Sweep Successive Over Relaxation (QSSOR) iterative methods. Then several numerical experiments are conducted to illustrate the effectiveness of QSSOR iterative method compared with the GS, FSSOR and QSSOR methods


This study describes the reinforcement effect of surface modified mullite fibers on the crystallization, thermal stability, and mechanical properties of polypropylene (PP). The nanocomposites were developed using polypropylene-grafted-maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA) as compatibilizer with different weight ratios (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.5, 5.0, and 10.0 wt %) of amine functionalized mullite fibers (AMUF) via solution blending method. Chemical grafting of AMUF with PP-g-MA resulted in enhanced filler dispersion in the polymer as well as effective filler-polymer interactions. The dispersion of nanofiller in the polymer matrix was identified using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) elemental mapping and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis. AMUF increased the Young's modulus of PP in the nanocomposites up to a 5 wt % filler content, however, at 10 wt % loading, a decrease in the modulus resulted due to agglomeration of AMUF. The impact strength of PP increased simultaneously with the modulus as a function of AMUF content (up to 5 wt %). The mechanical properties of PP-AMUF nanocomposites exhibited improved thermal performance as compared to pure PP matrix, thus, confirming the overall potential of the generated composites for a variety of structural applications. The mechanical properties of 5 wt % of AMUF filled PP nanocomposite were also compared with PP nanocomposites generated with unmodified MUF and the results confirmed superior mechanical properties on incorporation of modified filler. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2016, 133, 43725.


The thematic analysed is the evolution of the Precautionary Principle. It is a valuable tool for developing adequate decisions in situations where there is large uncertainty . The situations of uncertainty can be of different types and different entities. Indeed, the precautionary principle encourages policies that protect human health and the environment in the face of uncertain risks. In recent years, legislators' attention has focused increasingly on actions to protect the environment and the human health. On the international plane, nations have accepted the precautionary principle as a basis for their policies. For these motivations, the analysis of the PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE appears an interesting thematic to study: indeed, it is important to understand if the principle could be an opportunity to improve and protect our world or a bureaucratic quibble.


Osteoporosis is one of the major comorbidities in patients with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis (PsA). It has been reported that PsA induces fragility bone structure1and high risk of osteoporosis2. However, there is no report about relationship between psoriatic arthritis and osteoporosis in Japanese patients and its mechanism has not been elucidated.The objective of this study is to investigate influence of PsA on bone mineral density (BMD) and its mechanism including analysis between axial and peripheral PsA in Japanese patients.This study was retrospective study. We examined 58 cases of PsA and 29 cases of RA that underwent DXA tests at our facility from January 2017 to July 2019 (Table 1). The axial PsA was classified as axial SpA using the ASAS classification criteria. First, we investigated influence of PsA containing both axial (n=30,19 males, 11 females, mean age: 50.6 years) and peripheral (n=28, 19 males, 9 females, mean age: 58.0 years) subtypes on BMD measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Second, we measured serum bone metabolism markers (P1NP: type I procollagen-N-propeptide, TRACP-5b: tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase 5b) and bone remodeling effector molecules (Dkk1: Dickkopf1, sclerostin, 25(OH)D: 25-hydroxyvitamin D) to elucidate differences in BMD between axial and peripheral PsA. Furthermore, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (n=29, 2 males, 27 females, mean age: 66.2 years), as a reference disease, was also evaluated for comparison with axial and peripheral PsA.Osteoporosis and Osteopenia were defined as T-score ≤ -2.5 or %YAM ≤70%., -1.0< T-score >-2.5 or 80>%YAM >70% respectively.58 patients with PsA indicated low T-score, Z-score and %YAM in both lumbar spine and proximal femur (Table 1). Axial PsA and peripheral PsA showed osteoporosis in 16.7% and 35.7%, and osteopenia in 20.0% and 32.1%, respectively, despite the fact that there were many middle-aged men. Comparison between axial and peripheral PsA, axial PsA showed higher BMDthan peripheral PsA. In bone remodeling makers, P1NP in both PsA were almost same, but TRACP-5b, bone resorption marker, in axial PsA was lower than that in peripheral PsA(Table 2). In bone remodeling influencer molecules, Dkk1, and sclerostin in axial PsA was slightly higher than those in peripheral PsA, whereas 25(OH)D is almost same as the both PsA. On the other hand, RA also indicated low T-score and %YAM in both lumbar spine. P1NP in RA showed slightly lower, but TRACP-5b and Homocysteine in RA higher than those in axial and peripheral PsA. Dkk1 and sclerostin in RA were slightly lower than those in both PsA.Peripheral PsA indicated more severe bone loss than axial PsA in our study. There were some differences in bone remodeling markers and bone remodeling effector molecules between axial and peripheral PsA, but the relationships between BMD and these parameters were not confirmed. Further studies are needed to elucidate bone loss mechanism in these PsA.[1]Zhu TY, et al. Osteoporosis Int. 2015; 26:261–272.[2]Kathuria R, et al. J Am Acad Dermatol. 2017;76:1045-53.Shigeyoshi Tsuji Grant/research support from: Eli Lilly, Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Asahi Kasei, Chugai, Daiichi Sankyo, Eli Lilly, Eisai, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Celgene, and Novartis Pharma K.K., Tetsuya Tomita Consultant of: Eli Lilly and Company, Mari Higashiyama: None declared, Takaaki Noguchi: None declared, Toshikazu Mouri: None declared, Jun Hashimoto Speakers bureau: AbbVie, Asahi Kasei, Chugai, Daiichi Sankyo, Eli Lilly, Eisai, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Celgene, and Novartis Pharma K.K.


Pro-life countries must arm themselves against the UN's intense pressure toward population control, while at the same time supporting and holding the UN accountable to its legitimate development objectives.


This survey first introduces index generation functions, which are useful for pattern matching in communication circuits. Then, it shows various methods to realize index generation functions using memories. A linear transformation is used to reduce the number of variables and thus memory size. An extension to the multiple-valued case is also presented.


RATIONALE
Acid aspiration causes acute lung injury (ALI). Recently, we showed that a brief intravascular infusion of hyperosmolar sucrose, given concurrently with airway acid instillation, effectively blocks the ensuing ALI.

OBJECTIVES
The objective of the present study was to determine the extent to which intravascular infusion of hyperosmolar sucrose might protect against acid-induced ALI when given either before or after acid instillation.

METHODS
Our studies were conducted in anesthetized rats and in isolated, blood-perfused rat lungs. We instilled HCl through the airway, and we quantified lung injury in terms of the extravascular lung water (EVLW) content, filtration coefficient (Kfc), and cell counts and protein concentration in the bronchoalveolar lavage. We infused hyperosmolar sucrose via the femoral vein.

RESULTS
In anesthetized rats, airway HCl instillation induced ALI as indicated by a 52% increase of EVLW and a threefold increase in Kfc. However, a 15-min intravenous infusion of hyperosmolar sucrose given up to 1 h before or 30 min after acid instillation markedly blunted the increases in EVLW, as well as the increases in cell count, and in protein concentration in the bronchoalveolar lavage. Hyperosmolar pretreatment also blocked the acid-induced increase of Kfc. Studies in isolated perfused lungs indicated that the protective effect of hyperosmolar sucrose was leukocyte independent.

CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that a brief period of vascular hyperosmolarity protects against acid-induced ALI when the infusion is administered shortly before, or shortly after, acid instillation in the airway. The potential applicability of hyperosmolar sucrose in therapy for ALI requires consideration.


Rainfall is one of climate elements that influence the spatial and temporal variation of plant cover in any region and, in particular, in the caatinga semiarid Northeast. Before this, there was a need to examine relations of seasonal rainfall in the semiarid region of the State of Pernambuco with classes of use and soil cover and changes in vegetation Index (NDVI) for Normalized Difference, using principal component analysis and remote sensing techniques, being these determinations the main goals of this work. Four images of the Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor, the satellite Landsat 5, dated 12/12/1991, 12/9/1996, 12/13/2003 and 11/27/2009, formed the experimental unit, whose variables were estimated using the algorithm Surface Energy Balance Algorithms for Land (SEBAL), in addition to the daily rainfall data of 1996 and 2009 and the series 1975 to 2010. The main results indicated that the amount and distribution of rain influenced on the surface temperature and the values of the indexes of reflection and NDVI, excelling by high recovery power plant, as the coverage that occurred in the year 1996, and expressed by the greatest value of NDVI. It is concluded that remote sensing techniques associated with those of main components were efficient to quantify the spatio-temporal variability of climate and vegetation index of the normalized difference of semiarid conditions.


This paper describes an integrated environment based on the object oriented methodology for real-time systems. The object oriented methodology is composed of six phases: requirements analysis, system analysis, system design, object design, implementation and testing. The OMT object model and use case model are used in the analysis phase, SDL-92 in the design phase and CHILL-96 in the implementation phase. To provide proper object oriented development support an integrated environment has been developed. This integrated environment provides seamless tool support from analysis to testing. Finally, experimental object oriented PABX is evaluated for the feasibility study.


Cochlear-implant (CI) users experience less success in understanding speech in noisy, real-world listening environments than normal-hearing (NH) listeners. Perceptual restoration is one method NH listeners use to repair noise-interrupted speech. Whereas previous work has reported that CI users can use perceptual restoration in certain cases, they failed to do so under listening conditions in which NH listeners can successfully restore. Providing increased opportunities to use top-down linguistic knowledge is one possible method to increase perceptual restoration use in CI users. This work tested perceptual restoration abilities in 18 CI users and varied whether a semantic cue (presented visually) was available prior to the target sentence (presented auditorily). Results showed that whereas access to a semantic cue generally improved performance with interrupted speech, CI users failed to perceptually restore speech regardless of the semantic cue availability. The lack of restoration in this population directly contradicts previous work in this field and raises questions of whether restoration is possible in CI users. One reason for speech-in-noise understanding difficulty in CI users could be that they are unable to use tools like restoration to process noise-interrupted speech effectively.


The authors report the case of a 53-year-old woman in whom a T1-T2 spinal arachnoid cyst with associated arachnoiditis developed, compressing the thoracic spinal cord 1 year after the patient had suffered a Hunt and Hess Grade IV subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH). Development of spinal arachnoiditis with or without an arachnoid cyst is a rare complication of aneurysmal SAH. Risk factors may include posterior circulation aneurysms, the extent and severity of the hemorrhage, and the need for cerebrospinal fluid diversion. Surgical drainage, shunt placement, or cyst excision, when possible, is the mainstay of treatment.


Abstract Using the conservation of mass concept, a novel controlled flow methodology based on a linear programing problem is developed for computing the optimal flow rates for a multi-exit evacuation network. In an emergency situation, the controlled flow design is able to track the values of the walkway density, the number of occupants in nodes and thus assures that the flow from adjacent sources to the source walkways is at their maximum level. Using the DTSP hall room of Universiti Sains Malaysia as a multi-exit network, a simulation of the flow shows that the source walkways are blocked when there is an uncontrolled flow. Hence, very few occupants can make their way into the intermediate walkways and exits. For the controlled flow, the values of occupant density in the source and intermediate walkways gradually approach the critical density, ensuring a maximum flow. The developed methodology is useful for the architects and disaster management authorities who are concerned with the evacuation of building facilities and can be used as a paradigm for future studies.


BACKGROUND
Little is known about the prognostic significance of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined and renal significance (MGUS and MGRS) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The objective of this study was to determine the clinical and kidney outcomes of patients with CKD with either MGUS or MGRS compared to those with CKD without MGUS or MGRS.

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective cohort study from 2013 to 2018. Patients who had both CKD diagnosis and monoclonal testing were identified. Patients were divided into MGRS, MGUS and no monoclonal gammopathy groups. Cumulative incidence functions and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to model time to event data and to evaluate the association between monoclonal gammopathy status and risk of kidney failure, with death treated as a competing risk.

RESULTS
Among 1,535 patients, 59 (4%) had MGRS, 648 (42%) had MGUS, and 828 (54%) had no monoclonal gammopathy. Univariable analysis showed that compared to patients with no monoclonal gammopathy, MGRS patients were at higher risk of kidney failure [HR (95% CI): 2.5 (1.5-4.2); P<0.001] but not MGUS patients [HR (95% CI): 1.3 (0.97-1.6); P=0.88], after taking death into account as a competing risk. However, in the multivariable analysis, after adjusting for age, sex, eGFR, proteinuria, and Charlson Comorbidity Index, the risk of progression to kidney failure (with death as competing risk) in the MGRS group was no longer statistically significant [HR: 0.9 (0.5-1.8); P=0.78]. The same was also true for the MGUS group compared to the group with no monoclonal gammopathy [HR: 1.3 (0.95, 1.6), p=0.11]. When evaluating the association between MGUS/MGRS status and overall survival, MGRS was a significantly associated with mortality in fully adjusted models compared to the group with no monoclonal gammopathy while MGUS was not.

CONCLUSIONS
After adjusting for traditional risk factors, MGUS/MGRS status was not associated with a greater risk of kidney failure, but MGRS was associated with a higher risk of mortality compared to patients with no monoclonal gammopathy.


Findings in the most recent salary survey (March 1982) of the College Placement Council indicate a confused picture of employment possibilities for this June's college graduates. The current economic slump has resulted in the postponement of hiring decisions by some employers, but the job market in the geosciences remains strong. Of the 18 fields surveyed, petroleum engineering graduates had the highest average starting salary offers: $30,432 annually. 'The physical and earth sciences' group led the scientific disciplines with average offers of $23,940 annually at the bachelor's degree level. At the master's degree level, graduates in geology and related geological sciences received an average offer of $28,836 annually. These salaries represent 8%–14% increases over the March 1981 salary offers.


The problem is to evaluate a polynomial in several variables and its gradient at a power series truncated to some finite degree with multiple double precision arithmetic. To compensate for the cost overhead of multiple double precision and power series arithmetic, data parallel algorithms for general purpose graphics processing units are presented. The reverse mode of algorithmic differentiation is organized into a massively parallel computation of many convolutions and additions of truncated power series. Experimental results demonstrate that teraflop performance is obtained in deca double precision with power series truncated at degree 152. The algorithms scale well for increasing precision and increasing degrees.


There is a need for technological computerized support systems to supplement the structure and process of communication within the multi-disciplinary design team rather than attempt to substitute it. Understanding technological effects on the design process requires focus not on the packages of hardware and software themselves but on the specific roles and social variables that are intrinsic to specialist interaction. The role of inter-professional relationships is important in collaboration towards increasingly technologically complex solutions, and neglect of these relations may lead to the failure of existing information technology systems to support adequately scientific and engineering interaction. Technological influences on the processes of participation come about as a result of design team member choice about what features of technology to use, not from the technology itself. Group dynamics influence choice. Software support systems in isolation, will be unable to instil the crossfertilisation of multi-disciplinary professional objectives required for innovative design. Research is presented that explores the nature of inter-disciplinary relationships in the UK building-design team at the formative stage. The research examines the extent to which the collaborative processes of building-design must be addressed if IT products and moves towards computer-integrated-construction are to succeed in facilitating innovative building and engineering output.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Pelvic-floor muscle (PFM) exercises are effective in reducing stress urinary incontinence (SUI), but few studies have investigated the effect of specific exercise variables on treatment outcomes. This study explored the effect of exercise position on treatment outcomes in women with SUI.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Forty-four women were randomly assigned to exercise in the supine position only or in both supine and upright positions. Bladder diary, pad test, urodynamic test, quality-of-life (Incontinence Impact Questionnaire [IIQ]), and PFM strength outcomes were obtained at baseline and after treatment.

RESULTS
Exercise position did not affect outcomes. After data from both groups were collapsed, statistically significant improvements with treatment were observed in bladder diary, IIQ, PFM strength, and urodynamic test results.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Exercise position did not differentially affect treatment outcomes. However, women in this study achieved a mean 67.9% reduction in the frequency of SUI episodes and improvements in other study outcomes.


Highly stable, room-temperature mid-IR, GaSb-based laser diodes have been characterized at various temperatures and driver currents. Up to 54 mW of output power was demonstrated in a 3150-3180-nm wavelength range with <20-nm FWHM spectral width.


ABSTRACT Generally, children love their pets. However, a deeper insight into the beneficial effects of pets on the physical, psychological, and social wellbeing and development of children is needed. This study investigated whether children have more intense relationships with animals which are behaviorally similar to humans (according to the scala naturae), and whether the relationship patterns between 11- to 14-year-old children (n = 72) and their pets differ from those in prepubescent children, between 6 and 10 years of age (n = 84). We also investigated whether pet-relationship quality is associated with children's age, gender, and number of siblings. Data about individual bonding type and attachment quality between the children and their pet were collected using a questionnaire. The results indicate that the younger children's relationships clearly co-varied with taxonomic order of the pet. In contrast, 11- to 14-year-old children reported similarly high scores of attachment with their mouse or iguana as with their dog or cat, and the relationship patterns did not co-vary with taxonomic order. Gender effects on relationship quality were found in both age groups; especially girls reported intense relationships with their pets. In addition to gender, children without siblings had stronger attachment to their pet than children who had siblings. Our data suggest that young children develop high-quality relationships with pets, particularly those which are taxonomically closely related, such as dogs and cats, and less so with other pet species, such as birds or fish. Older children were also able to strongly attach to other pet species. We argue that mental relationship representations change during puberty and that older (11- to 14-year-old) children may no longer make attachments to pets based on them being behaviorally similar to people.


Low-rank matrix approximations, such as the truncated singular value decomposition and the rank-revealing QR decomposition, play a central role in data analysis and scientific computing. This work surveys and extends recent research which demonstrates that randomization offers a powerful tool for performing low-rank matrix approximation. These techniques exploit modern computational architectures more fully than classical methods and open the possibility of dealing with truly massive data sets. This paper presents a modular framework for constructing randomized algorithms that compute partial matrix decompositions. These methods use random sampling to identify a subspace that captures most of the action of a matrix. The input matrix is then compressed---either explicitly or implicitly---to this subspace, and the reduced matrix is manipulated deterministically to obtain the desired low-rank factorization. In many cases, this approach beats its classical competitors in terms of accuracy, speed, and robustness. These claims are supported by extensive numerical experiments and a detailed error analysis.


We present the results of a theoretical study of the magnetic circuit of a longitudinal flux permanent-magnet synchronous linear generator. In our study, we used a coupled field and circuit model solved by a time-stepping finite-element technique to analyze the machine. We investigated the effects of different permanent-magnet shapes and sizes, as well as different stator steel geometries. We noted a significant difference in performance for different magnet shapes. Our results also illustrate how small changes, on a millimeter scale, will affect the flux path, and thereby the overall performance of the machine, highlighting the importance of stator steel geometry.


To analyze the clinical features and prognosis of fulminant Wilson's disease (FWD) in patients with hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection. Twenty-seven patients were enrolled in Guangzhou Eighth People's Hospital from 2005 to 2015, including 13 FWD patients with HBV infection and 14 FWD patients without HBV infection. Clinical efficacy and survival rate were evaluated. Baseline biochemical data in two groups were comparable(P>0.05), including total bilirubin, prothrombin activity, serum albumin, alpha fetal protein, alanine transaminase, ceruloplasmin and 24 hours urine copper .Treatment in FWD group with HBV infection was ineffective, including 9(9/13) deaths and 4(4/13) patients receiveing liver transplants. However, 7(7/14)cases in the other group did not response to the treatment, including 6(6/14)deaths and 1(1/14)patient receiving liver transplant. The prognosis in the two groups is significantly different(P=0.006), which is much worse in FWD patients with HBV infection.


Electrical image potentials can be important in small spaces, such as nanoscale pores in porous electrodes, which are used in capacitive desalination and in supercapacitors, as argued by Bazant's group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It will be shown here that inside pores in porous metallic materials the image potentials can be considerably larger than near flat walls, as a result of the fact that the dielectric constant for an electric field perpendicular to a wall is much smaller than the bulk dielectric constant of water. Calculations will be presented for the image potential in spherical and cylindrically shaped pores. The calculations for cylindrical pores can also be applied to nanotubes. It was believed for a long time, on the basis of molecular dynamics simulations, that in order to push a salt solution through a small radius nanotube, work must be done against the solvation energy of the ions, which is larger inside a narrow nanotube than it is in the bulk. The relatively large image charge potential energy in narrow nanotubes, however, tends to oppose this increase in the solvation energy. The degree to which the image potential facilitates the flow of the salt ions into nanotubes will be discussed.


This book argues that the viability of many observed market and non-market interventions in agricultural products worldwide depends considerably on the underlying behaviour of the relevant commodity markets. Many of these policies have had distortive impacts, resulting in much discussion and controversy in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round of trade negotiations.
Despite the long history of studies of commodity market behaviour, a number of issues remain unresolved. The authors review a wide range of these issues and provide a survey of current methodological and empirical research to increase our understanding of the nature of commodity markets. Price behaviour and the reliability of different prediction methods are examined and the particular implications for commodity dependent developing countries are also highlighted.


This state-of-the-art review research undertook a survey of a variety of studies regarding wiki-based collaborative writing projects and from this body of work extracted the best practices tenets of facilitation. Wiki-based collaborative writing projects are becoming more common in second language (L2) pedagogy. Such projects have multiple aims. These include, among other benefits, L2 acquisition, P2P learning, collaboration and immersion in new technologies that will inform the social and professional lives of the students. By mining a variety of wiki-based collaborative writing projects for the specific meta and secondary facilitation practices, the researchers were able to develop a general framework that will assist instructors of university or advanced high school students who wish to engage their students in such projects. The attributes of good facilitation that the researchers have isolated are by no means exhaustive, nor are they a guarantee of successful outcomes. These attributes do, however, provide a good starting point for any teacher or instructional designer who wants to provide an environment that fosters student satisfaction, motivation and learning.


Abstract Objectives. The objectives of this study were to determine the efficacy and safety of aripiprazole for treatment of psychosis, retention and abstinence in patients with methamphetamine dependence. Methods. This was a double-blind study where 37 methamphetamine dependent patients with history of psychosis were randomly assigned to receive aripiprazole (5–10 mg daily, N = 19) or placebo (N = 18) for 8 weeks. Follow-up evaluation was scheduled on day 7, 14, 28, 42 day 56 after enrolment. Results. Participants on aripiprazole were retained significantly longer in treatment (48.7 days, SD =4.0) compared to placebo (37.1 days, SD =5.0). The Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that participants on aripiprazole were less likely to drop out of the study than the placebo group (P =0.02, χ2 =5.3). Psychotic symptoms significantly decreased among those on aripiprazole as compared to placebo (P < 0.05). However, no statistically significance was found between the two groups in maintaining abstinence (generalised estimation equation (GEE) analysis, P = 0.41). No serious adverse events were reported in either group. Conclusion. Aripiprazole was no more effective than placebo in maintaining abstinence from methamphetamine use. However, it facilitated treatment retention and reduced the severity of psychotic symptoms. Aripiprazole was found to be generally safe and well tolerated.


The paper proposes a new implementation platform for parallel FFT called multi-core DSPs, which uses Serial RapidIO (SRIO) to achieve DSP-to-DSP communication and utilizes Enhanced Direct Memory Access (EDMA3) to realize core-to-core communication. The simulation results show this architecture not only effectively solves the bottleneck of system interconnection, but also greatly improves executing efficiency of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). Especially for large FFT points, this advantage is more obviously presented.


The chemical composition and antioxidative activity of kiwifruit varieties in Jeju, such as Jecy Gold (Actinidia chinensis var. 'Jecy Gold'), Halla Gold (A. chinensis var. 'Halla Gold'), Jecy Sweet (A. deliciosa var. 'Jecy Sweet') and Hwabuk 94 (A. deliciosa var. 'Hwabuk 94') were investigated. The crude protein, crude lipid, and pH showed no differences among variety and maturity whereas the moisture contents showed differences among the variety and maturity. Jecy Sweet in mature stage showed the highest values in soluble solid, crude protein, crude lipid, and crude ash. The changes in chemical components of kiwifruit by maturity stage were as follows: during ripening, the glucose and the fructose contents increased considerably with the decrease of sucrose content. Potassium, phosphorus, sodium, and magnesium were estimated as the major minerals in kiwifruit and Jecy Sweet contained the highest amounts of potassium and magnesium. At maturity stage, ascorbic, malic and lactic acid were increased with the decrease of citric acid content. The polyphenol contents were 26.81~56.10 ㎍/g and 8.64~26.45 ㎍/g, respectively, in immature and mature fruits. During ripening, the polyphenol content was decreased. The DPPH radical scavenging activity of methanol extracts were 84.47~89.37% and 43.94~76.96% at 500 ppm, respectively, in immature and mature fruits. The immature varieties of kiwifruit have a high DPPH radical scavenging activity. Therefore the chemical composition and physiological activity of kiwifruit was affected by variety and maturity.


We investigate a version of Yang–Mills theory by means of general connections. In order to deduce a basic equation, which we regard as a version of Yang–Mills equation, we construct a self-action density using the curvature of general connections. The most different point from the usual theory is that the solutions are given in pairs of two general connections. This enables us to get nontrivial solutions as general connections. Especially, in the quaternionic Hopf fibration over four-sphere, we demonstrate that there certainly exist nontrivial solutions, which are made by twisting the well-known BPST anti-instanton.


OBJECTIVE
The role of core beliefs in the psychopathology of eating disorders has been considered in recent years. Young (1994) hypothesized that unhealthy core beliefs originate from the experience from the first few years of life. The aim of the present study was to consider whether perceived parental bonding might explain the development of such beliefs in eating disordered women.

METHOD
The participants were 30 anorexics, 27 bulimics and 23 comparison women who completed measures of core beliefs and perceived parental bonding.

RESULTS
There were significant differences in perceived parental bonding behaviours across groups. The association between parental bonding and core beliefs were much stronger in the anorexic group than that in either the bulimic or the control group. In particular, a perceived low level of parental care was predictive of the presence of some unhealthy core beliefs in anorexic women.

CONCLUSION
Longitudinal research is needed to confirm these findings among anorexic and bulimic women. Clinically, these findings provide insight into the possible origins or core beliefs, and hence might aid their challenge in schema-focused cognitive therapy.


The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. The rapid transmission rate of the virus, as well as the lack of effective medications and vaccines, has posed serious challenges to controlling the spread of the disease. Dealing with this public health crisis has required major changes in people's behavior, including the adoption of social distancing measures such as avoiding meeting with family members and friends, crowded places, and public transportation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors associated with the adoption of these behaviors in China and Israel. We relied on the 3Cs model that has been used to predict the adoption of a specific preventive behavior (vaccinations) with the goal of testing its applicability to other preventive behaviors such as in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The model indicates that confidence in social institutions, complacency (fear of and assessments about the risk of becoming ill) and constraints (levels of self-efficacy and confidence in being able to engage in the behaviors) are predictors of adopting preventive behaviors. Data were collected in China and Israel through an online survey of the population (n = 1406). We used latent variables and structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses derived from the 3Cs model. The findings indicate that there are some differences in the types of preventive behaviors adopted in the two countries. In Israel, higher levels of confidence predicted the adoption of avoidant behaviors and more constraints predicted engaging in fewer avoidant behaviors. In China, more constraints also contributed to the adoption of fewer avoidant behaviors, but people's level of confidence fully mediated this result. The multi-group analysis indicated that the conceptualized model fits the Chinese and Israeli data reasonably well. The findings suggest that the 3Cs model can be generalized from getting vaccinated to adopting avoidant behaviors and that the model can be used across cultures and countries.


A Short History of Life Insurance. By Mildred A. Stone. Indianapolis: The Insurance Research and Review Service, 1942. Pp. 92. $1.25. The history of life insurance, particularly the history of American life insurance, remains to be written. The book by Terence O'Donnell is hardly more than a hodgepodge of notes and essays, that by Jack places too much emphasis on the ancient and medieval periods, and that by Burton J. Hendrick is of the muckraking variety. George S. Amrhein and Owen J. Stalson have come nearest to hitting the mark for the American scene, but the former puts all the stress on life-insurance law and the latter on marketing. Miss Stone adds little or nothing to our knowledge; she merely presents a brief—a very brief—survey. She barely recognizes the fact that life insurance emerged from a peculiar economic environment and makes no attempt to explain why and how it came into being. Nor does she describe the great role which life insurance has played in modern economics both as a means of sharing risks and of amassing capital for investment. What we need are economic histories of life insurance, not sales talks. But perhaps such histories cannot be written until individual companies make their stories known.


We show that the time reversal operator for a planar time reversal mirror (TRM) can have up to four distinct eigenvalues with a small spherical acoustic scatterer. Each eigenstate represents a resonance between the TRM and an induced scattering moment of the sphere. Their amplitude distributions on the TRM are orthogonal superpositions of the radiation patterns from a monopole and up to three orthogonal dipoles. The induced monopole moment is associated with the compressibility contrast between the sphere and the medium, while the dipole moments are associated with density contrast. The number of eigenstates is related to the number of orthogonal orientations of each induced multipole. For hard spheres (glass, metals) the contribution of the monopole moment to the eigenvalues is much greater than that of the dipole moments, leading to a single dominant eigenvalue. The other eigenvalues are much smaller, making it unlikely multiple eigenvalues could have been observed in previous experiments using hard materials. However, for soft materials such as wood, plastic, or air bubbles the eigenvalues are comparable in magnitude and should be observable. The presence of multiple eigenstates breaks the one-to-one correspondence between eigenstates and distinguishable scatterers discussed previously by Prada and Fink [Wave Motion 20, 151-163 (1994)]. However, eigenfunctions from separate scatterers would have different phases for their eigenfunctions, potentially restoring the ability to distinguish separate scatterers. Since relative magnitudes of the eigenvalues for a single scatterer are governed by the ratio of the compressibility contrast to the density contrast, measurement of the eigenvalue spectrum would provide information on the composition of the scatterer.


Underactuated manipulators are a class of robotic mechanisms where passive joints are present. By controlling only the motion of the active joints, it is possible to control the entire system. Our goal is to develop control schemes using both classical nonlinear and modem learning techniques for underactuated manipulators. To examine the validity of the approaches, we developed an experimental setup known as U-ARM, or underactuated robot manipulator. In this paper we present the hardware development, dynamic parameters, control software and experimental results of real-time control of the U-ARM.


Since August 1982, an extensive computerized data base has been developed on all patients admitted to the Division of Vascular Surgery at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. For each patient, 180 variables are recorded, including information about preoperative risk factors and postoperative complications. Since cardiac complications are a major cause of mortality and morbidity, the data file has been used to study postoperative cardiac complications in patients who undergo arterial reconstructive operations. Between August 1982 and December 1983, 353 artery repairs were performed, excluding ruptured aneurysms. Cardiac complications developed following surgery in 56 patients. Risk factors were initially studied using contingency table analysis. Four of these factors were found to be significant: electrocardiographic evidence of previous myocardial infarction (p = 0.0003), nonspecific ST-segment changes (p = 0.0007), New York Heart Association classification of symptoms (p = 0.0003) and age (p = 0.01). A further statistical study was based upon multiple logistic regression. The authors believe that the identification of a high-risk group, using these criteria, is helpful in selecting patients for intensive preoperative investigation, including coronary arteriography.


Abstract Surfclam (Spisula solidissima Dillwyn) larval settlement and the initial growth of recruits were studied on the inner shelf of New Jersey. Initial recruitment was measured by taking weekly benthic core samples during the summer settling season, and larval supply was characterized using meroplankton samples taken every four hours in July. The temporal variation in recruitment at two inshore stations (12-m depth) was linked to larval supply from the water column, and spatial differences (inshore vs. offshore) in recruitment also appeared to be related to larval supply. Spatial and temporal variation in larval concentrations was associated with wind-driven cross-shelf circulation. Contrasting recruitment patterns between the two inshore stations could not be explained by larval supply alone and were likely affected by near-bottom flows. Growth rates of initial surfclam recruits (with initial shell lengths <360 μm) were estimated to be 10–20 μm d−1, and the growth rates of individuals >360 μm shell length were 25–50 μm d−1. This study provides realistic field estimates of early growth rates of surfclams and further evidence of the relationship between upwelling/downwelling events and surfclam larval supply and initial recruitment on the inner continental shelf.


In recent years, the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industry has broadly expanded the use of Virtual Design and Construction (VDC), particularly Lean Construction methods, to deliver value to their customers. VDC includes the use of Production Management using Lean methods as an integral part of the defining theory and method, and multiple case studies have concluded that the greatest performance improvement is achieved by implementing both initiatives together. This paper reviews extensive literature of VDC and Lean Construction with the intent to show benefits in the application of Lean Construction in the actual practice of VDC and to provide examples of waste and opportunities for improvement in projects if Lean methods are applied. This study found that use of Lean methods can help to reduce waste within the VDC process, in the phase of information flow (process view). Specifically, our main finding from this study was that only five types of waste represent 80% of the referenced occurrence of waste in VDC processes, which suggests that if teams use Lean Methods and focus on elimination of these types of waste (i.e., motion (excess), inventory (excess), overproduction, waiting and employee knowledge (unused)), teams can improve VDC practices dramatically.


The present chapter examines lament as a lens on the intersections between narrative, affect, and culture. Laments form an integral part of mourning rituals, and they are also attested in a range of ordinary contexts associated with work and leisure (Seremetakis, 1991) or with the recounting of painful life experiences, more broadly (de la Breteque, 2013). So far, however, little attention has been paid to the discursive forms and norms that make laments amenable to new contexts beyond rituals of mourning. This study seeks to fill this gap by proposing an approach to laments as narrative practices embedded in other social and cultural practices (De Fina and Georgakopoulou, 2012; 2015). This approach is illustrated in the case of a lament performance in the context of ethnographic fieldwork in Inner Mani (South Peloponnese, Greece) and supplemented by relevant findings from the analysis of a corpus of 'treasured' lament fragments, included in an unpublished, manuscript collection of laments from the 1930s. The analysis reveals regularized patterning in the lament performance at different levels – the acoustic, ethnopoetic, and narrative - and points to the conventionalized use of discourse devices for creating intertextual chains of stances, performances, and texts. Importantly, this multi-level patterning is revealing of different social practices in which lament performances are embedded, indexing contexts of telling as well as cueing the degree of affective and temporal distance from the recounted events. Regularized patterning and its associated discourse devices are described, here, as markers of entextualization, i.e. as traces of trajectories of lament, revealing of their differential telling and affective positions they make available to (co)tellers and audiences. The proposed approach to laments invites a cross-context and multi-level analysis of verbal art performances and texts as narrative practices connecting past, present, and future affectively. It contributes to the understanding of discourse processes of sharing affect and culture through narrative practices.


A general control design approach for the stabilization of controllable driftless nonlinear systems on finite dimensional Lie groups is presented. The approach is based on the concept of bounded transverse functions, the existence of which is equivalent to the system's controllability. Its outcome is the practical stabilization of any trajectory, i.e., not necessarily a solution of the control system, in the state-space. The possibility of applying the approach to an arbitrary controllable smooth driftless system follows in turn from the fact that any controllable homogeneous approximation of this system can be lifted (via a dynamic extension) to a system on a Lie group. Illustrative examples are given.


Mitochondrial aconitase (mACON) contains a [4Fe‐4S] cluster as the key enzyme for citrate oxidation in the human prostatic epithelial cell. Although there is accumulating evidence indicating that accumulation of high levels of zinc in prostate epithelial cells causes reduced efficiency of citrate oxidation, zinc regulation on the mACON is still not well understood. From in vitro studies, zinc chloride treatment has been developed using humic acid as the carrier (Zn‐HA) in human prostatic carcinoma cells, PC‐3. Zn‐HA treatment (0.1–10 μM) restricts mACON enzymatic activity, which attenuates citrate utility and decreases intracellular ATP levels in PC‐3 cells, whereas the effect is blocked by adding the zinc chelator, diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA). Immunoblot, ribonuclease‐protection and transient gene‐expression assays indicate that Zn‐HA treatments inhibit mACON gene expression. Mutation of the putative metal response element (MRE) from CTCGCCTTCA to TGATCCTTCA abolishes Zn‐HA inhibition of mACON promoter activity. Our results have demonstrated that zinc possesses a specific regulatory mechanism on the mACON gene, and a biologic function of the putative metal regulatory system in mACON gene transcription has been identified. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Despite research that suggests flavonoids protect against metabolic syndrome (MetS) and evidence that intake of these compounds differs by race, knowledge about whether flavonoid–MetS associations vary among racial groups is limited. This study sought to estimate usual total flavonoid intake in African American and White adults and assess its sex- and sex/race-specific associations with MetS and its risk factors. Analysis of cross-sectional data from 1837 adults participating in the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study were analyzed. Usual total flavonoid intake was estimated using the NCI Method, and logistic regression measured its linkages with health outcomes. Among males overall and when stratified by race, odds of MetS and its risk factors low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and elevated glucose were lower at the 75th percentile of usual total flavonoid intake than at the 25th percentile (OR for MetS = 0.62; 95% CI = 0.53, 0.71). However, low HDL-C and elevated glucose were positively associated with usual flavonoid intake among females. The comparable associations by race within sex imply that the relationships between flavonoid and health outcomes may be evident across an array of intakes.


High-performance 0.55T MRI is promising for lung imaging due to the reduced susceptibility artifacts. However, high-resolution lung imaging is still challenged by low proton density and SNR. 3D spiral acquisitions can be used to improve SNR-efficiency, but these readouts are susceptible to trajectory errors and blurring from concomitant-fields, which are amplified at lower field strengths. Here we present a self-gated, ultra-short echo-time, stack-of-spirals acquisition which leverages rapid inline corrections for trajectory imperfections, trajectory dependent navigator signal fluctuations, and concomitant-fields to enable robust 1.75mm isotropic lung imaging at 0.55T. We also demonstrate our technique in healthy-volunteers, patients with lung-nodules and COVID-19.


A place to assist in locating Economics research resources A short video to describe the difference between scholarly and popular periodicals