Agelaia multipicta (Haliday) is a widespread swarm-founding social wasp found throughout most of Central America and tropical South America (Richards 1978) and one of 20 species of swarm-founding wasps found in Trinidad, West Indies (Starr and Hook 2003). As far as is known, its nests of several parallel combs are always built in cavities and without envelopes (Richards 1978). Vertebrate carrion is among A. multipicta 's main food sources (O'Donnell 1995; Moretti et al. 2011). Despite the extreme patchiness of this resource and its large colony sizes, there appears to be no food source communication among nest mates (Jeanne et al. 1995).


Micrometer-size graphene ribbons are generated by epitaxial growth on SiC substrates and contacted by electron beam lithography. The isolated graphene islands are patterned at nanometer scale by atomic force microscopy (AFM) under the application of an external polarization to the graphene layers. Contrary to previous reports, the patterning can be made at positive and negative polarizations and using significantly lower absolute voltages. The technique is used to tune the electrical resistance of the graphene ribbons. Combination of graphitization of SiC and AFM nanopatterning is, in consequence, a powerful approach for the fabrication of prototyped graphene-based nanoelectronic devices.


The authors analyzed the relationship between attachment dimensions (avoidance and anxiety) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms through the mediation of the mental strategies organization, that is, behavioral and intrapsychic strategies used to cope with traumatic events and symptoms, among a sample of war veterans. Sample was composed of Portuguese war veterans (N = 60): 30 veterans suffered from chronic PTSD (nonrecovered) and 30 veterans had remission from PTSD (recovered). Assessment of mental strategies was retrieved from 1 interview assessed by 3 judges, and attachment patterns and PTSD symptoms were assessed through self-report measures. Path coefficients of direct and total effects were estimated. Results showed lower mental strategies organization and higher attachment anxiety among nonrecovered participants. Indirect effect of attachment anxiety on PTSD symptoms through mental strategies was significant when no variable was entered as covariate. Indirect effect of attachment avoidance on PTSD symptoms through mental strategies organization was not significant. The authors discussed that the development of more mature mental strategies play a central role in working with veterans to cope with posttraumatic symptoms.


This study assesses the safety culture of oil/gas employees in Saudi Arabia to investigate factors deemed necessary to sustain satisfactory safety performance in multinational companies. Especially since the safety performance is unsatisfactory in high-risk hazardous worksites in Saudi Arabia. Sixteen percent of injuries, deaths, and accidents that occurred among the Saudi workforce were in manufacturing that includes oil/gas. According to [1], the safety culture is the core element that affects workers attitudes and behaviours that is also needed to sustain satisfactory safety performance. Research is also needed to understand factors that affect workers motivation, and monitors their safety behaviours. Thus, assessing oil/gas employees' safety performance is necessary to identify safety performance improvement measures and opportunities for oil/gas workers in multinational companies. The study develops two instruments, theoretical model and survey, which are grounded in safety culture literature. Results are beneficial to companies that employ workers in high-risk hazardous worksites.


ABSTRACT The development of cancer is a multistep process involving mutations in proto-oncogenes, tumor suppressor genes, and other genes which control cell proliferation, telomere stability, angiogenesis, and other complex traits. Despite this complexity, the cellular pathways controlled by the p53 tumor suppressor protein are compromised in most, if not all, cancers. In normal cells, p53 controls cell proliferation, senescence, and/or mediates apoptosis in response to stress, cell damage, or ectopic oncogene expression, properties which make p53 the prototype tumor suppressor gene. Defining the mechanisms of regulation of p53 activity in normal and tumor cells has therefore been a major priority in cell biology and cancer research. The present study reveals a novel and potent mechanism of p53 regulation originating through alternative splicing of the human p53 gene resulting in the expression of a novel p53 mRNA. This novel p53 mRNA encodes an N-terminally deleted isoform of p53 termed p47. As demonstrated within, p47 was able to effectively suppress p53-mediated transcriptional activity and impair p53-mediated growth suppression. It was possible to select for p53-null cells expressing p47 alone or coexpressing p53 in the presence of p47 but not cells expressing p53 alone. This showed that p47 itself does not suppress cell viability but could control p53-mediated growth suppression. Interestingly, p47 was monoubiquitinated in an Mdm2-independent manner, and this was associated with its export out of the nucleus. In the presence of p47, there was a reduction in Mdm2-mediated polyubiquitination and degradation of p53, and this was also associated with increased monoubiquitination and nuclear export of p53. The expression of p47 through alternative splicing of the p53 gene thus has a major influence over p53 activity at least in part through controlling p53 ubiquitination and cell localization.


Weed management is the most significant process in the agricultural applications to improve the crop productivity rate and reduce the herbicide application cost. Existing weed detection techniques does not yield better performance due to the complex background and illumination variation. Hence, there arises a need for the development of effective weed identification technique. To overcome this drawback, this paper proposes a novel Angular Texture Pattern (ATP) Extraction Method for crop and weed discrimination using curvelet transformation. In our proposed work, Adaptive Median Filter (AMF) is used for filtering the impulse noise from the image. Plant image identification is performed using green pixel extraction and K-means clustering. Wrapping based Curvelet transform is applied to the plant image. Feature extraction is performed to extract the angular texture pattern of the plant image. Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) based Differential Evolution Feature Selection (DEFS) approach is applied to select the optimal features. Then, the selected features are learned and passed through an RVM based classifier to find out the weed. Edge detection and contouring is performed to identify the weed in the plant image. Fuzzy rule-based approach is applied to detect the low, medium and high levels of the weed patchiness. From the experimental results, it is clearly observed that the accuracy of the proposed approach is higher than the existing Support Vector Machine (SVM) based approaches. The proposed approach achieves better performance in terms of Hausdorff distance, Jaccard distance, Dice distance, accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The contrast volume transfer coefficient (Ktrans), which reflects blood-brain barrier permeability, is influenced by circulation and measurement conditions. We hypothesized that focal low BBB permeability values can predict the spatial distribution of hemorrhagic transformation and global high BBB permeability values can predict the likelihood of hemorrhagic transformation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We retrospectively enrolled 106 patients with hemispheric stroke who received intra-arterial thrombolytic treatment. Ktrans maps were obtained with first-pass perfusion CT data. The Ktrans values at the region level, obtained with the Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score system, were compared to determine the differences between the hemorrhagic transformation and nonhemorrhagic transformation regions. The Ktrans values of the whole ischemic region based on baseline perfusion CT were obtained as a variable to hemorrhagic transformation possibility at the global level. RESULTS: Forty-eight (45.3%) patients had hemorrhagic transformation, and 21 (19.8%) had symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. At the region level, there were 82 ROIs with hemorrhagic transformation and parenchymal hemorrhage with a mean Ktrans, 0.5 ± 0.5/min, which was significantly lower than that in the nonhemorrhagic transformation regions (P < .01). The mean Ktrans value of 615 nonhemorrhagic transformation ROIs was 0.7 ± 0.6/min. At the global level, there was a significant difference (P = .01) between the mean Ktrans values of patients with symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (1.3 ± 0.9) and those without symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (0.8 ± 0.4). Only a high Ktrans value at the global level could predict the occurrence of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (P < .01; OR = 5.04; 95% CI, 2.01–12.65). CONCLUSIONS: Global high Ktrans values can predict the likelihood of hemorrhagic transformation or symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage at the patient level, whereas focal low Ktrans values can predict the spatial distributions of hemorrhagic transformation at the region level.


With recent concerns on CO2 emissions from coal fired electricity generation plants; there has been major emphasis on the development of safe and economical Carbon Dioxide Capture and Sequestration (CCS) technology worldwide. Saline reservoirs are attractive geological sites for CO2 sequestration because of their huge capacity for sequestration. Over the last decade, numerical simulation codes have been developed in U.S, Europe and Japan to determine a priori the CO2 storage capacity of a saline aquifer and provide risk assessment with reasonable confidence before the actual deployment of CO2 sequestration can proceed with enormous investment. In U.S, TOUGH2 numerical simulator has been widely used for this purpose. However at present it does not have the capability to determine optimal parameters such as injection rate, injection pressure, injection depth for vertical and horizontal wells etc. for optimization of the CO2 storage capacity and for minimizing the leakage potential by confining the plume migration. This paper describes the development of a "Genetic Algorithm (GA)" based optimizer for TOUGH2 that can be used by the industry with good confidence to optimize the CO2 storage capacity in a saline aquifer of interest. This new code including the TOUGH2 and the GA optimizer is designated as "GATOUGH2". It has been validated by conducting simulations of three widely used benchmark problems by the CCS researchers worldwide: (a) Study of CO2 plume evolution and leakage through an abandoned well, (b) Study of enhanced CH4 recovery in combination with CO2 storage in depleted gas reservoirs, and (c) Study of CO2 injection into a heterogeneous geological formation. Our results of these simulations are in excellent agreement with those of other researchers obtained with different codes. The validated code has been employed to optimize the proposed water-alternating-gas (WAG) injection scheme for (a) a vertical CO2 injection well and (b) a horizontal CO2 injection well, for optimizing the CO2 sequestration capacity of an aquifer. These optimized calculations are compared with the brute force nearly optimized results obtained by performing a large number of calculations. These comparisons demonstrate the significant efficiency and accuracy of GATOUGH2 as an optimizer for TOUGH2. This capability holds a great promise in studying a host of other problems in CO2 sequestration such as how to optimally accelerate the capillary trapping, accelerate the dissolution of CO2 in water or brine, and immobilize the CO2 plume.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Are you ready to create musical masterpieces with Reason 2.5? If you've always wanted to try Reason but didn't know where to begin, "Reason 2.5 Ignite!" will walk you through its creative possibilities. Through a multitude of examples and clear illustrations, you'll cover the main features and functions of Reason. Take control of the synths, samplers, effects, and other devices that make up Reason, connect them, and expand them so you can turn your computer into a music making machine! Never missing a beat, "Reason 2.5 Ignite!" takes you through every step-from setting up your computer to run Reason 2.5 through enabling Reason for remote control and synchronizing it to another computer. Ignite your music with the power of Reason! Features Easy-to-follow explanations of features that would typically confuse readers. Reason 2.5 Ignite! contains many large screenshots with numbered callouts explaining what is happening in the illustration. The book will flow in a manner that will act like building blocks for the readers- making sure they know enough before moving on to the next step. Reason 2.5 Ignite! stays directly on topic - explaining how to learn Reason quickly and use it to become more productive immediately.


A novel edge-based active contour model (ACM) is proposed in this paper. Our edge-based active contour model has many advantages over the conventional active contour models. Firstly, the proposed model can get much smoother contour and needs much less iterations to evolution by being implemented with a special processing named Selectively Binary and Gaussian Filtering Regularized Level Set (SBGFRLS) method. Secondly, we introduce Bilateral Gaussian Filter which can preserve edges to smooth images. So we make weak edges more clear than traditional Gaussian Filter. Thirdly, the level set function can be easily initialized with binary function, which is more efficient to construct than the widely used signed distance function (SDF) because of the special processing. Experiments on synthetic image and segmenting liver from abdominal CT images demonstrate the advantages of the proposed method over geodesic active contours (GAC) in term of both efficiency and accuracy.


Red phosphorus (RP) is a promising anode material for potassium-ion batteries because of its theoretical capacity of 865mAhg–1 delivered at an average potential of 0.5V vs K+/K. However, its alloy reactionto form KP entails a volume expansion of 162% resulting in severe stresses that lead to SEI and electrode fracture, loss of electric contact, and ultimately reduced cycle life. Moreover, its low electronic conductivity (10-14 Scm–1) limits rate capability. Here, we report a RP-graphite composite prepared by a two step ball milling procedure to control particle size and optimize carbon coating. Electrodes prepared with the composites achieve high capacity (723mAhg–1) at C/20 and retaining 75% at 5C. It also shows very good cycling stability, retaining more than 96% of the capacity after 100 cycles at 1C.


Background The pathogenesis of myocardial infarction complicating depression is still not fully understood. Bioinformatics is an effective method to study the shared pathogenesis of multiple diseases and has important application value in myocardial infarction complicating depression. Methods The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between control group and myocardial infarction group (M-DEGs), control group and depression group (D-DEGs) were identified in the training set. M-DEGs and D-DEGs were intersected to obtain DEGs shared by the two diseases (S-DEGs). The GO, KEGG, GSEA and correlation analysis were conducted to analyze the function of DEGs. The biological function differences of myocardial infarction and depression were analyzed by GSVA and immune cell infiltration analysis. Four machine learning methods, nomogram, ROC analysis, calibration curve and decision curve were conducted to identify hub S-DEGs and predict depression risk. The unsupervised cluster analysis was constructed to identify myocardial infarction molecular subtype clusters based on hub S-DEGs. Finally, the value of these genes was verified in the validation set, and blood samples were collected for RT-qPCR experiments to further verify the changes in expression levels of these genes in myocardial infarction and depression. Results A total of 803 M-DEGs, 214 D-DEGs, 13 S-DEGs and 6 hub S-DEGs (CD24, CSTA, EXTL3, RPS7, SLC25A5 and ZMAT3) were obtained in the training set and they were all involved in immune inflammatory response. The GSVA and immune cell infiltration analysis results also suggested that immune inflammation may be the shared pathogenesis of myocardial infarction and depression. The diagnostic models based on 6 hub S-DEGs found that these genes showed satisfactory combined diagnostic performance for depression. Then, two molecular subtypes clusters of myocardial infarction were identified, many differences in immune inflammation related-biological functions were found between them, and the hub S-DEGs had satisfactory molecular subtypes identification performance. Finally, the analysis results of the validation set further confirmed the value of these hub genes, and the RT-qPCR results of blood samples further confirmed the expression levels of these hub genes in myocardial infarction and depression. Conclusion Immune inflammation may be the shared pathogenesis of myocardial infarction and depression. Meanwhile, hub S-DEGs may be potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and molecular subtype identification of myocardial infarction and depression.


BACKGROUND
Despite the longer duration of the depressive phase in bipolar disorder and the frequent clinical use of antidepressants combined with antipsychotics or mood stabilizers, relatively few controlled studies have examined treatment strategies for bipolar depression.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the use of olanzapine and olanzapine-fluoxetine combination in the treatment of bipolar I depression.

DESIGN
Double-blind, 8-week, randomized controlled trial.

SETTING
Eighty-four sites (inpatient and outpatient) in 13 countries. Patients A total of 833 randomized adults with bipolar I depression with a Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) score of at least 20. Intervention Patients were randomly assigned to receive placebo (n = 377); olanzapine, 5 to 20 mg/d (n = 370); or olanzapine-fluoxetine combination, 6 and 25, 6 and 50, or 12 and 50 mg/d (n = 86).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Changes in MADRS total scores using mixed-effects model repeated-measures analyses.

RESULTS
During all 8 study weeks, the olanzapine and olanzapine-fluoxetine groups showed statistically significant improvement in depressive symptoms vs the placebo group (P<.001 for all). The olanzapine-fluoxetine group also showed statistically greater improvement than the olanzapine group at weeks 4 through 8. At week 8, MADRS total scores were lower than at baseline by 11.9, 15.0, and 18.5 points in the placebo, olanzapine, and olanzapine-fluoxetine groups, respectively. Remission criteria were met by 24.5% (87/355) of the placebo group, 32.8% (115/351) of the olanzapine group, and 48.8% (40/82) of the olanzapine-fluoxetine group. Treatment-emergent mania (Young Mania Rating Scale score <15 at baseline and > or =15 subsequently) did not differ among groups (placebo, 6.7% [23/345]; olanzapine, 5.7% [19/335]; and olanzapine-fluoxetine, 6.4% [5/78]). Adverse events for olanzapine-fluoxetine therapy were similar to those for olanzapine therapy but also included higher rates of nausea and diarrhea.

CONCLUSIONS
Olanzapine is more effective than placebo, and combined olanzapine-fluoxetine is more effective than olanzapine and placebo in the treatment of bipolar I depression without increased risk of developing manic symptoms.


This paper analyses the effect of task duplication on the assignment of task dependency graphs onto concurrent processor systems. It presents a scheme to augment work-greedy assignment schemes with task duplication. Such augmentation results in a time-complexity increase which is well below that of comparable assignment schemes with task duplication. The paper shows empirical results comparing the augmented assignment schemes.


A multitude of instruments exist to assess dietary intake. Many, however, are time-consuming to administer, focus primarily on macronutrient composition or the effects of specific micronutrients, and do not consider the effects of foods and drinks that fail to add significant nutritional contributions (e.g. energy drinks, chewing gum). In order to address these issues the current paper introduces the Diet and Behaviour Scale (DABS). This 29-item questionnaire is used to measure both the frequency and amount of consumption of common foods and drinks, with a particular onus on functional foods and dietary variables of current concern. The DABS was administered to a large cohort of secondary school children from the South West of England at two time-points. At Time 1 (December, 2012) the cohort consisted of 3071 pupils, 2030 of whom responded to the questionnaire; at Time 2 (June, 2013) 3323 pupils made up the cohort, and 2307 completed the questionnaire. Factor analysis yielded a four-factor solution labelled Junk Food, Caffeinated Soft Drinks/Gum, Healthy Foods, and Hot Caffeinated Beverages. When investigating how these factors were related to demographic and lifestyle variables, Chi-square analyses uncovered the following relationships: being male was associated with high Junk Food intake; sleeping for fewer hours than average, achieving low school attendance, and having poor general health were associated with high intake of Caffeinated Soft Drinks/Gum; lower school year, more sleep, more frequent exercise, and good general health were associated with high intake of Healthy Foods; and being male, having a special educational needs status, reporting fewer hours of sleep, and being in an older school year were associated with a high intake of Hot Caffeinated Beverages. Whilst controlling for demographic and lifestyle variables, logistic regression analyses determined that poor general health was predicted by high consumption of Caffeinated Soft Drinks/Gum and low consumption of Healthy Foods. Though additional studies are required to further test the questionnaire and its associated factor structure, the DABS is considered to be a useful self-report measure of certain aspects of dietary intake, and is proposed as a useful tool for future research investigating dietary influences on psychological variables such as mental wellbeing.


The driving force for the semiconductor industry growth has been the elegant scaling nature of CMOS technology. In future CMOS technology generations, supply and threshold voltages will have to continually scale to sustain performance increase, control switching power dissipation, and maintain reliability. These continual scaling requirements on supply and threshold voltages pose several technology and circuit design challenges. With threshold voltage scaling sub-threshold leakage power is expected to become a significant portion of the total power in future CMOS systems. Therefore, it becomes crucial to predict sub-threshold leakage power of such systems. In this paper, we present a sub-threshold leakage power prediction model that takes into account within-die threshold voltage variation. Statistical measurements of 32-bit microprocessors in 0.18 mm CMOS confirms that the mean error of the model to be 4%. Comparisons of this model to two other existing models that do not take within-die threshold voltage variation into account are also presented.


PURPOSE
Breath analysis has a potential prospect to benefit the medical field based on its perceived advantages to become a point-of-care, easy to use, and cost-effective technology. Early studies done by mass spectrometry show that volatile organic compounds from human breath can represent certain disease states of our bodies, such as lung cancer, and revealed the potential of breath analysis. But mass spectrometry is costly and has slow-turnaround time. The authors' goal is to develop a more portable and cost effective device based on Raman spectroscopy and hollow core-photonic crystal fiber (HC-PCF) for breath analysis.

METHODS
Raman scattering is a photon-molecular interaction based on the kinetic modes of an analyte which offers unique fingerprint type signals that allow molecular identification. HC-PCF is a novel light guide which allows light to be confined in a hollow core and it can be filled with a gaseous sample. Raman signals generated by the gaseous sample (i.e., human breath) can be guided and collected effectively for spectral analysis.

RESULTS
A Raman-cell based on HC-PCF in the near infrared wavelength range was developed and tested in a single pass forward-scattering mode for different gaseous samples. Raman spectra were obtained successfully from reference gases (hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide gases), ambient air, and a human breath sample. The calculated minimum detectable concentration of this system was ∼15 parts per million by volume, determined by measuring the carbon dioxide concentration in ambient air via the characteristic Raman peaks at 1286 and 1388 cm(-1).

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study were compared to a previous study using HC-PCF to trap industrial gases and backward-scatter 514.5 nm light from them. The authors found that the method presented in this paper has an advantage to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). This SNR advantage, coupled with the better transmission of HC-PCF in the near-IR than in the visible wavelengths led to an estimated seven times improvement in the detection sensitivity. The authors' prototype device also demonstrated a 100-fold improvement over a recently reported detection limit of a reflective capillary fiber-based Raman cell for breath analysis. Continued development is underway to increase the detection sensitivity further to reach practical clinical applications.


The present investigation is to assess the antiulcer activity by utilizing natural remedy Lagenaria siceraria. The chloroform extract of Lagenaria siceraria treated groups demonstrates a huge impact when related to controller group animals. The acute toxicity study for chloroform extract of Lagenaria siceraria indicates that, it is harmless till 400 mg/kg body weight. The chloroform extract of Lagenaria siceraria at 250 mg/ kg dose has shown mucosal erosion, the partial healing of ulcer with few inflammatory cells and the dose 400 mg/kg has shown healing ulcer, mucosa and no inflammation of cells. Lagenaria siceraria extracts reported to own antioxidant activity and to contain various types of compounds such as flavonoids, saponins and tannins. The gastro protective effect exhibited by chloroform extract Lagenaria siceraria is speculated to be recognized for its antioxidant property, which in turn could be linked to existence of flavonoids and polyphenolic compounds, saponins and tannins. These compounds most likely inhibit gastric mucosal injury. The chloroform extract of Lagenaria siceraria treated groups illustrate a major effect when related to control group animals which shows that the plant containing antiulcer action.


This article compares male and female anglers' motivations and ethics for recreational fishing. Results are derived from a 2000–2001 survey of Minnesota anglers. Men reported higher involvement in fishing than women did. Women rated motivations related to catching fish for food higher than men did. Men rated developing skills and catching trophy fish higher than women did. Men agreed more with ethics related to catch-and-release fishing. Opinions about regulations and actual fishing behavior reflected each gender's motivations and ethics. Men were more supportive of regulations like lower bag limits, fees for catching more fish, and catch-and-release fishing. Women more frequently kept all the legal fish that they caught and kept larger fish over smaller fish. Men more frequently released all the fish that they caught and kept smaller fish over larger fish. These findings can help managers understand gender differences in recreational fishing.


This paper analyzes the possible effects of the hypothetical introduction in Italy of a voucher program similar to the French CESU (Cheque Emploi Service Universel). After shortly discussing the rationale for public policies aimed at providing support to worklife balance, we introduce the possible role of vouchers in financing demand for such services. We remark that the CESU (together with similar programs currently run in the UK and in Belgium) set a new paradigm for social policy: the public financing takes the form of tax allowances and public funds are available under the condition that private money is spent on specific merit goods/services. We use a micro-simulation model in order to assess the impact of this program on family and firm budgets and on public finances in Italy. We find that these effects are substantial and that in the Italian tax system the issue of tax allowance exhaustion is crucial.


The main goal of Transmission Network Expansion Planning (TNEP) is determination of the number, time and location of new lines to be added to transmission network. Up to now, different methods have been used to solve the static TNEP (STNEP). In most of them, this problem is implemented regardless of power loss and the uncertainty in the load demand. With respect to the importance of these two parameters (loss and uncertainty) and their key role in an effective and precise planning, the evaluation and solution of STNEP using more efficient methods can be very useful. Hence, in this paper, a new method named Improved Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization (IDPSO) is employed for the solution of STNEP problem considering simultaneously the loss and uncertainty in load demand. Finally, the proposed approach is applied to the real transmission network of Azerbaijan Regional Electrical Company located in northwest of Iran. Comparison of the results obtained from the proposed method with those of Discrete Particle Swarm Optimization (DPSO) approach verifies the effectiveness and accuracy of the method in STNEP problem.


Abstract:The SOE (state-owned enterprise) sector provides an important avenue to political power in China. A number of SOE executives are members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and often they change career tracks to become leading government and Party officials. In the past, the oil and gas sector was a significant recruitment basis for government and Party leaders. However, in recent years, the aerospace sector has become more dominant. This is a result of the anti-corruption campaign which has, in particular, targeted the oil sector, and also reflects the emergence of new sectors and social groups due to changing political and socio-economic conditions of Chinese society. The oil and gas industry is an old industry associated with China's heavy-industrial growth model of the past, whereas aerospace represents China's technological future.


Wilson. M. R. Title The Logic of Evangelism Lutheran Churches in the World: A Handbook Shalom: Biblical Perspectives on Creation, Justice and Peace Understanding and Nurturing the Missionary Family Awakening to Mission: The Philippine Catholic Church, 1965-1981 Paths of Duty: American Missionary Wives in Nineteenth-Century Hawaii Treasures Old and New: Interpretations of "Spirit-Baptism'' in the Charismatic Renewal Movement From Every People: A Handbook of Two-Thirds World Missions with Directory/Histories/Analy sis No Longer Strangers: Selected Writings of K H. Ting Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith Price $ 12.95 32.95


This paper presents an image-segmentation method which compensates multiplicative distortions based on smooth regularity assumptions. In this work, we generalize the original Chan-Vese functional to handle a continuous multiplicative bias. In the derivation of our model, we show that the optimal correction function is necessarily a spline, which we express in terms of discrete coefficients. Following an iterative technique, we propose to find the solution by an alternate optimization of this map and of the segmented domains. In order to maximize the overall efficiency, graph cuts are combined with a specifically designed multigrid algorithm. Our experiments demonstrate the relevance of our approach for biomedical data.


Ewing's sarcoma (ES) is a small round cell tumor of adolescents or young adults that usually arises in the deep soft tissues of the extremities. The tumor cells have uniform round nuclei, fine powdery chromatin and indistinct nucleoli. CD99 (O13) is a product of the MIC 2 gene that is highly sensitive to ES but not specific. A panel of markers should be used for the differential diagnosis of small round cell tumors because nearly all others, on occasion, show membranous staining for CD99. One of the defining feature of ES is the presence of 22q12 gene rearrangement. The presented case is a 6 year-old boy complaining of swelling on his right leg. The biopsy was compatible with classic ES in terms of histopathological, immunohistochemical and cytogenetic criteria. Wide surgical resection was performed after chemotherapy. The posttreatment specimen was composed of uniformly small round cells mixed with areas of ganglion cells embedded in neurophil-like fibrillary background. Immunohistochemically, neoplastic cells revealed strong CD99 (O13) and NSE staining and the tumor had EWSR1 gene rearrangement. Morphologic alterations due to treatment are commonly seen in pediatric tumors. Single case reports have defined neural differentiation in ES but to the best of our knowledge this is the first report of ES in the literature with all histopathological, immunohistochemical, and cytogenetic criteria evaluated in both pretreatment and posttreatment specimens.


A microwave irradiated high-speed and classical synthesis of benzylidene acetyl pyrroles involving Claisen-Schimidt condensation reaction using solid basic alumina under microwave irradiation (MWI) is described. All compounds show antibacterial and antifungal activities when compared with standard drug Norfloxacin and Griseofulvine against Bacterial cultures such as E. coli, Pseudomonus aeruginosa, S. aureus, Proteus vulgaris and fungal cultures Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans. The synthesized compounds are characterized by FTIR, 1H NMR elemental and chemical properties.


We quantify the importance of dynamical spin effects in the holographic light-front wavefunctions of the pion, kaon, $\ensuremath{\eta}$ and ${\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$. Using a universal AdS/QCD scale and constituent quark masses, we find that such effects are maximal in the pion where they lead to an excellent simultaneous description of a wide range of data: the decay constant, charge radius, spacelike EM and transition form factors, as well as, after QCD evolution, both the parton distribution function and the parton distribution amplitude data from Fermilab. These dynamical spin effects lead up to a 30% chance of finding the valence quark and antiquark with aligned spins in the pion. The situation is very different for the kaon, where a simultaneous description of the available data (decay constant, radius and spacelike EM form factor) prefer no dynamical spin effects at all. The situation is less clear for the $\ensuremath{\eta}$ and ${\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$: while their radiative decay widths data are consistent with dynamical spin effects only in ${\ensuremath{\eta}}^{\ensuremath{'}}$, the data on their spacelike transition form factors clearly favor maximal dynamical spin effects in both mesons.


The CSIRO Mk3L climate system model, a reduced-resolution coupled general circulation model, has previously been described in this journal. The model is configured for millennium scale or multiple century scale simulations. This paper reports the impact of replacing the relatively simple land surface scheme that is the default parameterisation in Mk3L with a sophisticated land surface model that simulates the terrestrial energy, water and carbon balance in a physically and biologically consistent way. An evaluation of the new model's near-surface climatology highlights strengths and weaknesses, but overall the atmospheric variables, including the near-surface air temperature and precipitation, are simulated well. The impact of the more sophisticated land surface model on existing variables is relatively small, but generally positive. More significantly, the new land surface scheme allows an examination of surface carbon-related quantities including net primary productivity which adds significantly to the capacity of Mk3L. Overall, results demonstrate that this reduced-resolution climate model is a good foundation for exploring long time scale phenomena. The addition of the more sophisticated land surface model enables an exploration of important Earth System questions including land cover change and abrupt changes in terrestrial carbon storage. Correspondence to: S. J. Phipps (firstname.lastname@example.com)


Five different underground drinking water samples were collected during the year 2006 from different India Mark II hand pumps of public places at Moradabad (Uttar Pradesh, India). Nine different trace metals in all the water sample were estimated by ICP-AES technique using Varian Liberty II ICPOES and the data was compared with drinking water quality standards prescribed by W.H.O. for trace metals. The drinking water was found to be excessively contaminated with manganese as well as iron invariably at all the sites of study. The water was deficient of magnesium, a micro-nutrient at all the sites except at site No. IV and V. Lead and cadmium metal concentration was within desirable limits, however, copper was found to be absent at all the sites except at site No. III, where it was below the toxic limit. The drinking water is not contaminated with three toxic metals- chromium, cobalt and nickel as they were found to be below the detection limit and reported as ND. People exposed to waters of contaminated drinking water sites are prone to health hazards of metal toxicity and water quality management is urgently needed in the catchment area of study.


Wet electrostatic precipitators (WESPs) are considered to be a possible technology for the control of sulfuric acid mist. The performance of a lab-scale WESP was investigated as a precipitator for sulfuric acid aerosol droplets produced under controlled conditions in a pilot plant. It was found that for higher levels of residual SO2 in the flue gas, WESP collection efficiencies were greatly reduced due to aerosol formation inside the WESP. Investigations showed a strong correlation of aerosol emission from the WESP with incoming SO2 concentration and operating voltage. It is suspected that the reactive species produced in the nonthermal plasma of the corona discharge oxidize the SO2 to SO3 which forms sulfuric acid. This causes supersaturation with subsequent homogeneous nucleation and thus aerosol formation. Copyright 2015 American Association for Aerosol Research


OBJECTIVE. In this study we examined firearm storage patterns and their associations in a diverse sample of families who attended pediatric practices from both rural and nonrural areas across the United States. METHODS. Parents who brought their children who were aged 2 to 11 years (N = 3745) to 96 Pediatric Research in Office Settings practices from 45 states, Canada, and Puerto Rico participated in an office-based survey before a well-child examination. The survey measured demographic variables; family history of guns in the home; and firearm types, storage behaviors, and ownership. RESULTS. Twenty-three percent of families reported firearm ownership. The majority (60%) of respondents reported making firearm storage decisions. Only one third of firearm owners reported safe firearm storage. Gun type owned was associated with storage habits, with long-gun owners storing their gun in places other than locked cabinets but with ammunition separate from guns and handgun users more likely to store guns loaded and to use gun locks. In a multivariate analysis, not being raised with a firearm was associated with safe storage behaviors. Families who had children aged 2 to 5 years and owned long guns were more likely to store their guns safely than families with older children. CONCLUSIONS. Few families reported safe firearm storage. Storage patterns are most influenced by firearm type(s) owned, family socialization with guns, and the age of the child. Primary care providers need to understand better not only whether firearms are in the home but also which types are present and whether parents were raised in homes with guns.


Abstract Law, broadly defined to include group-directed rulemaking and coercion, has plainly grown over time. There are many explanations for this growth, and the evolution from self-help to law. This Article develops the idea that an important contributor to the growth of law has been the fact that law begets law, and it seeks to combine this new explanation with both traditional and more intuitive explanations for law's expansion. That law brings on more law in an addictive way means that a society finds itself with laws, rather than personal interactions, in ways that it would have wished to avoid had it known earlier in time that law's spectacular growth was in the making. The growth of law is thus much more than a product of specialization or wealth effects. For a variety of reasons, people prefer to avoid personal confrontation and to outsource their means of social control. This Article suggests that much of this addictive growth is inefficient and otherwise undesirable. The addiction might be controlled by rewarding some kinds of personal involvement in order to overcome the inclination to outsource.


Although store brands SBs are becoming increasingly important across the world, their success varies dramatically across consumer packaged goods categories and countries. The purpose of this paper is to provide insight into how such differences in SB success originate. Using a unique data set that combines scanner data for a three-to five-year period with consumer survey data n = 20,987 for scores of food, household care, and personal care categories from 23 countries around the world, we identify cross-national regularities as to the role of nine manufacturer and retailer factors in explaining SB market share. For each manufacturer and retailer factor, we determine whether it can be part of a global integration strategy, whether it can be included in a local adaptation strategy, or whether it is a candidate for worldwide learning. Our findings have important implications for national brand manufacturers and retailers.


Drug development based on the antipsychotic drug thioridazine may lead to treatments for metastatic medulloblastoma without compromising quality of life. Medulloblastoma is a common pediatric brain cancer with few treatment options. Huang et al. found that a clinically approved antipsychotic drug that inhibits the potassium ion channel EAG2 may slow medulloblastoma growth and progression. Transcript analysis of medulloblastoma patient tissue revealed greater EAG2 expression in metastatic lesions and less KCNT2 expression in a subtype of the primary tumor. Pathway analysis of transcriptomic profiles from human medulloblastoma cell lines revealed that loss of EAG2 was associated with impaired kinase signaling, mitotic cell cycling, and cell survival. Cells in which EAG2 was knocked down had less abundance of KCNT2, a potassium channel that is activated by intracellular sodium and chloride. Knocking down or pharmacologically inhibiting KCNT2 slowed tumor growth and prolonged survival of mice bearing human medulloblastoma xenografts. Manipulating EAG2 and KCNT2 expression in medulloblastoma or COS7 cells revealed that EAG2 and KCNT2 decreased cell volume at different stages in the cell cycle, enabling mitotic progression and cell morphology changes. Knocking down EAG2 in human medulloblastoma cells before implantation into mice prevented dissemination and metastasis. EAG2 abundance was enriched at the trailing edge of migrating cells, and EAG2 knockdown or pharmacological inhibition with the antihistamine drug astemizole reduced cell motility and impaired polarization and rear contraction. Through a drug screen, the authors found that the clinically approved antipsychotic thioridazine reduced the proliferation and migration of medulloblastoma cells in culture. Intraperitoneal injection of thioridazine induced regression of the primary tumor and prevented metastasis in mice bearing established medulloblastoma cell line–derived xenograft cranial tumors that had a high abundance of EAG2. In a patient with widespread metastatic medulloblastoma receiving palliative chemotherapy, treatment with thioridazine induced regression in an iliac lesion that exhibited high EAG2 abundance. Although there were no adverse cardiac effects, prolonged thioridazine triggered severe emotional instability and depression that required cessation of the therapy. Thus, repurposing thioridazine for medulloblastoma effectively treats the tumor, but further drug development to target EAG2 is needed to treat the tumor without damaging the patient's quality of life. X. Huang, Y. He, A. M. Dubuc, R. Hashizume, W. Zhang, J. Reimand, H. Yang, T. A. Wang, S. J. Stehbens, S. Younger, S. Barshow, S. Zhu, M. K. Cooper, J. Peacock, V. Ramaswamy, L. Garzia, X. Wu, M. Remke, C. M. Forester, C. C. Kim, W. A. Weiss, C. D. James, M. A. Shuman, G. D. Bader, S. Mueller, M. D. Taylor, Y. N. Jan, L. Y. Jan, EAG2 potassium channel with evolutionarily conserved function as a brain tumor target. Nat. Neurosci. 18, 1236–1246 (2015). [PubMed]


Simulations within the density functional theory framework clarify the microscopic mechanism responsible for the initial stage of graphene formation on the SiC(0001) surface. Favorable reaction pathways for the desorption of either Si or C atoms from the stepped surface have been found by determining the desorption and the subsequent migration pathways, quantified in terms of the corresponding energy barriers for the first time. We find that the energy barrier for the desorption of an Si atom at the step edge and the subsequent migration toward stable terrace sites is lower than that of a C atom by 0.75 eV, indicative of the selective desorption of Si from the SiC surface. We also find that the subsequent Si desorption is an exothermic reaction. This exothermicity comes from the energy gain due to the bond formation of C atoms being left near the step edges. This is likely to be a seed of graphene flakes.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) remains a deadly cancer, underscoring the need for relevant preclinical models. Male C3HeB/FeJ mice model spontaneous HCC with some hepatocarcinogenesis susceptibility loci corresponding to syntenic regions of human chromosomes altered in HCC. We tested other properties of C3HeB/FeJ tumors for similarity to human HCC. C3HeB/FeJ tumors were grossly visible at 4 months of age, with prevalence and size increasing until about 11 months of age. Histologic features shared with human HCC include hepatosteatosis, tumor progression from dysplasia to poorly differentiated, vascular invasion, and trabecular, oncocytic, vacuolar, and clear cell variants. More tumor cells displayed cytoplasmic APE1 staining versus normal liver. Ultrasound effectively detected and monitored tumors, with 85.7% sensitivity. Over 5000 genes were differentially expressed based on the GSE62232 and GSE63898 human HCC datasets. Of these, 158 and 198 genes, respectively, were also differentially expressed in C3HeB/FeJ. Common cancer pathways, cell cycle, p53 signaling and other molecular aspects, were shared between human and mouse differentially expressed genes. We established eigengenes that distinguish HCC from normal liver in the C3HeB/FeJ model and a subset of human HCC. These features extend the relevance and improve the utility of the C3HeB/FeJ line for HCC studies.


We present Armus, a verification tool for dynamically detecting or avoiding barrier deadlocks. The core design of Armus is based on phasers, a generalisation of barriers that supports split-phase synchronisation, dynamic membership, and optional-waits. This allows Armus to handle the key barrier synchronisation patterns found in modern languages and libraries. We implement Armus for X10 and Java, giving the first sound and complete barrier deadlock verification tools in these settings. Armus introduces a novel event-based graph model of barrier concurrency constraints that distinguishes task-event and event-task dependencies. Decoupling these two kinds of dependencies facilitates the verification of distributed barriers with dynamic membership, a challenging feature of X10. Further, our base graph representation can be dynamically switched between a task-to-task model, Wait-for Graph (WFG), and an event-to-event model, State Graph (SG), to improve the scalability of the analysis. Formally, we show that the verification is sound and complete with respect to the occurrence of deadlock in our core phaser language, and that switching graph representations preserves the soundness and completeness properties. These results are machine checked with the Coq proof assistant. Practically, we evaluate the runtime overhead of our implementations using three benchmark suites in local and distributed scenarios. Regarding deadlock detection, distributed scenarios show negligible overheads and local scenarios show overheads below 1.15×. Deadlock avoidance is more demanding, and highlights the potential gains from dynamic graph selection. In one benchmark scenario, the runtime overheads vary from 1.8× for dynamic selection, 2.6× for SG-static selection, and 5.9× for WFG-static selection.


We propose a novel, type-elimination-based method for reasoning in the
description logic SHIQbs including DL-safe rules. To this end, we first
establish a knowledge compilation method converting the terminological part of
an ALCIb knowledge base into an ordered binary decision diagram (OBDD) which
represents a canonical model. This OBDD can in turn be transformed into
disjunctive Datalog and merged with the assertional part of the knowledge base
in order to perform combined reasoning. In order to leverage our technique for
full SHIQbs, we provide a stepwise reduction from SHIQbs to ALCIb that
preserves satisfiability and entailment of positive and negative ground facts.
The proposed technique is shown to be worst case optimal w.r.t. combined and
data complexity and easily admits extensions with ground conjunctive queries.


Recruitment means systematic process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for job in an organisation. The study inquires the current trends of job opportunities for qualified LIS professionals in the area of library and information science by examining all job advertisement published in different online job portals. The data collected from different online job portals have been criticised to reflect the various aspects of LIS profession such as employer and designation wise distribution of jobs, essential and desirable qualifications and competencies for different type of job positions. The data collected have been explained through tables and figures. The finding show that the number of posts advertised is very less in number in comparison of number of fresh LIS graduates. Therefore the state and central government should provide more job opportunities for fresh LIS graduates, LIS professionals and for research scholars.


Tritopic tris-calix[4]arene TC4 – possessing three divergent cavities linked to a tris-aminophenylamine core – forms, in the presence of tetra-anionic Cu(II) porphyrins CuTPPS or a combination of different metallo-porphyrins (CuTPPS, NiTPPS and MnTPPS), discrete 3 : 1 porphyrin/tris-calixarene complexes. The 3 : 1-(CuTPPS/TC4) complex in particular is shown to be a key building block for the assembly of supramolecular architectures of increasing complexity. Directional (radial vs. stacked) self-assembly of these nanostructures was achieved by alternate addition of selected hetero-components in a programmed fashion. Addition of TC4 and CuTPPS, in turn, leads to a radial growth of the assembly, whereas, addition of single-cavity calix[4]arene C4 stoppers followed by a CuTPPS topping, promotes a stacked growth. In the latter case, the use of chiral (R)- or (S)-C4 stoppers is seen to induce chirality in the whole assembly. Circular dichroism data ultimately suggest that porphyrin molecules located above/below the 3 : 1 core complex act as a "molecular glue", by making the interaction between chiral calix[4]arenes (R)- or (S)-C4 and the achiral 3 : 1-(CuTPPS/TC4) complex stronger.


Over the past decade, a number of quantum processes have been proposed which are logically consistent, yet feature a cyclic causal structure. However, there is no general formal method to construct a process with an exotic causal structure in a way that ensures, and makes clear why, it is consistent. Here we provide such a method, given by an extended circuit formalism. This only requires directed graphs endowed with Boolean matrices, which encode basic constraints on operations. Our framework (a) defines a set of elementary rules for checking the validity of any such graph, (b) provides a way of constructing consistent processes as a circuit from valid graphs, and (c) yields an intuitive interpretation of the causal relations within a process and an explanation of why they do not lead to inconsistencies. We display how several standard examples of exotic processes, including ones that violate causal inequalities, are among the class of processes that can be generated in this way; we conjecture that this class in fact includes all unitarily extendible processes.


Detection algorithm of lane line under the special condition is based on focal and difficult point of lane line departure warning system of computer vision. This article firstly deals with the image compression and grayscale, establishes reasonable region of interest, and remove the non-road information in the image; Then we proceed the probabilistic and statistical computing for the image pixels, draw the gray level histogram. By analyzing the dynamic gray level histogram, we identify the lane line and grey value of the road and automatically calculate the reasonable threshold to binarizate then denoise the images. Last we label the images to reach the goal of identification of lane line and establishment the space between lane line and vehicles. The test results show that: the algorithm mentioned in this paper can not only detect the lane line accurately in real time, but also it enjoys a wide range of applicability to provide reference for improvement of lane line departure warning system.


Legumes form symbiotic associations with soil-dwelling bacteria collectively called rhizobia. This association results in the formation of nodules, unique plant-derived organs, within which the rhizobia are housed. Rhizobia-encoded nitrogenase facilitates the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia, which is utilized by the plants for its growth and development. Fatty acids have been shown to play an important role in root nodule symbiosis. In this study, we have investigated the role of stearoyl-acyl carrier protein desaturase isoform C (SACPD-C), a soybean enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of stearic acid into oleic acid, which is expressed in developing seeds and in nitrogen-fixing nodules. In-depth cytological investigation of nodule development in sacpd-c mutant lines M25 and MM106 revealed gross anatomical alteration in the sacpd-c mutants. Transmission electron microscopy observations revealed ultrastructural alterations in the sacpd-c mutants that are typically associated with plant defense response to pathogens. In nodules of two sacpd-c mutants, the combined jasmonic acid (JA) species (JA and the isoleucine conjugate of JA) were found to be reduced and 12-oxophytodienoic acid (OPDA) levels were significantly higher relative to wild-type lines. Salicylic acid levels were not significantly different between genotypes, which is divergent from previous studies of sacpd mutant studies on vegetative tissues. Soybean nodule phytohormone profiles were very divergent from those of roots, and root profiles were found to be almost identical between mutant and wild-type genotypes. The activities of antioxidant enzymes, ascorbate peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase were also found to be higher in nodules of sacpd-c mutants. PR-1 gene expression was extremely elevated in M25 and MM106, while the expression of nitrogenase was significantly reduced in these sacpd-c mutants, compared with the parent 'Bay'. Two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization time of flight mass spectrometry analyses confirmed sacpd-c mutants also accumulated higher amounts of pathogenesis-related proteins in the nodules. Our study establishes a major role for SACPD-C activity as essential for proper maintenance of soybean nodule morphology and physiology and indicates that OPDA signaling is likely to be involved in attenuation of nodule biotic defense responses.


Our analysis of pseudopartitives and measure phrases draws on the idea of ˋof' as a copula in a
pseudopartitive. The copular analysis allows us to avoid the complications caused by treating either
the numeral-noun combination before the of-phrase or the of-object as the head of a pseudopartitive
on agreement, and hence to account for all the agreement patterns without creating any extra
rule. We also outline how we can extend our analysis to handle measure phrases that do not co-occur
with of-phrases by treating these measure phrases as anaphoric, an analysis that can adapt to the
anaphoric constructions in classifier languages. Such an analysis does not only come closer to the
intuition of native speakers but also have an appeal from the perspective of the universality of
languages.


Four-hundred and ten undergraduates at a large southeastern university completed a confidential survey about their recovery from a love relationship that ended. Most reported medium difficulty with their recovery with men reporting more difficulty than women. Time and a new partner were most helpful in getting over a broken heart. Most reported that they were either friends or did not see their previous partner. Implications for university faculty, counselors, and students are suggested. "I thought it was over baby, we said goodbye. But I can't go a day without your face going through my mind.... If this is for the best why are you still in my heart? ... Oh, you're still in my soul" are among the lyrics to a country-western hit, Let Me Let Go by Faith Hill. She sings of a relationship that is over in time but not over in her heart. "Not a sane minute passes without you in it" she continues. College students are not unacquainted with love relationships that have ended and the broken heart which follows. This study examined the recovery patterns of college students who reported having been in a love relationship that ended. Sample and Methods The sample consisted of 473 freshmen and sophomore undergraduates at a large southeastern university. Respondents completed a confidential survey about prior love relationships that had ended and how they felt about and reacted to the breakup. Of these respondents, 410 (87%) reported that they had been in a relationship that ended. There were no statistically significant differences between women and men reporting previous involvement in a now terminated relationship. The analysis to follow is based on the responses of the 410 students (280 women, 130 men) who revealed information about how they recovered from a terminated love relationship. Findings & Discussion Analysis of the data revealed some significant differences. 1. Sex differences in relationship termination. Women were more likely (50%) than men (40%) (p [is less than] .01) to report that they initiated the breakup. Previous research (Hendrick and Hendrick, 1991; Silliman and Schumm, 1995) has documented more investment in relationship outcomes by women than men. Sociologists explain such a phenomenon as parental investment in a potential good father for their offspring. One respondent recalled, "I got tired of his lack of ambition - I just thought I could do better. He's a nice guy but living in a trailer is not my idea of a life." 2. Sex differences in relationship recovery. Women and men also differed in regard to how much of a problem it was when the relationship ended. When respondents were asked to rate their level of difficulty from no problem to complete devastation on a 10 point continuum, men scored 4.96 and women 4.35. Researchers Choo, Levine, and Hatfield (1996) also found in their study of relationship breakups that men reported less joy and relief than women immediately after the breakup. We asked our students to explain why men might have more difficulty with terminated relationships. Some of the students said that "men have such inflated ego's they can't believe that a woman would actually dump them". Others said, "men are oblivious to what is happening in relationships and may not have a clue that it is heading toward an abrupt end. When it does end, they are in shock." 3. Racial differences in relationship endings. Blacks were significantly (p [is less than] .01) more likely than whites to report that they had ever been involved in a romantic relationship that ended (88% vs 875%). In addition, blacks were significantly (p [is less than] .02) more likely to report that their last love relationship ended by mutual consent than whites (47% vs 27%). When one partner reported ending the relationship, it was more likely to be the woman. …


This chapter deals with how to use data mining technology to find interesting pattern, which can be organized for global customer retention. Customer relationship management (CRM) comprises a set of processes and enabling systems supporting a business strategy to build long term, profitable relationships with specific customers. Customer data and information technology (IT) tools shape into the foundation upon which any successful CRM strategy is built. Although CRM has become widely recognized as an important business strategy, there is no widely accepted definition of CRM. Parvatiyar (2001) defines CRM as the strategic use of information, processes, technology, and people to manage the customer relationship with the company across the whole customer life cycle. Kincaid (2003) defines CRM as a company approach to understanding and influencing customer behavior through meaningful communications in order to improve customer acquisition, customer retention, customer loyalty, and customer profitability. These definitions emphasize the importance of viewing CRM as a comprehensive process of retaining customers, with the help of business intelligence, to maximize the customer value to the organization. According to (Swift 2001; Kim et al., 2003) CRM consists of four dimensions: Customer Identification, Customer Attraction, Customer Retention, and Customer Development. They share the common goal of creating a deeper understanding of customers to maximize customer value to the organization in the long term. Customer retention has a significant impact on enterprise profitability. Analyzing and understanding customer behaviors and characteristics are the foundation of the development of a competitive customer retention strategy, so as to acquire and retain potential customers and maximize customer value. Gupta et al. (2004) find that a 1% improvement in retention can increase enterprise value by 5%. As such, elements of customer retention include one-to-one marketing, loyalty programs and complaints management. One-to-one marketing refers to personalized marketing campaigns which are supported by analyzing, detecting and predicting changes in customer behaviors. Loyalty programs involve campaigns or supporting activities which aim at maintaining a long term relationship with customers. Customer satisfaction is the central concern for customer retention. Customer satisfaction, which refers to the comparison of customer expectations with his or her perception of being satisfied, is the essential condition for retaining customers (Chen et al., 2005). Bolton and Ruth N. (1998) have established the positive effect of customer satisfaction on loyalty and O pe n A cc es s D at ab as e w w w .in te ch w eb .o rg


Corresponding author: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a chronic inflammatory disorder with unknown etiology which can involve various organs in the body. The most common symptoms of this disease are constitutional symptoms along with skin rashes, arthritis, nephrologic, and hematologic manifestations. Acute pancreatitis is an unusual presentation of SLE. Here, we report an interesting case SLE who suffered from fever, weakness, abdominal pain, and weight loss. Finally, lupus pancreatitis was diagnosed based on her symptoms, laboratory, and imaging findings.


Abstract. In the United Kingdom the planting of broadleaved woodland has led to concerns about the impact on water resources. Comparative studies, typically using soil water measurements, have been established to compare water use of broadleaved woodland and grassland. The diversity of outcomes from these studies makes it difficult to make any consistent prediction of the hydrological impact of afforestation. Most studies have shown greater drying of soils under broadleaved woodland than under grass. However, two studies in a beech wood growing on shallow soils above chalk at Black Wood, Micheldever, Hampshire showed little overall difference between broadleaved woodland and grass, either in soil water abstraction or in evaporation. Two factors are thought to contribute to the different results from Black Wood. It is known that evaporation can be considerably enhanced at the edges of woodlands or in small areas of woodlands. The studies at Black Wood were made well within a large area of fairly uniform woodland. Other studies in which a difference occurred in soil drying between broadleaved woodland and grass used measurements made in small areas of woodlands or at woodland edges. Another important difference between comparison of woodland at Black Wood and grassland growing nearby, also on shallow soils above Chalk, compared to other broadleaved woodland/grass comparisons, growing on other geologies, is the influence of the Chalk. Although vegetation such as grass (and woodland) does not populate the chalk profusely with roots, water can be removed from the Chalk by the roots which proliferate at the soil/chalk interface and which can generate upward water movement within the Chalk. Published work showed that only in a very dry summer did the evaporation from grass growing on shallow soils above chalk fall below potential. In broadleaved woodland/grass comparisons on non-chalky soils it is possible that moisture deficits in the soil below the grass may reach critical levels and reduce evaporation below that of the woodland with which it is being compared.


Background Measuring the quality of life (QOL) is important in the evaluation of nonclinical aspects of diseases, for the discovery of functional and psychological limitations, and in choosing treatment in the initial phase of the disease. Pemphigus is a potentially fatal autoimmune bullous disease caused by autoantibodies against desmogleins (cadherin family proteins in desmosomes). Thus far, there has been no published study on QOL in Korean patients with pemphigus. Objective To study the impact of pemphigus on the QOL in a large number of Korean patients. Methods Sixty-six patients enrolled at the Gangnam Severance Hospital from March 2012 to March 2013 were assessed for QOL by using the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), and for anxiety and depression by using the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Spearman's rank-order correlation, t-test, and ANOVA were used to identify the relations between the DLQI score and other clinical variables. Results Pemphigus vulgaris and pemphigus foliaceus significantly reduced the QOL of patients. The average DLQI score for all patients was 10.18. The mean DLQI score was 13.45 in patients in the active state and 5.15 in the patients in the remission state. The DLQI score highly correlated with disease severity, titer of anti-desmoglein 1 in enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and the corticosteroid dose. However, the QOL was not affected by sex, age, subtype of pemphigus, duration of disease, or comorbidities. Forty-two percent of the patients showed a positive result in the GHQ, reflecting probable minor psychiatric nonpsychotic conditions, and the GHQ score positively correlated to the DLQI score. Conclusion Pemphigus significantly impairs the QOL of patients. The QOL of Korean pemphigus patients significantly correlates with clinical severity. Therefore, considerable attention should be paid to the patients' QOL and psychological states as well as clinical status.


Resistive random access memory (ReRAM) technology is an emerging candidate for next-generation nonvolatile memory (NVM) architecture due to its simple structure, low programming voltage, fast switching speed, high on/off ratio, excellent scalability, good endurance, and great compatibility with silicon CMOS technology. The most attractive of the characteristics of ReRAM is its cross-point structure, which features a 4F2 cell size. In a cross-point structure, the existence of sneak current and resulting voltage loss due to the wire's resistance might cause read and write failures if not designed properly. In addition, a robust ReRAM design needs to deal with both soft and hard errors. In this article, we summarize mechanisms of both soft and hard errors of ReRAM cells and propose a unified model to characterize different failure behaviors. We quantitatively analyze the impact of cell failure types on the reliability of the cross-point array. We also propose an error-resilient architecture, which avoids unnecessary writes in the hard error detection unit. Assuming constant soft error rate, our approach can extend the lifetime of ReRAM up to 75% over a design without hard error detection and up to 12% over the design with a "write-verify" detection mechanism. Our approach yields greater significant lifetime improvement when considering postcycling retention degradation.


The topic of how low-voltage insulated-gate-bipolartransistor (IGBT)-based pulsewidth modulation (PWM) inverters create additional insulation stress through voltage reflections (due to high dV/dt) has been documented for several years. First, this paper explains and summarizes the basic causes and effects of the high dV/dt environment. Second, the methodologies of various approaches to solutions are critically reviewed. Finally, standards (such as NEMA MG1, parts 30, 31) (NEMA Standards Publication MG 1, 2003) have attempted to partially address this issue. However, there are still some areas that require important clarification. This paper makes the case for what can be done to achieve the needed clarity. Testing of motor insulation systems to verify compliance with the proposed requirements is also covered.


Metastatic cancer cells must traverse a microenvironment ranging from extremely hypoxic, within the tumor, to highly oxygenated, within the host's vasculature. Tumor hypoxia can be further characterized by regions of both chronic and intermittent hypoxia. We present the design and characterization of a microfluidic device that can simultaneously mimic the oxygenation conditions observed within the tumor and model the cell migration and intravasation processes. This device can generate spatial oxygen gradients of chronic hypoxia and produce dynamically changing hypoxic microenvironments in long-term culture of cancer cells.


Data on comparative investigation of the clinical and bacteriological efficacy and tolerability of monofluoroquinolones ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin and pefloxacin are given. The results confirm good clinical efficacy of all three monofluoroquinolones and high antistaphylococcal activity of pefloxacin. Efficacy of monofluoroquinolones against P. aeruginosa and S. maltophilia was moderate--only isolation of bacteria from spetrum became lower. Tolerability of monofluoroquinolones was good. Only at 5 patients the drugs use was stopped (4 in the ciprofloxacin group and 1--in the pefloxacin group). At 2 patients it was caused by arthropathy which was drug- and age-dependent. Quinolone-arthropathy was more often in the pefloxacin group and was registered only at the children elder than 10 years old with arthrological anamnesis. This arthropathy differed from experimental one by positive outcome and full recovery in the period from 7 days to 3 months. Results of morphological investigation confirmed clinical data--no invalidizing cartilage damage was revealed.


This paper offers a reflection on a research project undertaken over a period of nearly five years at the St Cuthbert's Anglican community near Tsolo in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. St Cuthbert' was established by Father Bransby Key, an Anglican missionary in the nineteenth century. On a site visit with art historian professor Anitra Nettleton, we met elders who still remembered the missionaries and could relate to lay-worker Frank Cornner who collected beadwork made by the amaMpondomise even though the missionaries discouraged these practices. Cornner's collections are housed at the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town, the British Museum in London and at Pit Rivers in Oxford, in the United Kingdom. The importance of recording testimonies of elders underlines the value of 'living heritage' as an added research tool in attempts to contribute to the existing archive, especially as many of the elders have since passed away. The elders recall their experiences with fondness and it was only at a later stage that the researcher encountered dichotomous reactions to the missionary project in the area. For the researcher / documentary filmmaker this tension presented a dilemma as the value of the testimonies could in no way whatsoever be undermined despite the challenges faced by practitioners at this time in the history of our country. My research does, however, point to the importance of constantly adding to existing archival collections of historical records by recording the lived experiences of relevant individuals.


Thermodynamics is a theory of principles that permits a basic description of the macroscopic properties of a rich variety of complex systems from traditional ones, such as crystalline solids, gases, liquids, and thermal machines, to more intricate systems such as living organisms and black holes to name a few. Physical quantities of interest, or equilibrium state variables, are linked together in equations of state to give information on the studied system, including phase transitions, as energy in the forms of work and heat, and/or matter are exchanged with its environment, thus generating entropy. A more accurate description requires different frameworks, namely, statistical mechanics and quantum physics to explore in depth the microscopic properties of physical systems and relate them to their macroscopic properties. These frameworks also allow to go beyond equilibrium situations. Given the notably increasing complexity of mathematical models to study realistic systems, and their coupling to their environment that constrains their dynamics, both analytical approaches and numerical methods that build on these models show limitations in scope or applicability. On the other hand, machine learning, i.e., data-driven, methods prove to be increasingly efficient for the study of complex quantum systems. Deep neural networks, in particular, have been successfully applied to many-body quantum dynamics simulations and to quantum matter phase characterization. In the present work, we show how to use a variational autoencoder (VAE)—a state-of-the-art tool in the field of deep learning for the simulation of probability distributions of complex systems. More precisely, we transform a quantum mechanical problem of many-body state reconstruction into a statistical problem, suitable for VAE, by using informationally complete positive operator-valued measure. We show, with the paradigmatic quantum Ising model in a transverse magnetic field, that the ground-state physics, such as, e.g., magnetization and other mean values of observables, of a whole class of quantum many-body systems can be reconstructed by using VAE learning of tomographic data for different parameters of the Hamiltonian, and even if the system undergoes a quantum phase transition. We also discuss challenges related to our approach as entropy calculations pose particular difficulties.


Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a well-established technique for the measurement of intra-diffusion coefficients. Recently, such information has been used as a basis of predictive models to extrapolate to the Fick diffusion coefficient of liquid mixtures. The present work presents a new approach to directly access the Fick diffusion coefficient by spatially resolved NMR experiments. The Fick diffusion coefficient of the binary mixture TEA/H2O was determined at two temperatures, 283.2 K and 275.2 K. The results are consistent with values previously reported either from optical experiments or predictive Darken-type models developed for this system. The proposed methodology adds high-resolution NMR to the toolbox for the study of the transport diffusion of multicomponent mixtures. It is, however, still limited to mixtures with liquid-liquid equilibrium phase separation.


Efficacious hemostatics have significant potential for use in rapid exsanguinating hemorrhage control by emergency medical technicians or military medics nowadays. Current hemostatics focus primarily on speeding up the formation of blood clots, but inhibiting fibrinolysis is also critical for promoting coagulation and improving survival rates. Here we report a drug-loaded cross-linked microporous starch (TACMS) fabricated by loading tranexamic acid (TA) with antifibrinolytic properties into cross-linked microporous starch (CMS). The results showed that the cross-linking modification improved the mechanical properties and the particle density. The introduction of TA had no influence on water absorption of CMS. TACMS retained good physical hemostatic capacity and excellent biocompatibility. The prothrombin time (PT), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and thrombin time (TT) of TACMS with 20 mg g−1 of TA were shortened greatly, indicating the chemical hemostasis of TACMS. TACMS demonstrated a 70% reduction in clotting time in vitro compared to CMS, which effectively inhibited the dissolution of fibrin and increased the strength of blood clots. Importantly, TACMS presented excellent hemostatic performance in rabbit ear artery injury and rabbit liver injury and even better hemostatic ability than Arista®. In conclusion, cross-linking, enzyme hydrolysis and modification of starch greatly improved absorption speed, blood uptake capacity and mechanical strength, and the introduction of TA simultaneously amplified the physical hemostasis and inhibited the dissolution of fibrin. The potent hemostatic ability of TACMS resulted from the synergistic role of physical hemostasis and drug hemostasis. The results of the present study put forward TACMS as a safe and effective hemostatic system and present a platform for further optimization studies of materials with enhanced hemostatic capabilities for specific injury types.


In the present article the author considers negative deposit rates and other financial technologies both with respect of their evaluation by the modern economic science and as a logical development of the previous trends and also as a natural stage in a long developmental path of financial technologies. Every economic crisis gives rise to new financial technologies (NFT). The 2008 crisis also generated new financial technologies which include quantitative easing and low and negative deposit rates. The novelty of our approach consists in treating negative rates as a result of previous development of financial technologies and in analyzing them not only on the national but on the World-System scale. We also emphasize that quantitative easing and close to zero rates passed a kind of a test in Japan in the 1990s and 2000s. Negative deposit rates are an-other step towards a larger production of money in the situation of a) depres-sion and deflationary pressure; b) growing national debt and emission via central banks unprecedented over the recent decades; c) abundance of easy money; and d) increasing merge of the state and private financial interests. The article forecasts a wider spread of negative rates after a new recession (which is to start already in 2020). In search for profitable spheres of application the assets will actively flow to developing markets with higher rates. As a result, the negative rates may promote financial convergence which is a convergence between developed and developing countries in terms of financial strength (as it happens with GDP). If one considers Japan as a testing ground for new financial technologies then one may expect the transition of FRS and ECB to the policy of direct purchase of shares because the Japanese Central Bank has been buying shares for the last years.


A high dose impurity doping process for 4H-SiC crystals has been developed using electron cyclotron resonance (ECR) sputtered carbon cap film and ECR plasma ashing. ECR-sputtered carbon films are newly found crystalline carbon films of which the hardness is comparable to that of diamonds. Since this carbon film showed such a high thermal tolerance that the hardness did not change after 1900oC annealing, this carbon cap film worked well for suppressing roughening during annealing for aluminum-ion implanted 4H-SiC. Cap carbon film can be removed successfully by using high density ECR plasma ashing.


Gadget is one of the innovations generated by humans in order to simplify the work or for the benefit of everyday because with gadgets will easily get various kinds of information needed with a single press. Gadgets easily accessible by everyone one of them is a student or schoolchild so that it is possible for school children have complaints on the eyes if too concentrated on gadgets. Student should know Factors associated with vision complaints such as gender and length of use of gadgets in a day. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of long use of gadgets against eye fatigue. This research is analytic observational with cross sectional method. The population in this study were all students in SMA Zainul Hasan Gengong Problinggo which used gadgets as many as 296 students. A large sample calculation using the formula Isaac and Michael, amount to 165 students. Sampling technique with simple random sampling and carried out in August 2017. To determine the effect of the long use of gadgets against eye fatigue is used chi-Square test. The results of this study as many as 58 respondents who long using gadgets and fatigue, 22 respondents used gadget for 3-4 hours, 4 respondents used gadget for > 4-6 hours, 23 respondents usedgadget for >6-8 hours, and 1 respondents used gadget > 8 hours. then. Respondents who long used gadget and did not experience some eye fatigue 107 respondents, 43 respondents used gadget for 3-4 hours, 3 respondents used gadget for > 4-6 hours, 9 respondents used gadget for >6-8 hours, and 2 respondents used gadget > 8 hours. ChiSquare result is taken data P value < 0,00 with α significance 0,05 so it takes conlusion H1 received if P value <0,05 it means there is an effect of long time usage of gadget against eye fatigue in SMA 1 Zainul Hasan Genggong Probolinggo. Technological innovation is made in the purpose in order to simplify all human affairs hence from the human unknowingly also exposed negative impact of the use of gadgets one of them is eyestrain Keywords: Duration, Gadget usage, Eye fatigue


Abstract Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is common in patients with cancer and its use is steadily increasing over time. We performed a multicenter survey in which the use of CAM in 442 Italian patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), the commonest form of leukemia in Western countries, was assessed. Data were collected by means of a face-to-face standardized questionnaire with several items. Mean age was 69 years; 258 patients (58%) were male and 184 (42%) female. Seventy-three patients (16.5%) were found to be CAM users. The most common CAM therapies were green tea, aloe formulations and high dose vitamins. Predictors of CAM use were female gender, younger age, higher education level, internet availability and newspaper reading. The reasons for CAM popularity among these patients are complex. Given the number of patients combining therapy with CAM and its possible drug interactions, doctor interest as well as patient education about CAM should be improved.


Modern production facilities (i.e. flexible manufacturing systems) exhibit a high degree of resource sharing, a situation in which deadlocks (circular waits) can arise. Using digraph theoretic concepts we derive necessary and sufficient conditions for a deadlock occurrence and rigorously characterize highly undesirable situations (second level deadlocks), which inevitably evolve to circular waits in the next future. We assume that the system dynamics is described by a discrete event dynamical model, whose state provides the information on the current interactions job-resources. This theoretic material allows us to introduce some control laws (named restriction policies) which use the state knowledge to avoid deadlocks by inhibiting or by enabling some transitions. The restriction policies involve small on-line computation costs, so they are suitable for real-time implementation. For a meaningful class of systems one of these policies is the least restrictive deadlock-free policy one can find, namely it inhibits resource allocation only if leads directly to a deadlock. Finally, the paper discusses the computational complexity of all the proposed restriction policies and shows some examples to compare their performances.


Malignant mesothelioma, a very aggressive tumor associated to asbestos exposure, is expected to increase in incidence, and unfortunately, no curative modality exists. Reactivation of p53 is a new attractive antitumoral strategy. p53 is rarely mutated in mesothelioma, but it is inactivated in most tumors by the lack of p14ARF. Here, we evaluated the feasibility of this approach in pleural mesothelioma by testing RITA and nutlin-3, two molecules able to restore p53 function through a different mechanism, on a panel of mesothelioma cell lines representing the epithelioid (NCI-H28, NCI-H2452, IST-MES 2), biphasic (MSTO-211H), and sarcomatoid (NCI-H2052) histotypes compared with the normal mesothelial HMC-hTERT. RITA triggered robust caspase-dependent apoptosis specifically in epithelioid and biphasic mesothelioma cell lines, both through wild-type and mutant p53, concomitant to p21 downregulation. Conversely, nutlin-3 induced a p21-dependent growth arrest, rather than apoptosis, and was slightly toxic on HMC-hTERT. Interestingly, we identified a previously undetected point mutation of p53 (p.Arg249Ser) in IST-MES 2, and showed that RITA is also able to reactivate this p53 mutant protein and its apoptotic function. RITA reduced tumor growth in a MSTO-211H-derived xenograft model of mesothelioma and synergized with cisplatin, which is the mainstay of treatment for this tumor. Our data indicate that reactivation of p53 and concomitant p21 downregulation effectively induce cell death in mesothelioma, a tumor characterized by a high intrinsic resistance to apoptosis. Altogether, our findings provide the preclinical framework supporting the use of p53-reactivating agents alone, or in combination regimens, to improve the outcome of patients with mesothelioma.


Performance measurement is used to determine the achievement of corporate objectives of the business unit performance by evaluating the achievement of results that have been achieved through the strategy set. Cooperative is an organization that puts the interests and welfare of members in the central position of the overall activities of cooperatives, in reality, many cooperatives in activities focused on financial factors, including KSP Lohjinawe Rembang. So that the customer and the employees a little neglected. Balanced Scorecard concept is here to help companies determine the extent to which the achievement of performance through four perspectives. This research is qualitative descriptive analysis. Source data used are primary data by questionnaire and in-depth interview to determine the assessment of the translation of the vision, mission and objectives of the company through target setting and weight to key performance indicator (KPI). Secondary data such as financial statements, the development of number of employees and branches of cooperatives in 2013-2015. Performance results are in a healthy position overall with a total score of 92.42 (standard wells 80 <x <100). Obtaining a score on four perspectives that are tailored to the weight of the Balanced Scorecard, financial perspective score was 55.32 (target 60), in the perspective of the customer (member) with a score of 18.25 (target 20), the internal business process perspective score was 10.42 ( target 10) and the last on learning and growth perspective score was 8.24 (target 10). The best performance was in the business process perspective that is able to exceed the target by the achievement of 104.19%. On the financial perspective and the customer perspective attainment results are equally amounted to 92.2%. While learning and growth perspective obtain the lowest achievement results with the percentage of 82.35%.


Abstract Background Despite the proven efficacy of liposuction, there is a population of patients who prefer non-surgical alternatives. Laser hyperthermia-induced lipolysis has emerged as one non-invasive alternative to liposuction. Objectives The authors sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a 1060-nm (±10 nm) diode laser for non-invasive fat reduction of the abdomen. Methods This single-arm, 2-center study enrolled 30 patients. Patients received a 25-minute 1060-nm diode laser treatment on their abdomen. Ultrasound adipose measurements, body weight, and circumference were taken at baseline and at 6- and 12-week follow-up visits. Blinded evaluators identified "before" and "after" photos of each patient. A patient satisfaction questionnaire was completed by each patient at study exit. Results A total 29 patients completed all treatment and follow-up visits. Ultrasound images showed an adipose reduction of 8.55% at 12 weeks post-treatment (P < 0.0001). Blinded evaluators correctly identified 67% of the pre- and post-treatment images at site 01 (Sacramento, CA) and 56% at site 02 (Dallas, TX). Satisfaction was high, with 72% of patients reporting being either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their results on a 5-point Likert scale. Pain was rated as mild by 62% of patients, moderate by 38%, and severe by none on the Wong-Baker Scale. Conclusions These results indicate that a single treatment with a 1060-nm (±10 nm) diode laser, per the treatment protocol, is safe and effective in reducing unwanted fat in the abdomen as objectively measured employing ultrasound. The treatment was well-tolerated among all patients, with minimal discomfort reported and high patient satisfaction. Level of Evidence: 4


Aims
Clinical evaluation of balance has relied on forceplate systems as the gold standard for postural sway measures. Recently, systems based on wireless inertial sensors have been explored, mostly in the adult population, as an alternative given their practicality and lower cost. Our goal was to validate body-worn sensors against forceplate balance measures in typically developing children during tests of quiet stance.

Methods
18 participants (8 males) 7 to 17 years old performed a quiet stance test standing on a forceplate while wearing 3 inertial sensors. Three 30-second trials were performed under 4 conditions: firm surface with eyes open and closed, and foam surface with eyes open and closed. Sway area, path length, and sway velocity were calculated.

Results
We found 20 significant and 8 non-significant correlations. Variables found to be significant were represented across all conditions, except for the foam eyes closed condition.

Conclusions
These results support the validity of wearable sensors in measuring postural sway in children. Inertial sensors may represent a viable alternative to the gold standard forceplate to test static balance in children.


Novel architectures and technologies carry with them an uncertainty related to their reliability and associated safety risk. Existing safety assessment methods involve determining the severity of discrete functional failure and the corresponding probability. However, with the advent of novel aircraft architectural and operational concepts, traditional methods of establishing severity and probabilities failures are found lacking due to the scarcity of available data. The current work proposes a safety assessment method that uses architecture-specific performance models along with continuous functional hazard assessments to inform hazard severity. The probability of failures is determined using a Bayesian framework that does not falter when data is scarce. Taken together, it is expected that this new proposed methodology will enable a more accurate safety assessment of novel aircraft architectures and technologies. A safety assessment of an electric propulsion system powered by a fuel cell is conducted using the proposed methodology to serve as a proof of concept.


In this paper, we present the implementation, experiences and lessons learned of our tesbed for Ad-hoc networks and Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs). We used OLSR protocol for real experimental evaluation. We investigate the effect of mobility and topology changing in the throughput of a MANET. We study the impact of best-effort traffic for Mesh Topology and Linear Topology. In this work, we consider eight experimental models and we assess the performance of our testbed in terms of throughput, round trip time and packet loss. We found that some of the OLSR's problems can be solved, for instance the routing loop, but this protocol still has the self-interference problem. Also, there is an intricate interdependence between MAC layer and routing layer. We carried out the experiments considering stationary nodes of an Ad-hoc network and the node mobility of MANETs. We found that throughput of TCP was improved by reducing Link Quality Window Size (LQWS). For TCP data flow, we got better results when the LQWS value was 10. Moreover, we found that the node join and leave operations increase the packet loss. The OLSR protocol has a good performance when the source node is moving. However, the performance is not good when the relay nodes are moving.


OBJECTIVE To investigate the mechanism of congenital paramyotonia caused by human skeletal muscle voltage-gated sodium channel hNav1.4 mutant I1363T. METHODS The conservation of the mutant site were detecled by using amino acid sequence alignment; the C-terminal mCherry fusion hNav1.4 was constructed, and the expression and distribution of wild type and hNav1.4 mutant I1363T were determined by confocal microscopy; the steady-state activation, fast inactivation and window current of wild type and hNav1.4 mutant I1363T were examined by whole-cell patch clamp. RESULTS Alignment of the amino acid sequences revealed that Ile1363 is highly conserved in human sodium channels. There was no significant difference in expression level and distribution between wild type and I1363T. Although no significant differences were observed between I1363T mutant and wild type in the activation upon channel gating, the V0.5 of voltage-dependence of fast inactivation of I1363T mutant[(-59.01±0.26) mV] shifted 9 mV towards depolarization as compared with wild type[(-68.03±0.34) mV], and the slope factor of voltage-dependence curve increased to (5.24±0.23) mV, compared with (4.55±0.21) mV of the wild type. Moreover, I1363T showed the larger window current than that of the wild type. CONCLUSIONS I1363T causes the defect in fast inactivation of hNav1.4, which may increase the excitability of muscle cells and be responsible for myotonia. The increased window current of I1363T may result in an increase of inward Na+ current, could subsequently inactivate the channels and lead to loss of excitability and paralysis.


©2023 Korean Society of Acute Care Surgery. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0). In the above-mentioned article, authors would like to make a correction in the affiliation. The correct affiliation a for the authors should be appeared as: Department of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, School of Medicine, Pusan National University, Busan, Korea. The authors regret this error and would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused. *Corresponding Author: Jae Hun Kim Department of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care, School of Medicine, Pusan National University, 179, Gudeok-ro, Seo-gu, Busan 49241 Korea Email: firstname.lastname@example.com


We explore a new security model for secure computation on large datasets. We assume that two servers have been employed to compute on private data that was collected from many users, and, in order to improve the efficiency of their computation, we establish a new tradeoff with privacy. Specifically, instead of claiming that the servers learn nothing about the input values, we claim that what they do learn from the computation preserves the differential privacy of the input. Leveraging this relaxation of the security model allows us to build a protocol that leaks some information in the form of access patterns to memory, while also providing a formal bound on what is learned from the leakage. We then demonstrate that this leakage is useful in a broad class of computations. We show that computations such as histograms, PageRank and matrix factorization, which can be performed in common graph-parallel frameworks such as MapReduce or Pregel, benefit from our relaxation. We implement a protocol for securely executing graph-parallel computations, and evaluate the performance on the three examples just mentioned above. We demonstrate marked improvement over prior implementations for these computations.