Overlapping and multi-version techniques are two popular frameworks that transform an ephemeral index into a multiple logical-tree structure in order to support versioning databases. Although both frameworks have produced numerous efficient indexing methods, their performance analysis is rather limited; as a result, there is no clear understanding about the behavior of the alternative structures and the choice of the best one, given the data and query characteristics. Furthermore, query optimization based on these methods is currently impossible. These are serious problems due to the incorporation of overlapping and multi-version techniques in several traditional (e.g. banking) and emerging (e.g. spatio-temporal) applications. In this paper, we propose frameworks for reducing the performance analysis of overlapping and multi-version structures to that of the corresponding ephemeral structures, thus simplifying the problem significantly. The frameworks lead to accurate cost models that predict the sizes of the trees, the node accesses and query selectivity. Although we focus on B-tree-based structures, the proposed models can be employed with a variety of indexes.


Passive microwave radiometers (24-157 GHz) have been flown over Baltic Sea ice and snow sites in April 1995 and on March 15, 1997. Data from these instruments are analyzed with reference to ground measurements of snow and ice conditions, and emissivity spectra are presented for 12 classifications of surface type. A simple model based on dielectric permittivity can accurately represent the microwave spectra of sea ice, but cannot be extended to the behavior of dry snow above 100 GHz without the addition of an extra term to represent volume scattering. The parameterization presented is intended to provide a background for temperature and humidity retrievals from satellite sounders, but the results will be of interest to the snow and ice remote-sensing communities.


ABSTRACT The Tup1-Ssn6 complex regulates diverse classes of genes in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and serves as a model for corepressor functions in many organisms. Tup1-Ssn6 does not directly bind DNA but is brought to target genes through interactions with sequence-specific DNA binding factors. Full repression by Tup1-Ssn6 appears to require interactions with both the histone tails and components of the general transcription machinery, although the relative contribution of these two pathways is not clear. Here, we map Tup1 locations on two classes of Tup1-Ssn6-regulated genes in vivo via chromatin immunoprecipitations. Distinct profiles of Tup1 are observed on a cell-specific genes and DNA damage-inducible genes, suggesting that alternate repressive architectures may be created on different classes of repressed genes. In both cases, decreases in acetylation of histone H3 colocalize with Tup1. Strikingly, although loss of the Srb10 mediator protein had no effect on Tup1 localization, both histone tail mutations and histone deacetylase mutations crippled the association of Tup1 with target loci. Together with previous findings that Tup1-Ssn6 physically associates with histone deacetylase activities, these results indicate that the repressor complex alters histone modification states to facilitate interactions with histones and that these interactions are required to maintain a stable repressive state.


Cellulose acetate polymer (CAP) solution is a new liquid embolic material, and it has been used clinically for the thrombosis of cerebral aneurysms. The purpose of the study was to test a method of aneurysm treatment. In an experimental model, retrievable interlocking detachable coils (IDCs) were used to create an intraaneurysmal frame or prop and then CAP was injected into 20 experimentally induced canine cervical aneurysms. Intraaneurysmal thrombosis was induced 1 week after aneurysm creation. Complete thrombosis was attempted in 12 aneurysms, and partial thrombosis was attempted in 4. Four other aneurysms served as controls. Follow-up angiography was performed for up to 8 weeks, and with the exception of 4 aneurysms, which were kept for a 2-year long-term follow-up study, the aneurysms were then harvested for histological examination. Thrombosis was successfully achieved in all cases except for 2 enlarged aneurysms that were initially partially thrombosed. No thromboembolism to distal vessels was observed. No compaction or shift of the CAP-IDC complex occurred even after 2 years. Histologically, CAP and IDCs conformed to the massive thrombotic complex without any fragmentation. By creating a frame or prop with retrievable microcoils, we were able to inject the CAP implies a comparison safely and precisely than has been previously reported. Our findings suggest that this method will be useful for the treatment of cerebral aneurysms.


Introduction Recent data suggest 8–52% of babies on the NICU have evidence of a viral respiratory tract infection (VRTI) (Ronchi 2014, Bennett 2012). These studies, and our own data, indicate babies with VRTIs spend twice as long in hospital and have significantly worse respiratory outcomes such as chronic lung disease and the need for home oxygen. There is little evidence exploring ways of reducing these infections in the NICU. Our recent survey demonstrates significant variation in UK NICU visiting practices and isolation policies for babies with RVTIs. Aim To establish the impact of visitor restriction on the incidence of NICU VRTIs. Methods We performed a retrospective study of all admissions between 2007 and 2013 at two large UK tertiary NICUs (˜13,300 bed days/year). Normal visiting policy included parents, family and friends. During the periods November to April of 2009, 2010 and 2011, in response to the H1N1 pandemic, we restricted visiting to parents/carers only. No other variations in practice occurred. We identified all babies positive for VRTIs. We used a Poisson generalised additive model (GAM), factoring in workload intensity and incidence of community VRTIs, to calculate the impact of these 3 winter restriction periods compared with normal visiting. Results There were 100 PCR proven VRTIs in 93 babies during this period (˜16/yr). Rhinovirus (n = 71), RSV (n = 8) and H1N1 (n = 5) were the most common. The median gestation of infected babies was 29 weeks (IQR 26–34 Weeks) and 46% required an escalation of respiratory support. Two of five H1N1 positive babies died. The results from the GAM suggest there was a 39% reduction (P < 0.05) in VRTIs during restricted visiting periods compared to normal visiting (Incident Rate Ratio 0.61, 95% CI 0.38–0.99). Extrapolating this to the UK, based on the NHS NICU tariff, the extra bed days associated with VRTIs cost between £7M and £25M/year. Conclusion This is the first study demonstrating a significant reduction in NICU VRTIs through restricting visiting practices. VRTIs are associated with significant neonatal respiratory morbidity and have short and long-term resource implications. We need to explore better ways of minimising the impact of VRTIs in this vulnerable population.


BACKGROUND: Labor pain relief has been considered since many years ago. Heat as a non pharmacological method of pain relief helps reducing the pain intensity and increases the pain consistency. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of the heat therapy on the labor pain in primigravida women. METHODS: In this clinical trial study, 64 low risk nulliparous women were randomly divided into two heat therapy and routine care groups. In addition to the routine cares, warm bag were used for the heat therapy group for the low back, from cervix dilatation of 3-4 cm to the end of the labor's first stage and for perinea at the second stage. The pain intensity was determined by McGill pain questionnaire in dilatation of 3-4, 6-7 and 9-10 cm and at the end of the labor's second stage. Data was analyzed using t-test and chi square test by using SPSS 11. RESULTS: Results of research showed a significant decrease in the pain intensity in the heat therapy group at the first stage and the second stage of labor and comparing two groups showed significant difference(p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: According to the results of this study, it seems that heat therapy in addition to its beneficial effects, causes the mother to sense the labor pain in a lower pain severity.


The aim of this study was to determine the extent of DNA fragmentation and the presence of denatured single-strand or normal double-strand DNA in spermatozoa with extruded nuclear chromatin (ENC) selected by high magnification. Fresh semen samples from 55 patients were prepared by discontinuous isolate concentration gradient. Spermatozoa with normal nucleus (NN) and ENC were selected at 8400× magnification and placed on different slides. DNA fragmentation was determined by TUNEL assay. Denatured and double-stranded DNA was identified by the acridine orange fluorescence method. DNA fragmentation was not significantly different (p = 0.86) between spermatozoa with ENC (19.6%) and those with NN (20%). However, the percentage of spermatozoa with detectable denatured-stranded DNA in the ENC spermatozoon group (59.1%) was significantly higher (p < 0.0001) than in the NN group (44.9%). The high level of denatured DNA in spermatozoa with ENC suggests premature decondensation and disaggregation of sperm chromatin fibres. The results show an association between ENC and DNA damage in spermatozoa, and support the routine morphological selection and injection of motile spermatozoa at high-magnification intracytoplasmic sperm injection.


A novel multi-channel surface electromyography (EMG)-based three-dimensional muscle activity imaging (MAI) technique has been developed by combining the bioelectrical source reconstruction approach and subject-specific finite element modeling approach. Internal muscle activities are modeled by a current density distribution and estimated from the intra-vaginal surface EMG signals with the aid of a weighted minimum norm estimation algorithm. The MAI technique was employed to minimally invasively reconstruct electrical activity in the pelvic floor muscles and urethral sphincter from multi-channel intra-vaginal surface EMG recordings. A series of computer simulations were conducted to evaluate the performance of the present MAI technique. With appropriate numerical modeling and inverse estimation techniques, we have demonstrated the capability of the MAI technique to accurately reconstruct internal muscle activities from surface EMG recordings. This MAI technique combined with traditional EMG signal analysis techniques is being used to study etiologic factors associated with stress urinary incontinence in women by correlating functional status of muscles characterized from the intra-vaginal surface EMG measurements with the specific pelvic muscle groups that generated these signals. The developed MAI technique described herein holds promise for eliminating the need to place needle electrodes into muscles to obtain accurate EMG recordings in some clinical applications.


Expectation maximization (EM) algorithm is to find maximum likelihood solution for models having latent variables. A typical example is Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) which requires Gaussian assumption, however, natural images are highly non-Gaussian so that GMM cannot be applied to perform image clustering task on pixel space. To overcome such limitation, we propose a GAN based EM learning framework that can maximize the likelihood of images and estimate the latent variables. We call this model GAN-EM, which is a framework for image clustering, semi-supervised classification and dimensionality reduction. In M-step, we design a novel loss function for discriminator of GAN to perform maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) on data with soft class label assignments. Specifically, a conditional generator captures data distribution for K classes, and a discriminator tells whether a sample is real or fake for each class. Since our model is unsupervised, the class label of real data is regarded as latent variable, which is estimated by an additional network (E-net) in E-step. The proposed GAN-EM achieves state-of-the-art clustering and semi-supervised classification results on MNIST, SVHN and CelebA, as well as comparable quality of generated images to other recently developed generative models.


The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) is a new class library for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs) in Java. Created as part of the Eclipse project, SWT allows developers to build efficient, portable applications that directly access the user-interface facilities of the operating systems it is implemented on. This revolutionary technology makes it possible to create Java-based applications that are indistinguishable from a platform's native applications.SWT: The Standard Widget Toolkit, Volume 1, will show you how to: Get SWT, install it, and invoke it from your programs. Understand widgets--the building blocks of GUI--and how they interact with users and compose a GUI. Use graphics routines to configure the appearance of native widgets and draw application-specific graphics. Apply best practices from real-world uses of SWT. Appreciate what makes a quality SWT program.In this book--the first definitive guide to SWT--two of the technology's lead designers and implementers show you how to break the task of building a GUI-based application into components. They then show how these components are modeled in SWT and provide a series of graded examples. The result is a guided tour of the essential aspects of this exciting toolkit, ranging from mouse and keyboard handling to user-interface controls for native operating systems.If you want to build modern GUI-based application, SWT: The Standard Widget Toolkit, Volume 1, will prove an invaluable guide and reference.


The purpose of this study was to establish a nude rat orthotopic (organ-specific) human colorectal cancer model as an in vivo secondary screen for general evaluation of new anticancer agents against colorectal cancer and to evaluate practically the antitumor activity of 1 M tegafur-0.4 M 5-chloro-2,4-dihydroxypyridine-1 M potassium oxonate (S-1), a new p.o. fluoropyrimidine, in comparison to 1 M tegafur-4 M uracil [(UFT) effective on colorectal tumor in clinical]. After implantation of KM12C, a human colorectal cancer cell line, into the subserosal layer of the colon as a single-cell suspension, extensive local tumor growth and invasion to both the mucosal and the serosal sides were observed in all rats. Metastatic foci were also formed in both lymph nodes and lungs following local tumor growth in all of them. Using this method, an equitoxic dose of S-1 (15 mg/kg/day) and UFT (30 mg/kg/day) was administered p.o. for 14 consecutive days from 7 days after tumor cell implantation. S-1 showed a higher tumor growth inhibition than UFT did [S-1, 57% (significantly different from the tumor weight of the untreated group at P < 0.05) and UFT, 18% (P > 0.05)]. When both drugs were administered to nude rats bearing KM12C injected into the cecal wall for 28 consecutive days at equitoxic doses, the mean survival in the S-1 group was 16 days longer than that in the untreated group (P < 0.01) but that in the UFT group was only 8 days longer (P > 0.05). After the administration of an equitoxic dose of both drugs, S-1 gave the higher levels than UFT in various pharmacokinetic parameters as follows: area under the curve 0-24 h of 5-fluorouracil in plasma (3.5-fold), area under the curve 0-24 h of 5-fluorouracil incorporated into RNA in the tumor (1.3-fold), and thymidylate synthase inhibition rate (percentage) in the tumor (about 20%). Collectively, these findings suggested that this orthotopic human colorectal tumor model in nude rats is useful to evaluate the clinical therapeutic efficacy of drugs or therapies for colorectal cancer, and that S-1 had a higher therapeutic effect on human colorectal tumor than UFT did.


Background/Aims: Ligating the right lateral vitelline vein of chicken embryos (venous clip) results in cardiovascular malformations. These abnormalities are similar to malformations observed in knockout mice studies of components of the endothelin-1 (ET-1)/endothelin-converting enzyme-1/endothelin-A receptor pathway. In previous studies we demonstrated that cardiac ET-1 expression is decreased 3 h after clipping, and ventricular diastolic filling is disturbed after 2 days. Therefore, we hypothesise that ET-1-related processes are involved in the development of functional and morphological cardiovascular defects after venous clip. Methods: In this study, ET-1 and endothelin receptor antagonists (BQ-123, BQ-788 and PD145065) were infused into the HH18 embryonic circulation. Immediate haemodynamic effects on the embryonic heart and extra-embryonic vitelline veins were examined by Doppler and micro-particle image velocimetry. Ventricular diastolic filling characteristics were studied at HH24, followed by cardiovascular morphologic investigation (HH35). Results: ET-1 and its receptor antagonists induced haemodynamic effects at HH18. At HH24, a reduced diastolic ventricular passive filling component was demonstrated, which was compensated by an increased active filling component. Thinner ventricular myocardium was shown in 42% of experimental embryos. Conclusion: We conclude that cardiovascular malformations after venous clipping arise from a combination of haemodynamic changes and altered gene expression patterns and levels, including those of the endothelin pathway.


This article examines the notion that less developed markets may be deemed safe havens for international investors. It tests the effect of mature markets' fear on risk and return in less developed markets. The study employs multivariate VAR-GARCH methodology to test for volatility spillover between the U.S. market risk perception index (VIX) and 12 Middle East and North African (MENA) stock markets. It examines volatility spillover before, during, and after the global financial crisis to assess fear spillover during stable and turbulent periods. Results reveal that MENA stock markets' own volatility spillover is predominant. The authors find weak volatility transmission between mature and emerging markets around the global financial crisis; however, no evidence of volatility spillover during the same period exists. This study encourages international investors to evaluate new diversification opportunities in MENA markets that may not be available in major markets.


Two new two-mirror solar collectors for tubular receiver, the Snail concentrator and the Helmet concentrator, are presented. The main feature of these concentrators is that they have a sizeable gap between the secondary mirror and the absorber, and they still achieve concentrations close to the thermodynamic limit with high collection efficiencies. This characteristic makes them unique and, on the contrary to the present two-stage designs, avoids the location of the secondary inside the evacuated tube. One of the differences between the Snail and the Helmet concentrators is that the last is symmetric (as the conventional parabolic trough) but the first is not. For an acceptance angle of α = ±0.73 degs and a collection efficiency of 96.8% (i.e. 3.2% of the rays incident on the primary mirror within the acceptance angle are rejected), the Snail concentrator and the Helmet concentrator achieve an average flux concentration of 91.1% and 72.8% of the thermodynamic limit, respectively. Moreover, both concentrators have also high rim angles of the primary mirror: ±86.2 degs (Helmet) and 98.8 degs (Snail). This is of interest for a good mechanical stability of the collector.


Abstract We propose privacy-preserving protocols for computing linear regression models, in the setting where the training dataset is vertically distributed among several parties. Our main contribution is a hybrid multi-party computation protocol that combines Yao's garbled circuits with tailored protocols for computing inner products. Like many machine learning tasks, building a linear regression model involves solving a system of linear equations. We conduct a comprehensive evaluation and comparison of different techniques for securely performing this task, including a new Conjugate Gradient Descent (CGD) algorithm. This algorithm is suitable for secure computation because it uses an efficient fixed-point representation of real numbers while maintaining accuracy and convergence rates comparable to what can be obtained with a classical solution using floating point numbers. Our technique improves on Nikolaenko et al.'s method for privacy-preserving ridge regression (S&P 2013), and can be used as a building block in other analyses. We implement a complete system and demonstrate that our approach is highly scalable, solving data analysis problems with one million records and one hundred features in less than one hour of total running time.


A case of inversion of the gallbladder is described, in which the fundus was inverted into the body of the organ. A localized area of adenomyomatosis (adenomyoma) was present at the apex of the invertum.


This paper is a study into the possibility to use a self-regulated pressure control valve as a way of realizing active steering into road vehicles by hydraulic means. From an actuator point of view, active steering refers to the possibility to control the assistance pressure via an external signal. From the steering system control loop, it is seen that the task of the steering system is to control the assistance pressure in each chamber of the assistance cylinder. A methodology is also derived for investigating the concept and finding a set of design parameters based on system requirements. This is based on a linear approach and later a simulation of the complete steering system with vehicle and driver. In order to assure good control accuracy during fast actuation of the valve a high gain is required. This would require an over damped valve with large proportions. This design was tested to verify the design methodology. A feasible design based on maximum available spool force was also tested. This design showed to large deviation in steering wheel torque compared to the original system.


Urnula padeniana is described as new although it is a common northwestern American species known for years as Sarcosoma mexicanum or Plectania mexicana. A morphological in-depth study of this species is reported. The type of Bulgaria mexicana is also revised, and turns out to be a different species, being a member of the Urnula campylospora complex. The new combination Urnula mexicana is proposed. Color pictures of fresh and dried specimens, microscopic morphology, and a black and white plate of hymenial elements are included. Related or similar species are also discussed


The Cart-Inverted Pendulum System (CIPS) is a classical benchmark control problem. Its dynamics resembles with that of many real world systems of interest like missile launchers, pendubots, human walking and segways and many more. The control of this system is challenging as it is highly unstable, highly non-linear, non-minimum phase system and underactuated. Further, the physical constraints on the track position control voltage etc. also pose complexity in its control design. The thesis begins with the description of the CIPS together with hardware setup used for research, its dynamics in state space and transfer function models. In the past, a lot of research work has been directed to develop control strategies for CIPS. But, very little work has been done to validate the developed design through experiments. Also robustness margins of the developed methods have not been analysed. Thus, there lies an ample opportunity to develop controllers and study the cart-inverted pendulum controlled system in real-time. The objective of this present work is to stabilize the unstable CIPS within the different physical constraints such as in track length and control voltage. Also, simultaneously ensure good robustness. A systematic iterative method for the state feedback design by choosing weighting matrices key to the Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) design is presented. But, this yields oscillations in cart position. The Two-Loop-PID controller yields good robustness, and superior cart responses. A sub-optimal LQR based state feedback subjected to H∞ constraints through Linear Matrix Inequalities (LMIs) is solved and it is observed from the obtained results that a good stabilization result is achieved. Non-linear cart friction is identified using an exponential cart friction and is modeled as a plant matrix uncertainty. It has been observed that modeling the cart friction as above has led to improved cart response. Subsequently an integral sliding mode controller has been designed for the CIPS. From the obtained simulation and experiments it is seen that the ISM yields good robustness towards the output channel gain perturbations. The efficacies of the developed techniques are tested both in simulation and experimentation. It has been also observed that the Two-Loop PID Controller yields overall satisfactory response in terms of superior cart position and robustness. In the event of sensor fault the ISM yields best performance out of all the techniques.


Airports have taken centre stage in the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and adoption of technologies has been instrumental in helping airport operators to mitigate operational and health concerns relating to the pandemic. A novel framework for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies was developed based on the insights gathered from an industry survey of 102 airport operators and managers around the world and 17 semi-structured interviews. The framework provides a 'three-proof' approach (proof of technology, proof of operations and proof of business) to guide airport operators in their decision-making process in adopting Industry 4.0 technologies in airports. This framework is further verified through a case study of the technology implementation efforts of a leading Asian airport. One Sentence Summary: A novel framework and case study for the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies in airports


ABSTRACT Shared book reading has positive impacts on language development, yet how it is navigated with young dual-language learning (DLL) children is less well understood. This study explored differences in shared reading practices among families raising Spanish/English DLL children with a survey for primary caregivers (n = 96) of DLLs between 2–5 years old. Respondents self-reported their household primary language and were categorized into three groups: Spanish primary (SPL), English primary (EPL), or both languages primary (BPL). Respondents answered questions about their own language proficiency, their children's exposure to English and Spanish, frequency of shared reading in each language, and parent and child language preferences and practices involving the use of both languages during reading. Results indicated that reported household primary language corresponded to language dominance reportedly experienced by the child, and shared reading frequency in each language is impacted by household primary language. Across primary language groups, there were not significant differences in the use of beneficial dialogic reading strategies. Additionally, caregivers' reported practices around the use of both languages while reading were diverse within each group, and warrant further inquiry. These findings illustrate the importance of contextualizing DLL children's home language environment in order to better understand their pre-literacy experiences.


We have addressed the problem of estimating surface-wave phase velocities through the spectral processing of seismic data. This is the key step of the well-known near-surface seismic exploration method, called multichannel analysis of surface waves. To increase the accuracy and ensure the unambiguity of the selection of dispersion curves, we have developed a new version of the frequency-wavenumber ([Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text]) transform based on the S-transform. We obtain the frequency-time representation of seismic data. We analyze the obtained S-transform frequency-time representation in a slant-stacking manner but use a spatial Fourier transform instead of amplitude stacking. Finally, we build the [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] image by analyzing the spatial spectra for different steering values of the surface-wave group velocities. The time localization of the surface-wave packet at each frequency increases the signal-to-noise ratio because of an exclusion of noise in other time steps (which does not fall in the effective width of the corresponding wavelet). The new [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] transform, i.e., the slant [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] (SFK) transform, renders a better spectral analysis than the conventional [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] transform and yields more accurate phase-velocity estimation, which is critical for the surface-wave analysis. The advantages of the SFK transform have been confirmed by synthetic- and field-data processing.


The addition of PP(i) promoted the acidification of a subcellular compartment in cell homogenates of Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoites, implying the presence of a proton-translocating pyrophosphatase. The proton gradient was collapsed by addition of the K(+)/H(+) antiporter nigericin, and was also inhibited by addition of the PP(i) analogue aminomethylenediphosphonate (AMDP). Both proton transport and PP(i) hydrolysis were dependent upon K(+), but Na(+) caused partial inhibition of these activities. PP(i) hydrolysis was sensitive in a dose-dependent manner to AMDP, imidodiphosphate, NaF and to the thiol reagent N-ethylmaleimide. This activity was unaffected by common inhibitors of phosphohydrolases, except that NaO(3)V (sodium orthovanadate) stimulated the activity by 87%. Immunofluorescence microscopy, using antisera raised against conserved peptide sequences of a plant vacuolar pyrophosphatase, suggested that the pyrophosphatase in T. gondii tachyzoites was located in the plasma membrane and intracellular vacuoles of the parasite. High-field (31)P-NMR spectroscopy showed that PP(i )was more abundant than ATP in tachyzoites. Bisphosphonates (PP(i) analogues), drugs that are used in the treatment of bone diseases, inhibited proton transport and PP(i) hydrolysis in tachyzoite homogenates, and also inhibited intracellular proliferation of tachyzoites in tissue culture cells.


: Sensomotory function after ACL-reconstruction was tested prior and after a proprioceptive rehabilitation program with the Kinesthetic Ability Trainer (KAT 2000) which documented the static balance index (SBI). A control group consisting of healthy subjects was also tested two times with a time interval of six weeks. The results showed an adaptation effect to the testing device in the control group with an 17.12% increase of the SBI. There were no differences between the dominant and non dominant extremity. The active sensomotory function in the healthy knee of the operated patients showed no difference to the control group. Proprioceptive capabilities of the acl-reconstructed knee joints was significant reduced 6.42 weeks after surgery. A special proprioceptive rehabilitation program for six weeks significantly reduced this deficit. In the patient group sensomotory function of both knee joints could be increased to a level higher than in the control group. In the operated extremity the static balance index increased 27.75% and in the non injured extremity the SBI increased 16.88%.


As regards effect on lactation there are no objective studies made of this so far as I am aware: I do know that in the various papers quoted by Dr. Venning there are figures based on the patients' impressions. I would certainly agree that this is something which must be explored with a view to using oral contraceptives in countries where prolonged lactation is common. This will have to be done for each population group, for it appears that women in these countries need a smaller dose of oral contraceptive than is used in this country and the smaller doses seem to have less effect on lactation.


There are many factors in a common building project that are not relevant for free-form tall building projects, for example, the free-form planes or various shapes of buildings. Among the many risks present in particular in structural frameworks, the risk of delays is an important one and has a considerable effect on the entire project performance. Generally, a delay causes a decrease in constructability and an increase in cost, so eventually the productibility of the structural framework would decrease. Delay management of structural frameworks in free-form tall buildings is currently performed by project managers based on personal experience and intuition. This nonsystematic management results from the lack of data that are essential for the planning construction process reflected in the particular considerations of the free-form tall building. This study identified the delay factors that can occur in the structural framework of free-form tall building projects and analyzed priorities for delay management. First, the scope of freeform tall buildings was identified, and particular considerations for the structural framework in their construction were determined, such as plane, elevation, floor height, and structure. Delay factors for each category were recognized through interviews with experts with experience in such projects. To prioritize the delay factors, the occurrence and severity of each factor were surveyed. A risk priority number was calculated from the survey results, and the priority was analyzed. The results of this study could serve as preliminary data for the planning construction process of structural frameworks in free-form tall buildings.


Time synchronization schemes in Wireless Sensor Networks have been subjected to various security threats and attacks. In this paper we throw light on some of these attacks. Nevertheless we are more concerned with the pulse delay attack which cannot be countered using any of the cryptographic techniques. We propose an algorithm called Resync algorithm which not only detects the delay attack but also aims to rectify the compromised node and introduce it back in the network for the synchronization process. In-depth analysis has been done in terms of the rate of success achieved in detecting multiple outliers i.e. nodes under attack and the level of accuracy obtained in the offset values after running the Resync algorithm.


We call a section of an elliptic surface to be everywhere integral if it is disjoint from the zero-section. The set of everywhere integral sections of an elliptic surface is always a finite set. We pose the basic problem about this set when the base curve is P. In the case of a rational elliptic surface, we obtain a complete answer, described in terms of the root lattice E8 and its roots. Our results are related to some problems in Gröbner basis, Mordell-Weil lattices and deformation of singularities, which have served as the motivation and idea of proof as well.


Melanocytic matricoma is a rare cutaneous neoplasm of presumed anagen hair follicle origin with approximately 10 reported cases in the literature. Melanocytic matricomas are clinically and histopathologically distinct cutaneous nodular proliferations of matrical and supramatrical cells admixed with dendritic melanocytes, which typically occur in the sun-exposed areas of elderly patients. We report a new case with additional histopathologic features not previously described. An 82-year-old white man presented with an exophytic papule of the ear clinically suspicious for basal cell carcinoma. Histopathologic examination demonstrated a polypoid neoplasm consisting of an admixture of matrical and shadow cells with numerous interspersed dendritic and epithelioid melanocytes arranged singly and in large expansile nests. An unusual feature in this case included prominent melanocytic proliferation with associated nuclear atypia and increased mitotic activity. Although atypical and malignant melanocytic colonization has been reported in basal cell carcinomas and squamoproliferative lesions, to our knowledge, it has not been previously described in melanocytic matricomas. The biologic significance of atypical melanocytic proliferations within melanocytic matricomas is uncertain and requires further study of additional cases and long-term follow-up.


Metropolitan universities in the United States are driven by the intertwined missions of broadening educational access and serving their surrounding communities. International education historically has been placed somewhat apart from such missions. This separation has little justification in these globalized times, however - a realization that changes how such institutions might approach the civic engagement and stewardship at their core. Metropolitan areas must now be understood not only in terms of geographic proximity but also in terms of intersecting "spheres of engagement, "from local to global. Cities, their universities, and the graduates they produce, must learn to operate across these spheres with skill, wisdom, and responsibility. The result is the internationalized academic stewardship of urban places discussed in this article.


In high voltage (H.V.) plant, ageing processes can occur in the insulation system which are totally unavoidable and ultimately limit the operational life of the plant. Ultimately, partial discharge (PD) activity can start to occur at particular points within the insulation system. Operational over stressing and defects introduced during manufacture may also cause PD activity and the presence of this activity if it remains untreated will lead to the development of accelerated degradation processes until eventually there may be catastrophic failure. Therefore, partial discharge condition monitoring of valuable HV plant such as a transformers and in particular along a transformer winding is an important research area as this may ultimately provide asset health information enabling the maintenance and replacement processes to be carried out effectively. Wavelet multi-resolution analysis consists of a series of quadrature filter banks which are associated with a high pass and low pass filter. The process is performed in order to decompose original signals into different levels that contain different time-frequency resolutions of the original waveform. Thus, the spread of signal energy over different time/frequency ranges can be determined. The use of system identification in the frequency domain using the Wavelet transform provides unique selections of the particular frequency range of interest of the measured PD signals that have propagated inside a transformer winding. Wavelet decomposition levels can be combined linearly with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and this may provide useful information about the location of the discharge source within the winding and with further implementation using an infinite impulse response (IIR) filter approximation, it is possible to construct a standard filter based on the Wavelet


Diabetes mellitus (DM) is the most common of the endocrine disorders. It is an important humanailment, afflicting many, from various walks of life in different countries. The prevalence of diabetes mellitus is expected to reach up to 4.4% in the world by 2030. Among all type of diabetes, type 2 diabetes is main complication. Currently available treatment options in modern medicine have several adverse effects. Therefore, there is a need to develop safe and effective treatment modalities for diabetes. Medical plants play an important role in the management of diabetes mellitus especially in developing countries where resources are meager. This article presents a review on some reported antidiabetic medicinal plants (with their botanical name,Family and part used)


Real-world timeseries have complex underlying temporal dynamics and the detection of anomalies is challenging. In this paper, we propose the Temporal Hierarchical One-Class (THOC) network, a temporal one-class classification model for timeseries anomaly detection. It captures temporal dynamics in multiple scales by using a dilated recurrent neural network with skip connections. Using multiple hyperspheres obtained with a hierarchical clustering process, a one-class objective called Multiscale Vector Data Description is defined. This allows the temporal dynamics to be well captured by a set of multi-resolution temporal clusters. To further facilitate representation learning, the hypersphere centers are encouraged to be orthogonal to each other, and a self-supervision task in the temporal domain is added. The whole model can be trained end-to-end. Extensive empirical studies on various real-world timeseries demonstrate that the proposed THOC network outperforms recent strong deep learning baselines on timeseries anomaly detection.


Polyvinyl acetate(PVAc)hybrid emulsions with nanoparticles SiO2 were prepared by the semi-continuous seeding emulsion polymerization. The micro-morphologies of the hybrid emulsions, the diameters and distributions of the latex particles were characterized with the aid of scanning electron microscope (SEM) and diameter analyzer. Adhesive properties of hybrid emulsions and the properties of the emulsion films were determined by mechanical properties tester and dynamic mechanics analyzer (DMA). And the rheological behaviors of hybrid emulsions were measured via rheometer. SEM and diameter analysis showed that the process of the nanoparticles SiO2 by ultrasonic made a good dispersibility of latex particles in emulsions, diameters of the latex particles were 0.68~0.89μm with the content of SiO2 from 0 to 1.0% (% in relation to the total mass VAc), and indexes of distributions of particle size were increased with the increasing of the content of SiO2 from 0 to 1.0%. Adhesion strengths of PVAc emulsions modified with nanoparticles SiO2 were improved. DMA results indicated that the films of PVAc/SiO2 hybrid emulsions had the higher storage modulus than the film of PVAc, the temperatures of glass transition of the films of PVAc/SiO2 hybrid emulsions were not changed obviously, and the water absorptions of films were decreased. Rheological results revealed that flow consistency indexes were increased then decreased with the increasing of the content of SiO2 from 0 to 1.0%, and PVAc/SiO2 hybrid emulsions were typical pseudoplastic fluid.


This paper describes a recommender system for sport videos, transmitted over the Internet and/or broadcast, in the context of large-scale events, which has been tested for the Olympic Games. The recommender is based on audiovisual consumption and does not depend on the number of users, running only on the client side. This avoids the concurrence, computation and privacy problems of central server approaches in scenarios with a large number of users, such as the Olympic Games. The system has been designed to take advantage of the information available in the videos, which is used along with the implicit information of the user and the modeling of his/her audiovisual content consumption. The system is thus transparent to the user, who does not need to take any specific action. Another important characteristic is that the system can produce recommendations for both live and recorded events. Testing has showed advantages compared to previous systems, as will be shown in the results.


In this paper, a time-optimal trajectory generation algorithm is proposed for helicopter shipboard landing. The algorithm utilizes a simplified model of the helicopter's dynamics and exploits the differential flatness of the model to formulate a nonlinear programming problem, whose solution provides time-optimal reference approach/landing trajectories. The trajectories are then tracked by an inner-loop linear dynamic inversion (LDI) controller to generate the actual inputs that steer the full-state nonlinear helicopter model. The proposed algorithm reduces approach/landing flight time and enables a higher degree of maneuverability in comparison to typical state of the art methods of trajectory generation. Because of its computational efficiency, the path planner can also be used in real-time, i.e., through iterative recalculation of the remaining trajectory to account for deviations from the planned flight path. High fidelity simulations have been conducted on a verified UH-60A Black Hawk model, which show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Currently corporate scandals are making headlines in the news. Stakeholders are demanding transparency through better information disclosure in order to curtail this problem and to regain trust. Businesses must find better and more effective ways of communicating not only financial but also non-financial information to these stakeholders. Information disclosures in both annual reports and on websites are important but the two media are used differently.
Online CSR disclosures provide timely information and will meet stakeholders' demands for greater speed and volume of information disclosure. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the current level of online CSR disclosures among public listed companies in Malaysia, with particular reference to the influence of leadership variables. This study seeks to explain any variations in online CSR disclosures by using the following variables as the explanatory factors: ethical leadership behaviours, consisting of people orientation, fairness, power sharing, concern for sustainability, ethical guidance, role clarification and integrity; leadership styles, comprising transactional and transformational leadership styles; and leader roles.
In investigating this issue, a quantitative approach was employed using a sample of 100 top Malaysian public listed companies. The data collection started with examining corporate websites using a disclosure index, followed by a questionnaire survey to grasp employees' opinions on their leaders' ethical leadership behaviours, leadership styles and leader roles. Due to the limitations of a quantitative approach, seven semi-structured interviews with managers were conducted to give context to the quantitative findings as well as supplement the data.
The results show that Malaysian companies' level of online CSR disclosure was low and the majority of companies did not fully utilise their websites to disseminate CSR information, although all the companies had websites. The results of the multiple regression indicated that ethical guidance, concern for sustainability and integrity contributed to the amount of CSR information disclosed on the Malaysian companies' websites but interestingly, these were inverse relationships. Consequently, the interview findings revealed that not all leadership variables were perceived by managers to be determinants of online CSR disclosures. The inverse relationships were possibly due to factors such as leader's confidence, moral recognition, personal recognition, external factors and cultural factors.
This research contributes to the understanding of corporate voluntary disclosure strategies through the focus on online CSR disclosure. Prior disclosure studies emphasize financial, accounting and economic related variables as determinants to online CSR disclosures. This study provides a new insight for company leaders, policy makers and academics on how the behaviours of leaders, who are key corporate players, can impact the setting of CSR goals and enhance transparency by disclosing online.


Spatio-temporal kriging is an important problem in web and social applications, such as Web or Internet of Things, where things (e.g., sensors) connected into a web often come with spatial and temporal properties. It aims to infer knowledge for (the things at) unobserved locations using the data from (the things at) observed locations during a given time period of interest. This problem essentially requires inductive learning. Once trained, the model should be able to perform kriging for different locations including newly given ones, without retraining. However, it is challenging to perform accurate kriging results because of the heterogeneous spatial relations and diverse temporal patterns. In this paper, we propose a novel inductive graph representation learning model for spatio-temporal kriging. We first encode heterogeneous spatial relations between the unobserved and observed locations by their spatial proximity, functional similarity, and transition probability. Based on each relation, we accurately aggregate the information of most correlated observed locations to produce inductive representations for the unobserved locations, by jointly modeling their similarities and differences. Then, we design relation-aware gated recurrent unit (GRU) networks to adaptively capture the temporal correlations in the generated sequence representations for each relation. Finally, we propose a multi-relation attention mechanism to dynamically fuse the complex spatio-temporal information at different time steps from multiple relations to compute the kriging output. Experimental results on three real-world datasets show that our proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art methods consistently, and the advantage is more significant when there are fewer observed locations. Our code is available at https://github.com/zhengchuanpan/INCREASE.


The steady temperature distributions in a ceramic / metal composite FGM plate with temperature-dependent material properties during heating process were investigated by the NFEM. From numerical calculation, when T0=300K, Ta=650K and Tb=1 700K, the temperature distributions in the composite FGM plate were obtained. The results are as follows. With the increase of the FGM gradient layer thickness and when M=1, the temperature distributions in the composite plate are more reasonable. With the increase of porosity, the variations of the temperature curve become big obviously, and there is an abrupt change for the temperature at =0.5, its value is about 917K, but the temperature curve is gentle and smooth at the bonding interfaces of the three-layered composite FGM plate. Compared with the nongraded two-layered ceramic/metal composite plate, the temperature of the ZrO2/FGM/Ti-6Al-4V composite plate is very gentle. When the temperature dependency of the material properties was considered, the temperature in graded three-layered composite FGM plate becomes small obviously. The results provide the foundations of theoretical calculation and the further analysis of thermal stress for the design and application of the composite plate.


An increasing number of design and research projects in landscape architecture address issues of food and its relationship to landscape. The production, distribution, processing, marketing, consumption, and disposal of food have consequences for landscape processes and places. This paper articulates how food and landscape are mutually constituted through shared ecological, social, and spatial systems. It outlines ways of representing and shaping the relationships between food and landscape using a framework of food systems, narratives, networks, and spaces. This framework opens multiple, broad range strategies for shaping food and landscapes beyond site-based projects. It argues that designers should expand practice from an emphasis on local food strategies of productive spaces to respatialize the logistical spaces of aggregation and distribution in order make significant structural change in both landscape and food systems.


Background Between November 2014 and March 2015, eight high level azithromycin resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG) isolates (MIC > 256 mg/l) were identified by Sexually Transmitted Bacteria Reference Unit Microbiology Services (STBRU) from our clinic. An Outbreak Control Team was established to actively manage the outbreak. We report the actions and outcomes of the clinical team. Immediate actions Clinicians reminded to take cultures from all exposed sites when NG suspected and before any treatment; first face-to-face contact is most effective in obtaining partner details; TOC at 2 weeks essential. Enhanced PN commenced. Where initial PN incomplete, or withheld, at least two further attempts of face-to-face interview or phone call. TOC non-attendees contacted by phone call and letter, giving further opportunity to pursue PN. Advice sought from STBRU about treating pharyngeal infections to avoid pressure on ceftriaxone by its use as monotherapy. Investigation of how the first eight cases were missed despite clinic systems in place for checking positive NG cultures. Outcomes By December 2015: 16 infected people identified with whole genome sequencing suggesting clonal outbreak. All were heterosexual, most aged 16–20 years. No ethnic or geographic clustering. 12/16 attended for TOC which were negative. 28 contacts disclosed, 16 traceable all attended - 3 NG negative, 13 NG positive, (12/13 azithromycin resistant, 1 NAAT positive but culture negative). PN identified 1 cluster of 4 and 3 clusters of 2 Lessons learned NG cultures and sensitivities remain essential to detect antimicrobial resistance. Despite enhanced PN there are many untraceable contacts in young heterosexuals. Clinics need robust administrative systems for timely detection of antimicrobial resistance


Three-dimensional scanning technology recently becomes widely available to the public. However, it is difficult to simulate clothing deformation from the scanned people because scanned data lacks information required for the clothing simulation. In this paper, we present a technique to estimate clothing patterns from a scanned person in cloth. Our technique uses image-based deep learning to estimate the type of pattern on the projected image. The key contribution is converting image-based inference into three-dimensional clothing pattern estimation. We evaluate our technique by applying our technique to an actual scan. CCS Concepts • Computing methodologies → Shape modeling; Neural networks;


An original model, based on a variational formulation for boundary motion by viscous drag, is developed to simulate single grain boundary motion and its interaction with particles. The equations are solved by a 3D finite element method to obtain the instantaneous velocity at each triangular element on the boundary surface, before, during and after contact with one or more particles. After validation by comparison with some simple, analytical and numerical cases, it is adapted to model curvature driven grain growth. For single phase material, the single grain boundary model closely matches the grain coarsening kinetics of a 3D multi boundary vertex model. In the presence of spherical incoherent particles the growth rate slows down to give a growth exponent of 2.5. When the boundary is anchored there is a significantly higher density, by a factor of 4, of particles on the boundary than the density predicted by the classic Zener analysis, and many particles exert less than this Zener drag force. As a result the Zener drag is increased by a factor of about 2.2. The limiting grain radius is compared with some experimental results.


Shyaporn Theerakulstit, also known by the name Shy, is a Thai-American actor and filmmaker whose short video clips focus on the topics of popular culture, mediated identities, performativity and parodism. Several of them humorously reflect on US discourses on Asianness, hyphenated identities and political correctness, drawing from the filmmaker's diasporic perspective that enables him to simultaneously partake in and critique these discourses. This article aims to introduce Shy's work and analyses three of his short films, concentrating on questions of cultural stereotyping, identity construction, and ethnicity as performance.


To add more details about the effect of the axial magnetic field on the plasma profile, the breakdown voltage of air was investigated at low pressure (9-15 Pa) in the presence of axial magnetic field (0.01-0.04T). The air was ignited by a DC voltage between two plain electrodes of aluminum separated by a distance (8.5cm). The measurements showed that the discharge voltage decreases to a minimum value, then returns to increase over the minimum with increasing the magnetic field strength, at all pressures in the range. It was also observed that a maximum decrease in the discharge voltage is obtained near the minimum of  Paschen curve from the right side. The decrease in the discharge voltage was caused mainly by the effect of magnetic flux density on the diffusion of charged particles to the walls, especially on that of free electrons which were borne during the breakdown process.


Increased renal ammoniagenesis and bicarbonate synthesis from glutamine during chronic metabolic acidosis facilitate the excretion of acids and partially restore normal acid-base balance. This adaptation is sustained, in part, by a cell-specific stabilization of the glutaminase mRNA that leads to an increased synthesis of the mitochondrial glutaminase. A direct repeat of an 8-base AU sequence within the 3'-nontranslated region of the glutaminase mRNA binds a unique protein with high affinity and specificity. Expression of various chimeric mRNAs in LLC-PK(1)-FBPase(+) cells demonstrated that a single 8-base AU sequence is both necessary and sufficient to function as a pH response element (pH RE). A biotinylated oligoribonucleotide containing the direct repeat was used as an affinity ligand to purify the pH RE-binding protein from a cytosolic extract of rat renal cortex. The purified binding activity retained the same specific binding properties as observed with crude extracts and correlated with the elution of a 36-kDa protein. Microsequencing by mass spectroscopy and Western blot analysis were used to identify this protein as zeta-crystallin/NADPH:quinone reductase. The purified protein contained eight tryptic peptides that were identical to sequences found in mouse zeta-crystallin and three peptides that differed by only a single amino acid. The observed differences may represent substitutions found in the rat homolog. A second protein purified by this protocol was identified as T-cell-restricted intracellular antigen-related protein (TIAR). However, the purified TIAR neither bound nor affected the binding of zeta-crystallin/NADPH:quinone reductase to the pH RE. Furthermore, specific antibodies to zeta-crystallin, but not TIAR, blocked the formation of the complex between the pH RE and either the crude cytosolic extract or the purified protein. Thus, zeta-crystallin/NADPH:quinone reductase is a pH response element-binding protein.


Background
The primary focus of video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) sleeve lobectomy is bronchial anastomosis. Both interrupted suture and continuous suture cannot overcome entanglement of the suture threads. The present study used the "continuous suture dividing and equal suture tightening" method in VATS sleeve lobectomy for bronchial anastomosis and discussed the feasibility of this approach.

Methods
A total of 17 patients underwent VATS sleeve lobectomy with bronchial anastomosis using the "continuous suture dividing and equal suture tightening" method. Four incisions were utilized in the operation as follows: (I) the pulmonary arteries and veins were cut-off using an endoscopic linear stapler. Systematic hilar and mediastinal lymph node dissection was performed; (II) the surgeon used a surgical knife for incision into the thoracic cavity and to cut the lung lobe and main bronchi. Intraoperative pathological analysis revealed negative bronchial margins; (III) the "continuous suture dividing and equal suture tightening" method was performed for anastomosis; (IV) the integrity of the anastomosis was assessed by intraoperative bronchoscopy. Computed tomography (CT), three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction and bronchoscopy assessed the anastomosis 1-week postoperatively. A follow-up was conducted using a 3-month bronchoscopy, and CT scans monitored the recurrence and stenosis of the anastomosis.

Results
The method was successfully completed for VATS sleeve lobectomy with bronchial anastomosis in 17 cases. Although various histological profiles were observed, the 1-week postoperative CT and bronchoscopy showed adequate healing of the anastomotic stoma as well as the absence of postoperative mortality and bronchial pleural fistula. All patients were alive and followed up for 31-49 months postoperatively; local recurrence and anastomotic stenosis were not detected.

Conclusions
The continuous suture dividing and equal suture tightening method is convenient, feasible, and safe for bronchial anastomosis in VATS sleeve lobectomy. It can effectively avoid the entanglement of the suture threads, thereby enabling the widespread adoption of VATS sleeve lobectomy.


We investigate the interplay between the thermodynamic properties and spin-dependent transport in a mesoscopic magnetic multilayer, in which two strongly ferromagnetic layers are exchange-coupled through a weakly ferromagnetic spacer. We show theoretically that the system allows a spin-thermoelectronic control of the relative orientation of the outer layers. Supporting experimental evidence of thermally controlled switching from parallel to anti-parallel magnetization orientations in the sandwich is presented. We show magneto-resistance oscillations may take place with frequencies up to GHz. We discuss in detail an experimental realization of a device that can operate as a thermo-magneto-resistive switch or oscillator.


The feasibility of fabricating wireless optical components on Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) is investigated. Using arrays of grating couplers, a so-called phased array is constructed allowing beam steering and sending light to and receiving light from free space. Using a phased array at the receiver side also allows for more complex modulation formats since light is now captured coherently before being detected in an integrated receiver. Link budget calculations of such phased arrays are performed and show the feasibility of on-chip phased arrays for distances up to a few meter and steering ranges of several degrees.


An epidemic of infection associated with Serratia marcescens and other Gram‐negative organisms resistant to aminoglycosides and other chemotherapeutic agents occurred in the intensive care unit of St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, and spread to other areas of the hospital. This paper describes the problems of sepsis in the critically ill patient, outlines the occurrence of organisms in the patients concerned in this epidemic, and discusses the policies adopted to control the incidence of life‐threatening infection caused by bacteria resistant to all other agents.


Federal law has long deprived American veterans of certain fundamental legal rights enjoyed by non-veterans and attributable to veteran sacrifice. Federal case law, for example, denies veterans the right to bring an action in tort against the federal government to vindicate in-service injuries. And the United States Code deprives veterans of their right to robust judicial oversight of Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) service-connected benefit decisions. This pair of due process deprivations is compounded by the federal statute that prohibits veterans from exercising the fundamental right to counsel during the initial stage of the VA claims process. This Article examines the federal statutory scheme and pertinent case law that has long denied veterans the right to counsel throughout the VA veteran claims adjudication process, debunks the rationales underlying that law, and concludes by recommending that the federal government extend to veterans the right to counsel throughout the VA's benefits adjudication proceedings.


NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluations (NIST SRE), played a major role in the progress of text-independent speaker verification algorithms. Tubitak UEKAE - Sabanci University jointly participated in NIST SRE 2010. In this paper, the Gaussian Mixture Model Supervector - Support Vector Machine based speaker verification system developed for NIST SRE 2010 has been presented. A recipe has been given for the training of Universal Background Model which is an essential step for system's performance. Results of the Nuisance Attribute Projection algorithm integrated to the system after evaluation to suppress the session variabilities has also been presented.


Measurements of relative humidity (RH) and aerosol parameters (scattering cross section, size distribu- tions and chemical composition), performed in ambient at- mospheric conditions, have been used to study the influence of relative humidity on aerosol properties. The data were acquired in a suburban area south of Paris, between 18 and 24 July 2000, in the framework of the "Etude et Simulation de la Qualit´ e de l'air en Ile-de-France" (ESQUIF) program. According to the origin of the air masses arriving over the Paris area, the aerosol hygroscopicity is more or less pro- nounced. The aerosol chemical composition data were used as input of a thermodynamic model to simulate the varia- tion of the aerosol water mass content with ambient RH and to determine the main inorganic salt compounds. The cou- pling of observations and modelling reveals the presence of deliquescence processes with hysteresis phenomenon in the hygroscopic growth cycle. Based on the Hmodel, pa- rameterisations of the scattering cross section, the modal ra- dius of the accumulation mode of the size distribution and the aerosol water mass content, as a function of increasing RH, have been assessed. For the first time, a crosscheck of these parameterisations has been performed and shows that the hygroscopic behaviour of the accumulation mode can be coherently characterized by combined optical, size distribu- tion and chemical measurements.


The olivine macrocrysts found in oceanites, picrites and magnesian basalts erupted at hotspot volcanoes are generally interpreted either as phenocrysts crystallized from the magma or as xenocrysts extracted from a deforming cumulate. To constrain the origin of these crystals we studied their texture and composition at Piton de la Fournaise volcano, La Reunion. We show that macrocrysts are organized and subdivided into parallel units; this suggests a crystallization by dendritic growth and ripening rather than by a complex combination of paired nucleation, crystal aggregation or synneusis. Dendritic growth is also evidenced by the occurrence of hollow faces, P-rich zones, melt and Cr-spinel inclusions formed from the accumulation of slow diffusing impurities (P, Cr, Al) in the liquid at the contact with rapid-growing olivine. We suggest that early dendritic crystallization may even cause branch misorientations and lattice mismatches, yielding subgrain boundaries, dislocation lamellae and to a certain extent undulose extinction, which have all been formerly interpreted in terms of plastic intracrystalline deformation. We interpret olivine macrocrysts as phenocrysts crystallized under a strong degree of undercooling (-ΔT > 60°C), and derived from a harrisitic mush formed on the cold walls of the magma reservoir. Given the growth shapes indicated by P zoning patterns and external faces, the olivine macrocrysts (which consist of groups of several subcrystals) have grown in suspension within the liquid and were neither aggregated into a dense cumulate nor corroded, shocked or deformed before or during their transport to the surface. The major consequence of our study is that most olivine macrocrysts are not xenocrysts, and very few of them, if any, have experienced intracrystalline deformation. The importance of deforming (creeping) cumulate bodies, thought to accommodate the spreading of basaltic volcanoes in La Reunion and Hawaii, may hence have been overestimated.


Unconventional hydrocarbon extraction has increased in the last twenty years due to the post-industrial west needing to increase energy security. This has meant tapping into hydrocarbon resources that are trapped within impermeable sediments. Shale hydrocarbon reservoirs have a permeability of less than 0.01mD, therefore to extract hydrocarbons the shale has to be fractured to release the trapped fluid. The ability to predict when a fracture will occur and what the resulting shape of that fracture will be has recently become increasingly important in engineering, and, in particular the petroleum industry. This has been done previously using the fracture growth equation for brittle material with additional modifications for ductile materials. A number of pseudo 3D equations have been developed which are used by these software simulations to try and predict the dimensions of a fracture so that reservoir engineers can calculate the volume of fluid expected to be produced by any drilling well. However, the simulations provide only a reasonable prediction of fluid flow and can be under or overestimated by up to 60% of returns. Previous fraccing experiments carried out to determine how the models could be improved have relied on data whereby reservoir rocks have been placed under bi-axial pressure, (two forms of pressure acting perpendicular to each other) rather than tri-axial (σ1σ2σ3) which would more adequately reflect the pressures acting on in-situ shale formations. The present investigation has focused on building a pressure rig that allows rock samples to be placed under tri-axial pressure. To this end a concrete rig structure has been built to house three flat jacks which place a 100mm3 rock sample under pressure of up to 120 bars (12MPa) in three different directions, to represent rock at in situ depths. In conjunction with the flat jacks, 6 acoustic sensors can be placed around the rock sample to allow 3D mapping of the acoustic emissions occurring during the drilling and fracturing phase.
10 different shale samples were scanned (using the GE Phoenix v|tome|xs CT scanner) and their images reconstructed to show 3-D visualisations of any pre-existing fractures or structures. 9 of those samples were then drilled and fractured and scanned again. Using reconstruction software each drilling fracture was mapped and the dimensions measured at regular intervals in order to provide a more accurate picture of how the fracture developed when the rock is subjected to tri-axial loading. Two types of shale rock were tested, samples from the Westbury Shale Formation and samples from the Accrington Mudstone Formation. Two Accrington and one Westbury were fractured under bi-axial conditions and two Accrington and four Westbury under tri-axial pressure. The Accrington Mudstones formed a fracture that was almost elliptical in shape with ultra-thin extended tips along both the top and bottom of the fracture. There was a direct correlation between fracture width and height, those fractures that narrowed along the half-length increased in height, whilst fracture half-lengths that didn't narrow resulted in a reduced height. The Westbury Shales, which are more organic rich, had a more distorted shape due to fractures opening up along the weaker bedding planes helping to disperse the pressure from the fracturing fluid. The acoustic sensors accurately picked up and located the fracture inducement, proving that they opened instantaneously and also revealing damage that occurred during drilling at a small distance (2mm ±1mm) below the position of the drill tip. The acoustic data also revealed existing fractures and planes of weakness that the induced fracture would follow.


The Kluge is the famous standard dictionary of German etymology. It comprehensively informs about the historical development and forming of 13,000 German and foreign words. For this edition, the editor has carefully examined, revised and updated the entire text. For the first time the Kluge is published with a CD-ROM that allows detailed and quick inquiries. The layout of the pages and the book cover have a new design, and the book will have a modern appearance. System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/NT 4.0/XP 80486 processor (Pentium recommended) Minimum 16 MB RAM (32 MB RAM recommended) Minimum 18 MB free diskspace (cd drive) Minimum 40 MB free diskspace (full installation)


Liquiritigenin is a chiral flavonoid present in plant based food, nutraceuticals, and traditional medicines. It is also an important ingredient present in licorice. The purpose of this study is to explore the pharmacological activity of racemic liquiritigenin utilizing several in vitro assays with relevant roles in colon cancer and diabetes. Where possible, the pure enantiomers were tested to identify the stereospecific contribution to the activity. In vitro antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory activities (cyclooxygenase inhibition), antidiabetic activities (alpha-amylase and alpha-glucosidase inhibition) as well as cytochrome P450 (CYP450) inhibitory activities were assessed. Racemic liquiritigenin demonstrated a dose-dependent inhibition of alpha-amylase enzyme whereas its pure enantiomers did not. Racemic liquiritigenin showed moderate antiproliferative activity on a HT-29 (human colorectal adenocarcinoma) cancer cell line that was dose-dependent and potent inhibitory effects on the cyclooxygenase-2 enzyme. The flavonoid did not inhibit the activity of cytochrome CYP2D6 over the concentration range studied but was a potent antioxidant. The current study demonstrated the importance of understanding the stereospecific pharmacological effects of liquiritigenin enantiomers in alpha-amylase inhibition.


Advancements in sensors and database technologies have resulted in the collection of huge amounts of process data from chemical plants. A number of process quantities such as temperature, pressure, flow rates, level, composition, and pH can be easily measured. Chemical processes are dynamic systems and are equipped with hundreds or thousands of sensors that generate readings at regular intervals (typically seconds). In addition, derived quantities that are functions of the sensor measurements as well as alerts and alarms are generated regularly. Several commercial data warehouses, referred to as plant historians in chemical plants, such as the DeltaV Continuous Historian (from Emerson Process Management), InfoPlus.21TM (from AspenTech), Uniformance® PHD (from Honeywell), and Industrial SQL (from Wonderware) are in common use today around the world. These historians store large amount (weeks) of historical process operation data at their original resolution and an almost limitless amount (years) in compressed form. This data is available for mining, analysis and decision support – both real-time and offline. Process measurements can be classified based on their nature as binary (on/off) or continuous. However, both are stored in discrete form in the historians. Measurements can also be classified based on their role during operation as controlled, manipulated, and non-control related variables. Controlled variables are directly or indirectly related to the plant's quality, production, or safety objectives and are maintained at specified setpoints, even in the face of disturbances, by analog or digital controllers. This regulation is achieved by altering manipulated variables such as flow-rates. Chemical plants are typically well-integrated – a change in one variable would propagate across many others. Non-control related variables do not have any role in plant control, but provide information to plant personnel regarding the state of the process. In general, a plant can operate in a number of states which can be broadly classified into steady-states and transitions (Srinivasan et al., 2005b). Large scale plants such as refineries typically run for long periods in steady-states but undergo transition if there is a change in feedstock or product grades. Transitions also result due to large process disturbances, maintenance activities, and abnormal events. During steady-states, the process variables vary within a narrow range. In contrast, transitions correspond to large changes / discontinuities in the plant operations; i.e., change of set points, turning on or idling of equipments, valve manipulations, etc. A number of decisions are needed on the part of the plant personnel to keep the plant running safely and efficiently during steady states as well as transitions. Data mining and analysis tools that facilitate humans to uncover information, knowledge, patterns, trends, and relationships from the historical data are therefore crucial.


Miniaturization and performance improvements are driving the electronics industry to shrink the feature size of semiconductor device. Because of its diffraction limit, conventional photolithography is becoming increasingly insufficient. In this paper, the recent development of the silicon nanowire based on electron beam lithography technique is reviewed. EBL technology is a best tool to fabricate patterns having nanometer feature sizes. In this project, the exposure process was carried out by an in‐house modified electron beam writing system using JOEL JSM 6460LA SEM integrated with ELPHY Quantum pattern generator. Following an introduction of this technique, the software description, pattern design formation and resist development are separately examined and discussed.


This paper discusses an optimisation based decision support system and methodology for electronic packaging and product design and development which is capable of addressing in efficient manner specified environmental, reliability and cost requirements. A study which focuses on the design of a flip-chip package is presented. Different alternatives for the design of the flip-chip package are considered based on existing options for the applied underfill and volume of solder material used to form the interconnects. Variations in these design input parameters have simultaneous effect on package aspects such as cost, environmental impact and reliability. A decision system for the design of the flip-chip that uses numerical optimisation approach is used to identify the package optimal specification which satisfies the imposed requirements. The reliability aspect of interest is the fatigue of solder joints under thermal cycling. Transient nonlinear finite element analysis (FEA) is used to simulate the thermal fatigue damage in solder joints subject to thermal cycling. Simulation results are manipulated within design of experiments and response surface modelling framework to provide numerical model for reliability which can be used to quantify the package reliability. Assessment of the environmental impact of the package materials is performed by using so called Toxic Index (TI). In this paper we demonstrate the evaluation of the environmental impact only for underfill and lead-free solder materials. This evaluation is based on the amount of material per flip-chip package. Cost is the dominant factor in contemporary flip-chip packaging industry. In the optimisation based decision support system for the design of the flip-chip package, cost of materials which varies as a result of variations in the design parameters is considered.


The articles in this section were initially developed for and presented at the 2010 conference of the Southwest/Texas Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association (http://swtxpca.org/). The conference, which began as a small, regional meeting in the 1970s, has since become international in scope, with upwards of a thousand presentations delivered by participants from dozens of countries. Yet despite its size, the conference maintains a friendly, casual, and intellectually robust atmosphere.


The adoption of Soil Conservation Technologies (SCTs) in Tanzania is very low compared to other countries in Africa with related situation. Interventions were taken by introducing soil conservation practices. However, the adoption of these practices is far below the expectation. The objective of this study was to examine the determinants ofSCTs among maize small-scale farmers in Tanzania. Secondary data from the National Panel Survey was used in this study. A binary probit regression model was employed to analyse the data. The analysis results showed that access to extension services and training as well as plot value were positively correlated at significantly level with the adoption of the introduced soil and water conservation practices. On the other hand, soil steepness influenced the adoption of soil conservation practices negatively. The finding depicts that the identified physical, socioeconomic, and institutional factors influence the adoption of SCTs so; concerned bodies should consider these influential factors to enhance farmers' adoption of soil conservation practices and promote agricultural productivity and environmental quality.


The purpose of this study is to evaluate the influence of the scatter in mechanical properties and stamping process parameters on an industrial sheet metal forming process. Based on a previously optimized forming process, a robustness analysis has been performed. The robustness analysis clearly showed production problems for the part not initially revealed by the analysis of the process that was trimmed for "optimality". The sensitivity of the results on the variation of the parameters was evaluated. It was shown that all parts of the sheet do not react equally sensitively to the variation of the input. Zones of critical response could be identified in accordance with the zones on the actual part that showed failure in mass production. The results reveal that the common practice of performing evaluations with fixed safety margins is non-effective and hence very dangerous, or is extremely conservative and thus costly. The application of stochastic simulation methods reduces the need for wide safety margins while simultaneously increasing the reliability of the process by incorporating uncertainty into the simulation.


In order to analyze short-term persistence in Norwegian equity mutual fund returns, two methods are applied. The backbone for both of them is a sorting procedure that creates four equally weighted portfolios based on lagged one-year returns. These ranked portfolios are subject to three different holding strategies, i.e. they are rebalanced every one, six and twelve months. The first method uses the 4-factor model by Carhart to obtain risk-adjusted returns from all the portfolios. The second one analyzes rank dependency by utilizing contingency tables. The results are somewhat mixed. None of the ranked portfolios were able to create significant risk-adjusted alphas, but simple returns seem to be affected by rankings and the holding periods. Consistency in rankings is present when the portfolios are rebalanced every one and six months. Finally, persistent behavior is gradually diminishing as the post-formation period increases.


The ability of G-quadruplex ligands to induce formation of four-stranded DNA and stabilize four-stranded DNA make them able to inhibit telomerase. This paper investigated the interaction of four perfluoroalkyl phthalocyanine metal derivatives with telomeric DNA sequence 5'-d [TTAGGG)4TT-3' by using circular dichrosim (CD), ultraviolet-visible and fluorescence spectroscopy, and molecular simulation method. Results show that perfluoroalkyl Zinic phthalocyanine can strongly induce the G-DNA in the buffer without extra K+/Na+ added with a molar ratio of 1:1 interaction possibly by intercalation into G-quartets, and only increases the amount of G-DNA in the presence of K+/Na+, with a compound/DNA 2:1 interaction possibly by external stacking model.


Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is widespread and has become a global public health emergency. The disease's outbreak was recently announced by the World Health Organization. Pulmonary Rehabilitation has been shown to improve patients' quality of life, function, and well-being with Chronic Respiratory Diseases Recently there have been various guidelines and consensus available for Pulmonary Rehabilitation in Post - COVID patients who have been discharged from other respiratory conditions. There is a limited number of literatures on the effect of exercise program on physical fitness and health status of patients with Post COVID 19 syndrome. The current study therefore uses the available evidence in COVID 19 patients to modify an exercise program and apply it to patients with COVID syndrome. The Central Trial Registry of India (CTRI) registration number for this trial is REF/2021/06/044205.


As a promising broadband wireless access standard, IEEE 802.16 specified some advance physical layer techniques and media access control layer protocols, which pose many fundamental differences in terms of automatic repeat request (ARQ) mechanism, scheduling scheme, and resource allocation, compared with those done in many previous works. In this paper, we analyze the performance of ARQ in IEEE 802.16 networks by jointly considering the opportunistic scheduling scheme, where the delivery delay and goodput are investigated as two performance metrics. Simulation results are given to verify the proposed analysis model.


Voltage control is of interest to many researchers, and is currently being considered by many utilities for implementation in their energy control centres. Transformers with tap-changing facilities constitute an important means of controlling voltage throughout the system at all voltage levels. A new method for determining the minimal changes in transformer taps to control voltage levels is presented. The problem to be solved is cast into a nonlinear constraint optimisation. The constraints are tackled in the minimisation algorithm by forming the Lagrangian. Necessary conditions for optimality are derived and solved using the Newton-Raphson method.


This study aims at highlighting novel business opportunities for brand owners created by inkjet printing and usercentric methods, and finding out, how packaging relates to company strategies. A new long drink six-pack was customized for a summer festival. The cover consisted of event and brand information. The brand owner got an advantage over competitors as a co-operation partner with the event organizer, because the six-pack cover acted as an advertisement for the event and created value for both partners. The findings contribute to the knowledge of the role of packaging in the value chain among different actors. Customized packaging enables brand owners to serve unique offering and close relationships to their co-operation partners. Another contribution is the role of advertisements at the packaging. Instead of advertising only own brands and products, brand owners may sell out the packaging face. A strong partnership allows both parties to capitalize on the situation.


Scanning electron microscopy was used to examine almond (Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D.A. Webb (syn. Prunus amygdalus Batsch, Amygdalus communis L.)) flower bud development for three cultivars (Nonpareil, Carmel, and Butte) from four California locations (which span the range of almond production in California) for 2 years, and for 'Nonpareil' in a single location for a third year. The objectives were to document timing of floral developmental events and to better understand the extent of variation that exists within and among cultivars, locations, and years. Results indicated that the tim e of floral initiation relative to hull split varied among cultivars. Median time for floral initiation in 'Nonpareil' was more t han 3 weeks after the onset of hull split. For 'Butte' and 'Carmel', median time of floral initiation preceded the onset of hull sp lit. Extensive variation in the timing of bud development events within a cultivar was apparent. Timing of developmental events varied among locations, but no patterns emerged consistent with the north to south range which spanned 4 °15' latitude and 520 km. Among years, development occurred earliest in 1997, a relatively warm year, and was delayed in 1998 and 1999, relatively cool years. Results indicate an earlier onset of floral initiation than reported in the classical literature on the subject.


Phytopathogenic Ascomycota are responsible for substantial economic losses each year, destroying valuable crops. The present study aims to provide new insights into phytopathogenicity in Ascomycota from a comparative genomic perspective. This has been achieved by categorizing orthologous gene groups (orthogroups) from 68 phytopathogenic and 24 non-phytopathogenic Ascomycota genomes into three classes: Core, (pathogen or non-pathogen) group-specific, and genome-specific accessory orthogroups. We found that (i) ~20% orthogroups are group-specific and accessory in the 92 Ascomycota genomes, (ii) phytopathogenicity is not phylogenetically determined, (iii) group-specific orthogroups have more enriched functional terms than accessory orthogroups and this trend is particularly evident in phytopathogenic fungi, (iv) secreted proteins with signal peptides and horizontal gene transfers (HGTs) are the two functional terms that show the highest occurrence and significance in group-specific orthogroups, (v) a number of other functional terms are also identified to have higher significance and occurrence in group-specific orthogroups. Overall, our comparative genomics analysis determined positive enrichment existing between orthogroup classes and revealed a prediction of what genomic characteristics make an Ascomycete phytopathogenic. We conclude that genes shared by multiple phytopathogenic genomes are more important for phytopathogenicity than those that are unique in each genome.


Testicular germ cell tumors are one of the most common neoplasms in young men. After inguinal orchiectomy is performed, treatment options range from active surveillance to chemotherapy, radiation therapy or retroperitoneal lymphadenectomy. For the accurate use of the different treatment options, precise imaging techniques are necessary to reduce side effects of the aggressive therapies but also to avoid undertreatment exposing the patient to the risk of recurrence. F-FDG PET/CT is already recommended in the European guidelines for the follow up of seminomas under certain conditions but conventional primary staging or restaging is still performed with CT or MRI. Recently, the importance of F-FDG PET/CT in this context has become an interesting topic of academic discussion and subject of various clinical trials which are reviewed in the following.


Objective: Chronic inflammation in ulcerative colitis is associated with increased risk for colorectal cancer. Its molecular pathway of cancer development is poorly understood. We investigated the role of neutrophil-derived cellular stress in an in vitro model of neutrophils as effectors and colon epithelial cells as targets, and tested for changes in cell cycle distribution and the appearance of replication errors. Design: Colon epithelial cells with different mismatch repair phenotypes were co-cultured with activated neutrophils. Target cells were analysed for cell cycle distribution and replication errors by flow cytometry. Changes in nuclear and DNA-bound levels of mismatch repair- and checkpoint-related proteins were analysed by western blotting. Results: Activated neutrophils cause an accumulation of target cells in G2/M, consistent with the installation of a DNA-damage checkpoint. Cells that do not express hMSH2, p53 or p21waf1/cip1 failed to undergo the G2/M arrest. Phosphorylation of p53 at site Ser15 and Chk1 at Ser317, as well as accumulation of p21waf1/cip1, was observed within 8–24 h. Superoxide dismutase and catalase were unable to overcome this G2/M arrest, possibly indicating that neutrophil products other than superoxide or H2O2 are involved in this cellular response. Finally, exposure to activated neutrophils increased the number of replication errors. Conclusions: By using an in vitro co-culture model that mimics intestinal inflammation in ulcerative colitis, we provide molecular evidence for an hMSH2-dependent G2/M checkpoint arrest and for the presence of replication errors.


The study aimed at evaluating the information system used in the Basic Units of Attention to Family's Health (UBASF), based on the nurses' opinions. The study has an exploratory and descriptive character. It was developed in three Fortaleza's Units with 13 nurses. The data were collected through structured interviews about the pertinence, promptness in completing forms, information search, clearness and objectivity of the information system used. They were organized in charts with indication of absolute frequencies. Among the difficulties reported, the most mentioned was the lack of promptness of the system. Of the features that require revision, the most frequently mentioned was the production of the reports demanded by the Health Ministry as well as by the municipal administration. And of the items to be included in the system, the most cited were including maps and adding data on the manual information systems. Keywords: Information Systems; Medical Informatics; Community Health Services; Public Health Nursing.


The paper examines ASEAN's political and security challenges and prospects in the coming two decades. The challenges facing ASEAN could be classified into six broad categories: (1) the shifting balance of power in the Asia Pacific; (2) the persistence of intra-ASEAN territorial conflicts; (3) the territorial dispute in the South China Sea, (4) the programs of military modernizations undertaken by ASEAN states and the resulting prospects for an intra-ASEAN arms race, (5) uncertainty and strife caused by demands for domestic political change, and (6) the dangers posed by transnational (non-traditional) security threats. The conditions for ASEAN to build a mature political-security community are also discussed.


ABSTRACT Objectives To analyze the role of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in mediating the relationship between central adiposity and immune and metabolic profile in postmenopausal women. Materials and methods Cross-sectional study comprising 49 postmenopausal women (aged 59.26 ± 8.32 years) without regular physical exercise practice. Body composition was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Fasting blood samples were collected for assessment of nonesterified fatty acids, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-6 (IL-6), adiponectin, insulin and estimation of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR). Physical activity level was assessed with an accelerometer (Actigraph GTX3x) and reported as a percentage of time spent in sedentary behavior and MVPA. All analyses were performed using the software SPSS 17.0, with a significance level set at 5%. Results Sedentary women had a positive relationship between trunk fat and IL-6 (rho = 0.471; p = 0.020), and trunk fat and HOMA-IR (rho = 0.418; p = 0.042). Adiponectin and fat mass (%) were only positively correlated in physically active women (rho = 0.441; p = 0.027). Physically active women with normal trunk fat values presented a 14.7% lower chance of having increased HOMA-IR levels (β [95%CI] = 0.147 [0.027; 0.811]). Conclusions The practice of sufficient levels of MVPA was a protective factor against immunometabolic disorders in postmenopausal women.


Since the enrollment expansion of colleges and universities in China in 1999, the average education level of the whole society has been improved, the number of graduates has been increasingandso has been the employment pressure. By analyzing the changes of the number of colleges and universities, teachers and students, this paper draws on a conclusion and analyzes the development trend of Chinese colleges and universities. Through data analysis, it is found that both the number of colleges and universities and the number of teachers are growing and the structure of professional titles is gradually becoming reasonable; the number of students is increasing annually but the growth rate is slowing down.


The role of tenascin in mediating tumor cell migration was studied using two cell migration models. In migration/invasion Transwell assays U251.3 glioma cells rapidly migrated through the 8 mu m pore size membranes onto tenascin- and fibronectin-coated surfaces. In this assay the number of cells migrating onto tenascin was 52.2 +/- 9.6% greater than on fibronectin within 4 hours. To assess cell migration rates and cell morphology, U251.3 migration was examined in a two-dimension spheroid outgrowth assay. The radial distance migrated by U251.3 cells from tumor spheroids was found to be 53.8 +/- 4.9% greater on tenascin than on fibronectin. Cells migrating on tenascin display a very motile appearance, while cells migrating on fibronectin spread and maintain close intercellular contacts. Cell migration in the presence of integrin blocking antibodies demonstrated that migration on tenascin and fibronectin is mediated by distinct integrins, alpha2beta1 and alphavbeta5/alphavbeta3, respectively. Since tenascin is coexpressed in malignant tumor matrices with fibronectin, we assessed the effects of tenascin on U251.3 cell migration mediated by fibronectin. Tenascin was found to provide a positive effect on fibronectin-mediated migration by altering cell morphology and enhancing cell motility. These effects of tenascin on fibronectin-mediated cell migration were inhibited by blocking beta1 and alpha2beta1 integrins. The results suggest that tenascin may play a significant role in promoting tumor cell migration and invasiveness by modulating cell responses to normal matrix components.


Experimental, numerical, and theoretical investigations have been carried out on statics of a magnetic bead chain in the magnetic field. Chains formed on a solenoid coil were observed and chain lengths and slant angles were measured by a digital microscope. It was deduced that (1) the chain length depends on both the surface loading of magnetic particles and the magnetic flux density, and is almost independent of the particle diameter if the sufficient amount of particles are provided; (2) chains incline in the inclined magnetic field and the inclination of the chain is enlarged by the gravitational force. These configurations of chains are approximately determined to minimize the total potential energy that consisted of the gravitational and magnetic potential energy. These characteristics were qualitatively confirmed by the numerical calculation with the two-dimensional Distinct Element Method. The investigation is expected to be utilized for the improvement of the two-component magnetic brush development system in electrophotography.