Progress in understanding the role of NAD(P)H oxidation in plant respiration is restricted by the lack of access to specific inhibitors of each of the unknown number of NAD(P)H dehydrogenases in the inner mitochondrial membrane. Platanetin (3,5,7,8-tetrahydroxy-6-isoprenyl flavone) is known to be an inhibitor of external NADH oxidation by plant mitochondria, while 7-iodo-acridone-4-carboxylic acid (IACA) is an inhibitor of an internal, rotenone-insensitive NAD(P)H dehydrogenase isolated from yeast mitochondria. Here we show that platanetin inhibits external NAD(P)H oxidation by intact potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Bintje) tuber mitochondria, deamino-NADH oxidation by Complex I assayed using inside-out submitochondrial particles from these mitochondria, and rotenone-insensitive NAD(P)H oxidation by these submitochondrial particles. IACA was found to inhibit the oxidation of external NADH and succinate by intact mitochondria with similar efficiency. However, IACA also inhibited NADPH and duroquinol oxidation by intact mitochondria as well as deamino-NADH and NAD(P)H oxidation by inside-out submitochondrial particles. This indicates that IACA has several sites of inhibition in the electron transport chain. The lack of specificity of both platanetin and IACA prevents these inhibitors from being used to shed more light on the identity of the NAD(P)H dehydrogenases in plant mitochondria.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the seroprevalence and correlates of HIV infection in a subpopulation of women of childbearing age in Montreal.

DESIGN
Anonymous unlinked seroprevalence study.

SETTING
Pregnancy termination unit in a teaching hospital in Montreal.

PARTICIPANTS
Women presenting for abortion from July 1989 to June 1993 who resided in Quebec and were not known to have HIV infection; 12,017 (99.6%) of 12,068 eligible women were included in the study.

INTERVENTION
HIV antibody testing of serum left over from samples obtained for routine Rh typing; the same algorithm as for serodiagnostic testing, namely enzyme immunoassay (EIA) followed by confirmatory testing of repeatedly EIA-reactive samples, was used.

OUTCOME MEASURES
HIV serostatus by age, marital status, region of residence (metropolitan Montreal versus other), country of birth and number of living children.

RESULTS
Most (84.7%) of the subjects resided in metropolitan Montreal. The median age was 27.0 (range 13 to 50) years. The serum samples of 22 women were confirmed to be HIV positive, for an overall seroprevalence rate of 1.8 per 1000 (95% confidence interval 1.1 to 2.8). The seroprevalence rate did not vary significantly by age, marital status, region of residence or study year. However, it was strongly correlated with country of birth: Canada 0.16, Haiti 23.5, HIV-endemic countries other than Haiti 5.3 and non-HIV-endemic countries other than Canada 0.0 per 1000. The seroprevalence rate among women born in Haiti was 147 times higher than that among women born in Canada (p < 0.0001). Of the women born in Haiti the rate was 3.0 times greater among those who immigrated to Canada in 1985 or later than among those who immigrated earlier (p = 0.047).

CONCLUSIONS
The results of this study indicate that the HIV seroprevalence rate among women in Montreal is strongly associated with country of birth, women born in HIV-endemic countries, especially Haiti, having the highest rate. These results will help in the development of policies regarding HIV antibody testing and prevention of HIV transmission in Quebec.


In the automotive industry a general tendency to choose steels with enhanced strength for structural parts can be observed. This trend results from the increased lightweight design efforts to satisfy the fleet consumption restrictions. Hot forming and quenching of boron steel offers the possibility to improve the component strength and reduce the weight of structural parts. The main influences on the process are described and a method to model and simulate this process using the finite element method using LS-DYNA is presented. Experimental investigations of the contact heat transfer have been carried out to enhance the simulation accuracy. A prototyping tool of a structural part is used to examine the process under production conditions. Temperatures of the tool and the part are measured during the process. These temperatures are compared with the simulation results in order to reevaluate the results of the process simulation.


The commercially pure titanium cylindrical samples with a diameter of 11.5mm and a length of 24mm were processed by a new severe plastic deformation process, called the rotary-die equal channel angular pressing (RD-ECAP), under the condition of 773K, 2.4mm/s punch. By the RD-ECAP, ECAP processes of 1-4 passes were possible without sample removal and the temperature of cp-titanium could be simply controlled. After the RD-ECAP process, the cp-titanium samples had no crack. Fine-grained microstructures were observed in the sample on Y plane. Therefore the samples processed by RD-ECAP were expected to have high mechanical strength.


Abstract The text presents and discusses a new direction of the Unified Health System (SUS) policy geared toward the Health Industrial Complex. A policy aimed at the technological and productive development of public and private companies in the health field flourished from 2007 to 2016 and has been weakened and deformed since then. Despite its success, the so-called Productive Development Policy (PDP) evidenced some weaknesses that must be tackled during its resumption. Besides suggesting this resumption, the text proposes to expand the policy by articulating the primary PDP tool - Public-Private Partnerships - with other related policies that involve the health industry operated by the Ministry of Health.


In our present study, we first examined whether TLR7 activation on CD8+ T cells can elevate the functionality of CD8+ T cells in the presence of αCD3 in vitro. We found that the enhanced functionality of CD8+ T cells relies on a MyD88 dependent manner, since the TLR2-MyD88 axis is believed to interact with the mTOR signaling pathway. We also found activated mTOR signaling in TLR7 costimulated CD8+ T cells. However, blocking mTOR signaling with inhibitors Rapamycin and Akti-1/2 can significantly reduce the enhanced function of CD8+ T cells. Not only the enhanced functionality of CD8+ T cells was affected by mTOR pathway blocking but also the enhanced glycolysis of CD8+ T cells. Glycolysis is further verified as essential for the regulation of CD8+ T cells by R848 blocking experiments. Besides the mTOR pathway, the downstream transcription factor IRF4 also participates in upregulating the glycolysis and functionality of TLR7-stimulated CD8+ T cells.
TLR activation can be induced by different TLR agonists such as the TLR2 ligand P3C. P3C can also induce functional and metabolic alterations, especially glycolysis, in the same way as R848 in CD8+ T cells. The functional and metabolic alterations induced by TLR2/7 agonists in T cells can also be found in B cells. In summary, we observed the effects including the metabolic and functional alterations on TLR2/7 activated-CD8+ T and B cells. Our data provide a new possibility to manipulate immune functions by metabolic pathways in immune cells.


We find that the Collins diffraction formula in cylindrical coordinates is just the transformation matrix element of a three-parameter two-mode squeezing operator in the deduced entangled state representation. This is a new tie connecting the unitary transform in quantum optics to the generalized Hankel transform in Fourier optics. The group multiplication rule of the squeezing operators maps to the Collins formula related to two successive Hankel transforms.


Adolescents with haemophilia comprise 44% of the reported AIDS cases in teenagers. Unprotected sexual intercourse among this group increases the risk of HIV transmission. Understanding the influences which others may have on the sexual behaviour of adolescents with HIV and haemophilia may lead to the development of effective risk reduction strategies. An evaluative instrument, administered to 307 HIV-infected adolescents with haemophilia, assessed their behavioural stage of change (Prochaska & DiClemente), attitudes, beliefs and behaviours about safer sex practices. The influence of parents, peers and sexual partners on sexual behaviour was compared between (1) those who were sexually experienced and (2) and those who were sexually inexperienced. Barriers and facilitators to practising safer sex were identified. Although parents influenced the sexual behaviour of both groups, this influence was significantly greater in the sexually inactive group. Fewer than 20% reported that their peers impacted their decisions about sexual behaviour. Eighty-six per cent of the sexually active indicated that partners significantly impacted their sexual decisions, while 60% of the sexually inactive indicated that future partners would affect their decisions about sex. Most participants agreed that disclosure of HIV status before intercourse was desirable, but only 31% of the sexually active said they told every partner. Fear of rejection or a negative reaction from the partner, and lack of communication skills were the greatest barriers to disclosure of HIV status and practising safer sex. This study indicates that behavioural interventions for both groups should focus on developing communication skills and self-efficacy. Interventions should include the key influences for each group--parents for the sexually inactive and partners for the sexually active.


Peridural anesthesia was performed in 18 patients with acute myocardial infarction aimed at controlling the pain syndrome. In 12 of these patients, the authors studied for 24 hours the central hemodynamics by exploring the pulmonary artery with a Swan-Ganz balloon catheter and thermodilution. The central hemodynamics was also studied in the control group of patients in whom the analgesic methods conventially used in acute myocardial infarction were employed. During the first hour of peridural anesthesia in patients with myocardial infarction, the authors revealed a significant decrease in the blood pressure, heart rate, cardiac output, and in the end diastolic pressure in the pulmonary artery as compared with the initial values and the parameters in the control group. No significant changes in the cardiac stroke volume, stroke performance, the index of the cardiac stroke performance, and the total peripheral resistance were detected in these patients. The use of peridural anesthesia proved highly effective for controlling pain in acute myocardial infarction.


Clinical studies involving HIV therapeutics are becoming ever more challenging because of the changing epidemiology of HIV infection, the rapid evolution of standard clinical practice, and a more difficult economic environment for research. Recent studies relating to HIV pathogenesis have provided novel insights into the interactions between HIV, the immune system, and antiretroviral therapies. Current dogma now suggests that the interaction of HIV and the immune system is an incredibly dynamic process. HIV is an intimidating pathogen capable of replicating quickly and mutating very rapidly in response to antiretroviral therapy. An important question being studied by Minnesota-based investigators is how well plasma analysis reflects HIV-immune system interactions in the lymphoid tissue where most virus and CD4+ (T-helper) cells are located. Most of the HIV clinical studies in Minnesota are conducted under the auspices of the AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG) or the AIDS Research Consortium of the Twin Cities (ARCTiC). Much expertise is available in Minnesota addressing a wide range of topics, from epidemiology, to basic virology, to prevention. To optimize patient access to clinical studies, we recommend that physicians discuss available clinical studies with an HIV investigator soon after first seeing a new HIV-infected patient.


Value of imports higher than exports, causing the trade deficit, the appreciation of the currency in the developed countries, and withdrawals by foreign investors on the Indonesian stock exchange market. These things cause the movement of the exchange rate USD-IDR and Indonesian Stock Price are volatile and tend to weaken in the period from January 3, 2011 - August 31, 2016. This study to determine spillover volatility of the exchange rate USD-IDR with Indonesian Stock Price. By using current time series data, analyzed by Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF), GARCH, and Granger Causality. The results of the data processing rate of USD-IDR and data Indonesian Stock Price stationary at first difference by changing the level of daily data into a return of the respective data. Data having problems heteroskedasticity so it can be analyzed using GARCH. Results of the analysis showed that there is a volatility spillover between the two data. Then granger causality test results show that the causality occurs in both directions, meaning that changes in the foreign exchange market to give effect to the capital markets, and vice versa.


Adopting a comparative and descriptive case study of The New York Times, this paper aims to probe into the gender discrimination against female politicians in the news media. The New York Times, one of the most authoritative newspapers in the world, can be a convincing representative to expose the universal ideologies like sexism in the news media. The authors attempt to analyze the sexism in news from two dimensions, namely, horizontal dimension (synchronic) and vertical dimension (diachronic). Horizontally, the news reports concerning Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton, two rivals of the Democratic Party in the 2008 American presidential election, are chosen. By analyzing the difference in speech reporting, it can be seen that female politicians' speeches are more controlled and interfered. Vertically, based on Markedness Theory, we explore the development and change in formal marking, distributional marking and semantic marking. It is observable that in spite of the current subtle sexism hidden in news reports, news media have made great efforts in preventing gender discrimination over the past century and sexism against women in the current news reports appears to be less direct and more subtle compared with the past.


During his lifetime, Antonio Gramsci concerned himself little with political events in Austria. Similarly, his posthumously published writings had little influence on the left-of-centre political landscape in that country. Nevertheless, the following interview with Walter Baier, former Chairman of the Austrian Communist Party, examines some of the points of contact and connections between Gramsci and the Austrian Left during the twentieth century. Such points of contact include a) Gramsci's stay in Vienna between 1923 and 1924 and his critical relationship with Austro-Marxism from a philosophical and political point of view; b) the peripheral influence of Gramsci's thought on early Eurocommunism in the Austrian Communist Party between 1965 and 1969, which was due above all to the efforts of Franz Marek; c) the Marxist-Leninist reception of Gramsci's work by the leadership of the Austrian Communist Party which took place at the beginning of the 1980s and was intended as a defensive manoeuvre to counter heterodox interpretations of Marxism within and outside the party; and d) the possible significance of Gramsci for Otto Bauer's concept of integral Socialism, seen as a revolutionary transformational project for the incipient twenty-first century.


Recent advances in light-sheet microscopy enable imaging of cell morphology and signaling with unprecedented detail. However, the analytical tools to systematically measure and visualize the intricate relations between cell morphodynamics, intracellular signaling, and cytoskeletal dynamics have been largely missing. Here, we introduce a set of computer vision and graphics methods to dissect molecular mechanisms underlying 3D cell morphogenesis and to test whether morphogenesis itself affects intracellular signaling. We demonstrate a machine learning based generic morphological motif detector that automatically finds lamellipodia, filopodia, and blebs on various cell types. Combining motif detection with molecular localization, we measure the differential association of PIP2 and KrasV12 with blebs. Both signals associate with bleb edges, as expected for membrane-localized proteins, but only PIP2 is enhanced on blebs. This suggests that local morphological cues differentially organize and activate sub-cellular signaling processes. Overall, our computational workflow enables the objective, automated analysis of the 3D coupling of morphodynamics with cytoskeletal dynamics and intracellular signaling.


The aromatic prenyltransferase dimethylallyltryptophan synthase in Claviceps purpurea catalyzes the normal prenylation of tryptophan at C4 of the indole nucleus in the first committed step of ergot alkaloid biosynthesis. 4-Methyltryptophan is a competitive inhibitor of the enzyme that has been used in kinetic studies. Upon investigation of background activity during incubations of 4-methyltryptophan with dimethylallyl diphosphate, we found that the analogue was an alternate substrate, which gave four products. The structures of three of these compounds were established by (1)H NMR and 2D NMR studies and revealed that dimethylallyltryptophan synthase catalyzed both normal and reverse prenylation at C3 of the indole ring and normal prenylation of N1. Similarly, 4-methoxytryptophan was an alternate substrate, giving normal prenylation at C5 as the major product. 4-Aminotryptophan, another alternate substrate, gave normal prenylation at C5 and C7. The ability of dimethylallyltryptophan synthase to prenylate at five different sites on the indole nucleus, with normal and reverse prenylation at one of the sites, is consistent with a dissociative electrophilic alkylation of the indole ring, where orientation of the substrates within the active site and substituent electronic effects determine the position and type of prenylation. These results suggest a common mechanism for prenylation of tryptophan by all of the members of the structurally related dimethylallyltryptophan synthase family.


Deep neural networks have become a primary tool for solving problems in many €elds. Œey are also used for addressing information retrieval problems and show strong performance in several tasks. Training these models requires large, representative datasets and for most IR tasks, such data contains sensitive information from users. Privacy and con€dentiality concerns prevent many data owners from sharing the data, thus today the research community can only bene€t from research on large-scale datasets in a limited manner. In this paper, we discuss privacy preserving mimic learning, i.e., using predictions from a privacy preserving trained model instead of labels from the original sensitive training data as a supervision signal. We present the results of preliminary experiments in which we apply the idea of mimic learning and privacy preserving mimic learning for the task of document re-ranking as one of the core IR tasks. Œis research is a step toward laying the ground for enabling researchers from data-rich environments to share knowledge learned from actual users' data, which should facilitate research collaborations.


A novel sunlight-water-energy nexus technology is presented that combines the photoelectrocatalytic (PEC) desalination of saline water and desalination-driven wastewater remediation coupled with the production of molecular hydrogen (H2) from water. To accomplish this, morphologically tailored TiO2 nanorod (TNR) and hydrogen-treated TNR (H-TNR) array photoanodes are placed in an anode cell and Pt foils are located in a cathode cell, while a middle cell containing saline water (0.17 M NaCl) faces these cells through anion and cation exchange membranes, respectively. Upon irradiation by simulated sunlight (AM 1.5G, 100 mW cm−2), the photogeneration of charge carriers initiates the transport of chloride and sodium in the middle cell to the anode and cathode cells, respectively, leading to the desalination of saline water. The chloride in the anode cell is converted to reactive chlorine species (RCS), which effectively decompose urea to N2 as a primary product (>80%), while the sodium in the cathode cell accelerates the H2 production from water with a Faradaic efficiency of ∼80%. The PEC performance of the H-TNR photoanodes is superior to that of the TNR in the anodic and cathodic processes because of the reduced charge transfer resistance and sub-nanosecond charge transfer kinetics (∼0.19 ns), leading to a specific energy consumption of 4.4 kW h m−3 for 50% desalination, with an energy recovery of ∼0.8 kW h m−3. The hybrid system is found to operate for a period of ∼60 h with natural seawater, and virtually all the photoanodes are shown to be capable of driving the hybrid process. Although tested as a proof-of-concept, the present technology opens up a novel field involving a sunlight-water-energy nexus, promising high efficiency desalination and the desalination-driven remediation of water with simultaneous H2 production.


In this study, we investigated the possible formation of methane clathrates in CNTs with different sizes. Our results show that tetragonal, pentagonal, hexagonal, heptagonal, and octagonal ice nanotubes are formed in the (13,0), (14,0), (15,0), (16,0), and (17,0) CNTs, respectively, when only water molecules are present in the CNTs. When methane molecules are added to the CNTs, the water molecules in the ice nanotubes are replaced by the methane molecules, and the replaced water molecules occupy the middle of the CNTs in the hollow spaces. This is because the methane–CNT interaction is stronger than the water–CNT interaction. Another reason for this result can be due to the tendency of water molecules to form hydrogen bonds (HBs) as a row in the center of the CNTs. The results also show that the formation of methane clathrate in the CNTs is not spontaneous and needs application of hydrostatic pressure. We also investigated the thermodynamic, structural, and dynamic properties of the systems by employing the total energy, radial distribution function (RDF), radial and axial density profiles, and self-diffusion coefficients.


Minimally invasive surgery is widely employed for the treatment of thyroid diseases. Several minimal access approaches to the thyroid gland have been described. The commonly performed surgeries have been endoscopic lobectomies. We have performed endoscopic total thyroidectomy by the anterior chest wall approach. In this study, we have described our technique and evaluated the feasibility and effi cacy of this procedure. Materials and Methods: From June 2005 to August 2006, 15 cases of endoscopic thyroidectomy were done at our institute. Five patients were male and 10 were female. Mean age was 45 years. (Range 23 to 71 years). Four patients had multinodular goiter and underwent near-total thyroidectomy; four patients had follicular adenoma and underwent hemithyroidectomy. Out of the seven patients of papillary carcinoma, four were low-risk and so a hemithyroidectomy was performed while three patients in the high risk group underwent total thyroidectomy. A detailed description of the surgical technique is provided. Results: The mean nodule size was 48 mm (range 20-80 mm) and the mean operating time was 85 min (range 60-120 min). In all cases, the recurrent laryngeal nerve was identifi ed and preserved intact, the superior and inferior parathyroids were also identifi ed in all patients. No patients required conversion to an open cervicotomy. All patients were discharged the day after surgery. All thyroidectomies were completed successfully. No recurrent laryngeal nerve palsies or postoperative tetany occurred. The postoperative course was significantly less painful and all patients were satisfi ed with the cosmetic results. Conclusions: It is possible to remove large nodules and perform as well as total thyroidectomies using our endoscopic approach. It is a safe and effective technique in the hands of an appropriately trained surgeon. The patients get a cosmetic benefi t without any morbidity.


This Article suggests a paradigmatic reversal in the sociolegal conceptualization of environmental justice and seeks to expand the notion of environmental justice to a disaster risk reduction modality. This legal narrative chronicles how those with power and wealth govern the lives, fortunes, and health of those on the bottom rungs through discriminatory environmental policies. I explore case studies of sudden onset water hazard events, energy access, and the use of advanced biofuels in the localities of Puerto Rico, Pakistan, and the Philippines to show the problematic configurations of environmental justice. These examples elucidate how environmental justice is perceived and how the legal framework for environmental justice is marginalized. In turn, I recommend reframing environmental justice through the lens of the Anibal Quijano's "coloniality of power" and the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction by the United Nations. This Article is a fourth in a series on advanced biofuels and environmental justice. Previously, I examined international dimensions in Blood Biofuels (Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum), federal efforts in Resiliency and Responsive Regulation for Advanced Biofuels (Virginia Environmental Law Journal), and municipal initiatives in Energy for Metropolis (University of Miami Law Review).


Although much research has been undertaken into the status and biology of the Kittiwake Rissa tridactyla studies of a colony over an extended period are scarce with the notable exception of the North Shields colony for which 31 years of data were summarized by Coulson and Thomas (1985). The nearby colony at Marsden Bay, Tyne and Wear had however been the focus of study in the 1950s (Coulson and White 1956) and the 1970s (Dixon 1979). It was considered that a similar study in the early 1990s could be usefully combined with a review of data from these two previous periods. Since the colony's formation in 1931 the nest count has increased from 308 in 1937 to 5768 in 1992. After rapid and steady growth through the 1940s and 1950s a period of relative stability occurred in the 1970s with about 4,600 nests present. In the last 15 years numbers have again risen substantially. Continuing changes in the cliff structure due to erosion are affecting the availability of nest sites and hence the number of nests. Changes in the breeding biology have resulted in the Kittiwakes spending less time at the colony each year. Their later arrival in the spring has had little effect on the mean date of laying perhaps due to a more synchronised arrival of the colony. Evening departure by birds from the colony in the pre-breeding period was found to be related to the time the birds arrived in the colony in the spring and their subsequent attendance on the nest site. Chick growth rates were slightly lower than in the 1950s and 1970s at North Shields, and chick neglect was frequent in 1992. However these factors did not appear to influence the fledging success.


Background: A significant number of living labs (LLs) have been developed across Europe and beyond. A fraction of those LLs have established a new approach to maintaining and studying the health, autonomy, and well-being of older adults with dementia. LLs interact with a broad set of stakeholders, including students, academic institutions, private companies, healthcare organizations, and patient representative bodies - even with other LLs. It is crucial to identify what kinds of co-creations should be done and how they can be facilitated through LLs. Despite a growing body of literature, a clear overview and understanding of the services, research, and clinical activities developed in different LL settings for older adults with dementia are still lacking.
Aim: The aim is to scope publications examining all types of LL activities which explore the needs of and suggest solutions for older adults with dementia, whether they live in the community or long-term healthcare facilities.
Methods: The bibliographic databases to be searched will include Embase.com, Medline Ovid SP, Pubmed (not medline[sb]) and Web of Science, without language or date restrictions. We will examine the bibliographies of all relevant articles found, conduct a search for unpublished studies, and perform a handsearch in relevant journals associated with LLs involved in healthcare (Electronic Journal for Virtual Organization and Networks, Technology Innovation Management Review, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management). We will consider publications in English, French, and German.
Results: Bibliographic database searches will be completed in March 2020, retrieved articles will be screened, and the entire study is expected to be completed by December 2020.
Discussion: This comprehensive scoping review will provide a global indication of the types and extent of LL activities aimed at older adults with dementia, whether they live in the community or in long-term care facilities.


Hypergraphs provide an effective abstraction for modeling multi-way group interactions among nodes, where each hyperedge can connect any number of nodes. Different from most existing studies which leverage statistical dependencies, we study hypergraphs from the perspective of causality. Specifically, we focus on the problem of individual treatment effect (ITE) estimation on hypergraphs, aiming to estimate how much an intervention (e.g., wearing face covering) would causally affect an outcome (e.g., COVID-19 infection) of each individual node. Existing works on ITE estimation either assume that the outcome of one individual should not be influenced by the treatment of other individuals (i.e., no interference), or assume the interference only exists between connected individuals in an ordinary graph. We argue that these assumptions can be unrealistic on real-world hypergraphs, where higher-order interference can affect the ITE estimations due to group interactions. We investigate high-order interference modeling, and propose a new causality learning framework powered by hypergraph neural networks. Extensive experiments on real-world hypergraphs verify the superiority of our framework over existing baselines.


Reconstruction of the head and neck can be a challenging undertaking owing to numerous considerations for successful rehabilitation. Although head and neck defects were once considered irretrievably morbid and associated with a poor quality of life, advances in surgical technique has immensely contributed to the well-being of these patients. However, all patients are not suitable surgical candidates and many have sought nonsurgical options for functional and cosmetic restoration. As such, the advent of prostheses has ameliorated those concerns and provided a viable alternative for select patient populations. Prosthetic reconstruction has evolved significantly over the past decade. Advances in biocompatible materials and imaging adjuncts have spurred further discovery and forward progress. A multidisciplinary approach to head and neck reconstruction focused on appropriate expectations and patient-centered goals is most successfully coordinated by a team of head and neck surgeons, maxillofacial surgeons, and prosthetic specialists. The aim of this article is to provide a comprehensive review of the current trends for prosthetic rehabilitation of head and neck defects, and further elaborate on the limitations and advancements in the field.


In this work, we apply Machine Learning techniques to Hyper-Spectral Images acquired by a Short Wave Infra-Red (SWIR) Camera, to classify the materials composing the Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF). This classification, enabled by data pre-processing techniques, is used to estimate the Lower Heat Value (LHV) of SRF samples, building on models of the literature. The accurate and timely estimates of SRF LHVs yield significant benefits to SRF consumers.


OBJECTIVE
This study compared patients with schizophrenia whose antipsychotic medications were switched to manage treatment-resistant positive psychotic symptoms with those for whom another antipsychotic was added. Psychiatrists' characteristics and perceptions of effectiveness of the medication change on clinical outcomes were also reported.

METHODS
Psychiatrists participating in a nationally representative mailed survey (N=209) reported on the clinical features, management, and response to the change in antipsychotic medication (added versus switched) of one adult patient with treatment-refractory schizophrenia under their care for at least one year.

RESULTS
Thirty-three percent of patients were treated with an added antipsychotic medication. Compared with patients whose antipsychotic medications were switched, those with an added antipsychotic medication were more likely to be female, to have received care from the same psychiatrist for more than two years, and to have been recently prescribed an antidepressant. Compared with psychiatrists who switched antipsychotic prescriptions, those who added an antipsychotic reported that the change was less likely to reduce positive symptoms, improve functioning, and prevent hospitalization. Psychiatrists who added rather than switched antipsychotics reported more frequent attendance at educational programs sponsored by a pharmaceutical company.

CONCLUSIONS
Consistent with other lines of research and practice guideline recommendations, psychiatrists perceive antipsychotic polypharmacy to be a generally ineffective strategy for treatment-resistant positive psychotic symptoms. In light of these findings, efforts to identify and implement more effective evidence-based pharmacologic approaches should be undertaken.


This research aims to enable robots to learn from human teachers. Motivated by human social learning, we believe that a transparent learning process can help guide the human teacher to provide the most informative instruction. We believe active learning is an inherently transparent machine learning approach because the learner formulates queries to the oracle that reveal information about areas of uncertainty in the underlying model. In this work, we implement active learning on the Simon robot in the form of nonverbal gestures that query a human teacher about a demonstration within the context of a social dialogue. Our preliminary pilot study data show potential for transparency through active learning to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the teaching process. However, our data also seem to indicate possible undesirable effects from the human teacher's perspective regarding balance of the interaction. These preliminary results argue for control strategies that balance leading and following during a social learning interaction.


We propose multivariate classiication as a statistical tool to describe business cycles. These cycles are often analyzed as a univariate phenomenon in terms of GNP or industrial net production ignoring additional information in other economic variables. Multivariate classiication overcomes these limitations by reducing dimension in a way suitable for human perception. Based on a four phase scheme (upswing, upper turning point, downswing, lower turning point) we demonstrate the potential of classiication methods by determining the important economic variables (stylized facts) for the German business cycle.


Functional macrophage heterogeneity is well appreciated outside the CNS in wound healing and cancer, and was recently also demonstrated in several CNS compartments after "sterile" insults. Yet, such heterogeneity was largely overlooked in the context of inflammatory autoimmune pathology, in which macrophages were mainly associated with disease induction and propagation. In this article, we show the diversity of monocyte-derived macrophages along the course of experimental autoimmune uveitis, an inflammatory condition affecting the ocular system, serving as a model for CNS autoimmune pathology. Disease induction resulted in the appearance of a distinct myeloid population in the retina, and in the infiltration of monocyte-derived macrophages that were absent from control eyes. During the disease course, the frequency of CX 3 CR1 high infiltrating macrophages that express markers associated with inflammation-resolving activity was increased, along with a decrease in the frequency of inflammation-associated Ly6C + macrophages. Inhibition of monocyte infiltration at the induction phase of experimental autoimmune uveitis prevented disease onset, whereas monocyte depletion at the resolution phase resulted in a decrease in Foxp3 + regulatory T cells and in exacerbated disease. Thus, monocyte-derived macrophages display distinct phenotypes throughout the disease course, even in an immune-induced pathology, reflecting their differential roles in disease induction and resolution. The Journal of Immunology , 2013, 190: 000–000.


The dance of death, one of the most characteristic motifs of late-mediaeval and Renaissance art, has within the scope of its meaning preserved the basically negative connotation of a dance that was condemned by the Church throughout the Middle Ages. As a specific form of dancing in graveyards, quite widespread in the mediaeval period and prohibited by numerous Church orders, it further augmented the quality of subverting social and religious norms as one of the constitutive elements of the dance of death iconography. It combined the duality of meaning exhibited by the representation of an entire social structure in the form of a dance in which members of individual classes dance with Death. The hierarchy of the social structure, based on gradation from the pope at the beginning to the beggar and child at the end of the line, was presented in a transparent way and at the same time distorted by the fundamental idea of being equal before Death and by the dance with skeletons, which stood for the annulment of the hierarchical order. The social structure as presented by dances of death corresponded to the already familiar class distinctions, depicted in this iconographic topic in various types of classification into larger social groups: from the three-functional distinction into three social orders and the division into clerics and lay people, to the most widespread form of alternation of secular and clerical classes. Thus, the familiar models of social distinction into classes and groups were represented, the holders of authority and social power manifestly set at the head of a hierarchy that was at the same time the object of egalitarian criticism.


Abstract During meiosis, chromosomes undergo dramatic changes in structural organization, nuclear positioning, and motion. Although the nuclear pore complex has been shown to affect genome organization and function in vegetative cells, its role in meiotic chromosome dynamics has remained largely unexplored. Recent work in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae demonstrated that the mobile nucleoporin Nup2 is required for normal progression through meiosis I prophase and sporulation in strains where telomere-led chromosome movement has been compromised. The meiotic-autonomous region, a short fragment of Nup2 responsible for its role in meiosis, was shown to localize to the nuclear envelope via Nup60 and to bind to meiotic chromosomes. To understand the relative contribution these 2 activities have on meiotic-autonomous region function, we first carried out a screen for meiotic-autonomous region mutants defective in sporulation and found that all the mutations disrupt interaction with both Nup60 and meiotic chromosomes. Moreover, nup60 mutants phenocopy nup2 mutants, exhibiting similar nuclear division kinetics, sporulation efficiencies, and genetic interactions with mutations that affect the telomere bouquet. Although full-length Nup60 requires Nup2 for function, removal of Nup60's C-terminus allows Nup60 to bind meiotic chromosomes and promotes sporulation without Nup2. In contrast, binding of the meiotic-autonomous region to meiotic chromosomes is completely dependent on Nup60. Our findings uncover an inhibitory function for the Nup60 C-terminus and suggest that Nup60 mediates recruitment of meiotic chromosomes to the nuclear envelope, while Nup2 plays a secondary role counteracting the inhibitory function in Nup60's C-terminus.


The most common size range of particulate matter (PM) in tobacco smoke is 1.0 to 5.0 microns; however, a high number of the most harmful PM is as small as 0.5 micron that is a serious threat to human health, and it is difficult to remove. There is an urgent need to develop a new purification technology for high-efficiency removing tobacco smoke with easily construction and low cost. Here, a method of self-powered high-voltage recharging system is demonstrated by designing biomimetic hairy-contact triboelectric nanogenerator (BHC-TENG) for long-lasting adsorption with a wide range from PM 0.5 to PM 10. The open-circuit voltage of BHC-TENGs reaches 8.42 KV, which can continuously charge injection to the melt-blown fabric, whose surface potential is able to maintain nearly 260 V level and create a uniform electrostatic adsorption field on the surface. This high-voltage recharging system reduces the concentration of PMs to World Health Organization (WHO) standards, maintaining the purification efficiency of PM 0.5- PM 10 persistently over 90%.


Classification of real-time X-ray images of randomly oriented touching pistachio nuts is discussed. The ultimate objective is the development of a system for automated non- invasive detection of defective product items on a conveyor belt. We discuss the extraction of new features that allow better discrimination between damaged and clean items (pistachio nuts). This feature extraction and classification stage is the new aspect of this paper; our new maximum representation and discriminating feature (MRDF) extraction method computes nonlinear features that are used as inputs to a new modified k nearest neighbor classifier. In this work, the MRDF is applied to standard features (rather than iconic data). The MRDF is robust to various probability distributions of the input class and is shown to provide good classification and new ROC (receiver operating characteristic) data. Other applications of these new feature spaces in robotics and face recognition are also noted.


Beach placers and associated relatively flat unconformities, thought to be abrasion surfaces, have been reported from areas off Billiton, Indonesia, off the west coast ofThailand, and off West Malaysia. A succession with a quartz pebble conglomerate overlying a bedrock surface with animal borings, exposed in coastal plain tin mines on Phuket, is described. It is interpreted to have formed in a gravel beach environment. The conglomerate has abrupt upper and lower boundaries, shows inclined layering, and has sorting characteristics similar to those of modern gravel beaches. The bedrock is saprolitic, forms the lower part of a weathering profile of which the upper part has been eroded. Overlying the conglomerate is an about 1m thick poorly sorted sandy to gravelly layer. The layer contains many plant remains, and festoon-shaped gravel strings and channel fill structures are common. The deposit is interpreted to have formed in secluded intertidal to supratidal terrain. The top of this unit is peaty and samples for Carbon-I4 datings were taken from it. Where the layer occurs at about 9 m below sea-level the I~C concentrations were below reliability, i.e. ages over about 50,000 yrs. BP. The dating of a similar layer in a similar setting at a level of6 m below sea-level gave an age of 31 ,050 yrs. DP. Available data on abrasion surtaces in the region come from too few areas which are located too far apart to allow for regional correlation yet.


Abstract All in all, the scholars whose papers are included in this issue of LINGUACULTURE come from different cultures and countries, share a common love for and interest in Shakespeare's work, from which they select highly different texts and resort to highly different methods of investigation. Although inevitably limited in number, these studies take us a long way from the ‗originals' in their home culture, to mid-twentieth century Romania, to Orson Welles in the 1950's or the 2016 American elections, to Japanese contemporary manga or…to the opera, at different times in history, once again testifying to the amazing plurality of response Shakespeare's works have received. In addition, as is well known, these studies are all tiny fragments of the same gigantic puzzle that is called Shakespearian scholarship. The editors of this issue hope that the readers will find here new stimulating pieces of information in a field that will never cease to fascinate us.


: Digestibility trials were carried out with calves, aged 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 weeks, which were fed with feedstuffs of various energy and protein levels (various amounts of dried skim milk supplement with 146, 219, 323 g per day of the milk replacer Laktin) plus concentrate and hay. The purpose of the experiment was to find out what effect the amount of milk replacer varying daily had on the digestibility of the nutrients. The experiments confirm that the amount of milk replacer has a great influence on the digestibility of the crude fat. The amount of digestible crude fat consumed with the feed considerably influcenced the digestibility of the energy, it had little influence on the digestibility of the other nutrients, however. With increasing age the calves received more plant protein sources with a lower biologic value. Thus the digestibility of the protein in the complete ration was diminished as well. This shows that the digestibility was influenced by the protein quality, not, however, by the amount of crude protein. The digestibility of the dry matter andthe organic matter as well as of the N-free extractives in the feed ration diminished according to the changed composition with the increasing age of the animals; in constrast to this the digestibility of the crude fibres increased gradually.


(1) Background: Silicone oil (SO) can be used as an endotamponade during vitreoretinal surgery for retinal detachment. There is emerging evidence that SO filling of the vitreous cavity and its removal may impact macular perfusion. So far, studies have not focused on choroidal sublayer perfusion, yet. (2) Methods: Optical coherence tomography angiography was applied in 19 patients with SO endotamponade before and four weeks after removal of SO. (3) Results: Perfusion of choriocapillaris increased significantly after SO removal, while perfusion of Haller's and Sattler's layer decreased significantly. (4) Conclusions: Removal of SO impacts choroidal perfusion and leads to a perfusion shift within choroidal sublayers. This study underlines that it is worth to conduct larger prospective studies that evaluate the choroidal perfusion and its functional implications in more detail.


The current allocation of slots on congested European airports constitutes an obstacle to the effective liberalisation of air transportation undertaken in Europe. With a view to favouring efficient slot utilisation and competition, as is the goal of the European commission, we propose to use a market mechanism, based on temporary utilisation licences. In order to allocate those licences, we propose and describe an iterated combinatorial auction mechanism where a percentage of licences would be reallocated each season. A secondary market would also be set up in order to reallocate slots during a season. Since a combinatorial auction involve a complex optimisation procedure, we describe how it can be made to work in the case of auctions.


? ?????? ??????????? ????????? ???????? ???????????? (??????????) ???????? ? ??????, ? ????? ??????????? ????????????? ?? ?????? ? ??????????? ??????????? ????????????. ????????? ?????????????? ??????? ???????????????? ???????????? ???????????????????? ??????, ????????? ??????? ?????????????? ??????????? ???????? ??????????? ???????. ??????? ?????????? ???? ???????????? ???????????????? ?(?)? ? ?????? ?????????????? ???????. The article describes the development trend of V (F) X in Russia, as well as the effectiveness of their background work to ensure profitability. Given the fundamental conditions for the functioning of regional agricultural markets, which is due to the possibility of development of the farm sector. The author suggests measures the effective functioning of the peasant (farm) with the basic conditions.


A pilot corpus study on the use of pointing gestures in dialogue yielded 44 instances of pointing at the addressee. In none of these instances is the addressee the gesture's referent, however. Rather, such discourse pointings are bound up with dialogue management: they control the addressee's attention and her view of the status of these referents in the incrementally emergent context. We distinguish four classes of addressee pointings, descriptively glossed utterance anaphora, common ground, something's coming to mind, and grab turn. We exemplify each class by means of empirical data and provide a dialogue semantics analysis. In this way, we extend the taxonomy of uses of pointings currently discussed in semantics and argue that the linguistic competence revealed by discourse pointings is inherently dialogical, adding evidence for extending the domain of grammar from well-formedness and truth conditions to include micro–level elements of conversational interaction.


Cloud computing presents a new way to development the present use and release model for IT services based on the Internet, by providing for actively scalable and often virtualized assets as a service over the Internet. It enables extremely scalable services to be with no trouble consumed over the Internet on an as-needed basis. A major feature of the cloud services is that user's data are normally processed vaguely in unknown machines that users do not own or operate. While enjoying the skill brought by this new budding technology, we suggest a new really decentralized in series responsibility structure to keep path of the real practice of the user's data in the cloud. In particular, we offer an object-centered move toward that enables enclosing our sorting mechanism jointly with user's data and policies. We leverage the sorting mechanism to both create a active and roaming object, and to ensure that any access to user's data will start validation and automated sorting. To make stronger user's control, we also present spread audit mechanisms. We provide broad trial studies that show the good organization and success of the planned out come.


Despite extensive efforts in a better understanding of associations between death anxiety and various factors, efforts studying the complex associations across those variables are still limited. This study was conducted to better understand the possible complexity between death anxiety and myriad of factors, by first extracting the most important features, and then assessing the complexity of variables by checking all pairwise interaction terms. We found most of associated factors of death anxiety are related to the concept of attachment or caring for loved ones. Ill-effect attachment with positive associations with death anxiety included factors such as attachment to the physical side of oneself, being alone before death, and the possibility of death being the end of us. On the other hand, supernatural conceptions of worldviews such as believing in God, believing that the soul is separate from body, and being religious buffer against the death anxiety.


All federal chancellors juggle with democratic power. Formally and informally they are integrated in the structural features of governance. Denominations within Germany's political system are programmatic: to different degrees, chancellor's dominance, party power, coalition ties, constraints of negotiating and media-targeted political communication characterise governing in Germany. The terms manifest political entanglement as well as the distribution of power in Germany. Governing has become more complex, more dependent on the media, more timeconsuming, more demanding and more incalculable. This is due not least to the process of German unification. The old Bonn Republic, however, has not fundamentally changed but enlarged. Western political systems were, to a great extent, transferred to the East. Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who governed the unified Germany for eight years, made use of instruments very similar to those employed by Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Gerhard Schröder said in his inaugural speech on 10 November 1998: 'This "neue Mitte" excludes nobody. It stands for solidarity and innovation, for entrepreneurship and citizen spirit, for ecological responsibility and a political leadership, which understands itself as modern opportunitymanagement.' Does 'modern opportunity-management' stand for the amount of scope available for political decisions and leadership in the new Berlin Republic? Does this phrase, taken from the parlance of the times, stand for controlled and steered governance? Or is this an oblique description of many new ideas and plans which, unfortunately, cannot be translated into government actions? The following sections provide an interim assessment of the Schröder chancellorship. As the basic constitutional resources of the Chancellor have not changed dramatically (neither before nor since German unification) they are not considered here specifically. Instead, I concentrate on the relevant political resources. Some comparative perspectives are developed where it seems reasonable to highlight the specifics of the Schröder chancellorship. The German Federal Republic can be characterised as a mixed political system: a combination of parliamentary structures and negotiating systems.


ED02-03 The use of gene expression microarrays in clinical medicine is a goal that is being realized because the technology is maturing, and a handful of prognostic and predictive profiles have been validated across multiple patient sets. Our gene expression profiling studies have focused on identifying the dominant biological subtypes of breast cancer. These studies identified five major molecular intrinsic subtypes of breast cancer (Luminal A, Luminal B, Basal-like, HER2-enriched, and Normal-like), which show significant differences in patient survival and metastatic potential. Mounting evidence also suggests that these subtypes vary in their responsiveness to chemotherapeutics and biologic agents. In fact, the expression of drug targets like ER, HER2, and HER1 within selected subtypes strongly suggests that the use of specific biologic agents will be subtype-specific; therefore, I will discuss the development of improved predictors for the intrinsic subtypes and how this information can be used to help predict the benefits of endocrine-therapy, and neoadjuvant chemotherapy.
 For breast cancer patients, clinical trials are increasing being run within biologically-defined classes (i.e. ER+, HER2+ and Triple-negatives), and many of these trials have embedded correlative sciences studies that utilize genomic analyses. For example, many new trials are focused on "Triple-negative" breast tumors (i.e. ER-, PgR-, HER2-), which is an immunohistochemical based assay for the stratification of patients for inclusion into clinical trials. The Triple-negative phenotype is not, however, a validated biomarker and data will be presented that compares and contrasts the genomic distinction of Basal-like versus Triple-negative.
 Lastly, despite the prognostic and predictive abilities of the intrinsic subtype classification of Basal-like, the treatment options for these patients is still limited to combination chemotherapeutics. Our results suggest, however, that the HER1-RAS-MAPK pathway is critical to this subtype. We have initiated a clinical trial where pre-selected Triple-negative patients received a HER1 inhibitor alone (cetuximab) and in combination with carboplatin (NCT00232505), with genomic endpoints performed. Analyses of these data again highlight the importance of the HER1-RAS-MAPK pathway, but suggest that this pathway is being activated via non-HER1-ligand mediated methods. In addition, these data identify and confirm the importance of a new potential subtype of breast tumor called the "Claudin-low" group; this subtype appears enriched for potential tumor initiating cell markers, is related to Basal-like tumors, and is also classified as Triple-negative. These findings highlight that genomics can sometimes provide further subdivisions within clinically defined groups, which is valuable additional information that might change treatment decisions.


Two hundred Michigan hematologists-oncologists were sent a 34-item questionnaire designed to assess what patients should know at the time of giving consent to bone marrow transplant (BMT). Sixty-three (32%) responded to a single mailing and rated items on a 8-point scale, varying from 0 = no need to know to 7 = appreciation of consequences essential. The mean rating across items was 5.2, indicating that all items were important. Statistically, the items separated into three groups: (1) above average importance - 13 items; (2) average importance - 9 items; (3) below average importance - 12 items. Items of above average importance included the rationale for BMT and the collective risks and benefits of the process, including the patient's well-being post-transplant. Informed consent documents did not include 5/13 items of above average importance, yet 12/21 items of average and below average importance were included. Fourteen demographic variables were correlated with each item and none were significant, indicating that the ratings represent a broad consensus in the referring physician community as to what a patient should understand before consenting to BMT. The vast majority of referring physicians agreed that patients usually have an adequate understanding of BMT at the time of giving informed consent and that a fully informed patient is more likely to adhere to the treatment regimen.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Hemodynamic indices derived from measurements with the pressure wire (primarily fractional flow reserve [FFR]) have been established as a reliable tool for assessing coronary stenoses and improving clinical decision making. However, the use of the pressure wire constitutes a hurdle for the universal adoption of physiology-guided patient management. Technological advancements have enabled the large-scale application of blood flow simulation (computational fluid dynamics [CFD]) to medical imaging, thereby enabling the virtual assessment of coronary physiology. Areas covered: This review summarizes the stand-alone non-invasive (coronary computed tomographic imaging) and invasive (coronary angiography) imaging approaches which were initially used for predicting FFR, and focuses on the use of blood flow modeling for functional assessment of coronary lesions in clinical practice. Expert commentary: Validation studies of CFD-derived methodologies for functional assessment have shown that virtual indices correlate well and have good diagnostic accuracy compared to pressure wire-FFR despite inherent limitations of spatial resolution and assumptions regarding boundary conditions in flow modeling. Beyond point-to-point agreement with FFR, further studies are needed to demonstrate the clinical safety/efficacy of these computational tools regarding patient outcomes. Such evidence base could support the incorporation of these methodologies into routine patient management for decision making and reliable risk stratification.


AgP15 was synthesized from the elements via a short-way transport reaction following the mineralizer concept. The needle-shaped crystals were characterized by single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction. It crystallizes triclinically in space group P1̅ with cell parameters of a = 6.937(1) Å, b = 9.000(1) Å, c = 11.103(2) Å, α = 99.95(1)°, β = 99.61(1)°, and γ = 105.980(9)°. AgP15 exhibits a tubular phosphorus substructure related but neither isotypic nor isostructural to the alkaline phosphides MP15 (M = Li-Rb). The thermal properties, electronic structure, and experimental band gap of this new semiconductor have been determined. Finally, Raman spectra of AgP15 and selected alkaline-metal polyphosphides MP15 have been measured and interpreted. AgP15 represents the first transition-metal representative of this class of materials.


Globalization is a significant factor for optimization of the existing transport chains. It is a major power for sustainable development of containerized transport, the relevant transport infrastructure and terminal equipment. The development of seaports and inland waterway connections became important part in global supply chain. The transportation models which are using multimodal transport service consist from maritime, port and hinterland parts. Choosing the appropriate strategy allows the shipping companies to reduce the transport cost and helps them to be more competitive on the cargo market. This article aims to identify the challenges and prospects for development of multimodal transport operations with containerized cargoes using of system approach to the each subsystems of the multimodal transport chain. To achieve the scope of the paper, research has been done on the global effects that big shipping companies contribute to the final transport cost; to the organization in container terminals and further influence on the local terminal operators; to the improvement of port infrastructure, including the number of offered services and implementation of innovations for increasing terminal efficiency. As a result, the main parameters for evaluation of the importance of one container terminal in the supply chain are defined.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a gradual neurodegenerative disorder defined by the loss of dopaminergic neurons and the presence of Lewy bodies in the basal ganglia area. The main manifestations of PD are motor symptoms, such as bradykinesia (i.e., slowness of movement), tremor, rigidity and balance instability, nonetheless nonmotor symptoms, as sleep disorders and dementia, are common too. Levodopa is the gold standard medication; its effectiveness is remarkable at the beginning, but it decreases with the progress of the therapy. Besides, motor complications appear as side-effects of the medication causing dyskinesia (i.e., involuntary movement) and motor fluctuations. To reduce the medication drawbacks and optimize the doses of levodopa, periodical assessments at the hospital are necessary. However, a longitudinal and continuous monitoring of individuals with late-stage PD would increase the efficacy of the drug titration. The use of wearable technologies can help the fulfillment of objective and longitudinal monitoring of motor symptoms and complications in unconstrained environments. This work aims to investigate the feasibility of a system able to track the severity of bradykinesia and motor fluctuations in naturalistic settings based on wearable sensors and machine learning (ML) techniques. The data set used for the study is part of the Blue Sky project and includes 25 participants with late-stage PD. The data are gathered during two visits, one in the laboratory and the other in a simulated apartment, using accelerometer sensors placed on the wrists and ankles. The tasks belong to standardized and activity of daily living (ADL) and the clinical scores follow the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS). The data processing consists in filtering, resting period removal, signal segmentation, feature extraction, data cleaning, and training of the Random Forest (RF) algorithm. The signals are filtered to retain the frequency components related to bradykinesia. After the removal of the resting periods, the continuous signals are segmented into 5s windows to simplify the analysis. Once determined the feature set, the predictors are extracted from the windows and the redundant predictors are discarded applying a proposed method based on feature correlation and ReliefF. Four movement patterns groups are identified to reduce the complexity of the bradykinesia estimation. Data cleaning to discard outliers and improve class separation is implemented before the training of the RF regressor. The same pipeline is applied to the apartment data adding a movement pattern classifier before the model estimate. The cross-validation (CV) results on the laboratory data are obtained using k-fold and leave-one-subject-out (LOSO). The performance is measured in terms of root mean square error (RMSE) for regression tasks; whereas accuracy, specificity, and sensitivity are used for classification assignments. The validation results are encouraging, the overall RMSE is 0.5 in regression range between 0 and 3 with the LOSO CV, and the test results are promising for the longitudinal monitoring of bradykinesia and motor fluctuations in-home setting during ADL. In conclusion, this work demonstrates the feasibility of this approach applied in natural settings despite some limitations, such as the low number of subjects and a reduced amount of labels. This result can be a starting point for future improvements in PD severity monitoring.


This article examines the subjective understanding of success among members of three groups of children of immigrants from Mexico, North Africa and Turkey, in Dallas, Paris and Berlin respectively, by accounting for their educational and early labor market experiences. We utilize neo-assimilation and segmented assimilation theories and highlight their divergence with regards to downward assimilation and frames of reference. We focus on the working-class children of immigrants in the three settings, as they are at the highest risk of downward mobility. We find that frames of reference play a significant role in shaping the subjective understandings of success among the three groups. Despite their disadvantaged position, Mexican Americans in Dallas regard their experiences as successful given their significant departure from their parents' low status. French North Africans in Paris, on the other hand, emphasize their limited ability to overcome the restrictions imposed on them by French society and especially schools. Doing so, they compare themselves to their French peers who do not have an immigrant background. Children of immigrants from Turkey in Berlin, by comparison, encounter labor market discrimination but feel successful relative to their parents' generation. We find that the children of immigrants in our study rely on members of their social networks who impact their labor market experiences as their frame of reference. When they compare themselves to their parents or earlier waves of immigrants, the children of immigrants perceive their accomplishments in a positive light. When they compare themselves to mainstream society, however, they emphasize persisting inequalities. Our conclusions emphasize the importance of understanding subjective experiences of success and mobility that have been largely ignored in the migration literature.


Vascular calcification is an irreversible pathological process associated with a loss of vascular wall function. This process occurs as a result of aging and age-related diseases, such as cardiovascular and chronic kidney diseases, and leads to comorbidities. During these age-related diseases, the endothelium accumulates senescent cells, which stimulate calcification in vascular smooth muscle cells. Currently, vascular calcification is a silent pathology, and there are no early diagnostic tools. Therefore, by the time vascular calcification is diagnosed, it is usually untreatable. Some mediators, such as oxidative stress, inflammation, and extracellular vesicles, are inducers and promoters of vascular calcification. They play a crucial role during vascular generation and the progression of vascular calcification. Extracellular vesicles, mainly derived from injured endothelial cells that have acquired a senescent phenotype, contribute to calcification in a manner mostly dependent on two factors: (1) the number of extracellular vesicles released, and (2) their cargo. In this review, we present state-of-the-art knowledge on the composition and functions of extracellular vesicles involved in the generation and progression of vascular calcification.


The association of the bacteriophage T4-encoded AsiA protein with the ς70 subunit of theEscherichia coli RNA polymerase is one of the principal events governing transcription of the T4 genome. Analytical ultracentrifugation and NMR studies indicate that free AsiA is a symmetric dimer and the dimers can exchange subunits. Using NMR, the mutual recognition sites on AsiA and ς70 have been elucidated. Residues throughout the N-terminal half of AsiA are involved either directly or indirectly in binding to ς70whereas the two highly conserved C-terminal regions of ς70, denoted 4.1 and 4.2, constitute the entire AsiA binding domain. Peptides corresponding to these regions bind tightly to AsiA individually and simultaneously. Simultaneous binding promotes structural changes in AsiA that mimic interaction with the complete AsiA binding determinant of ς70. Moreover, the results suggest that a significant rearrangement of the dimer accompanies peptide binding. Thus, both conserved regions 4.1 and 4.2 are intimately involved in recognition of AsiA by ς70. The interaction of AsiA with 4.1 provides a potential explanation of the differential abilities of DNA and AsiA to bind to free ς70 and a mechanistic alternative to models of AsiA function that rely on binding to a single site on ς70.


Graphical software-development mechanisms are presented that produce server networks, which are flexible, modular CIM (computer-aided manufacturing) software systems. The Server Network Generator (SNG) is an interactive expert system used to graphically configure a network, while automatically enforcing network integrity rules, and to remotely develop and maintain its distributed software. Graphical programming is used with the data-driven control-flow methodology (DDCF) and an interprocess communication mechanism called share variables to implement flexible server communication. A prototype server network, including an SNG, a dispatcher, and servers, has been built and is in use.<<ETX>>


This paper's goal is to present a low cost, non-conventional solution for battery state of charge estimation and external electrical input presence/absence for a commercial mobile, handheld device whose battery state of charge control is critical. This solution is based on treating and filtering a time series in real-time software, using the battery pack characteristic discharge curve and time series statistical features. The time series is composed of data that is sampled embedded in hardware, communicating directly with the machine's BIOS. The system processes this data and outputs a value that indirectly relates to state of charge, needing further processing to insure accuracy. The data stream is treated in a process that directly relates the output time series with state of charge through a transfer function, effectively treating intermediary conversions as black boxes to simplify analysis and implementation. This process can also detect if an external source is connected/disconnected by exploiting pre-detected features in the time series. This approach advantages are its low cost and simplicity, reducing hardware complexity and expenses; small dimensional footprint; mostly software-based; and centralization into the main hardware as low computational cost daemons, simplifying data consumption.


The performance Сокоћало Project consists of a number of theatrical episodes loosely connected to the main theme. In the first story, Pythia tries to wake up the prophet to ask him not to tell the future but the past. What has really happened? In a country manipulated by media to such a degree, both the past and the future look equally mysterious.

In the second story, the audience is presented with the film, a fake documentary about Saint Retrograd, an imaginary city where all wars start and end. In one of the city's secret locations, the most important scientists have gathered to create the ultimate media weapon, Сокоћало, which will change the future, but also the past, of humankind.

The third scene Is a techno remake of a famous nineteen-century revolutionary song, popular among the Yugoslavian unionists, a song that romanticises their centuries-long struggle to free the South-Slavic nations from the Turks and Austro-Habsburgs and create a common state where all its different ethnic groups will live in peace. Seen in the perspective of the broken Yugoslavia and its recent wars, the song sounds absurd, unreal, cynical, and depressing.

The song is followed by the episode in which revolutionary partisan heroes turn into nationalists and cold-blooded war criminals, killing each other on the monuments from the Second World War.

Amsterdam Cyber Theatre / Open Arc Theatre / Academica:
Fahrudin Salihbegovic, Tatjana Ljujic, Matthias Ooostrik, Vahidin Prelic, Ivana Pavicevic, Vladimir Bojovic, Mensur Salkanovic, Boris Butorac, Boris Todorovic, Milojko Knezevic, Aleksandar Djeric...


Gene expression is regulated at many levels. Most regulation, however, is believed to occur at the level of transcription initiation. Transcription factors, chromatin-modifying enzymes, and basal transcription factors unite to activate genes and are recruited in a precise order to promoters. This thesis focuses on mutations in the promoter region as a putative cause of disturbed transcriptional regulation. We report on the characterization of an important regulatory element (PKR-RE1) in the erythroid-specific promoter of the human hexokinase gene (HK1). In addition, we describe the role of exon 1 in erythroid-specific transcriptional regulation of the human gene for protoporphyrinogen oxidase (PPOX). As this exon is part of the 5'untranslated region, PPOX is an example of how tissue specific regulation of a gene can be achieved by a single promoter and tissue specific enhancers. Both studies are examples of basal promoter research, which serves as the basis of all knowledge regarding transcriptional regulation of a gene. This knowledge is essential to investigate if promoter mutations and sequence variations, identified in a molecular diagnostic search for disease causing mutations in patients, or in epidemiologic studies with fairly healthy subjects, are putatively disease causing. Following this, we describe a family with a number of gamma-globin promoter sequence variations and we discuss the putative association with Hereditary Persistence of Fetal Hemoglobin (HPFH). We used transient transfection assays to study one of the identified mutations, a substitution (-16C>G) present in cis in the promoters of both human gamma-globin genes. Transient transfection assays showed that it does not affect gamma-globin expression in the fetal nor in the adult stage of development. In addition, we functional characterized a common polymorphic variation in the erythroid-specific promoter of PKLR, because of a suspected association with low PK activity levels in a number of patients. Again we showed, by use of functional assays, that this polymorphic variation does not decrease promoter activity in vitro. Both studies therefore emphasize the importance of using functional assays to investigate polymorphic promoter variations. In addition, we investigated the –193A>G mutation in the erythroid-specific promoter of HK1, in a patient with hexokinase deficiency and chronic hemolysis. We showed that the –193A>G mutation strongly down-regulates HK1 promoter activity and that binding of AP1/c-jun to the promoter of HK1 is disrupted by this mutation. The effect of promoter mutations can be very subtle. In addition, promoter mutation analysis is complex and often laborious and difficult to perform. Therefore, thorough studies of promoter mutations are scarce and often confined to basic promoter research laboratories. Despite the complex nature of the concerning assays, promoter analysis is necessary to improve molecular diagnostics of disease-causing promoter mutations. In addition, promoter mutation analysis improves our understanding of the role of disturbed transcriptional regulation in human disease. Therefore, we believe that routine laboratories should team up with basal promoter research groups, to improve the molecular diagnostics of patients with disease-causing promoter mutations.


Abstract On the contemporary Earth, distinct plate tectonic settings are characterized by differences in heat flow that are recorded in metamorphic rocks as differences in apparent thermal gradients. In this study we compile thermal gradients [defined as temperature/pressure (T/P) at the metamorphic peak] and ages of metamorphism (defined as the timing of the metamorphic peak) for 456 localities from the Eoarchean to Cenozoic Eras to test the null hypothesis that thermal gradients of metamorphism through time did not vary outside of the range expected for each of these distinct plate tectonic settings. Based on thermal gradients, metamorphic rocks are classified into three natural groups: high dT/dP [>775 °C/GPa, mean ~1110 °C/GPa (n = 199) rates], intermediate dT/dP [775–375 °C/GPa, mean ~575 °C/GPa (n = 127)], and low dT/dP [<375 °C/GPa, mean ~255 °C/GPa (n = 130)] metamorphism. Plots of T, P, and T/P against age demonstrate the widespread occurrence of two contrasting types of metamorphism—high dT/dP and intermediate dT/dP—in the rock record by the Neoarchean, the widespread occurrence of low dT/dP metamorphism in the rock record by the end of the Neoproterozoic, and a maximum in the thermal gradients for high dT/dP metamorphism during the period 2.3 to 0.85 Ga. These observations falsify the null hypothesis and support the alternative hypothesis that changes in thermal gradients evident in the metamorphic rock record were related to changes in geodynamic regime. Based on the observed secular changes, we postulate that the Earth has evolved through three geodynamic cycles since the Mesoarchean and has just entered a fourth. Cycle I began with the widespread appearance of paired metamorphism in the rock record, which was coeval with the amalgamation of widely dispersed blocks of protocontinental lithosphere into supercratons, and was terminated by the progressive fragmentation of the supercratons into protocontinents during the Siderian–Rhyacian (2.5 to 2.05 Ga). Cycle II commenced with the progressive reamalgamation of these protocontinents into the supercontinent Columbia and extended until the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia in the Tonian (1.0 to 0.72 Ga). Thermal gradients of high dT/dP metamorphism rose around 2.3 Ga leading to a thermal maximum in the mid-Mesoproterozoic, reflecting insulation of the mantle beneath the quasi-integral continental lithosphere of Columbia, prior to the geographical reorganization of Columbia into Rodinia. This cycle coincides with the age span of most anorogenic magmatism on Earth and a scarcity of passive margins in the geological record. Intriguingly, the volume of preserved continental crust of Mesoproterozoic age is low relative to the Paleoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic Eras. These features are consistent with a relatively stable association of continental lithosphere between the assembly of Columbia and the breakup of Rodinia. The transition to Cycle III during the Tonian is marked by a steep decline in the thermal gradients of high dT/dP metamorphism to their lowest value and the appearance of low dT/dP metamorphism in the rock record. Again, thermal gradients for high dT/dP metamorphism show a rise to a peak at the end of the Variscides during the formation of Pangea, before another steep decline associated with the breakup of Pangea and the start of a fourth cycle at ca. 0.175 Ga. Although the mechanism by which subduction started and plate boundaries evolved remains uncertain, based on the widespread record of paired metamorphism in the Neoarchean we posit that plate tectonics was established globally during the late Mesoarchean. During the Neoproterozoic there was a change to deep subduction and colder thermal gradients, features characteristic of the modern plate tectonic regime.


To assess a possible HLA association with anti-insulin autoantibodies (IAAs) in human insulin-dependent (type I) diabetes, 51 newly diagnosed type I diabetic patients (mean age 22 ± 8 yr) were typed for HLA-DR and HLA-DQ and studied for IAAs before exogenous insulin therapy with a competitive radioimmunoassay (normal range ≤49 nU/ml). The level of IAAs in 16 patients exceeded our upper limit of normal, and 18 had high-titer islet cell antibodies (ICAs; ≥40 Juvenile Diabetes Foundation U). A striking association with HLA-DR4 (DQw3) in both the prevalence and the level of IAAs was found (IAA positivity in patients with DR4/4 vs. DR4 heterozygous vs. non-DR4: 90 vs. 29%, corrected [c] P < 0.01, vs. 5%, Pc < 0.0001; IAA positivity in patients with DR4 vs. non-DR4: 50 vs. 5%, Pc < 0.005; IAA level in patients with DR4/4 vs. DR4 heterozygous vs. non-DR4: 111 vs. 17 nU/ml, Pc < 0.01, vs. 20 nU/ml, Pc < 0.0001; IAA level in patients with DR4 vs. non-DR4: 45 vs. 20 nU/ml, Pc < 0.01). In contrast, none of the DR3+ subjects had IAAs above normal range, except in conjunction with DR4 (DR3 vs. non-DR3: 12 vs. 42%, Pc < 0.05). However, there was no significant relationship between DR3 and IAAs after correcting for the number of DR4 alleles. No relationship was seen between age of onset, IAA level, and HLA typing in our population, and no relationship was found between ICA positivity and HLA antigens. These data suggest that humoral in predominantlu DR4+ patients responding to insulin before exogenous insulin treatment.


Five new metal–organic frameworks (MOFs, termed MOF-324, 325, 326 and IRMOF-61 and 62) of either short linkers (pyrazolecarboxylate and pyrazaboledicarboxylate) or long and thin alkyne functionalities (ethynyldibenzoate and butadiynedibenzoate) were prepared to examine their impact on hydrogen storage in MOFs. These compounds were characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction, and their low-pressure and high-pressure hydrogen uptake properties were investigated. In particular, volumetric excess H2 uptake by MOF-324 and IRMOF-62 outperforms MOF-177 up to 30 bar. Inelastic neutron-scattering studies for MOF-324 also revealed strong interactions between the organic links and hydrogen, in contrast to MOF-5 where the interactions between the Zn4O unit and hydrogen are the strongest. These data also show that smaller pores and polarized linkers in MOFs are indeed advantageous for hydrogen storage.


Computer-based systems are being used to tackle increasingly complex problems in ever more demanding domains. The size and amount of knowledge needed by such systems means they are becoming unwieldy and difficult to engineer into reliable, consistent products. One paradigm for overcoming this barrier is to decompose the problem into smaller more manageable components which can communicate and cooperate at the level of sharing processing responsibilities and information. Until recently, research in multi-agent systems has been based on ad hoc models of action and interaction; however, the notion of intentions is beginning to emerge as a prime candidate upon which a sound theory could be based. This research develops a new model of joint intentions as a means of describing the activities of groups of agents working collaboratively. The model stresses the role of intentions in controlling agents? current and future actions; defining preconditions which must be satisfied before joint problem solving can commence and prescribing how individual agents should behave once it has been established. Such a model becomes especially important in dynamic environments in which agents may possess neither complete nor correct beliefs about their world or other agents, have changeable goals and fallible actions and be subject to interruption from external events. The theory has been implemented in a general purpose cooperation framework, called GRATE*, and applied to the real-world problem of electricity transportation management. In this application, individual problem solvers have to take decisions using partial, imprecise information and respond to an ever changing external world. This fertile environment enabled the quantitative benefits of the theory to be assessed and comparisons with other models of collaborative problem solving to be undertaken. These experiments highlighted the high degree of coherence attained by GRATE* problem solving groups, even in the most dynamic and unpredictable application contexts.


INTRODUCTION AND DEVELOPMENT The neuropathological characteristics of Alzheimer's disease (AD) include the presence of neurofibrillary tangles (NFT), senile plaques (SP), neuronal death, and amyloid angiopathy. However, it is accepted that the accumulation of beta amyloid proteins, which are the main constituent of the SP, is the central neuropathological lesion in AD. All mutations that known to cause AD are related to an increase production of beta amyloid. An inflammatory process usually surrounds the SP, and it is though to contribute to the formation of the SP, and to the metabolic cascade that leads to neuronal death. There is seveltive vulnerability of the limbic system and heteromodal areas to AD pathology, and it is in these areas where amyloid deposits can induce a greater inflammatory response. The most affected neurotransmitter is acetylcholine, and it is associated with the loss of enzymes that are part of ots normal metabolism, and with loss of a presynaptic receptors (e.g. Muscarinic 2), and with a relative preservation of postsynaptic receptors (e.g. Muscarinic1). There is significant loss of nicotinic receptors. CONCLUSIONS Significant advances have been made with transgenic mice that enhanced our understanding of AD pathology. It has been identified enzymes that participate in the metabolism of amyloid, and the possible mechanisms of interaction between amyloid deposits and NFT. These advances are the starting point for future treatments that could interfere with amyloid formation


Virtual Private Networks (VPN) enable usage of the public Internet infrastructure to build se-cure and reliable connections providing functionally of private corporate IT networks. Back in 90s VPN were created to mainly allow access to corporate resources for employees who work remotely and/or travel. Today, VPN can be used to gain access to geographically isolated and highly protected Internet resources like websites, interactive platforms and more. Such VPN are good for protecting Internet users' privacy and enhance their security especially when using public free Wi-Fi networks. Indeed, now VPN are used more and more and gain popularity for exactly those reasons - provide almost universal access and protect privacy of millions Internet users. This paper reviews building blocks and procedure to build our own VPN. This way power users are in full control of their privacy and security when using public Internet infrastructure while also gain access to otherwise restricted online resources.


ABSTRACT We used a nested PCR with Borrelia flagellin gene (flaB) primers and DNA sequencing to determine if Borrelia lonestari was present in Amblyomma americanum ticks removed from military personnel and sent to the Tick-Borne Disease Laboratory of the U.S. Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine. In our preliminary investigation, we detected Borrelia sequences in 19 of 510 A. americanum adults and nymphs from Ft. A. P. Hill, Va. During the 2001 tick season, the flaB primers were used to test all A. americanum samples as they were received, and 29 of 2,358 A. americanum samples tested individually or in small pools were positive. PCRs with 2,146 A. americanum samples in 2002 yielded 26 more Borrelia-positive samples. The positive ticks in 2001 and 2002 were from Arkansas, Delaware, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The last positive sample of the 2001 season was a pool of larvae. To further investigate larval infection, we collected and tested questing A. americanum larvae from Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.; 4 of 33 pools (40 larvae per pool) were positive. Infection of unfed larvae provides evidence of the maintenance of B. lonestari by means of transovarial transmission. Sequence analysis revealed that the amplicons were identical to sequences of the B. lonestari flaB gene in GenBank. Despite the low prevalence of infection, the risk of B. lonestari transmission may be magnified because A. americanum is often abundant and aggressive, and many tick bite victims receive multiple bites.


The ac performance of carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNFETs) has been characterized using two approaches involving: 1) timeand 2) frequency-domain measurements. A high input impedance measurement system was used to demonstrate time-domain switching of CNFETs at frequencies up to 100 kHz. The low level of signal crosstalk in CNFETs fabricated on quartz substrates enabled frequency-domain measurements of the ac response of CNFETs in the megahertz range, over five orders of magnitude higher in frequency than previously reported ac measurements of CNFET devices.


Androgens are modulators of skeletal muscle adaptation and regeneration processes. The control of satellite cell activity is a key mechanism during this process. In this study, we analyzed the ability of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) and anabolic steroids to induce and modulate the differentiation of C2C12 myoblastoma cells toward myotubes. C2C12 cells were dose-dependently treated with DHT and anabolic steroids. The time-dependent effects on differentiation were measured and correlated with the expression of genes involved in the regulation of satellite cell activity. The distribution of C2C12 cells within the cell cycle was measured by flow cytometry and differentiation by creatine kinase (CK) activity. Gene expression was analyzed using quantitative real-time PCR and confocal microscopy. The treatment with DHT and anabolic steroids resulted in a stimulation of C2C12 cell proliferation and CK activity. The antiandrogen flutamide was able to antagonize this effect. The expression of the androgen receptor, SOX8, SOX9, Delta, Notch, myostatin, and paired box gene7 (Pax7) was modulated by androgens. The treatment with DHT and anabolic steroids resulted in a strong stimulation of myostatin expression not only in undifferentiated cells but also in myotubes. The stimulation could be antagonized by flutamide. The expression of Pax7 was detectable in C2C12 cells early after treatment with DHT. Our results demonstrate that the key mechanisms of satellite cell differentiation are modulated by androgens. Androgens stimulate the proliferation of C2C12 cells, accelerate the process of differentiation, and increase the expression of myostatin in undifferentiated and differentiated cells. Our findings may have implications not only for the treatment of muscular diseases but also for the improvement of doping analytical methods. Journal of Molecular Endocrinology (2008) 40, 231–241


Catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (CAPS) is a rare, acute, life-threatening form of antiphospholipid syndrome. In the last several decades there has been a significant improvement in the treatment of patients with CAPS, but the overall mortality is still very signi ficant. The use of rituximab has been reported in the treatment of refractory cases of CAPS but the data are still scarce and inconclusive. We report a case of 47-year-old male patient with long standing SLE and secon dary APS who presented with acute thromboembolic incident (partial thrombosis of superior mesenteric artery). During the first week of his hospitalization he met the criteria for probable CAPS. He was treated with anticoagulants, glucocorticoids, intravenous immunoglobulins and systemic antibiotics. Finally he was treated with rituximab. There was no response to the implemented treatment and he eventually died. Autopsy showed evidence of small vessel thrombosis in the lung microvasculature. With this the criteria for definitive CAPS were fulfilled. To our knowledge, at present time, this is the first ever reported case of definitive CAPS associated with SLE treated with rituximab. There is a great need for further investigation to evaluate the effectiveness of rituximab in treatment of CAPS.


Based on a description of project networks by max-plus algebra and poset, the adjacency of critical paths is presented using tropical geometry.


A prospective cross-sectional study was conducted through patient reported outcomes of the therapy in epileptic and hypertensive patients for the period of two months at B.P.Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Hospital, Dharan. 52 epileptic and 60 hypertensive patients were analyzed with mean±SD ages 23.69±7.61 and 60.68±14.34 years old respectively. Out of which 53.85% and 46.66% were male in epilepsy and hypertension respectively. The Mean±SD (HRQOL) 60±17 was found in epilepsy and 59±6 in hypertension. Social function, scored 61 out of 100, was highly reduced in epilepsy than in hypertension whereas role limitation due to physical function is comparatively reduced in hypertension than epilepsy, although there were no significant difference between mean HRQOL of epilepsy and hypertension (P>0.05) with correlation -0.084 in paired samples T-test. There were no variations in HRQOL by gender in both groups after having drug therapy in both categories. Independent sample T test (P>0.025) showed that there were no significant differences in mean HRQOL and every domains of HRQOL of epilepsy with cut point 20 years. But physical functioning, energy level and general health were significantly (P<0.035) different in between age group ≥ 50 and < 50 years with hypertension. The study concluded that the Health Related Quality Of Life is low in both epilepsy and hypertension than general population regardless gender and age. In hypertension a decrease in QOL was observed with age, only in relation to physical and psychological health rather than other health domains but in epilepsy there were no significant variation in health domains of HRQOL by gender and age. Sunsari Technical College Journal 2015, 2(1):27-32


Health visitors in Northamptonshire carried out a survey of mothers attending child health clinics to determine their knowledge and awareness of HIV and Aids. The aim was to ascertain levels of need for further health education for professional health workers and, in turn, their client groups. Susan J Stevens et al describe the results of the survey which revealed widespread lack of knowledge among women of childbearing age.


The Dutch government and legislature are in the process of introducing an unprecedented set of anti-terrorist measures. It is claimed that these measures are necessary and justified, as terrorism today threatens the security of Dutch society as never before. But does it? In the present state of excitement, it is all too easy to forget that Dutch society has had to face terrorism before. Indeed, if the number of people killed or targeted is a measure of the gravity of a terrorist threat, terrorism in the 1970s was more serious than current terrorism has been up until now. Yet in the 1970s, the Dutch government did not introduce a comprehensive set of anti-terrorist measures, unlike, for example, the British and German governments. In this paper, the Moluccan actions, the most serious terrorist actions Dutch society has experienced so far, and the reaction by the government to these actions, are discussed. This leads to the conclusion that current terrorism is less different from old-style terrorism than the government claims it to be, although there may be one important difference: the risk that current terrorists use deeply destructive weapons. This is not to say that the government's policies were better in the 1970s than they are now. However, a sense of what the record tells us may help us in disciplining current fears and in taking a more critical stance towards the view that the present anti-terrorist measures are necessary and justified because we never saw anything like current terrorism before.


Rapid City, South Dakota is built along the banks of Rapid Creek, where it emerges from the eastern side of the Black Hills. In 1972 its population was approximately 60,000. On the night of June 9-10 of that year, torrential rain upstream of Rapid City caused the creek to overflow its banks and devastate adjacent areas of the city.


Five new complexes of Co(II), Ni(II), Zn(II), Cd(II) and UO2(II) with edta hydrazinate ligand have been prepared and characterized by elemental analysis, magnetic measurements, infrared spectra, electronic spectra, X-ray diffraction and thermal analysis. The general formulaeM2(edta)(N2H4)6where M=Co, Ni or Zn and M2(edta)(N2H4)2(H2O)2 where M=Cd or UO2 been assigned for edta hydrazinate complexes. The magnetic moments and electronic spectra indicate that these complexes are of high-spin octahedral variety. IR spectra of the edta complexes indicate that both carboxylate ions and hydrazine molecules coordinate to the metal ions in the bridging fashion. These complexes undergo exothermic decomposition to give the respectivemetal oxide as a final residue. X-ray powder diffraction patterns of the metal edta hydrazinate complexes indicate isomorphism among them. Antibacterial activities of these complexes also been studied.


Context-aware applications promise better usability as they make context information which is relevant to the user accessible and can thus improve interaction flow. However, the quality of the presented information, as well as the way they are presented to the user, can be expected to have an impact on whether an improvement can be achieved. In this paper, we present a quantitative assessment on the improvement for a typical productive application in which context information is presented in an adaptive sidebar. Manipulating the context information quality in terms of accuracy and completeness, our experiment shows that both have a significant effect on usability: Whereas information accuracy significantly impacts execution time, completeness affects task result accuracy and mental effort. Overall, the user experience of the context-aware application was judged to be of high pragmatic and medium-to-high hedonic quality. information for a specific task and application.