Some domestic flight routes in Norway rank among the busiest in Europe. Experience has shown that, in countries such as France and Germany, high velocity trains can be preferable to flying, given that the distance is not too great (usually under 1000km). The domestic flight routes mentioned are all under that limit and therefore, there is great interest for increasing velocities of trains travelling in Norway. The biggest barrier for this purpose is the dynamic behaviour of the catenary--pantograph system, which is the system supplying power to the train. This thesis covers the modelling of that system, experimentally and numerically. The catenary--pantograph system mainly consists of a messenger wire, contact wire and a pantograph. Electrical power is transmitted from the contact wire through the pantograph to the train's engine. Consistent contact between the pantograph's head and contact wire is vital for the train to operate at high velocities. Too much or too little contact leads to increased wear in the system. In order to examine the performance of the system, the contact force is defined, i.e. the force at the point of contact. This force is one of the most important property of the system and the aim of this thesis is to find out which of the system's parameters affect it. These parameters are related to the overhead wires and the pantograph. Many researches and studies have focused on the pantograph and it is a well defined part of the system, however the overhead lines are less known and will therefore be the main focus of this thesis.


While predicting robot grasps with parallel jaw grippers have been well studied and widely applied in robot manipulation tasks, the study on natural human grasp generation with a multi-finger hand remains a very challenging problem. In this paper, we propose to generate human grasps given a 3D object in the world. Our key observation is that it is crucial to model the consistency between the hand contact points and object contact regions. That is, we encourage the prior hand contact points to be close to the object surface and the object common contact regions to be touched by the hand at the same time. Based on the hand-object contact consistency, we design novel objectives in training the human grasp generation model and also a new self-supervised task which allows the grasp generation network to be adjusted even during test time. Our experiments show significant improvement in human grasp generation over state-of-the-art approaches by a large margin. More interestingly, by optimizing the model during test time with the self-supervised task, it helps achieve larger gain on unseen and out-of-domain objects. Project page: https://hwjiang1510.github.io/GraspTTA/.


The Asinawa iron ore is located about 3km to the southeast of Penjween town, Sulaimaniya Governorate, Kurdistan Region, Northeastern Iraq near the Iraq-Iran border. The exposed iron ore deposit is about 60 and 400m wide and long respectively. The present study is the re-study of the geology and geochemistry of the Asnawan Iron ore deposit  and concluded that the country rocks are consist of hornfels in which the original lamination or banding of the parent rocks (calc-silicate low grade metamorphic rocks) are preserved and inherited from its laminated sedimentary precursors. Moreover, the facies that is associated with host rocks is hornblende-hornfels facies with temperature range of 550-650 oC. This range is confirmed through thermo barometry. There are evidences of localized pyroxene-hornfels and sanidine hornfels facies too. Additionally, the detail of the different stages of the iron ore paragenesis is shown by discussion with the aid of suitable graphical drawing and geochemical variation diagrams. By these methods, the sedimentary stratigraphic unit of the parent rock (protolith) was found for the first time which consists of Qulqula Radiolarian Formation (Kermanshah Radiolarites in Iran). The bedded chert, limestone and calcareous shale is the main lithology of the latter formation and after burial and deformation, it is regionally metamorphosed to banded and lamiated calc-silicate rocks of green facies rocks. At a later stage, these rocks, remetamorphosed (polymetamorphism pattern) again to hornfels with concurrent changing to iron ore by basic iron rich hydrothermal solutions during Eocene (37-40Ma). This age is calculated using Ar39/Ar40 method of dating.


SUMMARY: Penicillium notatum gives high yields of spores on media containing carbohydrates, ammonia and an organic acid such as citric, tartaric, or succinic acid. The media are similar to those which are good for the production of penicillin, but the choice of organic acids is less restricted.
Of physical factors influencing the yield of spores the most interesting was variation in the volume of medium. Within certain limits the number of spores produced depended almost entirely on the volume of the medium and not on the surface area; i.e. the yield of spores/unit area depended on the depth of the medium. An increase in the concentration of metabolites above normal level did not greatly increase the yield of spores, and the addition of further nutrients to a previously used medium gave only a small second crop. The production of spores therefore appeared to be limited by the accumulation of toxic substances in the medium.


Numerous strategies and policies have been designed for the prevention of blindness. Their implementation, however, may find considerable operational difficulties in the developing countries. Following WHO (World Health Organization) recommendations, the Peruvian organization against blindness (OPELUCE) has designed an Integral Model for the Prevention of Blindness in Peru. This model includes the training of health personnel and educators, informing the community on ocular preventive aspects, medical and surgical treatment of patients and training programs for the blind. The model has been modified for its application in urban, and urban-marginal areas as specific programs for the prevention of blindness due to glaucoma, diabetes, and accidents, and for the detection of visual problems at the school level.


Drawing on a four-year research programme conducted in Sri Lanka (part of a larger programme also conducted in India and Kenya) this paper addresses the issue of building and planning regulations and how such regulations affect people's livelihoods. This paper begins by reviewing the urban housing programmes undertaken in Sri Lanka over the past 30 years with special reference to urban upgrading projects and their respective planning and building regulations. The authors have analysed four cases from Colombo Municipality and two cases from a secondary town, Moratuwa Municipality in Colombo Municipal Authority, in order to assess the impacts of such urban upgrading programmes on the livelihoods of the poor; some conclusions and recommendations have been drawn. Guidance notes (based on a literature review, historical analysis and case studies) are presented towards the end of the paper for the use of local government staff as well as others acting as partners in the improvement of livelihoods in urban areas...


This paper summarizes the recent calculations of the masses and decay constants of the pseudoscalar mesons at the two-loop level, or NNLO, in Partially Quenched Chiral Perturbation Theory (PQxPT). Possible applications include chiral extrapolations of Lattice QCD, as well as the determination of the low-energy constants (LEC:s) of QCD


Abstract. We evaluate the ensemble spread at seasonal-to-interannual timescales for two perturbation techniques implemented in the ocean component of a coupled model: (1) lagged initial conditions as commonly used for decadal predictions; (2) bred vectors as commonly used for weather and seasonal forecasting. We show that relative to an uninitialized reference simulation the implementation for bred vectors can improve the ensemble spread compared to lagged initialization at timescales from one month up to three years. As bred vectors have so far mostly been used at short timescales, we initially focus on the implementation of the bred vectors in the ocean component. We introduce a depth-dependent vertical rescaling norm, accounting for the vertical dependence of the variability, and extending the commonly used upper-ocean rescaling norm to the full water column. We further show that it is sufficient for the (sub-surface) ocean to breed temperature and salinity (i.e., scalar quantities), and rely on the governing physics to carry the temperature and salinity perturbations to the flow field. Using these bred vectors with a rescaling interval of 12 months, we initialize hindcast simulations and compare them to hindcast simulations initialized with lagged initial conditions. We quantify the ensemble spread by analyzing Talagrand diagrams and spread–error ratios. For both temperature and salinity, the lagged initialized ensemble is particularly under-dispersive for the first few months of predictable lead time. The ensemble initialized with bred vectors improves the spread for temperature and salinity for the 0–700 m and 1000–3500 m means, compared to the lagged ensemble at lead times of several months to one year. As the lead time increases to years, the differences between the two ensemble initialization techniques become more difficult to discern. While the results need to be confirmed in an initialized framework, the present analysis represents a first step towards improved ensemble generation at the transition from seasonal to interannual timescales, in particular at lead times up to one year.


Trends in public opinion about 11 possible alcohol policy initiatives are analysed in probability surveys of adults in the United States and in Ontario in 1989, 1990 and 1991. In both sites, public opinion is fairly conservative on alcohol policies, with majorities favoring either the status quo or decreased availability on such dimensions as tax levels, opening hours, sale of alcoholic beverages in corner stores and the minimum legal drinking age. Between 1989 and 1991, the most substantial net change in attitudes was in favor of warning labels in Ontario, although it was in the United States and not in Canada that warning labels were introduced after the 1989 surveys. For some other alcohol policies, public support for restrictions tended to decline in Ontario but not in the United States. In logistic regressions predicting attitudes on each policy with gender, age, education, drinking pattern, study site and year of study, the strong and consistent secular trend for support for warning labels held up; the only other significant and consistent secular trend was against increased efforts to prevent drunken customers being served. Since public support for alcohol controls is crucial to their effectiveness and long-term viability, regular tracking of public opinion on them is needed, along with efforts to increase their public understanding and support.


This investigation examined the procedures employed by NCAA Division I, II, and ΙΠ athletic directors (ADs) in evaluating their cross country and basketball coaches. Three components were examined: individual input, methods, and criteria for evaluation. Questionnaires were mailed to 660 ADs, and final analyses were conducted on 389 responses. ADs most commonly sought input from athletes, coaches' self-evaluations, senior associate ADs, and university administrators in the evaluation process. Meetings with coaches and watching contests were rated as important methods of evaluation. Factor analyses of evaluation criteria revealed 8 evaluation factors for basketball coaches and 7 for cross country coaches with different underlying structures. For basketball coaches, unique solutions were created for technical-skill development and coach-player relationships. For cross country coaches, these items loaded together creating a general player development factor. MANOVAs examining divisional differences in the eva...


| Adverse early life events, such as early maternal separation, may alter the normal pattern of brain development and subsequently the vulnerability to a variety of mental disorders in adulthood. Maternal separation relatively changes behavioral and biochemical responses leading to an overactivation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis, and subsequently increases the ACTH level. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the role of a corticosteroid blocker, ketoconazole, in behavioral, hematological and biochemical changes in rat underwent maternal separation (MS). For this purpose, On postnatal days 1–7, rats were submitted daily to MS for 1h30min per day. At 3 months of age, rats were given a high dose of ketoconazole (200mg/kg), exploratory activity and anxiety-like behavior were evaluated using the open field test and elevated plus maze test, olfactory-like behavior was evaluated using the olfactory recogneting and biochemical and hematological profiles were also evaluated. We found that MS provoked depressive and anxiety-like behaviors, olfactory sensibility and biochemical changes (increase in level of blood glucose and ACTH) in adult rat. In addition, treatment of stressed rat by ketoconazole could modulate the above-mentioned negative effects of maternal separation"MS". In conclusion, our results demonstrated that ketoconazole decrease anxiety like behavior and regulate biochemical change induced by maternal separation stress.


Over the last 9 months, the quasi‐biennial oscillation (QBO) of the equatorial lower stratosphere has deviated significantly from its normal behavior documented since 1953. Historically, the QBO has varied mainly in the duration of individual oscillation phases or, equivalently, the rate of azimuthal propagation in a 2‐D phase space; in contrast, the oscillation in recent months seems to have ceased. Other features such as the magnitude of wind extrema, east‐west phase asymmetry, and seasonal modulation have been fairly regular over all cycles save for the current one and its closest analog in 1960. Our comment on Newman et al. (2016) highlights features of the anomaly noted by them, contrasts this evolution with the standard QBO model, and draws attention to some unusual features of the 2015–2016 El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) warm event.


Advanced post processing of the standard acquisitions of echocardiographic data (i.e. 3 parallel short-axis views and 3 rotational long axis views) results in a total of 72 time-varying traces of segmental linear strains and 18 traces of segmental rotational data. If one separates the signal into endo, mid, and epicardial myocardial layers, a staggering 246 time-varying traces are available. The synthesis of this amount of data is extremely difficult. Our goal was to develop tools that can visualize this complex dataset in a single representation and use these tools to assess LV function in subjects to examine characteristic patterns.


An investigation was undertaken to isolate predaceous fungi from the soil and faecal matter of goat, sheep and cattle in the open grazing fields around Bangalore, Karnataka, India. An isolate of Arthrobotrys oligospora, PDBC AO1, was selected and the effects of temperature and pH on its development and its predaceous activity on Meloidogyne incognita were assessed under laboratory conditions. The fungus exhibited septate two-celled ovate-oblong conidiospores, trapping hyphae, and radiating and sparse mycelium. The optimum temperatures for its growth, sporulation, conidiospore germination and conidiospore production ranged between 25 and 35 °C, while pH optima ranged between 6.0 and 7.5. The optimum temperature for conidiospore germination was 25-30 °C. The isolate trapped 86% of second stage juveniles of the nematode and a maximum of 62% nematode juvenile mortality in 96 hours at 28 °C was recorded.


Background Although the relationship between dietary monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs), polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), and saturated fatty acids (SFAs) intake and pancreatic cancer risk has been reported by several studies, the evidence is controversial. We firstly conducted this comprehensive meta-analysis to summarize the aforementioned evidence from observational studies. Methods The MEDLINE (PubMed), Embase, and ISI Web of Science databases were used to search for epidemiological studies of dietary SFA, MUFA, and PUFA and pancreatic cancer risk that were published until the end of June 2014. Random- or fixed-effects models were used to estimate the relative risks (RRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). We also carried out subgroup, sensitivity, and publication bias analyses. Results We identified 13 case-control studies and 7 prospective studies which including 6270 pancreatic cancer cases in the meta-analysis of SFA, MUFA, and PUFA and risk of pancreatic cancer. The summary RR was 1.13 (95%CI = 0.94-1.35, I 2 = 70.7%) for SFA, 1.00 (95%CI = 0.87-1.14, I 2 = 43.4%) for MUFA, and 0.87 (95%CI = 0.75-1.00, I 2 = 55.3%) for PUFA for high versus low intake categories. We found no evidence of publication bias. Conclusion In summary, findings of this study supports an inverse association between diets high in PUFA and pancreatic cancer risk. Further large prospective studies are warranted to report the results stratified by the subtypes of MUFA and PUFA and adjust for other potential risk factors to eliminate residual confounding.


This paper challenges several common myths that cloud discourse about urban development in Africa. It finds that urbanization in the region is not excessive or imbalanced relative to the experience of other regions. Internal migration, which is not the main source of urban growth, does not account for urban poverty. Migration appears favorable on balance for sending and receiving areas, and population mobility benefits rural and urban households as many retain a foothold in both areas to spread risks. Although Africa has been frequently described as featuring a disconnect between urbanization and economic growth, in reality most of the economic growth that has taken place in the past decade derives from mainly urban-based sectors (industry and services), and this is especially true of the better-performing economies. But cities have clearly not lived up to their productive potential because of widespread neglect and bad management. Urban poverty is not mainly a function of urban expansion, nor is it a sign of failure of the urban economies in Africa. There is evidence that much of the deprivation in cities, and the emerging urban public health problems, relate to institutional failures that perpetuate social exclusion and inequalities between the urban poor and the urban non-poor.


A scheme for the generation of phase-coded microwave signals using an electrically tunable photonic microwave phase shifter is proposed and demonstrated. The photonic phase shifter is based on a single-sideband polarization modulator (PolM), and the tuning of the phase shifter is implemented by a second PolM. By introducing an RF signal to the first PolM and an electrical coding signal to the second PolM, a phase-coded microwave signal with binary phase codes or polyphase codes is achieved. An experiment is performed. The simple and flexible operation, high coding rate, large frequency range, excellent transmission performance, and high stability of the system is confirmed.


Gibson (1979/1986) argued that exploratory movements generate information about agents' action-capabilities within a given environment, that is, about the agent-environment system's affordances. To date, the scant literature on exploratory movements has revealed two important findings. First, restricting exploratory movements degrades the accuracy of affordance judgments (Mark et al., 1990; Yu, Bardy, & Stoffregen, 2011). Second, exploratory movements can be very subtle (Stoffregen, Yang, & Bardy, 2005; Yu, Bardy, & Stoffregen, 2011). However, many questions regarding exploratory movements have yet to be answered. For example, what exploratory movements are necessary to perceive a given affordance, and how do exploratory movements differ from related movements? Our long-term goal is to address such gaps in the literature. We decided to begin by examining what exploratory movements must be executed in order to perceive whether the actor can reach an object. Reaching exploratory movements likely have two key components: 1) head movements and 2) shoulder movements. The former can generate information about the absolute distance between the actor and the to-be-reached object (Bingham & Stassen, 1994), and have been confirmed to be necessary to produce accurate reaching judgments (Mantel, Stoffregen, Campbell & Bardy, 2015). The latter generates information about the actor's arm length (Anderson & Turvey, 1998; Shibata, Gyoba, & Takeshima, 2012;), but their necessity to the reach-ability judgment has yet to be studied. The current experiment used a restriction paradigm to determine whether exploratory arm movements are necessary to make accurate reaching judgments. Participants (n = 32) judged their maximum reaching ability either while holding their arms behind their backs with their dominant hand grasping their non-dominant wrist (the Restricted condition), or while their arms swung naturally at their sides (the Unrestricted condition). Judgments were made actively, by walking forward or backward, in order to allow participants to generate the exploratory movements they would normally create (with the exception of arm movements in the Restricted condition) when moving toward an object with the intention to perform a reach (Mantel, Bardy, & Stoffregen, 2010). The study utilized a within-subjects design, with starting condition counterbalanced. For each condition, participants completed 1 practice trial followed by 9 experimental trials. Starting distances (from object) and angles were drawn equally and randomly from ranges of 1 – 24", 25 – 48", 49 – 72", and 0 - 29o, 30 - 59o, 60 - 89o, respectively. Distances and angles were not repeated to prevent memorization. In line with previous affordance perception research, the dependent variable, Accuracy, was computed in terms of percentage of absolute error (|[judged maximum reach / actual maximum reach] -1| *100) (Oudejans, Michaels, Bakker, & Dolné, 1996). Accuracy was significantly greater when arm movements were unrestricted as compared to restricted, supporting the theory that exploratory arm movements are a component of reach-ability judgments. Reaching judgments in neither condition were perfectly accurate, which may have been due to the reaching judgment being the focal task (Heft, 1993). The present results have practical implications for operational situations in which actors' arm movements might be restricted. For example, U.S. police and military personnel sometimes wear body armor that covers their shoulders, mounts ballistic plates to their upper arms, or some combination thereof. To the extent that such body armor restricts arm movements, then our results suggest that their reach-ability judgments would be degraded.


A custom designed cryostat was constructed to measure the response of a CsI:Tl scintillator in temperature range from $- 183 ^{circ}\mathrm {C}$ up to $+90 ^{circ}\mathrm {C}$. The light readout was realized using a SiPM developed by FBK in near ultraviolet high density (NUV-HD) technology. The crystal and the SiPM were installed on separated copper frames. The crystal was cooled down by liquid nitrogen, while the SiPM was kept at temperature close to room temperature. A separation of 1 mm was kept between the crystal and the photodetector to ensure thermal isolation. The temperature of the crystal could be varied by heaters on the scintillator frame and was continuously monitored using a coil shaped resistance thermometer. The CsI:Tl scintillation decay profiles were recorded in the entire temperature range provided by the cryostat.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
Triage of patients with acute upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage (UGIH) has traditionally required urgent upper endoscopy. The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of artificial neural network for nonendoscopic triage.

METHODS
A cohort of 387 patients was used to train (n = 194) and internally validate (n = 193) the neural network, which was then externally validated in 200 patients and compared with the clinical and complete Rockall score. Two outcome variables were assessed: major stigmata of recent hemorrhage and need for endoscopic therapy. Patient cohort data from 2 independent tertiary-care medical centers were prospectively collected. Adult patients hospitalized at both sites during the same time period with a primary diagnosis of acute nonvariceal UGIH.

RESULTS
In predicting the 2 measured outcomes, sensitivity of neural network was >80%, with high negative predictive values (92-96%) in both cohorts but with lower specificity in the external cohort. Both Rockall scores had adequate sensitivity (>80%) but poor specificity (<40%) at outcome prediction. Comparing areas under receiver operating characteristic curves, the clinical Rockall score was significantly inferior to neural network in both cohorts (</=0.65 vs. >/= 0.78), while in the external cohort, neural network performed similarly to the complete Rockall score (>/= 0.78).

CONCLUSIONS
In acute nonvariceal UGIH, artificial neural network (nonendoscopic triage) performed as well as the complete Rockall score (endoscopic triage) at predicting stigmata of recent hemorrhage and need for endoscopic therapy, even when tested in an external patient population.


To assess the efficacy of HIV vaccine candidates or preventive treatment, many research groups have started to challenge monkeys repeatedly with low doses of the virus. Such challenge data provide a unique opportunity to assess the importance of exposure history for the acquisition of the infection. I developed stochastic models to analyze previously published challenge data. In the mathematical models, I allowed for variation of the animals' susceptibility to infection across challenge repeats, or across animals. In none of the studies I analyzed, I found evidence for an immunizing effect of non-infecting challenges, and in most studies, there is no evidence for variation in the susceptibilities to the challenges across animals. A notable exception was a challenge experiment by Letvin et al. Sci Translat Med (2011) conducted with the strain SIVsmE660. The challenge data of this experiment showed significant susceptibility variation from animal-to-animal, which is consistent with previously established genetic differences between the involved animals. For the studies which did not show significant immunizing effects and susceptibility differences, I conducted a power analysis and could thus exclude a very strong immunization effect for some of the studies. These findings validate the assumption that non-infecting challenges do not immunize an animal — an assumption that is central in the argument that repeated low-dose challenge experiments increase the statistical power of preclinical HIV vaccine trials. They are also relevant for our understanding of the role of exposure history for HIV acquisition and forecasting the epidemiological spread of HIV.


The question is as searing as it is fundamental to the continuing debate over Japanese culpability in World War II and the period leading up to it: "How could Japanese soldiers have committed such acts of violence against Allied prisoners of war and Chinese civilians?" During the First World War, the Japanese fought on the side of the Allies and treated German POWs with respect and civility. In the years that followed, under Emperor Hirohito, conformity was the norm and the Japanese psyche became one of selfless devotion to country and emperor; soon Japanese soldiers were to engage in mass murder, rape, and even cannibalization of their enemies. Horror in the East examines how this drastic change came about. On the basis of never-before-published interviews with both the victimizers and the victimized, and drawing on never-before-revealed or long-ignored archival records, Rees discloses the full horror of the war in the Pacific, probing the supposed Japanese belief in their own racial superiority, analyzing a military that believed suicide to be more honorable than surrender, and providing what the Guardian calls "a powerful, harrowing account of appalling inhumanity...impeccably researched. "


Most of existing audio fingerprinting systems have limitations to be used for high-specific audio retrieval at scale. In this work, we generate a low-dimensional representation from a short unit segment of audio, and couple this fingerprint with a fast maximum inner-product search. To this end, we present a contrastive learning framework that derives from the segment-level search objective. Each update in training uses a batch consisting of a set of pseudo labels, randomly selected original samples, and their augmented replicas. These replicas can simulate the degrading effects on original audio signals by applying small time offsets and various types of distortions, such as background noise and room/microphone impulse responses. In the segment-level search task, where the conventional audio fingerprinting systems used to fail, our system using 10x smaller storage has shown promising results. Our code and dataset are available at https://mimbres.github.io/neural-audio-fp/.


Program reference strings generated by the LRU stack model are
considered, and expressions for the expected times to next reference for all pages occupying different LRU stack positions are derived. Using these expressions, necessary and sufficient conditions as well as sufficient conditions on the distance distribution are obtained which guarantee implementation by
the LRU replacement algorithm of the "informal principle of optimality" for
page replacements. The sufficient conditions are found to be the same as those under which the LRU replacement algorithm is shown to be optimal. Relaxed conditions are also obtained for special cases where the number of page frames
is fixed.


Conventional photoacoustic computed tomography (PACT) image reconstruction methods assume that the object and surrounding medium are described by a constant speed-of-sound (SOS) value. In order to accurately recover fine structures, SOS heterogeneities should be quantified and compensated for during PACT reconstruction. To address this problem, several groups have proposed hybrid systems that combine PACT with ultrasound computed tomography (USCT). In such systems, a SOS map is reconstructed first via USCT. Consequently, this SOS map is employed to inform the PACT reconstruction method. Additionally, the SOS map can provide structural information regarding tissue, which is complementary to the functional information from the PACT image. We propose a paradigm shift in the way that images are reconstructed in hybrid PACT-USCT imaging. Inspired by our observation that information about the SOS distribution is encoded in PACT measurements, we propose to jointly reconstruct the absorbed optical energy density and SOS distributions from a combined set of USCT and PACT measurements, thereby reducing the two reconstruction problems into one. This innovative approach has several advantages over conventional approaches in which PACT and USCT images are reconstructed independently: (1) Variations in the SOS will automatically be accounted for, optimizing PACT image quality; (2) The reconstructed PACT and USCT images will possess minimal systematic artifacts because errors in the imaging models will be optimally balanced during the joint reconstruction; (3) Due to the exploitation of information regarding the SOS distribution in the full-view PACT data, our approach will permit high-resolution reconstruction of the SOS distribution from sparse array data.


High-Mg, high-Al metasedimentary gneisses from the Altai Mountains, Mongolia, belonging to a subduction-accretion complex within the Central Asian Orogenic Belt can be divided into five rock types on the basis of mineral assemblages. Most rock types have high MgO and Al2O3 content and low CaO, Na2O, Rb, and Sr content. All rock types experienced a similar medium-pressure metamorphism characterized by a "hairpin"-shaped counterclockwise pressure-temperature path. U-Pb zircon and U-Th-Pb monazite ages indicated metamorphism at ca. 356 Ma and 277 Ma and inherited ages of 510–379 Ma, suggesting possible provenance to granitoids comparable to those in the Altai Mountains, China. The zircons that newly nucleated at ca. 356 Ma are characterized by high concentrations of light rare earth elements without a Ce anomaly—features common in zircons from hydrothermally altered rocks and a reducing environment. Petrological and geochronological results in this study suggest the following tectonic evolution: (1) continuous subduction and accretion of paleo-Asian oceanic crust during the Early Paleozoic, resulting in periodic granitoid magmatism in the period 510–380 Ma and a continuous supply of granite-derived sediments providing detrital zircon and monazite grains to the accretionary prism; (2) ridge subduction during the Late Devonian–Early Carboniferous (ca. 356 Ma), resulting in hydrothermal metamorphism of the accretionary prism and interaction with seawater that produced rocks with unusual whole-rock chemistry; and (3) closure of the ocean leading to continental collision in the Early Permian (ca. 277 Ma), with part of the accretionary prism squeezed into lower crustal levels to form medium-pressure metamorphic rocks.


Purpose: To report the 6-month anatomical and visual outcomes after injecting two different doses of intravitreal bevacizumab in patients with macular edema secondary to branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO). Methods: An interventional, retrospective multicenter study of 45 eyes that were treated with at least one intravitreal injection (24 eyes, 1.25 mg; 21 eyes, 2.5 mg) of bevacizumab is reported. The main outcome measures were the central 1-mm macular thickness (CMT) and the change in ETDRS lines of best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) at 6 months. Results: Forty-five eyes were injected on average 26.1 months (range, 3–86 months) after the diagnosis. The average follow-up was 35.2 weeks (range, 24–52 weeks). All patients completed at least 6 months of follow-up. In the 1.25-mg dose group, at 1 month, there was an average gain of 4.5 lines of BCVA; at 3 months, 5.1 lines of BCVA; and at 6 months, 5.1 lines of BCVA (P < 0.005). In the 2.5-mg dose group, at 1 month, there was an average gain of 2.3 lines of BCVA; at 3 months, 3.8 lines of BCVA; and at 6 months, 4.8 lines of BCVA (P = 0.05). In the 1.25-mg dose group, the mean CMT ± SD decreased from 461 ± 211 &mgr;m at baseline to 321 ± 152 &mgr;m at 1 month, 273 ± 99 &mgr;m at 3 months, and 277 ± 114 &mgr;m at 6 months (P = 0.0002). In the 2.5-mg group, the mean CMT ± SD decreased from 385 ± 168 &mgr;m at baseline to 279 ± 111 &mgr;m at 1 month, 249 ± 97 &mgr;m at 3 months, and 240 ± 93 &mgr;m at 6 months (P = 0.011). Conclusion: There were no statistically significant differences between the two dose groups with regard to the number of injections and anatomical and functional outcomes. Intravitreal injection of bevacizumab at doses up to 2.5 mg appears to be effective in improving BCVA and reducing CMT in BRVO in the short term. Multiple injections are needed in a large number of eyes for continued control of macular edema and preservation of visual acuity in the short term. Longer studies are needed to determine what role if any intravitreal injection of bevacizumab may play in the long-term treatment of this condition.


One reason for unsatisfactory public service delivery in Indian cities is that city finances are in poor condition. Recent research shows that given the fragmented institutional arrangements for land in India's cities, there is a case for transferring revenues from land leasing and sales to cities. In this paper, the author determines whether such transfer of revenues to India's cities from the state governments is justified. The author uses stochastic frontier analysis to determine the efficiency of Indian cities, taking the case of roads. The author has found India's cities to be highly efficient in the provision of roads and there is only one percent inefficiency in the provision of roads by city governments. Hence transfer of finances to cities in a phased manner is recommended. Thus this paper shows a direct link between behavioral economics and concrete, practical applications at the organizational level.


An experimental investigation of the aerodynamic characteristics of a slender, square-based body of revolution was conducted at a Mach number of 3.12 for angles of attack from 0 degree to 10 degrees and for Reynolds numbers from 2 x 10(exp 6) to 15 x 10(exp 6). Boundary-layer measurements at zero angle of attack are compared with several compressible flow formulating for predicting boundary-layer characteristics. Comparison of experimental pressure and force values with theoretical values showed good agreement for low angles of attack. The measured mean skin-friction coefficients agreed well with those predicted by Mangler's transformation for laminar flow over cones.


We designed an experiment to explore the learning effectiveness of three different ways of practicing dance movements. To our surprise we found that partial modeling, called marking in the dance world, is a better method than practicing the complete phrase, called practicing full-out; and both marking and full-out are better methods than practicing by repeated mental simulation. We suggest that marking is a form of practicing a dance phrase aspect-by-aspect. Our results also suggest that prior work on learning by observation and learning by mental practice may not scale up to complex movements.


This paper explores the theoretically instantaneous stochastic inauguration and evolution of the cosmos and the parallel emergence of human consciousness from nothingness. The reality of the energetic substratum as the foundation of the physiostratum and the cosmos is evident. The emergence of sentient life and human consciousness seems to be the result of negentropy and an improbable interweaving of chance and choice.


When the barrier to acid back-diffusion is disrupted, there is a protective increase in gastric mucosal blood flow to help remove the back-diffusing acid. Only recently has the mechanism for calling forth this protective hyperemia been determined. The gastric mucosa and submucosa are innervated by many capsaicin-sensitive sensory nerve fibers containing vasodilator peptides. The gastric mucosal sensory neurons monitor for acid back-diffusion, and, when this process occurs, signal for a protective increase in blood flow via release of calcitonin gene-related peptide from the submucosal periarteriolar fibers. The endothelium-derived vasodilator, nitric oxide, plays an important role both in the maintenance of basal gastric mucosal blood flow and in the increase in blood flow that accompanies pentagastrin-stimulated gastric acid secretion. It also interacts with the capsaicin-sensitive sensory nerves in the modulation of the microcirculation to maintain mucosal integrity. Finally, it has been shown that neutrophils play an important role in various forms of mucosal injury. The leukocytes adhere to the vascular endothelium and contribute to injury by reducing blood flow via occlusion of microvessels, as well as by releasing mediators of tissue damage. ImagesFIG. 6


Fexofenadine, a histamine H1-receptor antagonist, is approved for the treatment of pruritus associated with atopic dermatitis. The effects of fexofenadine on scratching behaviour, and plasma levels of histamine and eotaxin were assessed in a new model of atopic dermatitis. Mice fed a diet low in Mg2+ and Zn2+ (special diet S) were compared with mice on a normal diet (N) or diet S plus fexofenadine HCl for weeks 0-10 (S + F0-10), 0-5 (S + F0-5) or 6-10 (S + F6-10) (seven mice per group). Compared with group N, group S mice showed significantly greater scratching frequency, and plasma histamine and eotaxin concentrations; these three variables were significantly lower in group S + F0-10 than in group S. Scratching frequency increased when fexofenadine was discontinued. Fexofenadine significantly reduced mast cell and eosinophil numbers. Histamine may be important in the pathological changes seen in this model of atopic dermatitis, suggesting that it might aid future development of antihistamines for the treatment of atopic dermatitis.


COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented disruption of normal social relationships and activities, which are so important during the teen years and young adulthood, and to education and economic activity worldwide. The impact of this on young people's mental health and future prospects may affect their need for support and services, and the speed of the nation's social recovery afterwards. This study focused on the unique challenges facing young people at different points during adolescent development, which spans from the onset of puberty until the mid-twenties. Although this is an immensely challenging time and there is a potential risk for long term trauma, adolescence can be a period of opportunity, where the teenagers' brain enjoys greater capacity for change. Hence, the focus on young people is key for designing age-specific interventions and public policies, which can offer new strategies for instilling resilience, emotional regulation, and self-control. In fact, adolescents might be assisted to not only cope, but excel, in spite of the challenges imposed by this pandemic. Our work will feed into the larger societal response that utilizes the discoveries about adolescence in the way we raise, teach, and treat young people during this time of crisis. Wave 1 data has already been collected from 2,002 young people aged 13-24, measuring their mental health (anxiety, depression, trauma), family functioning, social networks, and resilience, and social risk-taking at the time of the pandemic. Here we present a preliminary report of our findings, (Report 1). Data collected 21/4/20- 29/4/20 - a month after the lockdown started).


We propose the autoregressive HMM for speech synthesis. We show that the autoregressive HMM supports efficient EM parameter estimation and that we can use established effective synthesis techniques such as synthesis considering global variance with minimal modification. The autoregressive HMM uses the same model for parameter estimation and synthesis in a consistent way, in contrast to the standard HMM synthesis framework, and supports easy and efficient parameter estimation, in contrast to the trajectory HMM. We find that the autoregressive HMM gives performance comparable to the standard HMM synthesis framework on a Blizzard Challenge-style naturalness evaluation.


Mixed item formats are in extensive use in large-scale assessment today and widely accepted as a means to improve assessment validity. Many studies have investigated the differential effect of Item Format on gender and ethnic subgroups in mathematics, yet few of these studies have attended to their impact on students with limited language proficiency and linguistic abilities in the area of reading. As educational policy increasingly mandates the inclusion of minorities such as English Language Learners (ELL) and students diagnosed with Specific Learning Disability (SLD) in federal and state assessment, many question the validity of achievement test scores because the degree to which the test score is a function of language proficiency is not clearly understood (Mahoney, 2008). To fill that research void, this study investigated Item Format effect and its interaction with (a) group membership as an ELL and/or SLD student and (b) assessment format differences related to genre and reading content. The software program ConQuest (Wu et al., 2007) was used to conduct Item Response Modeling on the 2007 NAEP 4th grade reading achievement data. Analysis demonstrated an overall hierarchy of Item Format difficulty. Contrary to expectation, DIF analysis demonstrated that flagged CR items favored both ELL and SLD students, while flagged MC items generally favored the Non-SLD group. But, multidimensional regression analysis demonstrated that there is no interaction between Item Format and group membership because the effect was virtually equivalent across MC and CR formats for the reference and focal groups. In looking to the future of assessment design, more research is needed to fully understand how Item Format differences contribute to assessment difficulty, the limited application of various Item Formats, specifically how they are suited to particular content, and how to blend Item Formats in a manner that utilizes their unique benefits while also producing fair results (Hastedt & Sibberns, 2005).


Although there is a lack of research on instruction that aims at facilitating students' use of questioning with peers, many early childhood social studies textbooks and resources, include activities and lessons recommending students conduct interviews with an explicit assumption that young students are capable of formulating and using questions in the context of an interview. In these instances, no suggestions or ideas are given to teachers regarding instruction that will encourage and facilitate students' questioning. The purpose of this study was to determine if the levels of social studies interview questions second graders formulate and use can be increased with questioning instruction in terms of quality, which is defined as depth of response, and in terms of quantity. This study generated research hypotheses that could be investigated in future research on instruction aimed at increasing young children's questioning abilities as demonstrated in social studies.


The curve that describes the relationship between glomerular filtration rate (GFR) and cardiovascular risk is U-shaped, indicating that both reduced GFR (kidney failure) and elevated GFR (glomerular hyperfiltration) are equivalent cardiovascular risk factors. The elevated cardiovascular risk associated with abnormal GFR is not explained by standard cardiovascular risk factors. The relationship between GFR and all-cause mortality follows a similar pattern, so that altered GFR (either low or high) increases the risk for overall mortality. Glomerular hyperfiltration is an adaptive process that arises under conditions that demand improved kidney excretory capacity, such as animal protein ingestion and kidney failure. Unlike vegetable protein, animal protein consumption increases dietary acid load and requires an elevation of the GFR to restore acid-base balance. The loss of functioning nephrons in diseased kidneys requires a compensatory increase of the GFR in the nephrons that remain working to enhance whole-kidney GFR. A major factor that raises GFR is the pancreatic hormone glucagon. Glucagon infusion and endogenous glucagon release increase GFR in healthy subjects and patients with kidney failure. In addition to its kidney hemodynamic effect, glucagon causes insulin resistance. Like hyperglucagonemia, insulin resistance develops across the entire spectrum of abnormal GFR, from glomerular hyperfiltration to advanced kidney disease. Insulin resistance is associated with subclinical vascular injury in the general population and patients with diabetes and kidney failure, being a strong cardiovascular risk factor in these population groups. Animal protein consumption activates glucagon secretion and promotes insulin resistance, having a detrimental effect on cardiovascular disease and renal outcomes.


A wide group of natural compounds (flavonoids, stilbenes, neolignans and others) has been identified as Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor (PPAR) agonists, with a large variety of chemical structure and different activity versus the three PPAR subtypes. These receptors are transcription factors controlling metabolic pathways in the organism, involved in lipid and glucose metabolism, cell differentiation and energy homeostasis. Otherwise, very little is known about natural compounds able to inhibit PPARs. A number of studies demonstrate that PPARγ repression has a beneficial effect in reducing body weight and improving insulin sensitivity, suggesting a potential clinical role in obesity and type 2 diabetes. This review analyzes natural compounds able to repress PPAR activity and their potential use in metabolic disorders.


With ecosystems and populations in many regions threatened by rapid development, sustainability is a critical component for businesses in mature markets and emerging economies alike. The International Association of Jesuit Business Schools notes that global sustainability involves a broad set of interconnected issues ranging from environmental preservation to social justice to desirable production and consumption patterns. Jesuit business schools are uniquely positioned to address sustainability issues with their focus on teaching managerial content in tandem with corporate social responsibility. Further, the Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm of experience, reflection, and action would suggest that business students may benefit from reflective observation in support of learning about sustainability. In this paper, we examine the international study trip as an opportunity for students to learn about sustainability, with results suggesting that student understanding about the broad sustainability domain may be enhanced through the study abroad experience. We discuss how two classes of primarily American MBA students traveling to emerging markets (one class to Santiago, Chile and one class to Johannesburg, South Africa) were able to connect local business practices with economic and social as well as environmental sustainability issues, enhancing both student engagement and learning outcomes. Further, these students' sustainability experiences while in an unfamiliar environment provided the opportunity to apply the potentially transformative experience, reflection, and action components of the Ignatian Pedagogy Paradigm. Compared to similar graduate business students enrolled in regular classes, we argue that these students discerned deeper connections with the economic, social, and environmental issues of sustainability.


Atopic Dermatitis(AD)is recognized as one of the major worldwide health concerns.
Despite being first described in the nineteenth century by Besnier, management options continue to be limited and are primarily palliative. AD patients are susceptible to many infections, such as the Herpes simplex virus (HSV), resulting in a more serious clinical subgroup of patients with AD complicated by Eczema
Herpeticum
(ADEH).
Supplementation with vitamiD (VD)has shown positive effects on the clinical outcome of AD in previous randomized controlled trials and clinical studies which could be due, in part, to the up regulation the antimicrobial peptide LL‐37, which has known antimicrobial, immune-modulatory and wound healing effects.
Objective:

We sought to determine the level of VD deficiency in AD and ADEH patients in a pediatric dermatology clinic,to investigate whether there was a difference in baseline VD levels between AD and ADEH, to examine skin surface LL-37 levels in both and to establish whether VD supplementation
would result in clinical improvement.
Methods:
A practice evaluation study was performed at the Sheffield Children's Hospital. All AD patients were screened for VD deficiency. Those that were found deficient were assessed using SCORAD and POEM. Skin surface cells were collected from lesional and non-lesional sites using a novel non-invasive technique for LL-37 evaluation. In addition, serum IgE levels and serum calcium levels were also checked.
Supplementation was then commenced for two months after which clinical severity was reassessed and all levels were
rechecked.
Results:
Ninety children (mean age9) were screened for VD deficiency; 83% had low VD levels. VD levels were significantly lower in ADEH children than AD children (p <0.0001). Baseline SCORAD was also significantly higher in ADEH patients (p < 0.0001). Skin surface LL-37 levels were reduced in ADEH patients in comparison to AD patients (p =
0.46), and were significantly reduced in patients with severe AD (SCORAD>50) in comparison to patients with moderate (SCORAD 25-‐50) or mild AD (SCORAD <25; p=0.018). Two months of VD supplementation resulted in significant improvement of SCORAD (p <0.0001) and POEM (p < 0.0001) in both groups; LL-37 levels also increased significantly
(p = 0.0004).
Conclusions:
VD deficiency was found to be common
in AD children, and VD supplementation reduced ADEH and AD severity in children. Part of the explanation is through increased LL-37 production.


In recent years, an advanced motion control software for rapid development has been introduced by National Instruments, accompanied by innovative and improved FPGA-based hardware platforms. Compared to the well-known standard NI DAQ PCI/USB board solutions, this new approach offers robust stability in a deterministic real-time environment combined with the highest possible performance and re-configurability of the FPGA core. The NI Compact RIO (cRIO) Real Time Controller utilises two distinctive interface modes of functionality: Scan and FPGA modes. This paper presents an application of a motion control flexible workbench based on the FPGA module, and analyses the advantages and disadvantages in comparison to another approach - the LabVIEW NI SoftMotion module run in scan interface mode. The workbench replicates real industrial applications and is very useful for experimentation with Brushless DC/ Permanent Magnet Synchronous motors and drives, and feedback devices.


This work investigates life cycle costing analysis as a tool to estimate the cost of hydrogen to be used as fuel for Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles (HFCVs). The method of life cycle costing and economic data are considered to estimate the cost of hydrogen for centralised and decentralised production processes. In the current study, two major hydrogen production methods are considered, methane reforming and water electrolysis. The costing frameworks are defined for hydrogen production, transportation and final application. The results show that hydrogen production via centralised methane reforming is financially viable for future transport applications. The ownership cost of HFCVs shows the highest cost among other costs of life cycle analysis.


he article presents a measurement system designed for "on-line" high throughput simultaneous optical inspection of large set of geometrical parameters (more than 1000 points) defining geometry of some complex surface. The measurement system is based on the distributed network of optical distance sensors. Specialized optical sensor as basic system element was developed for this purpose. Among its features are the following: non-contact measurement, high optical and electromagnetic noise immunity, small footprint, and mass-production oriented. The system allows us to measure up to 1700 linear distance parameters simultaneously in the range of 40mm, with accuracy (3σ) of 0.1 mm and sampling rate of at least 103 Hz.


This article proposes a data mining framework to predict the significant
explanations of employee turn-over problems. Using Support vector machine, decision tree, deep learning, random forest, and other classification algorithms, the authors propose features prediction framework to determine the influencing factors of employee turn-over problem. The proposed framework categorizes a set of historical behavior
such as years at company, over time, performance rating, years since last promotion, and total working years. The proposed framework also classifies demographics features such as Age, Monthly Income, and Distance from Home, Marital Status, Education, and Gender. It also uses attitudinal employee characteristics to determine the reasons for employee turnover in the information technology sector. It has been found that the monthly rate, overtime, and employee age are the most significant factors which cause employee turnover.


INTRODUCTION: Antibiotic therapy and therapy is often used in error by the surgeon to prevent infection, causing losses to the patient and contributing to the selection of resistant bacteria antibiotics. This study evaluates whether there is need for antibiotic therapy in aesthetic plastic surgery. METHODS: This study included 488 patients who underwent plastic surgery between 2006 and 2009, divided into four groups: Group 1 - patient operated in 2006, 2007, outpatient, surgical time, up to 2 hours, receive prophylactic antibiotic therapy; Group 2 - patients operated on in 2008, 2009, outpatient, surgical time, up to 2 hours did not receive antibiotics; Group 3 - patients operated in 2006, 2007, regime hospital stay more than 3 hours, and received prophylactic antibiotic therapy; Group 4 - patients operated on in 2008, 2009, hospital system, duration more than 3 hours, received prophylactic antibiotics. RESULTS: In Groups 1 e 2, there was no infection, in Group 3 was one (0.39%) case of infection and in Group 4, another (0.42%) case. CONCLUSION: Prophylactic antibiotic therapy did not influence the occurrence of infection in surgery that lasted up to two hours. The use of antibiotic therapy did not affect the incidence of infection in surgery that lasted over three hours.


Our current understanding of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) comes predominantly from studies at frequencies of 5 GHz and below. With the recent completion of the Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) survey, we can now gain insight into the high-frequency radio properties of AGN. This paper presents supplementary information on the AT20G sources in the form of optical counterparts and redshifts. Optical counterparts were identified using the SuperCOSMOS data base and redshifts were found from either the 6dF Galaxy Survey or the literature. We also report 144 new redshifts. For AT20G sources outside the Galactic plane, 78.5 per cent have optical identifications and 30.9 per cent have redshift information. The optical identification rate also increases with increasing flux density. Targets which had optical spectra available were examined to obtain a spectral classification. There appear to be two distinct AT20G populations; the high luminosity quasars that are generally associated with point-source optical counterparts and exhibit strong emission lines in the optical spectrum, and the lower luminosity radio galaxies that are generally associated with passive galaxies in both the optical images and spectroscopic properties. It is suggested that these different populations can be associated with different accretion modes (cold-mode or hot-mode). We find that the cold-mode sources have a steeper spectral index and produce more luminous radio lobes, but generally reside in smaller host galaxies than their hot-mode counterparts. This can be attributed to the fact that they are accreting material more efficiently. Lastly, we compare the AT20G survey with the S-cubed semi-empirical (S3-SEX) models and conclude that the S3-SEX models need refining to correctly model the compact cores of AGN. The AT20G survey provides the ideal sample to do this.


The traditional approach to fuzzy design is based on knowledge acquired by expert operators formulated into rules. However, operators may not be able to translate their knowledge and experience into a fuzzy logic controller. In addition, most adaptive fuzzy controllers present difficulties in determining appropriate fuzzy rules and appropriate membership functions. This chapter presents adaptive neural-fuzzy controller equipped with compensatory fuzzy control in order to adjust membership functions, and as well to optimize the adaptive reasoning by using a compensatory learning algorithm. An analysis of stability and transparency based on a passivity framework is carried out. The resulting controllers are implemented on a two degree of freedom robotic system. The simulation results obtained show a fairly high accuracy in terms of position and velocity tracking, what highlights the effectiveness of the proposed controllers.


Increasing environmental pollution is causing a widespread negative impact. Therefore, a solution is needed to overcome the increasing environmental problems. One approach is to consider the question of justice for the environment itself. This approach is founded on the perceived relationship between the environment of activism and caring with distributive justice. Decision making processes with regards to environmental justice are frequently determined by the gender differences of the individual. Perceptions between women and men can be different in interpreting environmental conditions. Women can be more sensitive in protecting the environment, while men are more logical. This article will discuss gender-based environmental justice to consider whether there is 'correct' perspective. This study uses a qualitative approach, reviewing and synthesizing journals related to Environmental Justice and Gender. As the fifth goal of sustainable development (SDGs), gender equality can increase the successful implementation of the principles of environmental justice.


Organic certification costs represent an important competitive disadvantage for organic farming. A proportion of the higher costs of organic products may result from the costs of certification along the entire supply chain. A reduction of such transaction costs provides a basis for a general increase in organic farms competitiveness. In this paper we present a model based on Bayesian Networks (BN) for the support of certification bodies in the phase of inspection planning. BNs are probabilistic models with a graphical interface, representing a network of a set of interconnected random variables, and provide a basis for influence diagrams based on conditional probabilities computations. The model implements a BN approach using risk factors – such as crop rotation, farm size, etc. – that are expected to influence risk of infraction. The model analyses the joint effects of different factors on the farmers' probability of non-compliance. The study exploits a dataset based on data from Istituto Mediterraneo di Certificazione (IMC) for 2007. The main results concern the development of the network showing the main factors influencing the probability of non compliance, and a simulation run on different structural factors aiming to discriminate between farm types different risks of non compliance.


Two trials were conducted to investigate the effects of growth manipulation and early photostimulation on age at sexual maturity and, in one trial, subsequent laying performance, in broiler breeders. In the first trial, the possibility of reducing the age at sexual maturity, using early photostimulation and increasing the growth rate to achieve 2100 g at 15 weeks, was assessed. Sexual maturity was advanced by 15 d and the total number of eggs laid to 60 weeks, on a hen.week basis, was reduced significantly, by six. Mean egg weight was unaffected, but the number of unsettable eggs was increased by 2.6. Using 12 h rather than 16-h daylengths during the laying period resulted in a significant increase (7) in number of eggs laid. In the second trial, birds were transferred from 8 to 16-h daylengths at 10, 11, 12, 14, 16 or 18 weeks to determine the age at which they were able to dissipate photorefractoriness, and become photosensitive. Short-day controls were maintained on 8-h daylengths throughout. Birds were grown to achieve 2100 g at either 15 or 20 weeks. No interaction occurred between age at photostimulation and body weight. Because broiler breeders exhibit photorefractoriness, the earliest age at which the pullets responded to photostimulation was 14 weeks, so no advantage would be gained in terms of advancing sexual maturity by photostimulating earlier than this age. However, whilst some further advance in sexual maturity may be achieved by rearing the birds on a faster growth curve this would only be profitable through the advantages of being able to use one rearing unit to service three, instead of two, laying farms.


Background Concussion occurs when biomechanical forces transmitted to the head result in neurological deficits. Personality may affect the balance between safe and dangerous play potentially influencing concussion risk. Dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) and dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) genetic polymorphisms were previously associated with personality traits. Objectives This case–control genetic association study investigated the associations of (1) DRD2 and DRD4 genotypes with concussion susceptibility and personality, (2) personality with concussion susceptibility and (3) the statistical model of genotype, personality and concussion susceptibility. Methods In total, 138 non-concussed controls and 163 previously concussed cases were recruited from high school (n=135, junior), club and professional rugby teams (n=166, senior). Participants were genotyped for DRD2 rs12364283 (A>G), DRD2 rs1076560 (C>A) and DRD4 rs1800955 (T>C) genetic variants. Statistical analyses including structural equation modelling were performed using the R environment and STATA. Results The rs1800955 CC genotype (p=0.014) and inferred DRD2 (rs12364283–rs1076560)–DRD4 (rs1800955) A–C–C allele combination (p=0.019) were associated with decreased concussion susceptibility in juniors. The rs1800955 TT and CT genotypes were associated with low reward dependence in juniors (p<0.001) and seniors (p=0.010), respectively. High harm avoidance was associated with decreased concussion susceptibility in juniors (p=0.009) and increased susceptibility in seniors (p=0.001). The model showed that a genetic variant was associated with personality while personality was associated with concussion susceptibility. Conclusion These findings highlight the linear relationship between genetics, personality and concussion susceptibility. Identifying a genetic profile of 'high risk' behaviour, together with the development of personalised behavioural training, can potentially reduce concussion risk.


In a previous study, ticlopidine decreased the parasitemy and mortality of mice infected by Trypanosoma cruzi. Therefore, this drug was administered to 12 patients with Chagas' disease, in the chronic phase. For 90 days, 150, 200 or 250mg were utilized according to whether the recipients were children, adolescents or adults, respectively. A fully unsuccessful outcome was documented, both sorologically as well as parasitologically.


The proposed formula derived considering the physical phenomena which occur during truck operation makes it possible to calculate fuel cost during the operation more accurately. The results of comparison of calculations by the proposed formula with test results tractors parties "TransEuroTest" are presented. The results of the calculation with the help of new formula differ from the experimentally obtained values of the fuel consumption of vehicles for not more than 1%. The average fuel consumption of tractors at an average speed is shown. The proposed formula for calculating the cost makes it easy to compare the fuel consumption of different vehicle options. The formula can also be used when evaluating the effect of vehicle weight on fuel consumption, which is impossible according to the well-known formulas.


Background Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) is an autoimmune disorder characterised by low platelet count and may be responsible for episodes of mucocutaneous bleeding of varying severity. Purpose The study evaluates the effectiveness and safety of rituximab in patients who have not responded to first-line treatment. Materials and Methods We performed a retrospective observational study, between 2009–2011, in adult patients who had not responded to first-line treatment (high-dose corticosteroids or non-specific IV immunoglobulins), or who were intolerant to such alternatives. Both splenectomised and non-splenectomised patients were included. The dose employed was 375 mg/m2 q7d for four weeks. We considered it a partial response if the platelet count exceeded 50 × 109 cells/L, and a complete response if the count was greater than 100 × 109 cells/L. Previous duration of thrombocytopenia, platelet counts before treatment and after 4 weeks, percentage of patients having a satisfactory response, median time to response, duration, occurrence of petechiae and mucocutaneous bleeding and tolerability of the infusion were examined. Results We recruited 22 patients, 12 men and 10 women. The mean age of the sample was 55.6 years (range: 19–88) and a previous mean duration of ITP of 7.5 years (range 0.35 to 41). The mean platelet count before treatment was 32.8 × 109 cells/L (range: 6–70), and increased to 120x109 cells/L (range: 23–591) after completion within four weeks. 10 patients (45.5%) experienced a complete response and in 8 patients (36.3%) the response was partial, while 4 (18.2%) patients experienced no response. The mean time to get some response was 2.3 weeks (range 1–4 weeks), and it continued a median of 10.5 months (range: 1–25). Among patients who had some response, in 2 cases petechiae and bleeding were detected again, while in 3 the platelet count fell below 50x109 cells/L. The other 13 patients who responded continue today with a platelet count within the target range and without clinical symptoms. The infusion was well tolerated in all cases. Conclusions Rituximab seems an effective and well-tolerated alternative in patients with refractory ITP who require chronic treatment. This study and literature show that more than 50% of patients respond to treatment, and it may be an alter native to splenectomy. However, further prospective studies are required to define the optimal position of rituximab in the treatment of ITP. No conflict of interest.


56 Chinese rice core germplasm resources, 18 foreign rice germplasm resources and 6 restorer lines are subjected to high temperature stress during flowering period. Based on relative spikelet fertility rate, rice heat resistance is evaluated. The results show that different resistance to high temperature exists in different varieties, and 6 new rice varieties present high heat resistance.


The composition and in vitro digestibility of the leaf and stem tissues of guinea grass (Panicum maximum Jacq.) were analysed at several stages of regrowth in two controlled environments differing in irradiance. The high irradiance environment was a growth room with a 25/15 °C day/night temperature, a 16 h day length and an irradiance of 300 ?E m-2 s-1. The low irradiance environment was a growth cabinet with similar conditions but with an irradiance of 175 ?E m-2 s-1. Plants grown under low irradiance yielded slightly more dry matter than plants under high irradiance after 70 days of regrowth. This was associated with morphological changes induced by low irradiance; these plants were taller and had larger and wider leaves than those plants grown in the high irradiance environment. Leaf senescence occurred earlier under low irradiance conditions but the number of fully expanded leaves per tiller as well as days from leaf emergence to full leaf expansion were similar for both environments. Nitrogen uptake into the shoot tissues was stimulated in the low irradiance environment. In vitro digestibility (IVD) of leaves and stems declined with age as lignin content increased in both environments. Cellulose, protein, total available carbohydrate (TAC) and alcohol-soluble carbohydrate (ASC) contents were not consistently related to IVD across ages in the two environments. Plants in the low irradiance environment had significantly higher lignin and cellulose, but lower IVD, TAC and ASC.


Exploring the possibilities of feminist postmodernist criticism from political sciences perspectives in the late 1980s, Jane Flax argued that Feminist theorists are faced with a fourfold task. We need to (1) articulate feminist viewpoints of/within the social worlds in which we live; (2) think about how we are affected by these worlds; (3) consider the ways in which how we think about them may be implicated in existing power/knowledge relationships; and (4) imagine ways in which these worlds ought to and can be transformed. (55) This formulation of the task of feminist criticism provides a framework for assessing the transformational possibilities suggested in two short stories by the Scottish writer A. L. Kennedy: "Indelible Acts" from the collection with the same title, and "Rockaway and the Draw" from the collection Original Bliss. (1) The ways in which these stories address the reciprocal influence of social and personal realities invite a feminist analysis. As Sarah Dunnigan notes in a critical appraisal of Kennedy's longer fiction, however, this writer refuses "to be pinned down to any literary 'philosophy' or credo of gender" (144). This does not preclude critical engagement with Kennedy's writing from feminist perspectives. As Alison Lumsden points out, the themes of Kennedy's first short stories collection, Night Geometry and the Garscadden Trains, announced the writer's lasting interests in "both physical and emotional parameters and the spaces available to women within patriarchal 'geographies'" (157). Kennedy's work after Night Geometry evinces a constant interest in the psychosocial construction of women's identities. This interest informs both "Rockaway and the Draw" and "Indelible Acts" in their focus on constructions of women's bodies as objects for satisfying masculine desires and on the resulting constructions of women's identities in disempowering configurations. In her 1997 review of Original Bliss, Amanda Craig compares the status of A. L. Kennedy and Jeanette Winterson as contemporary women writers: Jeanette Winterson and A. L. Kennedy are two of the leading writers of the new generation. Both are female and have won many prizes. One has gone from wild popularity as an outspoken lesbian to a chorus of (largely male) disapprobation; the other received the accolade of being a 1996 Booker judge, and benefits from the current exaltation of Scottish writing. A. L. Kennedy has been compared to Winterson, and both, as it happens, have written about passion and physics in their present books. (47) Taking cue from Craig's review, one may argue that the narrative treatment of the relation between passion and physics in these writers' work offers a resolution to the conflict between sense and sensibility, inherited from the masculine literary canon. Rather than being preoccupied with asserting sense over sensibility, or sensibility over sense, Kennedy, like Winterson, focuses on feeling and sense-making as interdependent experiences. Thus, on the one hand, Kennedy's stories are concerned with the passion that drives one's fantasies of the self, posing the question: what sense is made in the fantasies that constitute the realm of sensibility or feeling? On the other hand, the stories are concerned with the physics of passion: how do these fantasies engender that which is sensed, sensibly or rationally, as the realness of reality? The narrative treatment of these questions in the two stories analyzed here leads to an engagement with social myths conveyed in discourses derived from patriarchal traditions. These discourses define the realm of signification as a masculine domain and stake claims on women's personal, physiological, and social spaces. In engaging with these discourses, Kennedy's women narrators explore the ways in which masculine authority is disseminated and find possibilities of re-creating the ethos of the myths that draw on, and in turn legitimate, this authority. …


This research is a study on the molecular level of Echinococcus granulosus (larval stage) on, where 7 samples of hydatid cysts were collected from parasite intermediate hosts: Human (liver, spleen, lung) and liver of sheep, goat, cattle and buffaloes. DNA was extracted from germinal layer cells of hydatid cysts which were isolated shortly or preserved for various periods in 70% ethanol. Genetic analysis of isolated DNA from hydatid cysts collected from human and animals was done by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to determine genetic variation depending on random amplified polymorphic DNA. In the present study, 10 primers were used during which the genetic variations were revealed among isolated (extracted DNA) hydatid cysts which was collected from human and other intermediate hoists except cows and buffaloes. The results of this study showed the following: 1. One primer (OPA – 01) was able to diagnose sample 1 which represent the isolated DNA of liver hydatid cyst obtained from human at age group 10 – 20 years old: 2. The ability of primer OPC – 10 to determine fingerprinting of DNA sample of sheep liver hydatid cyst. 3. The ability of primer OPC – 05 to determine fingerprinting of DNA sample of human spleen hydatid cyst which was obtained from human at age group 30 – 40 years old. 4. The ability of primer OPE – 07 to determine fingerprinting of DNA sample of Goat liver hydatid cyst; 5. Amplification process to the DNA samples extracted from cows and buffaloes liver hydatid cysts was not completed by using all 10 primers.

 Key words: Hydatidosis, Echinococcus granulosus, polymerase chain reaction (PCR).


Land cover change is a critical driver for enhancing the soil erosion risk in Nepal. Loss of the topsoil has a direct and indirect effect on human life and livelihoods. The present study provides an assessment of the decadal land use and land cover (LULC) change and consequent changes in the distribution of soil erosion risk for the years, 1990, 2000, and 2010, for the entire country of Nepal. The study attempted to understand how different land cover types change over the three decades and how it has changed the distribution of soil erosion risks in Nepal that would help in the development of soil conservation priority. The land cover maps were produced using geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) using Landsat images. Soil erosion patterns were assessed using the revised universal soil loss equation (RUSLE) with the land cover as the input. The study shows that the forest cover is the most dominant land cover in Nepal that comprises about 6,200,000 ha forest cover. The estimated annual erosion was 129.30 million tons in 1990 and 110.53 million tons in 2010. The assessment of soil erosion dynamics was presented at the national, provincial, and district level. District wise analysis revealed that Gulmi, Parbat, Syangja, and the Tanahu district require priority for soil conservation.


Various composite materials have been developed, but in many cases problems arise due to the combined materials such as fabrication becoming difficult because of the significant increase in viscosity, and transparency of the polymer is sacrificed. These issues can be overcome by controlling the nanointerface; however, this is considered as a difficult task since nanoparticles (NPs) easily aggregate in polymer matrices because of their high surface energy. Organic functionalization of inorganic NPs is required to increase affinity between NPs and polymers. For fabricating multi-functional materials, we proposed a new method to synthesize organic modified NPs by using supercritical water. Because organic molecules and metal salt aqueous solutions are miscible in supercritical water and water molecules serve as acid/base catalysts for the reactions, hybrid organic/inorganic NPs can be synthesized under the supercritical condition. The hybrid NPs show high affinity for the organic solvent and the polymer matrix, which leads to the fabrication of these super hybrid NPs. How to release the heat from the devices is the bottle neck of developing the future power devices, and thus nanohybrid materials of polymer and ceramics are required to achieve both high thermal conductivity and easy thin film flexible fabrication, namely trade-off functions. Surface modification of the BN particles via supercritical hydrothermal synthesis improves the affinity between BN and the polymers. This increases the BN loading ratio in the polymers, thus resulting in high thermal conductivity. Transparent dispersion of high refractive index NPs, such as TiO2 and ZrO2, in the polymers is required to fabricate optical materials. By adjusting the affinity between NPs and the polymers, we could fabricate super hybrid nanomaterials, which have flexiblility and high refractive index and transparency.


An ion chromatographic method is described for the determination of nicotine and cotinine in aqueous solutions. This method is based on a type of reversed-phase chromatography involving ion pair formation of protonated nicotine, cotinine, pyridine, and pyridine derivatives. Detection is accomplished by measuring the UV absorption at 262 nm. Detection limits for nicotine and cotinine are 8 ng/mL and 2 ng/mL, respectively. Analyses of environmental samples and spiked environmental samples by both this ion chromatographic method and a previously reported gas chromatographic method have been used to demonstrate the accuracy and precision of this technique. The results of the analyses of both sets of samples by the two methods are in excellent agreement with a linear correlation coefficient of 0.97.


Labelling strategies in metabarcoding studies & how to ensure that nucleotide tags stay in place

 Metabarcoding of environmental DNA (eDNA) and DNA extracted from bulk specimen samples is a powerful tool in studies of ecological interactions, diet and biodiversity, as its labelling of amplicons allows high-throughput sequencing of taxonomically informative DNA sequences from many samples in parallel. The backbone of metabarcoding is the addition of sample-specific nucleotide identifiers to amplicons and then following sequencing using these to assign metabarcoding sequences to the samples they originated from. This allows the pooling of hundreds to thousands of samples before sequencing and thereby full utilisation of the capacity of high-throughput sequencing platforms. The nucleotide identifiers can be added both during the metabarcoding PCR and during library preparation, i.e. when amplicons are prepared for sequencing. There are three main strategies with which to achieve nucleotide labelling in metabarcoding studies. One commonly used strategy is the so-called tagged PCR approach in which DNA extracts are individually amplified with metabarcoding primers that carry sample-specific nucleotide tags at the 5' end. The uniquely tagged products are then pooled and a library prepared on the pool of amplicons. However, tag‐jumps have been documented in this commonly used metabarcoding approach (Schnell et al. 2015).
 Tag-jumps cause nucleotide tags to switch between amplicons, resulting in occurrence of amplicons that carry different tags than originally applied. Sequences in the sequencing output that carry tag combinations not used in the study design are easily identified and excluded. However, sequences carrying incorrect, but already used, tag combinations will cause incorrect assignments of sequences to samples. This can - much to the detriment of metabarcoding studies - lead to false positives and artificial inflation of diversity in the samples (Schnell et al. 2015). The occurrence of tag-jumps has led to recommendations to only carry out metabarcoding PCR amplifications with primers carrying twin-tags to ensure that tag‐jumps cannot result in false assignments of sequences to samples (Schnell et al. 2015). However, this increases both cost and workload of metabarcoding studies.
 In a recently published article, we demonstrate a tag-jump free single-tube library preparation protocol for Illumina sequencing specifically designed for 5' nucleotide tagged amplicons, the Tagsteady protocol (Carøe & Bohmann 2020). We designed the Tagsteady protocol to circumvent the two steps during library preparation of pools of 5ʹ nucleotide-tagged amplicons that had previously been suggested to cause tag-jumps; i) T4 DNA polymerase blunt-ending in the end-repair step, and ii) post-ligation PCR amplification of amplicon libraries. We used pools of twin‐tagged amplicons to investigate the effect of these two steps on the occurrence of tag‐jumps. Doing this, we demonstrated that blunt‐ending and post-ligation PCR, alone or together, can result in high proportions of tag-jumps, in our study up to ca. 49% of total sequences. The Tagsteady protocol where both these steps were left out resulted in tag‐jump levels comparable to background contamination (Carøe & Bohmann 2020).
 In our study, we encourage practitioners to avoid using T4 DNA polymerase blunt‐ending and post-ligation PCR in library preparation of 5' nucleotide tagged amplicon pools, for example by using the Tagsteady protocol (Carøe & Bohmann 2020). This will enable efficient and cost-effective generation of metabarcoding data with correct assignment of sequences to samples.

 References

 Carøe C, Bohmann K (2020) Tagsteady: A metabarcoding library preparation protocol to avoid false assignment of sequences to samples. Molecular Ecology Resources, 20, 1620–1631.

 Schnell IB, Bohmann K, Gilbert MTP (2015) Tag jumps illuminated - reducing sequence-to-sample misidentifications in metabarcoding studies. Molecular Ecology Resources, 15, 1289–1303.


SiC is a perfect reinforced material, characteristic of high hardness, high wear- and corrosion-resistant property, and low cost. SiC-reinforced iron-matrix composites show high wear resistance, high hardness, high inflexibility and high strength, with wide applications as superior wear-resistant and high temperature materials. This paper reported a heterogeneous precipitation method to coat SiC with copper particles. The vacuum hot-pressing method was used to sinter the Fe/SiC composites with Cu-coated SiC powders. The techniques of XRD and SEM were used to characterize the compositions and microstructures of the samples. The Archimedes method was used to test the density. The results showed that SiC and Cu were homogeneously mixed in the composite powders obtained by the heterogeneous deposition method, and that the composites with 5wt% of SiC (Cu) obtained at 950°C have a high relative density of 96%, a high hardness of 4121 MPa and a high bending strength of 646 MPa. The enhanced properties of Fe/SiC composites could result from the improved interfacial consistency by using Cu-coated SiC powders, which could inhibit some adverse interfacial reactions.


The author summarizes important occupational hazards of police and corrections work. Included in this chapter are morbidity and mortality data of police officers that describes increased risks of suicide, homicide, and ischemic heart disease. Information on tuberculosis exposure in correctional workers and of bloodborne pathogen exposure in police and corrections work is presented. The discussion concludes with strategies for the prevention of illness and injury among police officers and corrections workers based on these data.


In October 2013, our sister Journal Translational Lung Cancer Research is going to launch a special issue on Management of Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. This special issue is guest-edited by Dr. Heather Wakelee, from Stanford Cancer Institute, Stanford University, USA. The scope of the special issue will be to provide cutting-edge literature on related fields and a platform for key experts to present their latest research results.


Alphaviruses are alternately transmitted between arthropod and vertebrate hosts. In each host, the virus transcribes a subgenomic mRNA that encodes the viral structural proteins which encapsidate the genome to form progeny virions. Transcription initiates at an internal site called the promoter. To determine if promoter utilization varies in mammalian versus mosquito cells, we used these cells as hosts to select for active promoters among a library of different mutant promoters. Compared with that in BHK-21 cells, selection was more rapid in mosquito (C7-10) cells, with much less diversity of promoters remaining after fewer passages. Thus, promoter selection is host dependent. With further passaging, both BHK-21 and C7-10 cells selected for similar sequences that closely resemble the wild-type promoter sequence. The difference in the rates of selection is not because BHK-21-derived promoters cannot function in mosquito cells. Instead, part of the host dependence is probably due to posttranscriptional differences between BHK-21 and C7-10 cells that may require more active promoters in mosquito cells. Part of the host dependence may also be attributed to the decreased rate of transcription versus that of replication in mosquito cells. This change in regulation of subgenomic to genomic RNA synthesis appears to correlate with the extent of cleavage or pausing of the genomic RNA synthesis at or close to the promoter.


One of the major potential challenges before the nascent non-interest (Islamic) banking product in Nigeria is the absence of adequate and viable Shariah-compliant instruments of liquidity management. The availability of the instrument is a sine qua non in the banking system. Conversely, Malaysia being the global hub of the Islamic banking and finance has successfully developed viable instruments for the management of Islamic liquidity. The Malaysian instruments are comparably in juxtaposition with that of the conventional system in terms of sophistication and development. The article advocates for the adoption and adaptation of the Malaysian model of Islamic liquidity management instruments into the Nigerian banking system as a panacea. The research is a qualitative comparative legal study. It aims at proposing solution to the lingering problem of non-interest liquidity management in the Nigeria nascent non-interest banking product.


Monitoring the nitrate concentration in the field is an excellent ability for a water-monitoring study. We report an interdigital FR4-based capacitive sensor, which is characterized for nitrate concentration. The concentration range of nitrate is 0–40 ppm (mg/L). Different unknown samples were measured and validated with standard UV-Spectrometry. A smart sensing node has been developed which can collect water from a lake, stream, or river, measure the instantaneous nitrate concentration, and transfer the data through the gateway to a user-defined cloud server. The system is completely autonomous and solar powered, robust, and trialed in the field successfully. A simple moving-average algorithm is used to smooth the collected data in the cloud side. The LoRa protocol and WiFi protocol are compared in terms of power consumption. The proposed system is trialed in the field continuously and the result validated with standard UV-Spectrometry. The developed smart system can be easily deployable and friendly to use, and offers new possibilities for both spatial and temporal analysis for nitrate concentration.


As children learn their mother tongues, they make systematic errors. For example, English-speaking children regularly say mouses rather than mice. Because children's errors are not explicitly corrected, it has been argued that children could never learn to make the transition to adult language based on the evidence available to them, and thus that learning even simple aspects of grammar is logically impossible without recourse to innate, language-specific constraints. Here, we examine the role children's expectations play in language learning and present a model of plural noun learning that generates a surprising prediction: at a given point in learning, exposure to regular plurals (e.g. rats) can decrease children's tendency to overregularize irregular plurals (e.g. mouses). Intriguingly, the model predicts that the same exposure should have the opposite effect earlier in learning. Consistent with this, we show that testing memory for items with regular plural labels contributes to a decrease in irregular plural overregularization in six-year-olds, but to an increase in four-year-olds. Our model and results suggest that children's overregularization errors both arise and resolve themselves as a consequence of the distribution of error in the linguistic environment, and that far from presenting a logical puzzle for learning, they are inevitable consequences of it.


Background: Wilms tumor (WT) is an embryonic malignant tumor, and its related mechanism is still unclear. microRNA (miR), as a short-chain non-coding RNA, has low expression in various tumors. In this study, WT differential miR was screened by multi-chip in GEO database and its mechanism was explored to provide potential therapeutic targets and ideas for clinic. Methods: We logged into GEO database and downloaded GSE57370 and GSE48137 chip matrix fi les to analyze potential differences in miR. TargetScan, miRDB, miRTarBase and starBase were applied to predict the target genes of miR with signi fi cant differences. qRT-PCR was applied to determine the expression of miR-30d and Sox4 in WT tissue and cell line (G401). The interaction of miR-30d with Sox4 was con fi rmed by qRT-PCR, Western blot and luciferase assay, respectively. CCK-8, Transwell and fl ow cytometry were applied to determine the proliferation, invasion, migration and apoptosis of cells. Results: We found that miR-30d was low expressed in two chips. qRT-PCR showed that miR-30d was down-regulated and SOX4 was up-regulated in WT tissues and cells. The online target gene prediction software showed there was a targeted binding site between Sox4 and miR-30d. Sox4 was negatively controlled by miR-30d. Subsequent studies found that over-expression of miR-30d inhibited the proliferation, invasion, migration and induced apoptosis of C64 and WiT49 cells. In addition, Sox4 could reverse the proliferation, invasion and migration of C64 and WiT49 induced by miR-30d and induce apoptosis. Conclusion: miR-30d is poorly expressed in WT and can induce apoptosis and inhibit proliferation, invasion and migration by mediating Sox4.


Transformation of follicular lymphoma (FL) into high-grade B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma, usually diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), occurs in 25–35% of patients.1 This transformation has been shown to occur as a result of gain of MYC (8q24) rearrangement in addition to the t(14;18)(q32;q21), leading to a 'double-hit' lymphoma.2–10 Indeed, 5% of all FL with a BCL2 breakpoint will acquire a MYC rearrangement during the course of the disease.2 Double-hit lymphomas with MYC and BCL2 rearrangements have overexpression of BCL2 (a potent anti-apoptotic protein) and MYC (an enhancer of cell proliferation), leading to rapid cell accumulation.2 ,8 ,10 The MYC rearrangement in double-hit lymphoma has an IG light chain or a non- IG partner gene more commonly than in classical Burkitt lymphoma (BL) (49% vs 18%).2 ,11 Double-hit lymphomas comprise a substantial proportion of cases in the 'B cell lymphoma, unclassifiable, with features intermediate between DLBCL and BL' category described in the 2008 revision of the WHO classification of lymphomas.1

Several studies have been based on the hypothesis that the t(14;18)(q32;q21), resulting in IGH–BCL2 rearrangement, occurs as the primary event in double-hit lymphomas and that these lymphomas remain subclinical or low grade until acquisition of MYC rearrangement. At that point, the neoplasm transforms to a high-grade lymphoma with associated clinical presentation.2 ,5 ,10 ,11 High-grade lymphoma co-existing with low-grade FL within a single tumour has been reported previously,6 ,7 but cytogenetic evidence of concurrent low- and high-grade components has been demonstrated only in rare cases.12 ,13

We report a case of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) containing low grade and two immunophenotypically and genetically distinct high-grade elements within the same lymph node. The pattern of genetic abnormalities detected in …


Finding a meaningful way of characterizing the difficulty of partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDPs) is a core theoretical problem in POMDP research. State-space size is often used as a proxy for POMDP difficulty, but it is a weak metric at best. Existing work has shown that the covering number for the reachable belief space, which is a set of belief points that are reachable from the initial belief point, has interesting links with the complexity of POMDP planning, theoretically. In this paper, we present empirical evidence that the covering number for the reachable belief space (or just ``covering number", for brevity) is a far better complexity measure than the state-space size for both planning and learning POMDPs on several small-scale benchmark problems. We connect the covering number to the complexity of learning POMDPs by proposing a provably convergent learning algorithm for POMDPs without reset given knowledge of the covering number.


In this case, you will examine imprecisely stated management problems and decide what data are needed from disparate legacy systems to solve these problems. The general management issues at Beta Auto Dealers, the car dealership in this case, include sales, marketing, and customer visit information. Since data are stored in multiple information systems built upon outdated flat file architecture, management questions cannot be easily answered. This case encourages you to demonstrate your skills in both information system design and use. Given data extracted from the "legacy systems" in Microsoft® Excel worksheets, you will create business process maps, use your accounting and business knowledge to determine querying objectives for Beta's management, design a conceptual data model, create a Microsoft® Access database, and import data. Finally, using your database query skills, you will build relevant queries and interpret their results in order to improve management's decision making.


The German Jesuit Karl Rahner (1904-1984) has characterised himself frequently as a «Thomist». Starting from this characterization of himself this article analyzes, according to the doctrine of grace, the proximity of Rahner to Thomism more accurately. This analysis shows that Rahner's doctrine of Grace has its origin in the molinistic tradition. It was his tentative to bring this tradition - with the help of the philosophy of Marechal - in accordance with Thomistic elements. At decisive points («supernatural existential», «anonymous christian», doctrine of predestination) Rahner's doctrine of grace contradicts the charitologic leitmotifs of Thomism of the strict observance. It thus runs the risk of promoting pelagianism on one hand and a doctrine of apocatastasis on the other. He who wishes to follow a balanced orthodox approach together with the catholic church should prefer St. Thomas to Rahner.