Epigenetic gene silencing occurs in many important biological processes including differentiation, senescence and imprinting. In most cases, epigenetic silencing is orchestrated by an intricate interplay between DNA methylation, histone modifications and nucleosome remodeling that act in concert to provide transcriptional repression. Epigenetic gene silencing is deregulated in cancer, often leading to inactivation of genes that control key regulatory pathways in the cancer cell, which include many tumor suppressor genes (TSGs). The enzymes involved in epigenetic silencing of TSGs are often deregulated in cancer. In support of this notion, the recent cancer genome analyzes have identified an impressive and still increasing number of epigenetic enzymes to be subject to mutations in many types of cancer. Epigenetic modifications are reversible, making the enzymes responsible for establishing these modifications promising targets for therapeutic intervention

 This notion together with the recognition that epigenetic enzymes are frequently deregulated in cancer has fueled the development of inhibitors of epigenetic enzymes. The usefulness of epigenetic therapy in cancer treatment has been clearly validated by the therapeutic successes of DNA methyl transferase inhibitors (DNMTi) and histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi) in some hematological malignancies.

The combination of DNMTi and HDACi in cancer therapy is being tested in clinical trials, given the ability of these agents to more effectively reactivate silenced TSGs. Moreover, this combination therapy may also compensate for lack of potency and prevent dose-related drug toxicities that can occur with these agents as monotherapy. Indeed, the combination of DNMTi and HDACi appears to induce more robust clinical responses in several early phase clinical trials. One potential complication in the use of the current generation of HDACi and DNMTi in cancer therapy is their limited target selectivity and off-target effects. Consequently, current HDACi and DNMTi induce global effects on gene expressionthat control many cellular pathways that can be either supporting or inhibiting tumor growth, which might explain the heterogeneous clinical responses of tumors to these agents . As such, effective epigenetic therapy with these agents may benefit from identifying the relevant drug targets within these larger enzyme families to allow the development of more selective inhibitors. Another approach would be to develop novel agents that can selectively restore expression of epigenetically silenced TSGs while avoiding global gene activation and off-target effects. However, for most of these epimutated TSGs we have not identified the enzymes involved and consequently do not know the relevant drug targets.

The findings of this thesis address many of the issues described above and may therefore have important implications for epigenetic therapy in treatment of cancer. We discover epigenetic regulators of key biological processes including DNA repair, cell cycle, senescence and tissue remodeling that are frequently deregulated in cancer. We elucidate the molecular mechanism for the synergy between HDACi and DNMTi in reactivation of silenced TSGs and identify the relevant targets of currently used HDACi in TSG reactivation. Moreover, we identify the nucleosome remodeler CHD4 as a novel and potentially drug-able target in cancer therapy. Finally, we describe a pharmacokinetic factor that may determine responsiveness to epigenetic therapy with the currently used DNMTi decitabine in breast cancer.


Modern High German final obstruent devoicing is usually thought to descend from Middle German devoicing without any chronological break, despite the fact that the graphic representation of final devoicing ceased in the Early Modern period. However, an alternative account holds that the spelling change reflects the actual loss of the devoicing rule, and that therefore the modern rule has an independent origin. In particular, apocope of final schwa has been suggested as the cause of the loss of devoicing in Early Modern German. According to this theory, loss of devoicing occurred because schwa apocope rendered the devoicing rule opaque, and hence hard to learn. If true, we expect to see some evidence for opaque devoicing during the period that apocope was in progress. In accordance with this prediction, we found a statistically significant correlation between apocope and absence of final devoicing in a number of German texts of the 14th and 15th centuries. After the 15th century, devoicing is lost across the board, which correlates with the completion of schwa apocope and the loss of the opaque devoicing rule. This confirms our theoretical predictions. If apocope had not rendered devoicing opaque, we would have to conclude that Early Modern German schwa apocope was an instance of rule insertion. However, the structural description of neither apocope nor devoicing leads us to expect insertion. Instead, Modern German final devoicing appears to be an instance of rule re-affirmation, which entails that the devoicing rule, though opaque, remained productive in some dialects. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Linguistics First Advisor Donald Ringe


Forests provide critical habitat for many species, essential ecosystem services, and are coupled to atmospheric dynamics through exchanges of energy, water and gases. One of the most important changes produced in the biosphere is the replacement of forest areas with human dominated landscapes. This usually leads to fragmentation, altering the sizes of patches, the structure and function of the forest. Here we studied the distribution and dynamics of forest patch sizes at a global level, examining signals of a critical transition from an unfragmented to a fragmented state. We used MODIS vegetation continuous field to estimate the forest patches at a global level and defined wide regions of connected forest across continents and big islands. We search for critical phase transitions, where the system state of the forest changes suddenly at a critical point in time; this implies an abrupt change in connectivity that causes an increased fragmentation level. We studied the distribution of forest patch sizes and the dynamics of the largest patch over the last fourteen years, as the conditions that indicate that a region is near a critical fragmentation threshold are related to patch size distribution and temporal fluctuations of the largest patch. We found some evidence that allows us to analyze fragmentation as a critical transition: most regions followed a power-law distribution over the 14 years. We also found that the Philippines region probably went through a critical transition from a fragmented to an unfragmented state. Only the tropical forest of Africa and South America met the criteria to be near a critical fragmentation threshold. This implies that human pressures and climate forcings might trigger undesired effects of fragmentation, such as species loss and degradation of ecosystems services, in these regions. The simple criteria proposed here could be used as an early warning to estimate the distance to a fragmentation threshold in forest around the globe and a predictor of a planetary tipping point.


The software for a new industrial quality control instrument requiring real-time control systems has been developed using a hybrid methodology based round integration of different methods. The paper describes the methodology which draws together design theories and techniques from object oriented analysis and design (OOAD), from the PARSE methodology, and from the client-server behaviour modelling. This approach has been applied to the design of the new system which has been implemented and successfully installed on a number of customer sites.


The peptide INFLORESCENCE DEFICIENT IN ABSCISSION (IDA), which signals through the leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinases HAESA (HAE) and HAESA-LIKE2 (HSL2), controls different cell separation events in Arabidopsis thaliana. We hypothesize the involvement of this signaling module in abscission processes in other plant species even though they may shed other organs than A. thaliana. As the first step toward testing this hypothesis from an evolutionarily perspective we have identified genes encoding putative orthologs of IDA and its receptors by BLAST searches of publically available protein, nucleotide and genome databases for angiosperms. Genes encoding IDA or IDA-LIKE (IDL) peptides and HSL proteins were found in all investigated species, which were selected as to represent each angiosperm order with available genomic sequences. The 12 amino acids representing the bioactive peptide in A. thaliana have virtually been unchanged throughout the evolution of the angiosperms; however, the number of IDL and HSL genes varies between different orders and species. The phylogenetic analyses suggest that IDA, HSL2, and the related HSL1 gene, were present in the species that gave rise to the angiosperms. HAE has arisen from HSL1 after a genome duplication that took place after the monocot—eudicots split. HSL1 has also independently been duplicated in the monocots, while HSL2 has been lost in gingers (Zingiberales) and grasses (Poales). IDA has been duplicated in eudicots to give rise to functionally divergent IDL peptides. We postulate that the high number of IDL homologs present in the core eudicots is a result of multiple whole genome duplications (WGD). We substantiate the involvement of IDA and HAE/HSL2 homologs in abscission by providing gene expression data of different organ separation events from various species.


OBJECTIVE
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most frequent malignant tumors worldwide. Colon cancer and rectal cancer are two different malignant types, and it is important to distinguish these two cancers. However, the physiological function of microRNA-3174 (miR-3174) in rectal cancer remains unknown. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the role of miR-3174 in rectal cancer progression and to explore the possible underlying mechanism.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The relative expression level of miR-3174 in rectal cancer was evaluated by quantitative Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Cell counting kit-8 (CCK8) assay and colony formation assay were employed to detect the proliferation ability of cells. Flow cytometric analysis was used to detect cell cycle distribution and apoptotic cells. Bioinformatics analysis and dual luciferase reporter gene assay were employed to predict and verify the target genes of miR-3174, respectively. Meanwhile, the protein expression level of pterin-4 alpha-carbinolamine dehydratase 2 (PCBD2) normalized to glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) was assessed by Western blotting.

RESULTS
The expression level of miR-3174 was significantly up-regulated in rectal cancer. CCK8 assay and colony formation assay suggested that miR-3174 markedly promoted the proliferation of rectal cancer cells. Subsequently, flow cytometric analysis demonstrated that over-expressed miR-3174 significantly accelerated cell cycle, whereas remarkably inhibited cell apoptosis. Public prediction websites and dual luciferase reporter gene assay further validated that PCBD2 was a direct down-stream target of miR-3174. Moreover, rescue assay confirmed that miR-3174 functioned as an oncogene in rectal cancer by regulating PCBD2.

CONCLUSIONS
Our study elucidated that miR-3174 functioned as an oncogene in rectal cancer by targeting PCBD2, which might bring new insights into the search for novel biomarkers and therapeutic strategies.


BACKGROUND: The combination of western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine is still exerting a pervading influence on symptom relief in Chinese society. The Medical behavior pattern may influence medication non-compliance by patients with chronic illness. METHODS: The study was designed to investigate prednisolone non-compliance and its related factors for patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) under giving patients' health beliefs, the influence of prednisolone and Chinese culture. All patients of the SLE Mutual Aid Group (N=570) participated in this study. A questionnaire which included medical behavior and individual attitudes was sent each by mail. The response rate was 63.7% (N=363); 329 responses were useable in the study. RESULTS: Of the 329 patients, 27.9% had taken traditional medicine or a combination of traditional medicine with western medicine within the past month; 25.4% patients were non-compliant with prescribed prednisolone during the past week. The important reasons for non-compliance were feeling better, fearing side effects and treatment by Chinese medicine. The predicting factors for prednisolone non-compliance were the effects of the prednisolone, medical feasibility, patterns of medical behavior and perceived seriousness of the disease. Physician-patient relationship served as modifying factors which influenced individual attitudes toward prednisolone non-compliance and choice of medical behavior. Traditional beliefs, influenced by Chinese culture, indirectly affected prednisolone non-compliance, but through medical behavior patterns. CONCLUSIONS: Predisolone non-compliance is quite essential for SLE patients. Findings suggested that the attributes of prednisolone and the influences of Chinese traditional medicine should be considered as well as a health belief model, when trying to improve prednisolone compliance for SLE patients in Taiwan society.


Multicasting is an efficient and effective approach for supporting content distribution based on the current Internet infrastructure. In this paper, we propose the source-initiated CRMA (cycle-breaking rollback multicast routing algorithm), which is a congestion-aware QoS (quality of service) based multicast routing algorithm. CRMA attempts to achieve the objective of minimizing network congestion conditions while satisfying bandwidth and end-to-end path delay requirements from users. Our proposed approach has several features: (1) It construct a shared symmetric distribution tree for multicast source(s) and its members rather than the conventional approach of constructing multicast tree. (2) CRMA combines the multicast path computation with resource allocation through introducing the WFQ (weighted fair queuing) packet scheduling into path computation. (3) CRMA can be easily implemented and integrated into the common shortest path router architecture without a thorough adjustment. Through extensive simulations, we demonstrate that our CRMA can effectively reduce the cost, which is the reflection of network congestion conditions, of the computed multicast tree, compared to other proposed multicast routing schemes.


The thesis consisted of two studies described below. Study I, which aimed to determine the exacerbation predictors, alone or in interaction, in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in physiotherapeutic treatment over six months. Were evaluated through three periods of assessment over six months regarding the occurrence of acute exacerbation, body mass index (BMI), fat-free mass (FFM), fat-free mass index, forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), dyspnea, walked distance (WD) in the 6-minute walking test (6MWT) and grip strength. When applying Cox settings with each separately covariates, showed 5% significance only for the WD in the 6MWT (p= 0.02), which demonstrated interaction with BMI (p= 0.01) and also with the FFM (p= 0.01). The comparison of the three periods of assessment on the covariates measured showed a significant difference only for WD between evaluations of the 3rd and 6th month. Over six months of follow-up in patients with COPD can be observed that the WD in the 6MWT is a predictor in the risk of exacerbation, however depends on the covariates BMI and FFM. Following was developed the study II that aimed to analyze if there is influence of body weight, BMI, body composition, dyspnea, grip strength and tolerance to exertion in the occurrence of exacerbation during 12 months of follow-up of patients with COPD who underwent a physical training program developed or not the exacerbation. The patients were distributed in two groups, (Exacerbation Group – EG, n = 29; Exacerbation Not Group ENG, n = 34). The Mann-Whitney test was used for comparison between groups, the Friedman test (post-hoc Dunn) to comparison of evaluations and the logistic regression analysis, with a significance level of p < 0.05. There is significant difference between the groups with regard to age and WD in the 6MWT. The WD was reduced in 6, 9 and 12 month revaluation compared to assessment and 3 months for the EG. Logistic regression analysis showed a significant interaction between the lean body mass and the WD, BMI with the lean body mass and the BMI with the WD, this and the isolated dyspnea, and lean body mass with body weight. It is the importance of involving several variables along the follow-up of patients with COPD in physical therapy programs in an attempt to prevent the occurrence of exacerbations or reduce the chance of the same occurred.In addition, patients older and with less tolerance to physical activity had a higher number of episodes of exacerbation, even being inserted in a physical therapy program of physical training.


This richly illustrated book provides a glimpse into the belief system and the material wealth of the social elite in pre-Imperial China through a close analysis of tomb contents and excavated bamboo texts.


The paper discuss the methods of extracting process features of parts from STEP AP203 file and collecting process information from the macro of CAM software. First the STEP file and its data structure are analyzed, and the method of extracting and recognizing process features is studied. Secondly, according to the different processing methods of part, the function of macros in PowerMILL is used to save excellent processing information, and the reusable process database is established. Finally, the mapping between the process features and the processing information is established. Take mold electrode as a example, these methods are proved in this paper, and a system which can recognize process features, collect processing information and program NC code automatically is developed.


Background and purpose: Sexual satisfaction is a pleased experience or satisfaction of an individual or a couple during any stage of sexual intercourse including libido, arousal and orgasm that could change during pregnancy due to multiple physical or psychiatric changes. This study aimed at investigating the level of sexual satisfaction in pregnant women with gestational diabetes. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in which 150 pregnant women attending Sayyad-e-Shirazi Hospital in Gorgan, Iran, were recruited. Using non-randomized convenience sampling they were classified into two groups: getational diabetes group and non-diabetic control group. Two questionnaires were administered including ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale consisting of 35-items (previously validated in Iran) and Female Sexual Function Index-FSFI. Results: The mean scores for sexual satisfaction according to ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale and FSFI were 61 ±10 (moderate to high) and 24±4, respectively, which the latter represented a poor sexual function. Sexual satisfaction level was found to be higher in those aged 25-30 years old but this difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Our results showed no significant difference between diabetic pregnant women and non-diabetics in sexual satisfaction. But sexual function was affected in pregnant diabetic women that could be due to the coincidence of pregnancy and diabetes.


This article discusses an instance of case-specific self-inflicted partial media capture, acknowledging the chilling effect of legislation consistent with partial state capture. In general, this case illustrates the ethical and legal dilemmas in the reporting of a specific type of large-scale corruption in the media, which involves the denial of all accusations by most sources and a controversial stand by state authorities and politicians on the issue, forcing the media to primarily report rumors or contradictory claims and denials (after controversial files regarding the corruption were made public anonymously on the internet) or desist from reporting altogether (before the files were made public on the internet, due to possible libel threats). The findings question the normative expectations expressed in democratic theory related to the role of the media as a watchdog, in the specific context of large-scale corruption in post-communist states. Moreover, this paper suggests the need to re-examine the methodological aspects of quantitative content analysis of media coverage of corruption. This paper has also attempted to update the emerging theory on media capture with the term partial case-specific media capture.


The management of financial crises in emerging markets is a vital and high-stakes challenge in an increasingly global economy. For this reason, it's also a highly contentious issue in today's public policy circles. In this book, leading economists-many of whom have also participated in policy debates on these issues-consider how best to reduce the frequency and cost of such crises. The contributions here explore the management process from the beginning of a crisis to the long-term effects of the techniques used to minimize it. The first three chapters focus on the earliest responses and the immediate defense of a currency under attack, exploring whether unnecessary damage to economies can be avoided by adopting the right response within the first few days of a financial crisis. Next, contributors examine the adjustment programs that follow, considering how to design these programs so that they shorten the recovery phase, encourage economic growth, and minimize the probability of future difficulties. Finally, the last four papers analyze the actual effects of adjustment programs, asking whether they accomplish what they are designed to do-and whether, as many critics assert, they impose disproportionate costs on the poorest members of society. Recent high-profile currency crises have proven not only how harmful they can be to neighboring economies and trading partners, but also how important policy responses can be in determining their duration and severity. Economists and policymakers will welcome the insightful evaluations in this important volume, and those of its companion, Sebastian Edwards and Jeffrey A. Frankel's Preventing Currency Crises in Emerging Markets .


School lunch can contribute to aggravate food quality, by excess or deficiency, or it can contribute to compensate and alleviate them. This school meal should be an answer to combating the epidemic of obesity, and to feed some grace children. The objective was to study the nutritional composition of catering in canteens of public schools, from Northern municipalities in the District of Porto: Vila do Conde, Póvoa de Varzim, Santo Tirso and Trofa. Meals were subjected to laboratory analysis. Thirty two meals, four per each school were analysed, reference values for the analysis of the nutritional composition of meals were dietary reference intakes (USA) and eating well at school (UK). The average energy meal content was 447 kcal and the median 440 kcal (22% of daily calories). The average values of nutrients, per meal, were: lipids 9, 8 g, carbohydrate 65,7 g and proteins 24,0 g. In average the contribution for the meal energy was: 20% fat, 59% carbohydrate and 21% protein. In more than 75% of meals the contribution of lipid content was below the lower bound of the reference range. The average content of sodium chloride per meal was 3.4 g, and the confidence interval 95% to average 3.0 to 3.8 g, well above the recommended maximum value of 1.5 grams. The average content fiber per meal was 10.8 g higher than the minimum considered appropriate. In conclusion, the value low caloric meals was mainly due to the low fat content, and content salt of any of the components of the meal was very high.


Objective The aim of the study was to elicit beliefs about hypertension among Nigerian immigrants in the United Kingdom. Background The distributions of cardiovascular risk factors and diseases are not shared equally across ethnic and economic groups in the United Kingdom. Its burden is more clustered among minority ethnic populations and migrant groups including black African Nigerian migrants. Similar patterns have been reported across Europe, Australia, Canada, Nordic countries and the United States of America. There are about 300 distinct ethnic groups in Nigeria and reliable information about their beliefs about hypertension is not available. Given that the United Kingdom has a large community of Nigerian immigrants from these different ethno-cultural backgrounds, understanding their unique beliefs about hypertension may help promote appropriate care for this population in the United Kingdom and Nigeria. Setting A single Pentecostal church community in West London Participants Twenty-seven Nigerian migrant members of the church entered and completed the study Methods and outcome measure A qualitative interview study was conducted. The interviews were analysed using thematic framework analysis. The outcome measures were emerging themes from the thematic framework analysis. Results Participants expressed beliefs in four major areas related to hypertension: (1) The Meaning of the term hypertension, (2) Perceptions of causation, (3) Effects of hypertension, and (4) Perceptions of treatment. The study revealed a diversity of beliefs about hypertension which incorporated both orthodox and culturally framed ideas. Conclusions This study identified important beliefs among Nigerian migrants about hypertension that can contribute to our understanding of the management of hypertension in this group and suggests the need for further research to determine whether these beliefs may be representative of this group.


Abstract Formal constraints on crossing dependencies have played a large role in research on the formal complexity of natural language grammars and parsing. Here we ask whether the apparent evidence for constraints on crossing dependencies in treebanks might arise because of independent constraints on trees, such as low arity and dependency length minimization. We address this question using two sets of experiments. In Experiment 1, we compare the distribution of formal properties of crossing dependencies, such as gap degree, between real trees and baseline trees matched for rate of crossing dependencies and various other properties. In Experiment 2, we model whether two dependencies cross, given certain psycholinguistic properties of the dependencies. We find surprisingly weak evidence for constraints originating from the mild context-sensitivity literature (gap degree and well-nestedness) beyond what can be explained by constraints on rate of crossing dependencies, topological properties of the trees, and dependency length. However, measures that have emerged from the parsing literature (e.g., edge degree, end-point crossings, and heads' depth difference) differ strongly between real and random trees. Modeling results show that cognitive metrics relating to information locality and working-memory limitations affect whether two dependencies cross or not, but they do not fully explain the distribution of crossing dependencies in natural languages. Together these results suggest that crossing constraints are better characterized by processing pressures than by mildly context-sensitive constraints.


BACKGROUND
The objective of this investigation was to examine the relationships among cigarette and alcohol consumption and weight and obesity. Although previous research demonstrated that smoking is associated with reduced weight, data on the relationship between alcohol consumption and weight are conflicting. In addition, the influence of smoking cessation on the risk of obesity at a level that adversely affects health has not been fully examined.

METHODS
By means of a cotwin-control research design, cigarette and alcohol consumption and weight measurements derived from 1911 male, monozygotic twins were compared with those of their identical siblings. This approach eliminates confounding from a large number of measurable and unmeasurable environmental experiences and the well-documented influence of inherited factors on weight and cigarette and alcohol consumption.

RESULTS
After adjustment for a variety of socioeconomic factors, light (one to 19 cigarettes daily), moderate (20 to 29 cigarettes daily), and heavy (> 29 cigarettes daily) smokers were an average of 3.2, 2.4, and 4.0 kg lighter, respectively, than nonsmokers. Past smokers demonstrated a 33% higher prevalence of clinically significant obesity (body mass index > 27.8 kg/m2) by comparison with their currently smoking siblings (26.5% vs 19.9%, respectively; difference, P < .001) and a 1.8 times increased risk (95% confidence interval, 1.1 to 2.9) of clinically significant obesity by comparison with heavy smokers. By contrast, alcohol consumption had no significant influence on weight or obesity.

CONCLUSIONS
Smoking cessation efforts provided by health practitioners to men should consider routinely offering a weight management component to reduce weight gain and further improve the well-documented health benefits of not smoking. It may not be necessary for alcohol treatment programs to adopt a similar policy.


Characteristics of typing on smartphone keyboards among different individuals can elicit emotion, similar to speech prosody or facial expressions. Existing works on typing based emotion recognition rely on feature engineering to build machine learning models, while recent speech and facial expression based techniques have shown the efficacy of learning the features automatically. Therefore, in this work, we explore the effectiveness of such learning models in keyboard interaction based emotion detection. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end framework, which first uses a sequence-based encoding method to automatically learn the representation from raw keyboard interaction pattern and subsequently uses this representation to train a multi-task learning based neural network (MTL-NN)to identify different emotions. We carry out a 3-week in-the-wild study involving 24 participants using a custom keyboard capable of tracing users' interaction pattern during text entry. We collect interaction details like touch speed, error rate, pressure and self-reported emotions (happy, sad, stressed, relaxed) during the study. Our analysis on the collected dataset reveals that the representation learnt from the interaction pattern has an average correlation of 0.901 within the same emotion and 0.811 between different emotions. As a result, the representation is effective in distinguishing different emotions with an average accuracy (AUCROC)of 84%.


In this paper we analyze the convergence degree of innovation potential of Romanian economy, by comparison with the developed economies of the economical and monetary union, on one hand, and with the last wave of integration countries – in most cases, economies in process of development, therefore with an economical development trajectory like our country – on the other hand. The European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) is the instrument developed at the initiative of the European Commission, under the Lisbon Strategy, to evaluate and compare the innovation performance of the EU Member States. The EIS includes innovation indicators and trend analyses for the EU Member States, plus the two new Member States: Bulgaria and Romania, as well as for Croatia, Turkey, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, the US and Japan. The Summary Innovation Index gives an "at a glance" overview of aggregate national innovation performance. It measures 5 key innovation dimensions: Innovation drivers, Knowledge creation, Diffusion, Applications and Intellectual property.


The term Biometrics is becoming highly important in computer security world. The human physical characteristics like fingerprints, face, hand geometry, voice and iris are known as biometrics. These features are used to provide an authentication for computer based security systems. The existing computer security systems used at various places like banking, passport, credit cards, smart cards, PIN , access control and network security are using username and passwords for person identification. The username and passwords can be replaced and/or provide double authentication by using any one of the biometric features. In this paper, the main focus is on the various biometrics, their applications and the existing biometrics recognition systems.


Soils are compacted during land development through soil excavation and heavy equipment traffic. Compacted soils have limited infiltration and are susceptible to erosion. Infiltration can be enhanced by various approaches including tillage and compost addition. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of tillage and adding compost to reduce stormwater runoff and sediment loss by improving infiltration in simulated postconstruction soils. Tillage treatments were tested at two sites in the Piedmont region of North Carolina (Piedmont 1 and 2). Prior to applying tillage and amendment, soils at both sites were graded to remove the surface horizon and compacted with a vibratory roller. At Piedmont 1, the treatments were compacted with no tillage, shallow (15 cm [5.9 in] depth) tillage (ST), and deep (30 cm [11.8 in] depth) tillage (DT). At Piedmont 2 the treatments were compacted, DT, and DT with incorporated compost (DT+Com). The grass seed mixtures recommended by the North Carolina Department of Transportation for the location (Piedmont) and time of planting were applied at each site. Runoff volumes (RV) and total suspended solids were measured after each of the first 12 and 13 storm events at Piedmont 1 and 2, respectively. Infiltration rate (IR) and bulk density (BD) were determined five and seven months after establishment at Piedmont 1 and 2, respectively. At both sites, RV and total amount of soil loss were reduced with tillage by 60% to 82% during the monitoring period. Neither deeper tillage nor incorporating compost significantly affected these results. Grass establishment was significantly better with tillage. The IRs measured at the end of the monitoring period were around 1 cm h−1 (0.4 in hr−1) in the compacted treatment but ranged from 19 to 33 cm h−1 (7.5 to 13 in hr−1) in the tilled treatments, again with no effects of tillage depth or compost. The results suggest that tillage to a depth of at least 15 cm (6 in) can be highly effective for improving soil conditions and reducing runoff and erosion from soils compacted as the result of construction activities.


Intercell interference management has become a critical issue for future cellular mobile systems. Coordinated multipoint transmission/reception, or CoMP, is an effective way of managing intercell interference, and has been regarded as a key technology of LTE-Advanced. This article first provides an overview of downlink CoMP techniques specified in 3GPP LTE Rel-11, which mainly focuses on transmission schemes, channel state information reporting, interference measurement, and reference signal design. Then uplink CoMP is discussed in brief as most of the coordination gain can be achieved by implementation with little standardization support. Evaluation results are provided to show the efficiency of CoMP. The challenges as well as possible solutions for future CoMP standardization are also discussed.


This paper presents an effective method for improving the performance of speaker identification system based on schemes combines the multi resolution properly of the wavelet transform and radial basis function neural net works (RBFNN), evaluated its performance by comparing the results with other method. The input speech signal is decomposed into L sub band. To capture the characteristic of the vocal tract, the liner prediction code of each (including the linear predictive code (LPC) for full band) are calculated. The radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) approach is used for matching purpose. Experimental results shows that the speaker identification using the methods achieve (combines the wavelet and RBFNN) give (100%) identification rate and higher identification rate compared with multi band liner predictive code, in this paper used Matlab program to prove the results.


A systemic nature of allergic diseases has been hypothesized. As part of this discussion, we studied if adolescent allergic wheeze and increasing combinations of allergic organ involvements (lung, nose and skin) would also increase the reporting of other health problems (headache, muscle pain and abdominal pain). In addition, we studied if parental asthma was associated with adolescent clustering of allergic expressions and if parental asthma with additional health problems (headache or muscle pain) was associated with adolescent reporting allergy in combination with headache, muscle pain and abdominal pain. Adolescents 13–19 yr (n = 8817, 89%) participated in the Young–HUNT study, Norway, 1995–97. Parental data on asthma were eligible in n = 5620. Health and lifestyle were measured by questionnaires and interviews. Associations with additional health problems were significantly strengthened with combinations of wheeze and other allergic expressions. Odds Ratio for associations 'wheeze only', 'wheeze and rhinitis' and 'wheeze, rhinitis and eczema' were for headache 2.1, 3.4 and 3.7; for muscle pain 2.8, 3.2 and 4.9; for abdominal pain 3.6, 4.0 and 4.9. All p for trend were <0.010. Similar results were obtained when studying allergic wheeze; p for trend <0.001. Parental asthma was associated with clustering of adolescent allergic expressions, and parental asthma with headache or muscle pain was significantly associated with reported allergy combined with similar health problems in their offspring. The results indicate that allergy may be expressed beyond organs commonly viewed as part of an allergic disease, and hence may support a hypothesis of a systemic nature of allergic diseases.


A technique has been developed for the evaporation of bismuth and of antimony upon thin cellulose nitrate so that the metals have comparatively low electrical resistivities and comparatively high thermal e.m.f.'s. A procedure has been developed for making bismuth-antimony radiation thermopiles in which units of 50 thermal junctions have a receiving area of ~0.11 cm2 and a resistance of ~70 ohms. These units are called "folded thermopiles." The response of several folded thermopiles of different design operated at atmospheric pressure has been studied over a range of frequencies. The "folded" thermopiles are faster than any thermopiles reported heretofore, yet the response is greater for all frequencies above 5 cycles per second than for evaporated thermocouples operated in a vacuum. The thermopiles are rugged, relatively free of microphonics, and show very little noise in addition to "Johnson noise."


This thesis investigates the Park Chung Hee model (PCHM). This term refers to a South Korean variant of the East Asian model of capitalism—particularly, the historical model that guided the rapid and sustained growth of the economy since the mid-1960s. This historical investigation is theoretically informed by a cultural political economy of variegated capitalism (VarCap-CPE) that enables a differential and integral exploration of both historical and contemporary capitalism. In this context, my contribution is twofold. The first is theoretical. While a theoretically informed historical investigation into East Asian capitalism requires an approach to (post-)colonialism, imperialism and hegemony as a prerequisite, VarCap-CPE has still not fully integrated such an approach into its analytical framework. So, my first aim is to improve this paradigm by drawing on Marx's insights into colonialism, the world market, and international hegemony and propose how they might be put in their place, provisionally, in a VarCap-CPE analysis. My second goal is empirical. Based on the enhanced version of the VarCap-CPE, I aim to give a better account of the PCHM than previous literature in political economy. Specifically, I show how the model was informed by two contradictory state strategies: (1) the fascist and autarkic state strategies of Imperial Japan; and (2) the liberal and free trade-oriented developmentalism, based on W.W. Rostow's modernization theory. I thereby demonstrate that the PCHM was self-contradictory and, in this context, present it as a "chimerical" model that combines in a contradictory manner the DNA of two rival species. On this basis, I provide an integral account of its seemingly miraculous performance as well as the dilemmas, contradictions and crisis-proneness that beset it. In addition, unlike much of the extant literature on the Park model, my analysis permits theoretically consistent further research into its crisis and subsequent neoliberalisation.


Wireless networks are of high significance in current telecommunication systems, and in order to improve these systems, Software-Defined Networks (SDN)is used to centrally monitor and control the whole network with the help of a controller. The design of an SDN-based network is needed to identify the optimal amount of controllers for improving the performance of the network. The controller placement problem is determined on propagation latency but it failed to consider the load balancing, fault tolerance, bandwidth consumption and data transmission rate. Plan to develop a novel technique called Demming Regressive Multiobjective Dragonfly Optimized Controller Placement (DRMDOCP) for an optimal number of controller placement for enhancing network performance during different topologies. By applying DRMDOCP, the optimum number of controllers are selected and placed into the network to improve the overall network's performance. Therefore, a delay minimization-based controller placement strategy is extremely preferred. The simulation of the DRMDOCP technique and existing methods is conducted using a network topology dataset and different performance metrics. The simulation results demonstrate that the DRMDOCP increases the packet delivery, throughput and reduces the average latency, packet drop when compared to the state-of-the-art method.


It is generally believed that self-disclosure has positive effects, particularly for relationships; however, we predict and find negative effects in the context of task-oriented relationships. Across three laboratory experiments, we find that both task-relevant (Study 1) and task-irrelevant (Studies 2 and 3) weakness disclosures, made by a higher (versus peer) status coworker during an interdependent task, negatively affected the receiver's perception of the discloser's status and consequently undermined the discloser's influence, encouraged task conflict, and led to lower relationship quality with the discloser. Peer status disclosers did not trigger these negative responses. We find support for perceived vulnerability as the proposed psychological process (Study 3). Specifically, higher (but not peer) status disclosers experience a status penalty after weakness disclosures because these disclosures signal vulnerability, which violates the expectations people have for higher (but not peer) status coworkers. These findings provide insight into the effects of self-disclosing weakness at work and the ways in which high status employees may inadvertently trigger their own status loss.


The ilium is a commonly utilized site for obtaining graft material for maxillofacial reconstruction. Pain, decreased mobility, and equivocal esthetics are complications sometimes encountered postoperatively with most current ilium harvesting techniques. A new approach to the ilium for obtaining marrow and cancellous bone was used in 26 cases during a one-year period. No complications encountered in the donor site. The technique is simple, allows simultaneous procedures, and is esthetically acceptable.


A connectionist network is presented for segmenting gray level images. The network detects the local peaks in the inverted histogram which will correspond to the bottoms of the valleys in the actual histogram. The neural network implementation successfully uses circumstantial evidence and detects multiple winners over the entire range of gray values such that these winners correspond to multiple thresholds for segmenting the image. The dynamics of the network has been analyzed and the conditions for convergence have been established. Experimental results obtained by applying the network for segmenting two X-ray images are presented.<<ETX>>


The influence of deposition parameters on microwave properties of BaxSr1-xTiO3 (BSTO) films deposited on alumina substrate has been investigated in a wide frequency range (1-30 GHz). The best combination of high tunability (n) and low losses (tan ¿) at room temperature was obtained for the 30% Ba content target. The best BSTO films exhibited n = 2.1 and tan¿=0.016 at 1 GHz and zero bias. This result is among the best reported for sputtered BSTO on alumina substrates.


AIMS: To determine the distribution of feline blood types in a sample of non-pedigree, domestic cats in New Zealand, whether a difference exists in this distribution between domestic short haired and domestic long haired cats, and between the North and South Islands of New Zealand; and to calculate the risk of a random blood transfusion causing a severe transfusion reaction, and the risk of a random mating producing kittens susceptible to neonatal isoerythrolysis. METHODS: The results of 245 blood typing tests in nonpedigree cats performed at the New Zealand Veterinary Pathology (NZVP) and Gribbles Veterinary Pathology laboratories between the beginning of 2009 and the end of 2014 were retrospectively collated and analysed. Cats that were identified as domestic short or long haired were included. For the cats tested at Gribbles Veterinary Pathology 62 were from the North Island, and 27 from the South Island. RESULTS: The blood type distribution differed between samples from the two laboratories (p=0.029), but not between domestic short and long haired cats (p=0.50), or between the North and South Islands (p=0.76). Of the 89 cats tested at Gribbles Veterinary Pathology, 70 (79%) were type A, 18 (20%) type B, and 1 (1%) type AB; for NZVP 139/156 (89.1%) cats were type A, 16 (10.3%) type B, and 1 (0.6%) type AB. It was estimated that 18.3–31.9% of random blood transfusions would be at risk of a transfusion reaction, and neonatal isoerythrolysis would be a risk in 9.2–16.1% of random matings between non-pedigree cats. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study suggest that there is a high risk of complications for a random blood transfusion between non-purebred cats in New Zealand. Neonatal isoerythrolysis should be considered an important differential diagnosis in illness or mortality in kittens during the first days of life.


This study researches the effects of different curing conditions on the properties of high strength concrete containing presoaked pumice aggregate (PA). Fine normal weight aggregate is substituted by an equal volume of 1h and 24h presoaked PA at 50% and 100% fractions and a total of five concrete mixtures were prepared. After kept in water, air and hot weather, the performance of concretes were evaluated by determining their physical and mechanical properties at 28 days. Hot weather was found to be the most detrimental condition where the highest strength drops were observed. Frost resistance of concretes was improved with the use of presoaked PA at 50% replacement ratio. The use of presoaked PA also decreased the shrinkage values of concrete specimens. The results showed that the use of presoaked PA in high strength concrete at 50% replacement ratio could contribute to concrete properties when exposed to inadequate curing conditions.


To study epidemiology and etiopathogenesis of male autoimmune infertility, we examined ejaculate samples from 3660 males of reproductive age, clinico-laboratory data on 560 males from infertile couples with antispermal antibodies (ASAB), 647 males without ASAB and 40 fertile males. Ejaculate was tested according to WHO recommendations, ASAB were identified by mixed agglutination reaction (MAR) and flow cytofluorometry (FCFM), infections of the reproductive tract (IRT)--by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Experiments were made on 136 white non-inbred mature male rats and 40 mature female rats: 1/3 of the only testis was removed in male rats, then morphology of the operated on testis was studied as well as real fertility. ASAB were detected in 18% males of reproductive age. Factors of risk of antispermal immunity are the following: IRT (52%), varicocele (35%), blunt scrotal injuries without orchitis (21%) and previous epididymoorchitis (6%), obstruction (3%), cryptorchism and anejaculation (1%). Absolute risk of immune infertility makes up 67% after orchitis and epididymoorchitis, 66% after blunt scrotal injuries without clinical orchitis, 39-43% in clinical and previously operated varicocele, 32% after IRT. Combination of the risk factors raises immune infertility probability 1.2-4.1 fold. The efficacy of antibiotic therapy for bacterial IRT in ASAB is described. It is shown than it is possible to preserve spermatogenesis after testicular trauma by stimulation of its regeneration. Immunological mechanisms of male autoimmune infertility are analysed. Thus, main causes of male autoimmune infertility are mechanical, infectious or other affection of the testis leading to impairment of hematotesticular barrier, varicocele increases the risk of autoimmune reactions and orchitis after traumas; cross-over interaction between antigenic determinants of sperm and IRT; obstruction of the ejaculatory tract; specific features of antiinfectious immunity.


The use of online data is becoming increasingly essential for the generation of insight in today's research environment. This reflects the much wider range of data available online and the key role that social media now plays in interpersonal communication. However, the process of gaining permission to use social media data for research purposes creates a number of significant issues when considering compatibility with professional ethics guidelines. This paper critically explores the application of existing informed consent policies to social media research and compares with the form of consent gained by the social networks themselves, which we label 'uninformed consent'. We argue that, as currently constructed, informed consent carries assumptions about the nature of privacy that are not consistent with the way that consumers behave in an online environment. On the other hand, uninformed consent relies on asymmetric relationships that are unlikely to succeed in an environment based on co-creation of value. The paper highlights the ethical ambiguity created by current approaches for gaining customer consent, and proposes a new conceptual framework based on participative consent that allows for greater alignment between consumer privacy and ethical concerns.


markdownabstractLife on earth is exposed to a 24-hour light/dark cycle generated by the earth rotation around its own axis. Almost all living organisms have developed an internal timing system, called "the circadian clock", to adapt to the daily environmental changes. The circadian clock system gives a 24-hour rhythmicity to various physiological processes (such as behavior, metabolism, sleep wake cycle, and hormone secretion) to optimize them to an exact time of the day. Mammalian circadian system is organized in a hierarchical manner with the superchiasmatic nucleus (SCN) as the master clock at the top of hierarchy, and peripheral clocks in almost all the single cells over the body. The SCN is located in the hypothalamus of brain and is composed of approximately 20,000 neurons. Light information is received by the photoreceptors located in the ganglion cells in the inner nuclear layer of the retina and transmitted to the SCN neurons. Subsequently, synchronizing signals coming from the SCN are trans- mitted to the peripheral clocks via hormonal and neural cues. Therefore, the whole organism is synchronized internally and synchronized to the external environment. At the molecular level, the circadian oscillator is based on autonomous and auto-regulatory feedback loops. The CLOCK/BMAL1 heterodimer induces E-box transcription of _Per (Per1, Per2)_ and _Cry (Cry1, Cry2)_ genes. PER and CRY proteins accumulate in the cytoplasm and after a delay of several hours translocate to the nucleus where they inhibit CLOCK/BMAL1-mediated transcription. The whole process follows a circadian periodicity close to 24-hours. CLOCK/ BMAL1 heterodimer also induces E-box transcription of the so-called Clock Controlled Genes (CCG), composing 10% of the whole genome. Clock controlled genes are involved in the regulation of a variety of physiological events such as the cell cycle process. The cell cycle is another independent oscillatory system, governed by sequential events of transcription, and protein degradation. The circadian clock and cell cycle systems are tightly coupled and interact in a bi-directional way, meaning that synchronization of the circadian system using clock synchronizers, such as dexamethasone, will entrain mitosis. On the other hand, the circadian oscillator is reset by each mitotic event.
In __chapter 2__ we investigated the importance of these reciprocal interactions by knocking down the positive circadian elements _(Bmal1 and Clock genes)_. Using the NIH3T33C mouse broblast cell line (carrying uorescent reporter genes for clock and cell cycle phase), we have shown an increased cell cycle length by about 4 hours in _Bmal1_ knock down cells. We found that the slower cell cycle progression originated from a delayed G2/M transition caused by an impaired G2 speci c expression of Cyclin B1. __In chapter 3__, we knocked out the cryptochromes _(Cry1-/-, Cry2-/-)_ in the NIH3T33C cells and investigated cell cycle progression in the absence of negative circadian elements. We have shown a decrease of 2 hours in the total cell cycle length, arising from a short G1 phase. Further molecular analysis revealed involvement of the cryptochromes on G1/S transition by regulating Cyclin E expression. Moreover, a high phosphorylation pattern of mitotic proteins in _Cry1-/-, Cry2-/-_ cells, together with a high percentage of mitotic cells, indicated impaired mitotic progression in cryptochrome de cient cells. Our data demonstrate that post-translational regulation of mitotic proteins is affected in the absence of cryptochromes. In __chapter 4__, we studied the importance of coupling between the circadian clock and cell cycle machineries in cancer cells. We have stably introduced a circadian clock reporter (REV-ERBα promotor) into a mouse breast carcinoma cell line derived from heterozygous _p53-R270H/+ WAPCre_ mice (MBC399). Using this system, we have followed the kinetics of circadian clock and cell cycle progression in real time and at the single cell level. We observed that the cellular clock/cell cycle coupling is lost in MBC399 cells. In contrast to the NIH3T33C cells, cell division occurred independent of the circadian time in MBC399 cells. Our results highlight the importance of the cellular clock/cell cycle coupling in controlling the proliferation rate, which is lost in MBC399 cells. In __chapter 5__, the effect of circadian clock gene knock-down on the cellular properties of human lung carcinoma cell lines (H1299 cell) was investigated. We have performed a transcriptome analysis on a panel of clock knock down H1299 cell lines. It appears that cancer and cellular growth are two of the top affected processes in all the clock knock down cell lines. Processes related to cancer, such as tumor formation and proliferation of malignant cells, were down regulated in _Bmal1_ knock down cells and up-regulated in cryptochrome de cient cells. In line with the transcriptome analysis, our in vivo study shows suppressed and accelerated tumor formation in _Bmal1_ knock down and cryptochrome de cient cells, respectively. Overall, our transcriptome analysis, together with the in vivo studies, showed a prominent involvement of core circadian clock genes on the proliferation capacity of tumor cells, as well as tumor forming ability. The effect observed makes the circadian clock genes attractive targets in cancer therapy.


This paper proposes a discretization scheme and an optimal digital cascaded plus state-feedback controller for Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO) continuous-time systems with multiple time delays in both inputs and outputs. Firstly, an equivalent discrete-time model is obtained from the MIMO analog time-delayed system. The equivalent discrete-time model and a partially predetermined digital cascaded controller are formulated as an augmented discrete-time state-space system for state-feed forward and state-feedback Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) design. As a result, the parameters of the cascaded controller and its associated state-feedback controller can be determined by tuning the weighting matrices in the LQR optimal design. Then a discrete-time optimal observer for the MIMO analog time-delayed system is constructed for the implementation of the designed state-feedback digital controller. The proposed methodology has been verified through both simulation and experiment on the induction motor drive system.


We use high resolution Hydro+N-Body cosmological simulations to compare the assembly and evolution of a small field dwarf (stellar mass ∼ 10 6 7 M⊙, total mass 10 10 M⊙) indominated CDM and 2keV WDM cosmologies. We find that star for- mation (SF) in the WDM model is reduced and delayed by 1-2 Gyr relative to the CDM model, independently of the details of SF and feedback. Independent of the DM model, but proportionally to the SF efficiency, gas outflows lower thecentral mass density through 'dynamical heating', such that all realizations have circular velocities < 20 km s 1 at 500 pc, in agreement with local kinematic constraints. As a result of dynamical heating, older stars are less centrally concentrated than younger stars, similar to stellar population gradients observed in nearby dwarf galaxies. Introducing an important diagnostic of SF and feedback models, we translate our simulations into artificial color-magnitude diagrams and star formation histories in order to directly compare to available observations. The simulated galaxies formed most of their stars in many ∼10 Myr long bursts. The CDM galaxy has a global SFH, HI abundance and Fe/H and alpha-elements distribution well matched to current observations of dwarf galaxies. These results highlight the importance of directly including 'baryon physics' in simulations when 1) comparing predictions of galaxy formation models with the kinematics and number density of local dwarf galaxies and 2) differentiating between CDM and non-standard models with different DM or power spectra.


Given the rise of autonomous systems in transportation, medical, and manufacturing industries, there is an increasing need to understand how such systems should be designed to promote effective interactions between one or more humans working in and around these systems. Practitioners often have difficulties in conducting costly and time-consuming human-in-the-loop studies, so an analytical strategy that helps them determine whether their designs are capturing their planned intent is needed. A traditional top-down, hypothesis-driven experiment that examined whether external displays mounted on autonomous cars could effectively communicate with pedestrians led to the conclusion that the displays had no effect on safety. However, by first taking a bottom-up, data-driven machine learning approach, those segments of the population that were most affected by the external displays were identified. Then, a hypothesis-driven, within-subjects analysis of variance revealed that an external display mounted on an autonomous car that provided the vehicle's speed as opposed to commanding a go/no-go decision provided an additional 4 feet of safety for early adopters. One caveat to this approach is that the selection of a specific algorithm can significantly influence the results and more work is needed to determine the sensitivity of this approach with seemingly similar machine learning classification approaches.


Open access: http://isain medis.id/ Exogenous rhinolith: a case report I Putu Santhi Dewantara1*, Luh Made Ratnawati1 Background: Rhinolith results from mineralized nasal foreign bodies. The time required for rhinolith formation is around 15 years and is usually diagnosed in the third decade of life. Most rhinoliths are asymptomatic or present with unspecific minimal symptoms. Symptoms of rhinolith include unilateral or bilateral foul nasal discharge, epistaxis, nasal obstruction, and halitosis. This case study aims to evaluate the recent management of exogenous rhinolith. Case Presentation: We present a case of unilateral rhinolith in an 11 years old boy with a history of inserting eraser fragment into the left nostril at the age of 5. The patient complained of recurrent epistaxis with foul nasal discharge from the left nasal cavity. Rhinolith was extracted under general anesthesia. The extraction performed using raspatorium and headlight. The rhinolith was firmly attached to the floor of the nasal cavity but can be removed in toto. The specimen was sent to the Pathology Department for histopathological examination. The result showed respiratory epithelium covering edematous stroma with a proliferative vessel and lymphoplasmacytic inflammatory cell infiltration Conclusion: Rhinolith is a rare condition with no or minimal symptoms. Management of rhinolith is extraction that can be performed under local or general anesthesia.


OBJECTIVE To detect the incidence, geographic distribution, and seasonal variation of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) in all of Greece. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS One hundred and thirty-seven children (75 boys and 62 girls) up to 14.9 years of age were diagnosed with IDDM in Greece in 1992. RESULTS The age-adjusted incidence of IDDM in Greece in 1992 was 6.25/100,000 population (boys: 6.17/100,000;: girls: 6.28/100,000). There was a significant pubertal peak. The incidence of IDDM was significantly higher in metropolitan (10.0/100,000) than in rural (4.21/100,000), semirural (7.48/100,000), or urban areas (5.36/100,000) of Athens. There was a marginal difference between rural and semirural areas. No significant seasonal variation in the incidence of IDDM was observed. CONCLUSIONS We conclude that the incidence of IDDM in Greece is among the five lowest in Europe. An impressive clustering of cases was observed in the Athens metropolitan area compared with the rural and semirural areas, an observation that possibly underlines the importance of environmental factors (stressful situations, infections, dietary habits, and others) in the expression of IDDM.


In July 2010, the Environmental Risk Management Authority New Zealand gave approval to Scion to release the parasitoid Cotesia urabae (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) as a biological control agent for the gum leaf skeletonizer, Uraba lugens (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), in New Zealand as part of a project supported by the Sustainable Farming Fund. To date four releases of the biological control agent have been made, three at the Auckland Domain and one at the Manukau Memorial Gardens. Further releases will be made to ensure establishment. Three C. urabae cocoons were found 1 month after the first release, suggesting initial establishment. Monitoring is continuing to determine if the population persists. It is predicted that the introduction of C. urabae into New Zealand will (1) lead to a decrease in the existing population of U. lugens, (2) have no impacts on non-target species, and (3) provide socio-economic benefits, such as reducing the number of encounters between humans and caterpillars (and therefore decreasing the incidence of allergic responses) and reducing the substantial costs associated with maintaining the utility of eucalypts for wood and pulp production and the costs of protecting or replacing amenity trees.


Michael Trebilcock's The Law and Economics of Immigration Policy sets out a broad prescriptive model for migration policy. It is informed by a classically liberal endorsement of free movement of labour, a commitment to efficiency, and a preference for market over state regulation. Trebilcock claims that his policy proposal will significantly liberalize immigration in prosperous liberal democratic states and be politically palatable. The key lies in pre-empting the objection that increased levels of immigration will impose or exacerbate the negative fiscal impact of immigrants on receiving states. Trebilcock would privatize selection by delegating it entirely to the market (employers) or the family (relatives), and institute a mandatory private insurance scheme payable by sponsors to insure against the risk that an immigrant will impose fiscal burdens on the state in the period leading up to eligibility for citizenship. While applauding the objective animating this proposal, the author relies partly on Ninette Kelley and Michael Trebilcock's historical account in The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian Immigration Policy to challenge its viability. First, the author suggests that Trebilcock's claim that his model is politically pragmatic is predicated on a contestable understanding of the nature of political opposition to immigration. Second, it is not obvious that Trebilcock's model, on its own terms, would actually liberalize immigration across the range of states where he would seek to implement it. The author concludes by reflecting on the capacity of broadly conceived, transnational policy prescriptions to grapple with the complexity of migration as a global phenomenon, the specificity of national contexts, and the limits on state actors' ability to socially engineer the character of present and future generations through immigrant selection. Where the vast majority of immigrants are admitted on the basis of ascriptive kinship criteria, family matters – and will continue to matter – in the future direction of immigration.


Brain resident microglia plays a pathological role in the loss of oligodendrocyte's function under neuroinflammation. The precise signaling mechanism by which microglial driven factor attenuates the myelin gene expression under such condition is poorly defined. Here we used bioenergetic approach to understand the microglia-oligodendrocyte crosstalk. We found that mixed glial cells under inflammatory stimulation using lipopolysaccharide plus interferon gamma (LI) had significantly enhanced glycolysis with drastic attenuation of mitochondrial respiration and myelin gene expression. Dissecting the mixed glial culture into pure microglia, astrocyte and oligodendrocytes (OLs) revealed that primary microglia was the main source of higher glycolysis, inflammatory cytokines, and nitric oxide (NO). An early burst of glycolysis in microglia in response to LI treatment caused the production of inflammatory cytokines and NO, which is mediated by PDK1-Akt signaling. Culturing of OLs with LI-conditioned microglial media (mCM) resulted in complete failure of mitochondrial respiration in OLsalong with decreased expression of myelin genes. We identified that nitric oxide produced by microglia is the key player in the loss of mitochondrial respiration in OLs and targeting either glycolysis, PDK1 or Akt in microglia resulted in significant recovery of mitochondrial function and myelin genes expression in OLs. In summary, we identified a potential therapeutic signaling cascade in microglia; an early burst of glycolysis mediated by PDK1 and Akt, responsible for hyper-production of NO, ensuing in the failure of mitochondrial respiration in oligodendrocytes, and leading in reduction of myelin genes expression.


Objective: To compare the efficacy and adverse drug reactions of monotherapy and combination therapy of antihypertensive drugs in diabetic hypertensive patients. Methods: A prospective observational study of 18 months duration was conducted in the Department of Medicine of a tertiary care hospital in South India. A total of 200 patients were included in the study. Using a standard proforma, the details of patients such as demographic data and antihypertensive medications were collected and analyzed for efficacy and safety. R esults: Of 200 patients studied, 50% received monotherapy whereas the remaining 50% received combination therapy. There was male preponderance (54%) in the study population, with the mean age being 60.07±11.32 years. In monotherapy group, most commonly prescribed drug was amlodipine (38%), whereas in combination group, angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) or calcium channel blocker (CCB) + beta blocker (18%) was commonly prescribed among 2-drug group and ARB+ thiazide+ CCB (25.6%) among 3-drug group. Monotherapy and combination therapy were analyzed to be equally efficacious in reducing systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure. Based on the adverse effect profile, monotherapy comparatively produced more adverse effects than combination group. Amlodipine-induced pedal edema (56.7%) was the most common adverse effect observed, and it was predominantly managed by changing it to be a better tolerable CCB, namely cilnidipine. C onclusion: The combination therapy may be a better treatment option in selected patient population. Ke ywords: Systolic blood pressure, Diastolic blood pressure, Amlodipine, Cilnidipine, Pedal edema.


Author(s): McGlazer, Ramsey | Advisor(s): Spackman, Barbara | Abstract: This dissertation marks out a modernist counter-tradition, analyzing a set of texts that locate critical potential in outmoded, paradigmatically pre-modern educational forms. I show that such an anachronism, common to Italian and English-language literary culture and, later, cinema, organizes works by Walter Pater, Giovanni Pascoli, James Joyce, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Glauber Rocha. All of these figures, I argue, oppose ideologies of progress by returning to the Latin class long since left behind by progressive educators. Across the political spectrum, modernizing reformers claimed that old-school education, often disparagingly called "instruction," had become a dead weight, an impediment to progress. From Jean-Jacques Rousseau to John Dewey and Giovanni Gentile, these theorists declared instruction obsolete, deemed it empty, mechanical, infantilizing, and futile. Time and again, the discourse of progressive education targeted Latin in particular; the dead language—taught through such time-tested means as recitation, memorization, copying out, and corporal punishment—needed to be updated or eliminated, reformers argued, so that students could breathe free and become modern, achieving a break with convention and constraint. By contrast, the authors I study look to instruction's techniques precisely, and they find unlikely resources for a critique of modernity in the very practices that progressive reformers sought to clear away. Registering the past's persistence, these authors themselves persist in what look like most retrograde attachments—to tradition, transmission, scholastic rites, and repetitive verbal forms. But the pedagogies of constraint that they devise—pedagogies that I call "counter-progressive"—repeat the past to radical effect. Thus, against his own early liberal tendencies and a backdrop of broad educational reforms, Pater assigns "mechanical exercise" in his late essays, lectures, and fiction. Pascoli's Paedagogium makes the case for the embattled classical school, complementing the author's defense of this school against a range of reformist detractors. Joyce re-imagines the pensum, or punitive copying of text, as a literary form in "Oxen of the Sun," and Pasolini's Salo radicalizes other instructional rites. Rocha's Claro, finally, marks the limits of the counter-progressive pedagogy that it continues, returning, like all of the works I consider, to school, to Rome, and to a history that it cannot escape.


Creating a database to manage medical data is not the easiest. We create a database to be used for a presentation tool that presents medical data about patients that is stored in the database. We examine which of the three databases, MySQL with relational design, MySQL with EAV design and MongoDB that are best suited for storing medical data. The analysis i performed in two steps. The first step handles the database that is most effective to retriev data. The second step examines how easy it is to change the structure of the various databases. The results show that depending on whether efficiency or maintenance is most important, different databases are the best choise. MySQL with relational design proves to be most effective while MongoDB is the easiest to maintain.


This chapter describes a study into the expected development of the competences of the project manager in the year 2027. The study was performed amongst the members of IPMA-The Netherlands during the summer of 2007. In the study the 46 competences of the International Competence Baseline 3 (ICB 3) were tested against the expectations of the respondents for the development of project management. Based on four scenarios for the future of Europe, the members indicated which of the competences are expected to become more important, equally important or less important than today. The aim of the study was to provide insight in the expected future development of the project management competences. This goal is relevant for both practitioners and educators.The conclusions are that the study shows indications that project management is developing from an 'occupation' into a true "profession". Part of this development is a broader orientation of the project manager in which especially the competences related to the relationship of the project with its environment grow strongly in importance.


ABSTRACT Mid-20th-century American writer Elizabeth Bishop used lists in her notes to collect and select language for her poems and to think associatively on the page, blurring the worlds of the everyday and the literary. Bishop's archival drafts, published poetry, and published prose evince a poetics of list-making that provided the writer with a means of achieving highly accurate descriptions that convey a spontaneous mind in motion, turn the catalog into a surrealist camera, and queer class boundaries via a fragmentary, nonhierarchical grammar. Ultimately, this project offers a new approach to queering the archive by suggesting a politics of preservation that foregrounds the ephemeral.


A finite element examination of the effect of delaminations on fracture characteristics of fibre metal laminate (Glare), by comparing energy release rates of normal cracks in laminates with and without delaminations, is presented in the paper. Glare comprising thin cracked 2024-T3 aerospace aluminum alloy layers alternately bonded with E-glass fibre based composite prepregs is considered for the analysis. Delaminations are modeled with interface cohesive elements. Energy release rates of normal cracks in laminates with delaminations are found to be higher than those in the laminates without delaminations.


The purpose of this thesis was to develop a serum-free medium which would support the growth of a human tumour cell line, RPMI 2650. Serum is used almost universally as a medium supplement to support growth of cells in culture, but investigators in the field have long recognised the problems associated with the undefined, complex and variable composition of serum whereas serum-free media permit growth of cells in a precisely-defined environment.

In order to gain experience in the techniques used to grow cells in culture in the absence of serum, initial work was carried out on a canine kidney cell line (MDCK), for which a serum-free medium had already been developed. Growth of RPMI 2650 was initially examined in reduced serum conditions at clonal cell densities and the effect of various growth factors, hormones and other nutritional factors was examined. Significant growth stimulation was observed due to the addition of a number of factors (transferrin, insulin, EGF and selenium).

Growth occurred in dishes precoated with DEAE dextran in the absence of any serum supplement following addition of medium containing six components (transferrin, insulin, epidermal growth factor, selenium, ascorbic acid and a commerciallyavailable amino acid mixture, MEM non-essential amino acids).


Purpose of reviewThere is agreement that the management of Behçet's syndrome has recently improved, especially with the wider use of biologics. The aim of this review is to summarize the current management strategies in Behçet's syndrome. Recent findingsThere is growing experience with tumor necrosis factor-alpha antagonists in the management of eye gastrointestinal and nervous disease in Behçet's syndrome. Interferon-alpha at lower doses may increase its tolerability. Other biologics such as interleukin 1-blocking agents and tocilizumab were used in a small number of patients and also seem to be effective. SummaryAlthough experiences with biologics have expanded and looks promising, this is mostly observational or retrospective. There still is a lack of controlled trials with these agents, especially in patients with major organ involvement.


Harvesting energy from the environment can be generated from various sources. One of the more common sources is the radiofrequency energy. Within eWALL (e Wall for Active Long Living) system, few RF technologies will be (Bluetooth, Zigbee, Wi-Fi, etc.). The paper will present energy harvesting methods using RF energy within eWALL system. Considerations will be conducted on the basis of the developed scenarios, with particular emphasis on users suffering from dementia. The collected energy can be used to power remote sensor nodes or for self-regulation of certain system components. eWALL is a system of intelligent services that will be possible to place in any corner of our home or health institution, which aims to facilitate the extension of active life expectancy of people with special needs. One of the targeted groups in eWALL system are elderly people with problems associated with dementia.


The productivity of the poultry industry like any other industry is hinged on adequate dissemination of information through appropriate channels. This study assessed the perceived effectiveness of agricultural information channels in marketing of poultry eggs in Ijebu North East local government area of Ogun state. Fifty four randomly selected poultry farmers and an equal number of purposively selected marketers were administered with questionnaires. Data on socioeconomic characteristics, availability and extent of use of AIC as well as perceived effectiveness of the channels were collected and analysed. Results showed that more of the farmers were male (81.7%) compared to the marketers, majority of the respondents had formal education (91.7%) and had over five years of experience in their trades (94.4 and 90.7%). Mobile phone was the most readily available and utilised AIC (97.2% and x = 1.46) while the presence of extension agents was not very pronounced (62.0% and x = 0.73). Inconsistent power supply (x =1.52) was the most limiting constraint to the use of the AIC. There was significant difference in the perceived effectiveness of AIC among poultry farmers and marketers (t=3.833, p.0.005). Sustained use of preferred channels of information was thus advocated while extension agents were urged to step up their activities. Keywords : egg marketing, extent of use, information channels


What are the key influences on today's highly competitive health care market? Are they relevant to medical devices and will they affect device manufacturers? This article attempts to answer these key questions and suggests that Managed Care will become the single most important issue in the next five years.


For manufacturing companies today, overseas productions are getting more and more important to compete in a global marketplace. This paper proposes an analysis method for an overseas production preparation process. First, the overseas production preparation is analyzed theoretically from the process point of view, with an emphasis on intermediate performance measures. Based on this analysis, an approach is used that does not assume the existence of current tasks. Physical cause-effect relations between design and measurement variables are utilized and dependency relations between tasks are generated based on the cause-effect relations. The process with different trial phases is optimized by considering the different degree of the trial accuracy coming from different environmental conditions. The technique is evaluated using real data of designing a die for a forging process. An improvement of around 40% has been found using parallel trials based on the process analysis result in comparison with sequential trials.


Five groundnut (Arachis hypogea L.) varieties - ICGV-12991, ICGV-99568, ICGV-90704, CG-2 and Chalimbana - that are adapted to Eastern and Southern Africa were compared to variety JL 24 for their regeneration response in tissue culture. Sodium hypochlorite and mercuric chloride were compared for efficiency as sterilizing agents and subsequent effect on regeneration. All five varieties formed shoot buds that elongated well on shoot elongation medium. ICGV-90704 and Chalimbana performed better than the other three varieties for shoot organogenesis although all varieties produced healthy rooted plants in vitro that were successfully transferred to the greenhouse where they exhibited normal growth, flowering and seed set. Both sterilizing agents were suitable, but mercuric chloride was less harmful than sodium hypochlorite. This study established a basis for genetic engineering activities on African groundnuts in the future.


Since the early 1990s, developing countries have seen a rapid growth in their outward investments. The share of South, East and South-East Asia in global outward FDI has substantially increased in the last two decades. Due to the increasing importance of this region in global outward FDI, this paper attempts to examine the home country determinants of outward FDI in ten select economies of the region. With the help of panel data for the period 1991-2010, this paper models the role of home country "push" factors in promoting outward FDI. A fixed effects (Least Squares Dummy Variables (LSDV)) model is developed that captures market conditions, policy variables, economic variables and production factors. We have also used Principal Component Analysis to augment the model's analytical richness. The results indicate that GDP and FDI openness are important home country factors affecting outward FDI. Countries with high GDP and a more liberal and open FDI policy have larger FDI outflows.


We derive upper bounds on the decoding error probability of binary block codes over noncoherent block additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and fading channels, with applications to turbo codes. By a block AWGN (or fading) channel, we mean that the carrier phase (or fading) is assumed to be constant over each block but independently varying from one block to another. The union bounds are derived for both noncoherent block AWGN and fading channels. For the block fading channel with a small number of fading blocks, we further derive an improved bound by employing Gallager's first bounding technique. The analytical bounds are compared to the simulation results for a coded block-based differential phase shift keying (B-DPSK) system under a practical noncoherent iterative decoding scheme proposed by Chen et al. We show that the proposed Gallager bound is very tight for the block fading channel with a small number of fading blocks, and the practical noncoherent receiver performs well for a wide range of block fading channels


The empirical research examining the association between typical measures of corporate governance and various accounting and economic outcomes has not produced a consistent set of results. We believe that these mixed results are partially attributable to the difficulty in generating reliable and valid measures for the complex construct that is termed corporate governance. Using a sample of 2,106 firms and 39 structural measures of corporate governance (e.g., board characteristics, stock ownership, institutional ownership, activist stock ownership, existence of debt-holders, mix of executive compensation, and anti-takeover variables), our exploratory principal component analysis suggests that there are 14 dimensions to corporate governance. We find that these indices have a mixed association with abnormal accruals, little relation to accounting restatements, but some ability to explain future operating performance and future excess stock returns.


This article examines how far special constables can act as the 'bridge' between police services and local communities, within the context of Scottish policing. I consider the literature around the core concepts of community policing, the condition of community policing Scotland, and the role that volunteer police officers can play in enhancing local policing. Then, I draw upon the findings from qualitative interviews and observations of special constables in one division of Police Scotland, to explore the nature of the special constabulary as a potential resource in community and local policing. Finally, I consider these findings in relation to the ongoing discussions of special constables' contribution to community policing, and how policing organizations might seek to enhance that contribution. This article, I believe, provides a unique contribution to the currently small but emerging field of research within police volunteerism, and brings the perspective of Scottish special constables to these discussions which have been primarily Anglo-centric.


In this study, we review the literature on climate change adaptation measures in the transport sector. Many of the measures proposed are rather conceptual and far from concrete, probably due to the fact that climate change effects on transport are either unknown or highly uncertain. Given the limited information on the potential magnitude of climate damages and the various uncertainties involved, postponement of adaptation investments may well be the most sensible strategy at the moment, especially when investments are substantial and irreversible. Furthermore, monitoring of relevant climatic changes and ongoing research into climate change effects are important elements of a pro-active adaptation strategy. Irreversible decisions, such as the ones on spatial organization, likely require a more active strategy, e.g. in the form of making spatial reservations. We further discuss the interdependency between optimal mitigation and adaptation, an issue that is often overlooked in the literature. Finally, most operators and governmental bodies are not used to dealing with risk and uncertainty, and generally base their decisions on single risk values only, likely leading to under- or overinvestment. We discuss several relevant topics in this area and highlight methods that can be used to better deal with these issues.


This article focuses on Rayburn and Palmgreen's (1984) expectancy-value model of gratifications to determine the way in which members of a group of blacks utilize television as a mass medium to satisfy certain needs through selective exposure to their favourite programmes. Also, an attempt is made to test the basic assumptions of the model. The sample consisted of 703 urban blacks in the PWV area, and was divided into four groups, viz. a satisfied, unrealistic, surprised, and passive group for each of news, educational, and story programmes. The results indicate that the majority of the respondents are satisfied with these television programmes of the SABC. It appears as if the model, which was tested for the whole sample regarding various programmes, should be adapted to enhance its applicability for intercultural studies and the use of television in general


The linear regression model is widely used in empirical work in Economics. Researchers often include many covariates in their linear model specification in an attempt to control for confounders. We give inference methods that allow for many covariates and heteroskedasticity. Our results are obtained using high-dimensional approximations, where the number of covariates are allowed to grow as fast as the sample size. We find that all of the usual versions of Eicker-White heteroskedasticity consistent standard error estimators for linear models are inconsistent under this asymptotics. We then propose a new heteroskedasticity consistent standard error formula that is fully automatic and robust to both (conditional) heteroskedasticity of unknown form and the inclusion of possibly many covariates. We apply our findings to three settings: (i) parametric linear models with many covariates, (ii) semiparametric semi-linear models with many technical regressors, and (iii) linear panel models with many fixed effects.


The Mammalian Crania Photographic Archive (MCPA2) is a website (http://1kai.dokkyomed.ac.jp/mammal/en/mammal.html) that includes a collection of 10,950 photographs of mammalian crania, which have been taken with a high-resolution digital camera. In the present report, we outline the characteristics of MCPA2 and how it was created, and make brief comparisons with several similar websites currently accessible via the internet. The archived MCPA2 materials include 1825 cranial specimens, ranging from insectivores to elephants, which have been macerated in Japan during the past 35 years and prepared for osteological study. Of the 16 orders represented in the database, primates comprise the major group with 704 specimens. Each cranium was placed with the orbitomeatal (Frankfort) or palatine plane horizontal, and was photographed in six perpendicular views from a long distance using a telephoto or telemacro lens. These long-distance shots decrease perspective distortion that lead to measurement errors when studying cranial profiles and landmark positions, and enable detailed observation and measurement of specific bony characteristics on a computer screen. From our website, images can be searched using (1) the taxonomic table, (2) Japanese name, (3) English name, and (4) scientific name. In the page of search results, in addition to the images, four caliper measurements and additional text (taxonomy, sex, and age) are available for every specimen.


This study investigated the effects of positive versus negative self-talk on self-esteem, happiness, and body satisfaction levels, and the effects of viewing images of overweight and thin women on these variables. In the first study, female participants (N = 79) were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Each group was asked to complete a specific task, which was describing either positive or negative attributes about their own body and/or physical appearance or own personality. In the second study, female participants (N = 99) were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group viewed images of overweight women. The second group viewed images of thin women. The third group viewed images of women's smiling faces, with no photos of the body. Significant positive and negative correlations were found possibly indicating society lacks recognition that females are at risk for negative self-beliefs relating directly back to personal body-esteem. Self-esteem, body image, eating disorders, physical appearance Examining the Effects of Women"s Body Image and Body Satisfaction on Self-Esteem, Happiness, and Body Satisfaction


Spelling variation is something that all English users often come across and Australians are no exception. The Langscape 1 survey conducted in 1998 examined a number of lexemes with more than one spelling in a number of varieties of English including Australian English (AusE). This study presents the results of two later surveys that were conducted online in 2005 and 2013 and included a selection of the lexemes also examined in the Langscape survey. The present study concentrates on two types of spelling variation: the spelling of the classical digraphs ae/oe as in aesthetic and diarrhoea and the preservation of e before suffixes as in likeable and judgement. The purpose is to see if the spelling of 'the extra letter' is preferred or whether the simpler spellings are becoming more common in Australian English. The possible American English (AmE) influence also comes into question as it has been shown by previous research that Americans are more likely to use the shorter spellings than either British English (BrE) or Australian English users (see, for example, Peters 1998 for the results of the first Langscape survey).


This work presents a modification approach and first measurements of commercial cylindrical Li-ion cells with multiple local potential probes and an internal temperature sensor. Local potential measurements at low currents show a non-uniform potential distribution along the electrode, dominated by the open circuit voltage (OCV) of the negative electrode. For higher currents, the overpotential along the current collector becomes dominant and instead of a corrugated potential distribution, a significant current dependent voltage gradient can be detected, indicating a highly non-uniform state of charge (SOC) distribution with increasing distance to the current collecting tab. After the discharge operation, a quick potential equalization can be witnessed which results in a non-detectable potential difference between the single electrode sections after 12 min, even though the overall cell voltage relaxation has not reached an equilibrium state yet. The presented modification approach combines the advantages of high quality industrial manufactured cells showing uniform coating thicknesses and packing density with the advantages of special tailor made cells for in situ measurements. Due to the low impact of the modification and its long-term stability, highly reproducible measurements can be conducted at different locations of the electrodes.


While the demand for machine learning (ML) applications is booming, there is a scarcity of data scientists capable of building such models. Automatic machine learning (AutoML) approaches have been proposed that help with this problem by synthesizing end-to-end ML data processing pipelines. However, these follow a best-effort approach and a user in the loop is necessary to curate and refine the derived pipelines. Since domain experts often have little or no expertise in machine learning, easy-to-use interactive interfaces that guide them throughout the model building process are necessary. In this paper, we present Visus, a system designed to support the model building process and curation of ML data processing pipelines generated by AutoML systems. We describe the framework used to ground our design choices and a usage scenario enabled by Visus. Finally, we discuss the feedback received in user testing sessions with domain experts.


We consider finite-horizon Markov Decision Processes where parameters, such as transition probabilities, are unknown and estimated from data. The popular distributionally robust approach to addressing the parameter uncertainty can sometimes be overly conservative. In this paper, we propose a new formulation, Bayesian risk Markov Decision Process (BR-MDP), to address parameter uncertainty in MDPs, where a risk functional is applied in nested form to the expected total cost with respect to the Bayesian posterior distribution of the unknown parameters. The proposed formulation provides more flexible risk attitutes towards parameter uncertainty and takes into account the availability of data in future times stages. To solve the proposed formulation with the conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) risk functional, we propose an efficient approximation algorithm by deriving an analytical approximation of the value function and utilizing the convexity of CVaR. We demonstrate the empirical performance of the BR-MDP formulation and proposed algorithms on a gambler's betting problem and an inventory control problem.


Muscle loss occurs following injury and immobilization in adulthood and childhood, which impairs the rehabilitation process; however, far fewer studies have been conducted analyzing atrophic response in infants. This work investigated first the morphological and molecular mechanisms involved in immobilization-induced atrophy in soleus muscles from rats at different stages of postnatal development [i.e., weanling (WR) and adult (AR) rats] and, second, the role of autophagy in regulating muscle plasticity during immobilization. Hindlimb immobilization for 10 days reduced muscle mass and fiber cross-sectional area, with more pronounced atrophy in WR, and induced slow-to-fast fiber switching. These effects were accompanied by a decrease in markers of protein synthesis and an increase in autophagy. The ubiquitin (Ub)-ligase MuRF1 and the ubiquitinated proteins were upregulated by immobilization in AR while the autolyzed form of μ-calpain was increased in WR. To further explore the role of autophagy in muscle abnormalities, AR were concomitantly immobilized and treated with colchicine, which blocks autophagosome-lysosome fusion. Colchicine-treated immobilized muscles had exacerbated atrophy and presented degenerative features. Despite Igf1/Akt signaling was downregulated in immobilized muscles from both age groups, Foxo1 and 4 phosphorylation was increased in WR. In the same group of animals, Foxo1 acetylation and Foxo1 and 4 content was increased and decreased, respectively. Our data show that muscle disorders induced by 10-day-immobilization occur in both age-dependent and -independent manners, an understanding that may optimize treatment outcomes in infants. We also provide further evidence that the strong inhibition of autophagy may be ineffective for treating muscle atrophy.