Deep probabilistic generative models have achieved incredible success in many fields of application. Among such models, variational autoencoders (VAEs) have proved their ability in modeling a generative process by learning a latent representation of the input. In this paper, we propose a novel VAE defined in the quaternion domain, which exploits the properties of quaternion algebra to improve performance while significantly reducing the number of parameters required by the network. The success of the proposed quaternion VAE with respect to traditional VAEs relies on the ability to leverage the internal relations between quaternion-valued input features and on the properties of second-order statistics which allow to define the latent variables in the augmented quaternion domain. In order to show the advantages due to such properties, we define a plain convolutional VAE in the quaternion domain and we evaluate its performance with respect to its real-valued counterpart on the CelebA face dataset.


Understanding the causes of breakthrough in filtration is essential worldwide. Breakthrough links many factors, such as filtration flow rate and flow rate changes, temperature, chemical dosing, raw water quality, etc. These factors can affect floc strength, which has been recognized as one of the most important factors in filter efficiency and particle breakthrough, related to Cryptosporidium outbreaks. This research aims to investigate particle breakthrough related to temperature and chemical dosing. Experiments were conducted to establish the relationship between temperature and chemical dosing changes to floc strength and particle breakthrough. The temperature was set at a series range as 5 °C, 15 °C and 25 °C. Each was combined with a series of Al dose changes. A laser particle counter was installed to assess the particle breakthrough online. ζ potential and turbidity were measured before (after coagulation) and after filtration. The results show particle breakthrough is influenced significantly by temperature and dosing. Particle breakthrough increased rapidly at lower temperatures but at higher temperatures it reduced at the same coagulant dose. With coagulants, even at low doses, particle breakthrough reduced significantly. There is an optimal dose in filtration; the optimal dose gives a ζ potential equal to about zero.


The cutaneous basement membrane (BM) consists mainly of polymeric collagen-IV and laminin-10 and associated mono-/oligomeric laminin-5, nidogen, and perlecan. Since BM-defects in transgenic or knockout mice are mostly lethal at early developmental stages, we have studied the role of nidogen specifically in 3D-cocultures of human keratinocytes (HK) and fibroblasts (human/mouse, HF/MF) by either blocking interactions or implementing molecular deficiencies. HK or HaCaT cells were grown on collagen gels harboring HF or MF from normal or ko-mice. Nidogen-laminin interaction was blocked by the laminin-fragment (gamma-1-III3-5, L-gamma-f) binding nidogen. BM-formation was surveyed by immunofluorescence (IF), regular (EM), immuno-electron microscopy (IEM), and Western blots of protein extracts of separated epithelial and `dermal' tissue. In 3D-cocultures of HK and HF L-gamma-f blocked mainly deposition of nidogen, laminin-10, and perlecan. Whereas the hemidesmosomal/BM components laminin-5, BP180, and integrin alpha6beta4 were still detectable (IF), by EM and IEM any BM-structures or hemidesmosomes (insertion of keratins) were absent. The fibroblast-made nidogen was eliminated by employing MF from nidogen-1/-2 ko-mice. In 3D-cocultures with HaCaT cells nidogen1/2 (??/++)-MF abolished nidogen-1 staining, but (??/+?)-MF reduced additionally nidogen-2, collagen-IV, and laminin-10. Absence of nidogens (??/??) further abolished collagen-IV and laminin-5; integrins such as alpha6beta4 appear normal (IIF). BM-formation could be reinstalled with recombinant nidogen-1 or -2. BM-perlecan, for comparison, is apparently synthesized also by keratinocytes. Thus, deficiency in either cell type did not affect BM-formation, demonstrated by growing perlecan (?/?)-MF or HaCaT antisense-perlecan cells with normal keratinocytes or fibroblasts, respectively. Accordingly, BM-components are efficiently recruited for ultrastructural assembly in this skin model.


In multiprocessor systems, the traffic on the bus does not solely originate from data transfers due to data dependencies between tasks, but is also affected by memory transfers as result of cache misses. This has a huge impact on worst-case execution time (WCET) analysis and, in general, on the predictability of real-time applications implemented on such systems. As opposed to the WCET analysis performed for a single processor system, where the cache miss penalty is considered constant, in a multiprocessor system each cache miss has a variable penalty, depending on the bus contention. This affects the tasks' WCET which, however, is needed in order to perform system scheduling. At the same time, the WCET depends on the system schedule due to the bus interference. In this paper we present an approach to worst-case execution time analysis and system scheduling for real-time applications implemented on multiprocessor SoC architectures. The emphasis of this paper is on the bus scheduling policy and its optimization, which is of huge importance for the performance of such a predictable multiprocessor application.


In this paper, we explore how the emotional behavior of a robot affects interactions with humans. We introduce the EMI platform - an expressive, mobile and interactive robot - consisting of a circular diff-drive robot base equipped with a rear-projected expressive face, and omni-directional microphone for voice-interaction. We exhibited the EMI robot at a public event, in which attendees were given the option to interact with the robot and participate in a survey and observational study. The survey and observations focused on the effects of the robot's expressiveness in interactions with users of different ages and cultural backgrounds. From the survey responses, video observations and informal interviews we highlight key design decisions in EMI that resulted in positive user reactions.


Only when anatomists learned the art of fixation was a proper study of the human brain made possible, yet the importance and vulnerability of this organ were known before the dawn of reason. Philosophers in the warmer climes of Mediterranean countries inust have been tantalized by its diffluent nature when exposed on the battlefield or on dissection. It is not difficult, therefore, to appreciate why the patteming of the cerebral cortex received scant attention for so long. A more important reason for the neglect of the cerebral gyri-and it is well brought out in this splendid iconography of the brain-is that from the sixth century B.C. to the middle of the seventeenth century interest was centred on the ventricular system. Change in outlook began only when Franciscus de la Boe (Sylvius) and Willis focused attention on the grey matter. The ventricles were well portrayed by Vesalius, although it would appear that he had doubts about "the cell doctrine" of brain function, adumbrated by Herophilus and Galen and postulated in its medieval form by Nemesius and St. Augustin. Two and a half centuries after Vesalius, Soemerring (1796), perhaps influenced by Descartes's teachings, relapsed into earlier thinking and produced a realistic and beautiful illustration of the brain cut sagittally to reveal the repository of the soul. The convolutions were for long likened to and depicted as small intestine, as had been noted by Erasistratus and were so shown in a posthumous work (1805) of Vicq d' Azyr, or as clouds in the sky, or even as macaroni. But pictorial representation of the cortex had improved with the efforts of Santorini (1775) and others, while embryologists, comparative anatomists, and microscopists had all made their contributions to knowledge. Yet it was the phrenologists, and especially Gall, who, in spite of their mistaken premises, did most of all to encourage cerebral topography. Gratiolet's satisfactory representation of the cortex with the gyri named appeared, it may be noted, in 1854, the year when Huschka produced the first lithograph photograph of the brain. This beautifully produced monograph covers a variety of topics and includes oriental concepts, misconceptions arising out of the discovery of the rete mirabile, views on eye movements, Fludd's striking diagram (1618), in which a place is found in the ventricles for man's built-in archangel and other celestial bodies, and the fantastic extravaganza of Redfield, who, by combining phrenology with physiognomy, was enabled to relegate his centre 149 (for republicanism!) to the angle of the mandible. The numerous illustrations, which merit most careful study, vary in date from the 11th century to one of Osler's brain. The temporal perspective of the more classical diagrams is rendered complete by the inclusion of a sample ventriculogram, arteriogram, and brain scan. The text and the explanatory notes are succinct, critical, and important; in effect they survey the history of medicine and philosophy. Each of the 13 chapters has a valuable annotated bibliography. In short, this is an important and unique work of lasting value, which will have an appeal by no means confined to the medical profession. It is dedicated to the memory of Charles D. O'Malley.


Development of various forms of agricultural activities in urban areas in developed countries is becoming increasingly important. This is due to a very high intensity of urbanisation and suburbanisation processes. The owners of farms located in areas of direct impact cities operate in a challenging market, where strong completion for land, local regulations on land development and planning often significantly hinder development and even maintaining agricultural production. Thus, to increase the chances of survival and development, managers of the holdings must apply business model adequate to local conditions. The aim of this study was the characteristics of the different business models on the example of 20 urban farms located in the Ruhr and Upper Silesia Metropolis. Results demonstrated that, in principle, there are 3 main business models, i.e. diversification, specialisation and differentiation. The choice of a particular business model is derived from the local natural and cultural resources, owned land and capital, but also it is very dependent on knowledge and expertise of farm managers.


Irvingia gabonensis has medicinal properties and lowers blood sugar levels often associated with diabetes mellitus when incorporated in the diet. The pr esent study examined hematologic potentials of I. gabonensis Baill. exLanen. (Irvingiaceae) stem bark extract in cadmium - induced male rats. Twenty male rats (100 - 190 g) were divided into four groups of five rats each group. Group A were control rats, group B received cadmium only, group C received cadmium and 200 mg/kg dosage of extract and group D received cadmium and 400 mg/kg dosage of extract.Increasing doses (200 and 400 mg/kg body weight) of I. gabonensis ethanol stem bark extract were administered by oral gavage to the other two treatment group C and D.The animals were sacrificed using diethyl ether, and their blood sample collected into ethylenediaminetetra acid (EDTA) bottles, for assessing hemoglobin (Hb), red blood cell (RBC), packed cell volume ( PCV), white blood cell (WBC) count and WBC differentials, mean corpuscular volume (MCV), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) an d mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (MCHC). The results shows reduction (p > 0.05) in the hemoglobin level (11.1 ± 0.05 g/d l)and WBC count (1.2 ± 0.01) (X 10 3 mm 3 ) of cadmium untreated group and reversing all abnormalities in the hematological parameters determined when comparing with t he extract treated groups, most especially at 400 mg/kg (16.2 ± 0.37 g/dl) and (4.36 ± 0.12) (X 10 3 mm 3 ). In conclusion, I. gabonensis has a protective effect on blood profile


We investigate the training and performance of generative adversarial networks using the Maximum Mean Discrepancy (MMD) as critic, termed MMD GANs. As our main theoretical contribution, we clarify the situation with bias in GAN loss functions raised by recent work: we show that gradient estimators used in the optimization process for both MMD GANs and Wasserstein GANs are unbiased, but learning a discriminator based on samples leads to biased gradients for the generator parameters. We also discuss the issue of kernel choice for the MMD critic, and characterize the kernel corresponding to the energy distance used for the Cramer GAN critic. Being an integral probability metric, the MMD benefits from training strategies recently developed for Wasserstein GANs. In experiments, the MMD GAN is able to employ a smaller critic network than the Wasserstein GAN, resulting in a simpler and faster-training algorithm with matching performance. We also propose an improved measure of GAN convergence, the Kernel Inception Distance, and show how to use it to dynamically adapt learning rates during GAN training.


Background Frailty is recognised as an important public health concern among older people due to its detrimental consequences on health. Alcohol consumption may be a plausible risk factor for frailty. There is only limited evidence in the literature on association between alcohol and frailty, which is still controversial. Therefore we investigated the relationship between alcohol consumption and the risk of incident frailty. Methods A total of 2544 community-dwelling older people aged >60 years from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing were followed for incident frailty over four years according to alcohol consumption. Frailty was defined using Fried frailty phenotype criteria with slight modification according to data availability. Questionnaire data on alcohol consumption was grouped into non-drinkers, >0–7 units/week, >7–14 units/week, >14–21 units/week, >21 units/week. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine incident frailty risk. Results Compared with those drinking >0–7 units per week (reference), those drinking >21 units per week were less likely to develop frailty (Odds ratio (OR)=0.45, 95% confidence interval (CI)=0.27–0.73, p<0.001) in the unadjusted model, however the association became non-significant in the fully adjusted model controlling for age, gender, smoking, education and wealth (OR=0.65, 95% CI 0.38 to 1.11, p=0.12). There was no significant difference in incident frailty risk in those drinking >7–14 and >14–21 units per week compared to >0–7 units per week in any models. Non-drinkers had worse health profile and higher incident frailty risk than drinkers (fully adjusted OR=1.63, 95% CI 1.07 to 2.48, p=0.02). Conclusion In this cohort non-drinkers had a significantly higher risk of developing frailty compared to light drinkers (>0–7 units per week). No significant associations were observed among drinkers. The true association between alcohol and frailty may have been affected by a 'sick-quitter' effect (i.e. drinkers who are ill health tend to reduce or cease alcohol use), which should be addressed in future research.


Vehicle re-identification (Re-ID) often requires one to recognize the fine-grained visual differences between vehicles. Besides the holistic appearance of vehicles which is easily affected by the viewpoint variation and distortion, vehicle parts also provide crucial cues to differentiate near-identical vehicles. Motivated by these observations, we introduce a Part-Guided Attention Network (PGAN) to pinpoint the prominent part regions and effectively combine the global and part information for discriminative feature learning. PGAN first detects the locations of different part components and salient regions regardless of the vehicle identity, which serve as the bottom-up attention to narrow down the possible searching regions. To estimate the importance of detected parts, we propose a Part Attention Module (PAM) to adaptively locate the most discriminative regions with high-attention weights and suppress the distraction of irrelevant parts with relatively low weights. The PAM is guided by the Re-ID loss and therefore provides top-down attention that enables attention to be calculated at the level of car parts and other salient regions. Finally, we aggregate the global appearance and part features to improve the feature performance further. The PGAN combines part-guided bottom-up and top-down attention, global and part visual features in an end-to-end framework. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the proposed method achieves new state-of-the-art vehicle Re-ID performance on four large-scale benchmark datasets.


We implemented a completely label-free biophysical (morphometric and optical) property characterization of living monocytes in flow, using measurements obtained from two coherent imaging techniques: a pure light scattering approach to obtain an optical signature (OS) of cells, and a digital holography (DH) approach to achieve optical cell reconstructions in flow. A precise 3D cell alignment platform, taking advantage of viscoelastic fluid properties and microfluidic channel geometry, was used to investigate the OS of cells to achieve their refractive index, ratio of the nucleus over cytoplasm, and overall cell dimension. Further quantitative phase-contrast reconstructions by DH were employed to calculate surface area, dry mass, and biovolume of monocytes by using the OS outcomes as input parameters. The results show significantly different biophysical cell properties, confirming the possibility to differentiate monocytes from other cell classes in flow, thus avoiding chemical cell staining or labeling, which are nowadays used.


This dissertation reports on the research to design
and build a pulsed fiber laser with the Er doped fiber based on a
new mode locking technique. The numerical simulations begin by
launching an optical wave in a fiber which will be amplified during
propagation. The device to mode-lock the waves is outside the
fiber, but connecting to fibers at both ends; it is a nonlinear
optical material that can reshape the beam as it propagates using a
nonlinear change of the refractive index, which is called a Kerr
effect. The device is made with a nonlinear material sandwiched
between two fiber ends; it takes an optical field from one end of
the fiber and propagates it to the other fiber end. In between the
two ends, a nonlinear medium will be used to balance the
diffraction through Kerr effect (which can lead to Self-focusing of
the optical beam). With the second fiber end working as a soft
aperture, the combination of the self-focusing effect through the
nonlinear medium and the aperture will act as an intensity
dependent coupling loss; this effect is referred to as a fast
saturable absorber which means that higher intensity corresponds to
higher coupling efficiency and thus the cavity modes will be
gradually phase locked together to form pulses. The saturable
absorber action is calculated using different nonlinear mediums
( CS 2 ,
 As 2 S 2
and
 As 40 Se 60 )
and the fibers used are assumed to be of the same size.Whole cavity
simulation is then conducted using the proposed SA design and the
pulse energy produced from the laser cavity is generally below 1
nJ. In those simulations the pulse peak power is weak and the
saturable absorber action is not strong.Experiments are designed to
test the mode locking idea with the chalcogenide glass plate
( As 40 Se 60 ).
Firstly, a mode locked laser is constructed from a ring fiber laser
cavity with an Er doped fiber as the gain fiber. Three modes from
this cavity are routinely generated. Two modes have pulse durations
of 220 fs and 160 fs with spectral width of about 30 nm and 40 nm,
respectively. Mode 3 is more interesting since it covers a huge
spectrum range (1490 to 1640 nm) and the pulse duration is
estimated to be about 40 fs from the transform limited pulse
calculated from the spectrum, which could be the shortest pulse
ever reported from an Er doped fiber laser. Further efforts are
needed to better dechirp the pulse to verify the transform limited
calculation. Due to the weak saturable absorber action from the
original design, we use a telescope design to test our SA idea in
experiment; the ChG
 As 40 Se 60
plate is placed inside a telescope which is then inserted into the
laser cavity explained in previous paragraph. The telescope design
is used to focus the pulse so that higher level of nonlinearity is
induced. Then an iris is placed behind the glass plate to create a
transmission discrimination mechanism against different powers
(Kerr…


This work describes a monolithic integrated active frequency doubler for frequencies up to 42 GHz in a pre-production 0.4 /spl mu/m SiGe bipolar technology. Gain is achieved at the input power of -12 dBm between 18 and 42 GHz with maximum of 8.6 dB at 30 GHz. The circuit may be used for future broadband wireless services like LMDS at 28 and 38 GHz or MVDS at 42 GHz.


Various methods which are commonly used for the wastewater treatment for heavy metals, In the present work the free and immobilized cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa., Klebsiella pneumoniae, were studied as biosorbent materials for the removal of Zn, Mg, and Ba from aqueous solution. . The both free cell and immobilized cells of Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed maximum sorption of heavy metals (Zn, Mg, and Ba) compared with Klebsiella pneumoniae. In this study % of sorption capability was calculated by using Gravimetric method. Pseudomonas aeruginosa has high ability of heavy metal sorption such as Zn, Mg, and Ba compared with Klebsiella pneumoniae sorption ability of Zn, Mg and Ba. The reaction mixtures were incubated with varied initial concentration of biomass to verify the change on the sorption capacity of the bacterial biomass. The biosorption concentration was increased simultaneously heavy metal sorption ability also increased when the biomass concentration increased. The different parameters like biomass concentration, pH, contact time and temperature were also analyzed. Hence these organisms are used for the wastewater treatment, which is a cheapest method, due to the biosorption capacity of the organisms. The biosorption performance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae can be implemented practically for the treatment of wastewater. 2009 Trade Science Inc. INDIA


Traditional model-free prediction approaches, such as neural networks or fuzzy models use all training data without preference in building their prediction models. Alternately, one may make predictions based only on a set of the most recent data without using other data. Usually, such local prediction schemes may have better performance in predicting time series than global prediction schemes do. However, local prediction schemes only use the most recent information and ignore information bearing on far away data. As a result, the accuracy of local prediction schemes may be limited. In this paper a novel prediction approach, termed the Markov-Fourier gray model (MFGM), is proposed. The approach builds a gray model from a set of the most recent data and a Fourier series is used to fit the residuals produced by this gray model. Then, the Markov matrices are employed to encode possible global information generated also by the residuals. It is evident that MFGM can provide the best performance among existing prediction schemes. Besides, we also implemented a short-term MFGM approach, in which the Markov matrices only recorded information for a period of time instead of all data. The predictions using MFGM again are more accurate than those using short-term MFGM. Thus, it is concluded that the global information encoded in the Markov matrices indeed can provide useful information for predictions.


Gargantulides B and C, two new and highly complex 52-membered glycosylated macrolactones, were isolated from Amycolatopsis sp. strain CA-230715 during an antibacterial screening campaign. The structures of these giant macrolides were elucidated by 2D NMR spectroscopy and shown to be related to gargantulide A, although containing additional β-glucopyranose and/or α-arabinofuranose monosaccharides separately attached to their backbones. Genome sequencing allowed the identification of a strikingly large 216 kbp biosynthetic gene cluster, among the largest type I PKS clusters described so far, and the proposal of a biosynthetic pathway for gargantulides A-C. Additionally, genes putatively responsible for the biosynthesis of the amino sugar β-3,6-deoxy-3-methylamino glucose, reported exclusively in gargantulide macrolides, were also found in the cluster and described in this work. The absolute configurations of gargantulides B and C were assigned based on a combination of NMR and bioinformatics analysis of ketoreductase and enoylreductase domains within the multimodular type I PKS. Furthermore, the absolute stereochemistry of the related macrolide gargantulide A has now been revised and completed. Gargantulides B and C display potent antibacterial activity against a set of drug-resistant Gram-positive bacteria and moderate activity against the clinically relevant Gram-negative pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii.


The two evolutionary psychological hypotheses that men react more jealous than women to sexual infidelity and women react more jealous than men to emotional infidelity are currently controversial because of apparently inconsistent results. We suggest that these inconsistencies can be resolved when the two hypotheses are evaluated separately and when the underlying cognitive processes are considered. We studied jealousy with forced‐choice decisions and emotion ratings in a general population sample of 284 adults aged 20–30 years using six infidelity dilemmas and recordings of reaction times. The sex difference for emotional jealousy existed for decisions under cognitive constraint, was also evident in the decision speed, increased for faster decisions, and was stronger for participants with lower education. No evidence for a sex difference in sexual jealousy was found. Our results support the view of a specific female sensitivity to emotional infidelity that canalizes the development of an adaptive sex difference in emotional jealousy conditional to the sociocultural environment. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Primary malignant lymphomas of the breast (PBL) are uncommon. the authors report the clinical, histologic, and immunoperoxidase findings on 20 cases recorded at the Alberta Cancer Registry over the last 23 years. These cases were then added to material on 257 cases abstracted from the literature and analyzed. It was found that there are two clinicopathologic types of PBL. the first affects pregnant or lactating women with bilateral, diffuse disease, is rapidly fatal, and corresponds histologically to a Burkitt's‐type lymphoma. the second is unilateral at presentation and afflicts a broad age range, but primarily older women. This has a variable course only part of which is predicted by histologic grade and stage. Tumor size, treatment, and side of presentation were not found to be significant prognostic factors. Histologically, these tumors can be grouped into large cell B‐cell lymphomas, monocytoid B‐cell lymphomas (MBCL), and undifferentiated, some of which may be T‐cell. Evidence suggesting that the MBCL of breast are the equivalent of the malignant lymphomas of the mucosa‐associated lymphoid tissues (MALT) is reviewed. the breast is a hormone‐dependent member of the MALT and therefore it is interesting that two of these tumors were strongly positive for estrogen receptors.


Abstract. Generating accurate elevation data from satellite images is a prerequisite step for applications that involve disaster forecasting and management using GIS platforms. In this respect, the high resolution satellite optical sensors may be regarded as one of the prime and valuable sources for generating accurate and updated elevation information. However, one of the main drawbacks of conventional approaches for automatic elevation generation from these satellite optical data using image matching techniques is the lack of flexibility in the image matching functional models to take dynamically into account the geometric and radiometric dissimilarities between the homologue stereo image points. The classical least squares image matching (LSM) method, on the other hand, is quite flexible in incorporating the geometric and radiometric variations of image pairs into its functional model. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate and compare the potential of the LSM technique for generating disparity maps from high resolution satellite images to achieve sub pixel precision. To evaluate the rate of success of the LSM, the size of the y-disparities between the homologous points is taken as the precision criteria. The evaluation is performed on the Cartosat-1 stereo along track images over a highly mountainous terrain. The precision improvement is judged based on the standard deviation and the scatter pattern of the y-disparity data. The analysis of the results indicate that, the LSM has achieved the matching precision of about 0.18 pixels which is clearly superior to the manual pointing that yielded the precision of 0.37 pixels.


GTPase activity was studied in plasma membranes purified from the clonal β-cell line RINm5F. GTPase activities were identified as two broad classes with high or low affinity for GTP. The low-affinity GTPase activity had a Km >60 μM. In contrast, the high-affinity activity had a Km of 225 nM. Only the high-affinity activity was stimulated by galanin. The stimulated activity had a higher Km (448 nM) and Vmax (75 pmol PI · min−1 · mg−1 protein) compared with the basal. This does not necessarily reflect a complex mechanism of stimulation. Rather, it may reflect that basal activity most likely results from multiple GTPases, whereas the stimulated activity probably reflects one or two specific GTPases. Galanin stimulated the high-affinity GTPase, over the concentration range in which it inhibits stimulated insulin secretion, to a maximal rate 80% greater than the basal rate. The EC50 was 5 nM. Murine and porcine galanin had similar potencies and intrinsic activities on the GTPase. Treatment of the RINmSF cells with PTX before making membranes completely eliminated the stimulatory effect of galanin. Thus, galanin stimulates PTX-sensitive GTPase activity in RINm5F cell membranes in a manner consistent with receptor activation.


"Get Synched!" It's all about students and instructors tuning in to each other. And technology makes it possible. New Perspectives on Computer Concepts 2010 is the only computer concepts product with a fully integrated and truly interactive teaching and learning environment. The printed book, companion Web site, interactive BookOnCD, and WebTrack assessment help instructors and students work synchronously to understand and apply technology in their personal and professional lives.


Bequest behavior is a highly delicate and complex subject which requires considerable attention by researchers across all disciplines including economics, sociology and psychology. Studying the motives behind bequests becomes critical not only from a socio-psychological perspective but also from a policy perspective. This paper attempts to explore the socio- economic reasons which influence the intention to bequest focusing specifically on the effect of religious affiliation. This study uses survey data from India to test the hypotheses drawn from the anthropology, sociology and consumer behavior literature using logistic regression technique. The results indicate that self-interest negatively impacts the probability of leaving a legacy. Surprisingly, the study finds evidence for negative relationship between religious affiliation and leaving a bequest. This study also reveals that unmarried women are less likely to leave a bequest. Unlike in the philanthropic literature, the research could not find satisfactory evidence of altruism and social norms driving bequest behavior among Indians.


A new quality factor enhanced resonator core is presented and used to design a bandpass filter at 2.4GHz. The new Q-enhanced LC-tank has independent Q tuning capability, which substantially simplifies the automatic Q-tuning problem. In simulation, the unloaded Q-enhanced core consumes 7.05mA from a 1.8V supply in 0.18/spl mu/m CMOS and can be tuned from 2.1GHz to 3.5GHz using varactors. A brief discussion of the proposed automatic Q-tuning system is presented. The synthesized 2.45GHz filter has a bandwidth of 148MHz, 0dB insertion loss over a 10% tuning range, and a 1/sup st/ order compression point of -0.5dBm at 2.35GHz.


The Independent Living Scale (ILS) was developed in a post-acute traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation facility over a 15-year period to assess three main areas: (1) activities of daily living, (2) behaviour, and (3) initiation. The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the ILS, including test-retest stability, construct validity, and statistical fit. Statistical analysis was completed on all weekly scores between the years 1986-1995 (n = 5250). A previous study showed ILS inter-rater reliability to be 0.85 and convergent validity 0.82-0.87. This study demonstrated a test-retest stability of 0.72, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy 0.94 (marvelous), and a Bartlett Test of Sphericity result of 'scale items independent'. The ILS was shown to have good construct validity, inter-rater reliability, internal consistency, instrument stability, and convergent validity.


The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of program of integrated arts therapy on young female delinquents' who experienced emotional and behavioral problems in a correctional institution. The outlined intervention was introduced as part of a curriculum involving art therapy, drama therapy, music therapy, and dance/movement therapy sessions that were facilitated twice a week during a 5-week period. A quasi-experimental design was used where an intervention group (N = 12) and a control group (N = 17) members aged 14 - 17 years were evaluated at two time points. A self-report version of Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and a modified Behavior Checklist (BC) were used prior to and after the intervention to screen for conduct, emotional, peer problems, hyperactivity, and prosocial behavior, and to investigate the frequencies of aggressive, withdrawn and prosocial behavior. There were statistically significant reductions in three of the five emotional and behavioral problems measured by the SDQ, including conduct and emotional problems, an increase of prosocial behavior, and significant differences in two domains measured by the BC: decrease in frequencies of aggressive behavior and increase of prosocial behavior.


Participation in soccer at the intercollegiate level has increased dramatically in the United States over the past 20 years. Past studies have identified the frequency and mechanisms of musculoskeletal injury among various populations. However, data on the incidence and etiology of skin trauma associated with intercollegiate athletic participation is limited in the literature. The purpose of this study was to measure the frequency of skin trauma and determine the injury rate (IR) based on exposure to injury among male and female soccer student-athletes at a NCAA Division II institution. A case reporting and exposure form was used to collect the data over a competitive soccer season. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the data. A total of 18 wounds were documented, 11 (61%) among males and 7 (39%) among females. The overall IR for males was 4.6 wounds/1000 athletic exposures (AE) and females 3.9 wounds /1000 AE. The most common wounds were blisters (83.3%) and abrasions (16.7%) occurring most frequently to midfielders (61%). The most common mechanism of injury was rubbing/friction (94.4%) through contact with clothing (44.4%). The reported wounds occurred during practice (77.8%) and competition (11.1%) activities on grass (94.4%). The most frequently injured body locations were the foot (38.9%) and heel (27.8%). As risk factors are identified, steps toward prevention, management, and cost-effectiveness strategies can be developed.


We study vertical integration and product innovation (in the form of horizontal product differentiation) as interdependent strategic choices of vertically related firms. We consider product innovation in the downstream market as a strategic decision of innovative firms facing a threat of vertical integration and market foreclosure by an upstream monopolist. Our main finding is that, although product differentiation allows to soften product market competition and to avoid market foreclosure, the downstream market may prefer less product differentiation to deter vertical integration. Therefore, less product innovation can be a possible social cost of a lenient antitrust policy.


We investigate energy consumption in university computer labs, in order to determine strategies for reducing energy costs without adversely affecting lab users. This research is part of a multi-stage project that incorporates data gathering, analysis, solution exploration, model development, and strategy implementation. In this paper, we report primarily on the first three stages, along with some discussion of strategy implementation. The initial data gathering was conducted at Abilene Christian University (ACU), across five computer labs, with over 100 computers surveyed. These computers have been used as a representative sample of computer configurations across the ACU campus, due to their near uniform hardware and software configurations according to the university's IT policies and procedures. Based on our data collection, we compared the computers' idle time with their actual usage time, and show that a large amount of energy is being unnecessarily wasted. With this data, we calculated the current energy usage of the surveyed computers, and then extrapolated our findings to the rest of the university based on ACU's computer lab equipment list. Simple strategies such as switching computers to sleep soon after class, running a campaign to switch off monitors, and waking the computers on LAN, are shown to substantially reduce energy waste. Across ACU, we estimate thousands of dollars per year in savings. Finally, we also discuss concerns and challenges related to the proposed strategies, and proffer some solutions to illustrate the feasibility of our recommendations.


For theorem proving applications, the aspect calculus for reasoning about states and actions has some advantages over existing situation calculus formalisms, and also provides an application domain and a source of problems for first-order theorem provers. The aspect calculus provides a representation for reasoning about states and actions that is suited to modular domains. An aspect names a portion of a state, that is, a substate, such as a room in a building or a city in a country. Aspects may have aspects of their own. A state is assumed to be either a leaf state that cannot be further decomposed, or to be composed of substates, and actions associated with one substate do not influence other, disjoint substates. This feature can reduce the number of frame axioms that are needed if the domain has a modular structure. It can also permit planning problems on independent substates to be solved independently to some degree. However, interactions between independent substates are also permitted.


AIMS
To determine levels of microsomal protein (MPPGL) and hepatocellularity (HPGL) per gram of human liver and their interindividual variability.

METHODS
Triplicate liver samples were used to determine values of MPPGL (n = 20) and HPGL (n = 7) after accounting for the fractional loss of microsomal protein or hepatocytes during processing. Repeated measurements from each liver sample allowed the estimation of true interindividual variability in MPPGL and HPGL using ANOVA.

RESULTS
The value of MPPGL ranged from 26 to 54 mg g(-1) (mean(geo)= 33 mg g(-1)). The value of HPGL ranged from 65 to 185 x 10(6) cells g(-1) (mean(geo)= 10(7) x 10(6) cells g(-1)).

CONCLUSIONS
There is significant interindividual variability in MPPGL, which has implications for the accurate extrapolation of in vitro data on drug metabolism to predict in vivo metabolic clearance.


Introduction Homelessness goes beyond rooflessness It is isolating and destructive. The government recognises the homeless are more vulnerable to sexual health risks and need targeted interventions. Cornwall's sexual health outreach is limited. Methods A fortnightly afternoon drop-in sexual health clinic, run by a senior nurse and healthcare assistant, was established in a Health-for-the-Homeless (HFH) General Practice service in a socially deprived area of Cornwall. Shared-care with the HFH service whereby patients gave permission for results to be copied to the GP service. Results Between September 2013 and January 2017, there were 498 clinic attendances, with 109 (22%) females, and 389 (78%) male clients. Of all attendances, 181 (36%) accepted sexual health screening. Of these, 17 (9.4%) were diagnosed with a sexual infection and/or hepatitis C, including 7 (3.9%) of chlamydia; 4 (2.2%) of new hepatitis C infection; 3 (1.6%) of genital warts; and 1 (0.6%) of: gonorrhoea, herpes and molluscum contagiosum. All infections were treated. 5 (5%) females had cervical cytological assessment. A 140-strong sample of notes were scrutinised to ascertain examination uptake. Of 82 indicated examinations, 26 (32%) accepted, 56 (68%) clients declined. Poor uptake may account for the low rate of skin conditions diagnosed. 20 (4%) attendances culminated in vaccination. The clinic managed 3 (0.6%) recent sexual assault cases. Discussion Client feedback suggests that medical help would not have been sought elsewhere. Meeting in a safe environment, we believe we have broken down barriers. An increasing number of returning clients we hope reflects trust in the service. Service costing will be discussed to develop contraception provision.


Abstract : The CNES project of a European Complement to GPS [CE-GPS] is conceived to fullfill the needs of Civil Aviation for a non-precise approach phase with GPS as sole navigation means. This generates two missions: a monitoring mission - alarm of failure -, and a navigation mission - generating a GPS-like signal on board the geostationary satellites. The host satellites will be the Inmarsat constellation. The CE-GPS missions lead to some time requirements, mainly the accuracy of GPS time restitution and of monitoring clock synchronization. To demonstrate that the requirements of the CE-GPS could be achieved, including the time aspects, an experiment has been scheduled over the last two years, using a part of the Inmarsat II F-2 payload and specially designed ground stations based on 10 channels GPS receivers. This paper presents a review of the results obtained during the continental phase of the CE-GPS experiment with two stations in France, along with some experimental results obtained during the transatlantic phase (three stations in France, French Guyana, and South Africa). It describes the synchronization of the monitoring clocks using the GPS Common-view or the C- to L-Band transponder of the Inmarsat satellite, with an estimated accuracy better than 10 ns (1 sigma).


Summary

This essay introduces two newly discovered Neolithic sites identified through the archaeological surveys conducted in the hinterland of the Troad in north-western Turkey. Most of our knowledge about the Neolithic period of the region comes from the coastal site of Coskuntepe, as well as Ugurlu on the island of Gokceada (Imbros) and Karagactepe (Protesilas) on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The lack of evidence for Neolithic habitation in the hinterland of the region was apparently due to the state of research. The recently discovered rock shelter-type site of Evkayasi and the mound of Taracci imply that the hinterland of the Troad also bears traces of Neolithic habitation. Each of these sites yielded a single obsidian artefact of Melian origin, suggesting that these two settlements were on a land-based route that connected the Gulf of Edremit with the southern coast of the Sea of Marmara.


How does Islam laid the foundations of supply ethics in buying and selling transactions? This question will be answered in this article by exploring the hadiths related to the basic principles and ethics of buying and selling in Islam. This ethic is endowed with buyers and sellers who seek to safeguard the interests and feelings of each party. These hadiths are tested using the سوم and بيع keywords then grouped according to the subject matter. These hadiths are then analyzed to gain a complete understanding of the ethical buying and selling offerings in Islam.


Fitting duration models on an inflow sample of jobs in Germany starting in 2002-2010, this paper investigates the impact of employers' use of temporary agency work on regular workers' job stability. In line with dual labour market theory, I find that non-temp jobs are significantly more stable if employers utilise temps. The rise in job stability stems mainly from reduced transitions into non-employment suggesting that non-temp workers are safeguarded against involuntary job losses. My findings are robust to controlling for unobserved permanent employer characteristics and changes in the observational window that includes the labour market disruption of the Great Recession.


The epsilon-globin gene is the first of the human beta-like globin genes to be expressed during development. We have analyzed protein-DNA interactions in the epsilon-globin promoter region by DNase I footprinting and electrophoretic mobility shift experiments using nuclear extracts from K562 human erythroid cells and from nonerythroid HeLa cells. A restricted set of ubiquitous proteins, including Sp1, bound to regions of the promoter including the CACCC and CCAAT sites. Three interactions, at positions -213, -165, and +3 relative to the transcription start site, were erythroid specific and corresponded to binding of GATA-1, a transcription factor highly restricted to the erythroid lineage. Interestingly, the GATA-1 site at -165 has been conserved in the promoters of 10 mammalian embryonic globin genes. Point mutations demonstrate that GATA-1 binding to this site is necessary for interaction with an erythroid-specific enhancer but that in the absence of an enhancer, GATA-1 does not increase transcription.


Introduction Geologists often ask too much of the principle of isostasy. When they find that isostasy will not explain all earth movements, they think it is not a true principle. Many of the most important earth movements are not due to an attempt to reestablish a disturbed isostatic equilibrium. James Hall made a splendid contribution to our knowledge of the geologic history of mountain ranges in 1859. 3 He showed that the sediments of the Appalachian Mountains were laid down in a sinking syncline, and he inferred that the sinking was due to the weight of the sediments. While this weight must have contributed to the sinking, it is clear that great depressions have taken place without the addition of material; for many of the great deeps of the ocean, and as a particular example, the Tonga Deep, are so situated that they could never have received any large amount of . . .


This article recovers Martin Buber's important but neglected critique of Carl Schmitt's political theology. Because Buber is known primarily as an ethicist and scholar of Judaism, his attack on Schmitt has been largely overlooked. Yet as I reveal through a close reading of his Biblical commentaries, a concern about the dangers of political theology threads through decades of his work. Divine sovereignty, Buber argues, is absolute and inimitable; no human ruler can claim the legitimate power reserved to God. Buber's response is to uncover what he sees as Judaism's earliest political theory: a "theopolitics," where human beings, mutually subject to divine kingship, practice non-domination. But Buber, I show, did not seek to directly revive this religious vision. Instead, he sought to incorporate the spirit of theopolitics, as embodied by Israel's prophets, into modern society. The result is a new and significant perspective on liberal democracy and political theology.


Active database systems integrate event-based rule processing with traditional database functionality. The model most widely used to represent event-based rules is the Event- Condition-Action rule (ECA rule) model. However, the relationships among rules in the development of a base of ECA rules can fall in an infinite rule triggering: the No termination problem. In this article, an approach based in Petri Net theory is proposed. This approach detects cyclic paths in the base of ECA rules. Furthermore, it can analyze the relationships among ECA rule components.


The author presents three generalised modified OS CFAR detectors and an automatic censoring technique. These three new OS CFARs are: a generalised ordered statistic cell averaging (GOSCA) CFAR, a generalised order statistic greatest of (GOSGO) CFAR and a generalised ordered statistic smallest of (GOSSO) CFAR. For these three new OS CFAR detectors the author obtains analytic expressions of the false alarm rate, the detection probabilities and the measure ADT under the Swerling 2 assumption. He analyses their detection performance in homogeneous background and in the presence of strong interfering targets, and compares them to several previously proposed CFARs. This analysis shows that the GOSCA CFAR detector has the best detection performance among the OS and the several modified OS CFAR detectors. Since a new automatic censoring technique is used in the CFAR detectors, this makes the GOSGO and GOSSO CFARs more robust than the OSGO and OSSO CFARs. When the number of strong interfering targets attains the greatest interfering targets allowed, the performance of the OS CFAR is worst among the GOSCA, GOSGO, GOSSO and OS CFAR detectors.


The dielectric barriers discharges or silent discharges had knew these last years a great progress, particularly in the area of ultraviolet light production, which produced by Xe2* excimer molecules. This new application led to the realization of the nonpolluting excimer lamps. In this work we develop a one-dimensional model of sheath coupled to a kinetic model in NeXe mixture. Calculations were done for sixteen chemicals species in xenon concentration of 10% and under pressure of 400 torr. The results illustrate the spatiotemporal evolution of the charged particles and neutral species as well as the variations of the electric parameters of the lamp during the first pulse discharge.


Nosocomial infections, especially those caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria, are increasing at an alarming rate over the globe. Unfortunately, standard infection control practices, such as pre-emptive isolation of high-risk patients, wide and targeted surveillance cultures, and proper ventilation systems are lacking in developing countries mainly due to insufficient resources. Patients shed bacteria and contaminate their pyjamas and sheets. The temperature and humidity between the patients and the bed are appropriate conditions allowing for effective bacterial proliferation. Bed making releases large quantities of micro-organisms into the air, which contaminate the immediate and non-immediate surroundings. Personnel in contact with contaminated textiles can also cross-contaminate other surfaces or patients. Thus textiles in hospitals can be an important source of microbes contributing to endogenous, indirect-contact, and aerosol transmission of nosocomial related pathogens. The use of safe wide-spectrum antimicrobial textiles, especially in those textiles that are in close contact with the patients, may significantly reduce bioburden in clinical settings and consequently reduce the risk of nosocomial infections. This is of special significance in resource poor developing countries, where wards are overcrowded and population infection burdens are very high. The use of biocidal textiles is a simple, cost-affordable and feasible measure that may be especially important in developing countries where essential infection control measures are not implemented.


Diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings have proven to be an excellent thin film solution for reducing friction of tribological systems as well as providing resistance to wear. These characteristics yield greater efficiency and longer lifetimes of tribological contacts with respect to surface solutions targeting for example automotive applications. However, the route from discovery to deployment of DLC films has taken its time and still the design of these solutions is largely done on a trial-and-error basis. This results in challenges both in designing and optimizing DLC films for specific applications and limits the understanding, and subsequently exploitation, of many of the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for its favorable frictional response and high resistance to various types of wear. In current work multiscale modeling is utilized to study the friction and wear response of DLC thin films in dry and lubricated contacts. Atomic scale mechanisms responsible for friction due to interactions between the sliding surfaces and shearing of the amorphous carbon surface are utilized to establish frictional response for microstructure scale modeling of DLC to DLC surface contacts under dry and graphene lubricated conditions. Then at the coarser microstructural scale both structure of the multilayer, substrate and surface topography of the DLC coating are incorporated in studying of the behavior of the tribosystem. A fracture model is included to evaluate the nucleation and growth of wear damage leading either to loss of adhesion or failure of one of the film constituents. The results demonstrate the dependency of atomistic scale friction on film characteristics, particularly hybridization of bonding and tribochemistry. The microstructure scale modeling signifies the behavior of the film as a tribosystem, the various material properties and the surface topography interact to produce the explicitly modeled failure response. Ultimately, the work contributes towards establishing multiscale modeling capabilities to better understand and design novel DLC material solutions for various tribological applications.


The CNC system is a complex mechatronics system, which make it difficult to diagnose fault. Expert system for fault diagnosis that utilizes domain knowledge and the profiles of experts to fix the problem of the complex system has become an important issue. A hybrid expert fault system combining the rule-base reasoning (RBR) with case-based reasoning (CBR) for CNC system is proposed. The combination can trouble-shoot rapidly, improve the CNC system reliability and maintainability. The hybrid system is implemented by using QT and SQLITE database. The experiment result of the system shows that the system diagnosis efficiently and accurately.


It is a common practice in the industry to organize benchmark processes to establish information security performance evaluation standards. A benchmarking system collects information security-related data from the organization to establish a standard. The information shared by the organization often contains sensitive data (details of the vulnerability, Cyber attacks). The present benchmarking systems do not provide a secure way of exchanging sensitive information between the submitter and the benchmark authority. Furthermore, there is a lack of any mechanism for the submitters to verify that the final benchmark result contains the response submitted by them. Hence, people are reluctant to take active participation in sharing their sensitive information in the benchmarking process. We propose a novel approach to solve the security limitations of present benchmarking systems by applying the concepts of electronic voting to benchmark. Our solution provides secrecy to submitters' identity and to the benchmark responses. Our approach also ensures that all the submitted responses have been correctly counted and considered in the final benchmark result.


This paper presents the evaluation of extraction techniques and sample clean-up procedure for the simultaneous determination of residues of veterinary drugs (sulphonamides, fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, macrolides, β-lactams, nitroimidazoles, benzimidazoles, amphenicols, lincosamides and pleuromutilins), coccidiostats and insecticides in fresh egg samples. The study utilises the liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry technique to obtain suitable analytical parameters for the screening and confirmatory method. The results of egg samples analysed by 8 different sample preparation schemes were compared by using the mean recoveries. The recoveries of analytes showed that both SPE and modified QuEChERS have not been sufficient for the extraction of all the analytes in the expected range of 70–120%. Additional cleaning with dispersive sorbents prolonged the time taken by the sample preparation steps and provided slightly different final extract clarity results. The most demanding analytes to isolate from the samples were coccidiostats, while sulphonamides were the group of analytes for which all the proposed sample clean-up procedures were suitable. As the chosen method, extraction with 0.1% formic acid in acetonitrile–water (8 : 2) and clean-up with HybridSPE can be applied as a sample preparation step for the screening and confirmatory method in official laboratories.


s presented at specialist societies' meetings The journal publishes abstracts of free papers ⁄ posters that have been presented to national specialist anaesthetic societies based in the UK and Ireland. Abstracts must be submitted within six months of the date of the meeting. The number of abstracts published will depend on the number presented at the meeting. Authors should follow the above Instructions for Authors. In general, the following sections should be indicated as appropriate using bold type: Title, Authors, Institution, Methods, Results, Discussion, Acknowledgements, References (maximum 3). Text should be in a fully justified column 8 cm wide and no more than 23 cm high, Times New Roman, size 8 pt. A single Figure or Table (B&W) is allowable but must fit into the allotted space. Abstracts can only be submitted via the appropriate specialist society -do not submit direct to the journal. Material Storage Policy Please note that unless specifically requested, Blackwell Publishing will dispose of all hardcopy or electronic material submitted two months after publication. If you require the return of any material submitted, please inform the editorial office or production editor as soon as possible if you have not yet done so.


The Reiner Gamma swirl is a prime location to investigate the lunar albedo patterns and their colocation with magnetic anomalies. The precise relationship between impinging plasma and the swirl, and, in particular, how these interactions vary over the course of a lunar day, remains an open issue. Here we use a fully kinetic particle‐in‐cell code, coupled with a magnetic field model based on orbital‐altitude observations, and simulate the interaction with the Reiner Gamma anomaly for all plasma regimes the region is exposed to along a typical orbit, including different solar wind incidence angles and the Moon's crossing through the terrestrial magnetosphere. Consistent with the hypothesis that swirls form as a result of plasma interactions with near‐surface magnetic fields, we show that the energy flux profile produces a pattern similar to Reiner Gamma's alternating bright and darkly colored bands, but only when integrating over the full lunar orbit. We additionally show that including He 2+ as a self‐consistent plasma species improves the match.


One of the important steps in Flight Management Systems (FMS) development is its testing in the dynamic environment for a specific aircraft type. While such testing is mostly performed in the actual aircraft, a more economical approach is to carry out the bulk of the testing using a laboratory-based simulated environment or test bed, for which the basis is a re-configurable, real-time flight dynamic model. Such a dynamic test bed, when used for the test and evaluation of the FMS, has three issues identified in order to provide a simulated, real time, dynamic working environment for the FMS. The first issue is a real time software representation of the specific aircraft type to generate aircraft performance data and navigation information for the FMS, and to implement the FMS navigational commands. An on-the-shelf commercial flight simulator software package from Virtual Prototypes Inc, which has a re-configurable fixed-wing aircraft six-degree aerodynamic model and a complete set of simulated aircraft systems, was chosen as the baseline for this simulation software development. The baseline software package was enhanced by developing new control laws, automatic flight control modes, robust environment models and basic navigation facility models to satisfy the test bed as an engineering tool. The second system is the interface system interfacing the FMS with the test bed. This involved the multiple processes interface software configuration and development for the interface cards and the simulation software. Finally, a graphical user interface is developed for the user to operate the test bed, including controlling the simulation and performing data acquisition. There are three issues concerned with the development of the Dynamic Test Bed, which are the system's architecture/structure, hardware, and software. This thesis is mostly devoted to the architecture/structure and software issues


By developing information technology and production methods and collecting data, a great amount of data is daily being collected in commercial, medical databases. Some of this information is important with respect to competition concept in organizations and individual misuses. Nowadays in order to mine knowledge among a great amount of data, data mining tools are used. In order to protect information, fast processing and preventing from revealing private data to keep privacy is presented in data mining. In this article, some techniques in preserving privacy of association rule mining are introduced and some hiding algorithms of association rules are evaluated.


Abstract Identifying transcription factor (TF) binding sites (TFBSs) is important in the computational inference of gene regulation. Widely used computational methods of TFBS prediction based on position weight matrices (PWMs) usually have high false positive rates. Moreover, computational studies of transcription regulation in eukaryotes frequently require numerous PWM models of TFBSs due to a large number of TFs involved. To overcome these problems we developed DRAF, a novel method for TFBS prediction that requires only 14 prediction models for 232 human TFs, while at the same time significantly improves prediction accuracy. DRAF models use more features than PWM models, as they combine information from TFBS sequences and physicochemical properties of TF DNA-binding domains into machine learning models. Evaluation of DRAF on 98 human ChIP-seq datasets shows on average 1.54-, 1.96- and 5.19-fold reduction of false positives at the same sensitivities compared to models from HOCOMOCO, TRANSFAC and DeepBind, respectively. This observation suggests that one can efficiently replace the PWM models for TFBS prediction by a small number of DRAF models that significantly improve prediction accuracy. The DRAF method is implemented in a web tool and in a stand-alone software freely available at http://cbrc.kaust.edu.sa/DRAF.


This study aims to describe the reality of the performance of youth centers in Jordan from the perspective of their members. To achieve this aim, the researcher considers an analytical descriptive method involving the participants of members registered in the youth centers in Jordan. There were 550 participants recruited from a total of 40000 members available till the year 2018 (13%). Within this design, the researcher develops and validate a 51-item instrument covering five aspects in this field: aims and planning, equipment and capabilities, socialization and volunteer, physical, sports and culture aspects. The results show that the performance of youth centers in all aspects is "Moderate". The results also reveal that there are statistically significant differences (α=0,05) between males and females in favor of females in the aspects of capabilities, equipment and culture. The study recommends governmental financial funding and supporting for these youth centers in the Ministry of Youth and Sport, so that they can achieve their aims. It also recommends providing these centers with the necessary equipment with incentives to activate members' role in developing the annual plans for these centers.


Hydrogen is an economical source of clean energy that has been utilized by industry for decades. In recent years, demand for hydrogen has risen significantly. Hydrogen sources include water electrolysis, hydrocarbon steam reforming, and fossil fuels, which emit hazardous greenhouse gases and therefore have a negative impact on global warming. The increasing worldwide population has created much pressure on natural fuels, with a growing gap between demand for renewable energy and its insufficient supply. As a result, the environment has suffered from alarming increases in pollution levels. Biohydrogen is a sustainable energy form and a preferable substitute for fossil fuel. Anaerobic fermentation, photo fermentation, microbial and enzymatic photolysis or combinations of such techniques are new approaches for producing biohydrogen. For cost-effective biohydrogen production, the substrate should be cheap and renewable. Substrates including algal biomass, agriculture residue, and wastewaters are readily available. Moreover, substrates rich in starch and cellulose such as plant stalks or agricultural waste, or food industry waste such as cheese whey are reported to support dark- and photo-fermentation. However, their direct utilization as a substrate is not recommended due to their complex nature. Therefore, they must be pretreated before use to release fermentable sugars. Various pretreatment technologies have been established and are still being developed. This article focuses on pretreatment techniques for biohydrogen production and discusses their efficiency and suitability, including hybrid-treatment technology.


Cycling induced by functional electrical stimulation (FES) with motorized assistance is a rehabilitative approach for individuals with movement impairments. In this paper, an adaptive controller is designed for cadence tracking by switching across multiple muscle groups and an electric motor. The control design and analysis are based on a recently developed adaptive method called integral concurrent learning and an invariance-like tool to ensure stability of switched adaptive systems. A Lyapunov-based stability analysis for the overall switched rider-cycle system is segregated into two phases. During the first phase when sufficient learning has not been attained, which is quantified by a finite excitation condition, global asymptotic tracking and bounded parameter estimation are guaranteed. In the second phase, global exponential tracking and parameter convergence is ensured after the finite excitation condition is satisfied for all the subsystems within a finite time.


Due to the easy cracking of shotcrete, shrinkage-compensating shotcrete is researched and its micro-structure and strength properties are analyzed. Firstly, cement slurry is made by CSA, accelerating agent and two different cements. When hydrated 3 days and 28 days , hydration products of cement slurry are analyzed by SEM and XRD in feature, crystal characteristics and mineral compositions. The compatibility of the two different cements and admixtures is studied in apparent characteristics, and the fact that Portland cement is more suitable for making shrinkage-compensating shotcrete is obtained. Then, mechanical properties of concrete which consists of Portland cement, expansive agent and steel fiber are did to analyze the influence of strength characteristics caused by mix amount of expansive agent and steel fiber. The results show that the compression strength and tensile strength of concrete improve with the increasing mix of steel fiber. Incorporation of the expansive agent is greater impact on concrete strength, when mix amount of expansive agent is 8%, strength properties are the best. When mix amount of steel fiber is 1.0% and expansive agent is 8%, the effect of cooperative enhancement is the best.


We discuss the simplification of non-deterministic multi-valued (MV) networks and their internal nodes using internal flexibilities. Given the network structure and its external specification, the flexibility at a node is derived as a non-deterministic MV relation. This flexibility is used to simplify the node representation and enhance the effect of Boolean resubstitution. We show that the flexibility derived is maximum. The proposed approach has been implemented and tested in MVSIS. Experimental results show that it performs well on a variety of MV and binary benchmarks.


Cryptococcus neoformans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen that can cause lethal cryptococcal meningitis in immunocompromised individuals such as those with HIV/AIDS. In addition, cryptococcal infections occasionally arise in immunocompetent individuals or those with previously undiagnosed immunodeficiencies. The course of cryptococcosis is highly variable in both patient groups, and there is rapidly growing evidence that genetic polymorphisms may have a significant impact on the trajectory of disease. Here, we review what is currently known about the nature of these polymorphisms and their impact on host response to C. neoformans infection. Thus far, polymorphisms in Fc gamma receptors, mannose‐binding lectin, Dectin‐2, Toll‐like receptors and macrophage colony‐stimulating factor have been associated with susceptibility to cryptococcal disease. Notably, however, in some cases the impact of these polymorphisms depends on the genetic background of the population; for example, the FCGR3A 158 F/V polymorphism was associated with an increased risk of cryptococcal disease in both HIV‐positive and HIV‐negative white populations, but not in Han Chinese patients. In most cases, the precise mechanism by which the identified polymorphisms influence disease progression remains unclear, although impaired fungal recognition and phagocytosis by innate immune cells appears to play a major role. Finally, we highlight outstanding questions in the field and emphasize the need for future research to include more diverse populations in their genetic association studies.


Abstract The assay aimed to evaluate the effect of feeding a recently developed phytogenic feed additives mixture in diets of lactating Friesian cows (n = 30; 514 ± 10.1 kg body weight) for 3 months. Cows were stratified into three groups of 10 cows each and fed a control diet alone or the control diet supplemented with the additives mixture at 3 g (PHY3) or 6 g (PHY6)/cow daily. Menthol, levomenthol, β-linaloolm, anethole, hexadecanoic acid and p-menthane were the principle compounds identified in the additives mixture. The PHY3 increased (p < 0.01) intake and nutrient digestibility. PHY3 and PHY6 increased (p < 0.01) ruminal pH, total volatile fatty acids, propionate and acetate. PHY3 and PHY6 improved serum total protein and antioxidant capacity and decreased the concentrations of serum urea-N, triglycerides, total lipids, cholesterol and malondialdehyde (p < 0.05). PHY3 increased milk production and milk content of total solids, protein, lactose and fat. Both PHY3 and PHY6 did not affect mineral concentrations in blood or milk. It is concluded that the inclusion of 3 g/cow/d of feed additives mixture in the lactating Friesian cows diet enhanced milk production and feed utilization, with negative effects observed with increasing the dose of additives mixture to 6 g/cow daily.


This article empirically assesses whether age-restricted access to abortion and the birth control pill influence minors' fertility in the United States. There is not a strong consensus in previous literature regarding the relationship between laws restricting minors' access to abortion and minors' birthrates. This is the first study to recognize that state laws in place prior to the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision enabled minors to legally consent to surgical treatment—including abortion—in some states but not in others, and to construct abortion access variables reflecting this. In this article, age-specific policy variables measure either a minor's legal ability to obtain an abortion or to obtain the birth control pill without parental involvement. I find fairly strong evidence that young women's birthrates dropped as a result of abortion access as well as evidence that birth control pill access led to a drop in birthrates among whites.


Maintenance has gained credit over the past decades. The oil and gas industry requires efficient maintenance programs due to the hazardousness surrounding the industry. Crude oil margins are also dropping and maintenance yields high controllable costs. Therefore, safety and economy are the driving forces of maintenance optimisation. Refineries have to operate when margins are the most profitable so reliability is crucial.Centrifugal pumps are essential features of the refining process. Due to limited resources, maintenance work is prioritised according to the operating context and risks. Criticality analysis is a widespread tool in the industry which supports the resource allocation decision. The criticality level has, thus, to be highly accurate and adapted to the plant situation since it influences the overall maintenance system efficiency. Maintenance plans must be properly designed and implemented to enhance reliability. This paper states maintenance organisation around centrifugal pumps maintenance in a refinery. First, the current criticality assessment methodology has been found to be inadequate to the prioritisation of work so a new method has been developed. Then, a tailored spare parts strategy has been implemented and discussed. Finally, preventive maintenance plan has been reviewed using pump specialists findings and maintenance optimisation methodologies which has led to several improvement hints proposals.


A novel asymmetrical zinc(II) phthalocyanine-BODIPY conjugate (ZnPc-BODIPY) bearing three iodine groups directly substituted to the macrocycle and one BODIPY connected to the macrocycle with an amide bond was synthesized by the reaction of carboxylic-acid-substituted asymmetrical zinc(II) phthalocyanine (ZnPc) with the BODIPY-derivative-bearing amino group (BODIPY-NH2). This conjugate was fully characterized by spectroscopic methods (FT-IR, UV-vis, 1H NMR, 11B NMR, 19F NMR and mass) and elemental analysis. The fluorescence behavior of ZnPc-BODIPY was studied to determine the energy transfer process. Voltammetry measurements (CV and SWV) were performed to specify the HOMO–LUMO energy levels and band gaps of ZnPc-BODIPY and starting compounds (ZnPc and BODIPY-NH2) for comparison. In addition, the band gaps of these compounds were also determined by UV-vis absorption onset (λonset) and theoretical calculations. Bulk heterojunction solar cells containing ZnPc-BODIPY were fabricated in the structure of ITO/PEDOT:PSS/ZnPc-BODIPY:PCBM/Al. The photovoltaic parameters of the solar cell were obtained and the ZnPc-BODIPY conjugate was found to bring spectral contribution to IPCE at a peak of 510 nm.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
As the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, departments had to adapt their activities, jeopardizing patient's best interests. Our aim is to evaluate the patient's perspective to the implementation of SARS-CoV-2 measures in a gastroenterology department in a Portuguese Hospital.

METHODS
A survey with 13 questions was created and available to patients with at least one gastroenterology appointment at our center in the year 2019.

RESULTS
Nine hundred seventy-three patients completed the survey, 51.6% (n = 502) females, and 82.6% (n = 804) with less than 65 years of age. 50.7% of 962 patients were not working. 49.5% had an appointment for monitoring a suspected or established inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). 76.8% and 69.6% subjects agreed in postponing endoscopic and non-endoscopic procedures, respectively. 93.6%, 94.3% and 95.7% patients declared to be worried about the postponing of endoscopic procedures, non-endoscopic procedures and medical visits, respectively. 88.8% supported remote consultations and 77.3% were satisfied with this type of appointment, independently of the age group (P = 0.66). 80.9% of IBD patients treated with immunosuppression or biologics were concerned about a severe infection by COVID-19.

CONCLUSION
A great part of our respondents belong to IBD appointments. The majority of our patients agreed in postponing procedures, although they feel concerned. Almost all patients supported remote consultations and most patients found them positive.


The dynamics of a population and a resource are investigated in a maximin model based on Brander and Taylor's stylization of Easter Island, in order to consider the sustainability of the society represented. There are continua of both regular and non-regular maximin solutions, the type depending on the initial conditions. A non-regular maximin steady state corresponds with the steady state in Brander and Taylor's model. All solutions are time consistent and Pareto optimal. For the regular paths, a partial analytic characterization and a simulation are provided. The non-regular paths involve two regular sections and one degenerate solution in which the maximin constraint is not effective. The high degree of mathematical subtlety of the solution to this ostensibly simple problem calls into question the likelihood of a planner's being able to devise and follow a program of efficient, sustained development.


Completely revised and up-to-date coverage of Multithreading-including the java.util.concurrent library, locks, condition objects, futures, thread pools, thread-safe collections, threads and Swing Collection classes-collections framework, concrete collections, and generic utility methods Annotations and metadata-using annotations to automate programming tasks, JDK™ 5.0 standard annotations, the apt tool for source-level annotation processing, and bytecode engineering Advanced Swing and AWT-lists, trees, tables, and other advanced components; image processing and printing JavaBeans™-including property editors, customizers, and long-term persistence XML-DOM and SAX parsers, XPath, and XSL transformationsThe seventh edition of Core Java™ 2, Volume II, covers advanced user-interface programming and the enterprise features of the Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE™). Like Volume I (which covers the most important language and library features), this book has been completely updated and revised for J2SE 5.0. All of the sample programs have been updated and carefully crafted to illustrate practical solutions to the type of real-world problems professional developers encounter.


Trace metal concentrations across trophic levels in cotton fields of Xinjiang Province, China Jessica A. Quinn Governors State University Trace metals become concentrated in urban and peri-urban soils with the use of agricultural practices and industrial emissions. Fertilizers, liming, sewage sludge, and irrigation water contain metals which accumulate in agricultural fields and pose a risk to humans and wildlife. Coal plants and brickyards release metals into the atmosphere which are deposited on soil and plant surfaces. This research quantifies the concentrations of nine trace metals in three different soil types. A total of 116 rodents were sampled in cotton fields and a desert. Cotton plants and triplicate soil samples were collected with each rodent capture. Soil samples were analyzed for organic carbon content, pH, soil texture, and trace metal concentrations. Soil, cotton plants, and rodents were digested and trace metal concentrations determined. Significant differences of nine trace metals, As, Ca, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Se, and Zn, were found across three different soil types. Rodent tissue metal concentrations were found to be significantly different across soil types; As and Se were highest in loam soils. The lowest concentration of Cr in rodent tissue was found in fields with loam soil. Nine trace metal concentrations were not significantly different across five different species of rodents. Soil texture can influence the availability of trace metals; High clay soils can bind to metals decreasing their bioavailability.


This article examines how Black women from varying generations articulate their perceptions about race. The 183 participants, ranging in age from 21 to 69, were Black women committed to social justice work. An under-researched area is the exploration of generational perspectives about race among Black women social activists. Utilizing an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, data were collected through six in-depth personal interviews, four focus groups, and an online survey. Intersectionality, standpoint and social identity theories were used in a complementary way to interpret the findings. Analysis of the data suggests that Millennials perceive race and social justice work differently than the Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers. The Millennials more readily acknowledge the intersectionality of their multiple identities and tend to characterize their racial experiences as gendered. Furthermore, like the Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers, the Millennials expressed a need for and a commitment to social justice work, but seemed more open to collaborating with other socially oppressed groups.


The possibilities of producing decentralized clinical laboratory data 'nearer the patient' has augmented rapidly during the last decennium due to both simple and sophisticated equipment, often intended to be operated by nonlaboratorians. The theory and practice of quality assurance in its wider sense has not kept pace with this development. The components of Good Laboratory Practice are presented under the headings: type of laboratory work, discipline, management, personnel, premises, safety, equipment, reagents, standard operating procedures, internal quality control, external quality assessment, method, dedicated operating procedure, syllabi, and clinical relevance. The projects currently being established by different national, regional, and international bodies to formulate guidelines should be coordinated to avoid duplication and conflict.


A common method of assessing lower-body asymmetry is to record left and right side ground reaction force during vertical jumping. The dominant side is identified as the one that produces the largest force. Differences between dominant (D) and non-dominant (ND) side are calculated so that relative risk can be assessed. However, asymmetry has been calculated from peak (PF) and mean force (MF), and consistency between the PF and MF methods has not been established. PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to establish consistency between PF and MF methods of assessing asymmetry. METHODS: Thirty-one men (mean ± SD: age 22 ± 1 years, mass 88.1 ± 12.2 kg, vertical jump height 31.8 ± 5.7 cm) provided informed consent to perform three maximal effort countermovement vertical jumps. Left and right side ground reaction force was recorded independently from two force plates at 1000 Hz, and the highest jumps were analysed. The propulsion phase was identified as the phase between the lowest post countermovement displacement of the center of mass and take off (<10 N). Propulsion phase PF and MF side dominance was established, and D and ND differences assessed using 1-way ANOVA. A chi-square goodness of fit test was performed to determine whether the left and right side were preferred equally across the PF and MF methods. RESULTS: Differences between D and ND force were larger when the PF method was used (6±5% vs. 5±3%; PF = 1007±162 N vs. 942±149 N, MF = 802±129 N vs. 762±117 N, p=0.01). Results of the chi-square test suggested that the left and right side were favoured equally when the PF and MF methods were used to assess asymmetry (Figure 1). However, while 21 subjects consistently favoured the same (left) side across the PF and MF methods, 10 subjects did not. CONCLUSIONS: Differences between the D and ND side are larger when PF is used to assess lower-body asymmetry. Furthermore, the D side may change depending on whether PF or MF is used to assess lower-body asymmetry. This may have implications for strength and conditioning professionals interested in monitoring lower-body asymmetry. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Vertical jumping force is often used to assess lower-body asymmetry. The results of this study highlight the importance of carefully selecting whether PF or MF is used to assess lower-body asymmetry. They also highlight the need for greater consistency in strength and conditioning research and practical application because the side that is favoured may change during different parts of the propulsion phase of vertical jumping. Therefore, it is recommended that propulsion phase MF is used to assess lower-body asymmetry because it provides an indication of the distribution of average mechanical output.


An InGaAs-on-Si MOSFET technology platform using a CMOS-compatible fabrication flow is demonstrated. Several channel heterostructure designs are explored, with the use of thin InP barrier layers resulting in significant enhancement of mobility. MOSFETs with ft/fmax of ~350/350 GHz are demonstrated. Within the same technology platform, logic FinFET devices are also demonstrated, with record-high on-currents of 350 µA/µm. The use of S/D spacers to mitigate the parasitic bipolar effect is also explored, leading to significant reduction of off-state leakage currents. Finally, 3D sequential integration of InGaAs MOSFETs on SOI CMOS wafers is reported, showing no degradation of CMOS performance post top-level fabrication. The results indicate the strong potential for integrated InGaAs FETs towards high-performance logic and mixed-signal applications.


This Healthcare applications of wearable and smart sensors which can monitor human health conditions noninvasively with function of wireless transmission have attracted substantial interests due to the capability of direct detection of biomarkers contained in body fluids. However, the transparent and stretchable sensors integrated on the biomaterials are not yet been realized. In this talk, we presented a multifunctional sensor for human disease diagnosis based on a RLC circuit, where R (resistance) responds to molecular binding of biomarkers in the body fluid while L (inductive) and C (capacitance) change in accordance with structural changes of capacitance materials induced by varying pressure. This device based on hybrid nanostructures using two-dimensional graphene and one-dimensional metal nanowire exhibited high transparency, superb stretchability, and hence enabled the device to be fittable on biomaterials with wireless sensing capability. Furthermore, in-vivo and ex-vivo tests demonstrated its reliable operation. The advance of these electronics using hybrid structures provides a route towards future electronics .


Background Lumbar interbody fusion has become a well established method to diminish axial back pain as well as radiculopathy in patients with degenerative disc disease, stenosis, and instability. The concept of indirect decompression of the neural foramen and spinal canal while performing fusion became popular in the mid 1990's with description of ALIF techniques. Morphometric analysis confirmed the extent of decompression of posterior elements with interbody height restoration. In an attempt to diminish potential complications associated with anterior or posterior approaches to the spine for interbody fusion, and with the hope of accomplishing fusion in a less invasive manner, lateral lumbar interbody fusion has become quite popular. This transpsoas approach to the disc space has been associated with a high incidence of neurologic complications. Even though this is the first technique to routinely recommend EMG monitoring to increase safety in the approach, neurologic injuries still occur. A newer oblique lateral lumbar interbody (OLLIF) approach has recently been described to lessen the incidence of neurologic injury. This technique also advocates use of EMG testing to lessen neurologic trauma. In spite of this precaution, neurologic insult has not been eliminated. In fact, even in patients whose electrical stimulation thresholds suggested a safe entry space into the disc, transient dysaesthesia continues to occur in 20-25 percent of cases. Purpose This pilot study reflects data and observations of a subset of patients treated with endoscopic foraminotomy preceding oblique lateral lumbar interbody fusion (OLLIF) to assess specifically potential improvements in dysaesthesia rates. Methods A select subset of patients undergoing OLLIF failed to meet electrodiagnostic criteria for safe disc access through Kambin's triangle. These patients underwent an endoscopic foraminotomy and exiting nerve decompression prior to discectomy, endplate preparation and cage insertion. Results Dysaesthesia did not occur in these patients whom otherwise would have likely been at risk for neurologic deficit. Conclusions These findings suggest that patients at risk for neurologic insult during oblique lateral lumbar interbody fusion can be protected by foraminoplasty.


This study evaluates various resource allocation strategies for simultaneous estimation of two independent signals from noisy observations. We focus on strategies that make use of the underlying dynamics of each signal, exploiting the difference in estimation uncertainty between them. This evaluation is done empirically, by exploring the parameter space through computer simulations. Two cases are studied: one in which an initial allocation is maintained during estimation of the variables, and one in which allocation can be dynamically changed at each time step according to the uncertainty of the estimate from each channel. The results suggest that there are conditions in which it is advantageous to assign a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) to only one of the signals and guess the other one. Furthermore, comparison between the two allocation strategies shows that the dynamic strategy significantly improves estimation performance in low SNR scenarios when the signals have similar dynamics.


Why does music move us? Why do we crave chocolate? Why do we see in colour? A Natural History of the Senses is both an exploration of the physical processes underlying our perceptions and an eloquent ode to life. Poet, pilot, naturalist, journalist, essayist and explorer Diane Ackerman takes each of the five senses in turn and weaves together scientific fact with lore, literary allusion and voluptuous description. With her unfailing curiosity about the world illuminating everything she turns her gaze upon, Diane Ackerman has created an inspirational grand tour of the senses.


Wireless sensor networks designed for critical tasks must be able to offer near real-time feedback about emergency events, allowing to supervise these events with a reasonable degree of accuracy within strict delay bounds. Achieving such high responsiveness in a distributed environment requires several improvements to currently available WSN protocols and technologies at different layers; such enhancements typically rely on simulation, at least in a preliminary phase. To accurately evaluate the performance of WSNs in near real-time event tracking we developed an event generation framework compatible with the ns- 2 simulator that includes tools to model intruder detection events, as well as fire and gas propagation scenarios. In this paper we describe the analytical models developed, and then we present the potential capabilities of the proposed framework, along with some visual examples of different types of events which confirm its correct behavior.


This paper examines verbs of speech used for introducing direct speech in Late Latin and changes which occurred from Classical to Late Latin. It focuses on four verbal forms which were previously identified as the most frequent in selected Late Latin texts, namely inquit, ait, dicens, and dixit. Their properties and patterns of use are examined and their development into quotative markers are considered. It is shown that while in Classical Latin inquit prevails, in Late Latin the range of verbal forms is wider and includes verbal forms that in Classical texts almost never appeared or had different functions than introducing direct speech. It is argued that despite some signs of grammaticalization, none of the examined forms has become a fully developed quotative marker. Thus, concerning the means for introducing direct speech, variability and heterogeneity are the basic characteristics of Late Latin texts.


abstract:Despite efforts of both administration and faculty, the intent and the execution of new curricular initiatives are not always in alignment. To understand how the declaration of a campus-wide general education initiative was being implemented, this article combines analyses of syllabi and courses from across disciplines. In an initial review, the goal was to understand how new elements of Core Objectives and Student Learning Outcomes were being incorporated into syllabi. After this general review, the authors sought to understand how core elements associated specifically with reading were being implemented in syllabi and in the classroom. This article finds that while critical analysis and reading are valued as cornerstones of the university, the details of who is responsible for teaching and assessing these important features remains less clear. "Reading" is variously prevalent across disciplinary courses: while present in the course structure and assessment mechanisms of syllabi across the university, there is little evidence that instructors are holding themselves responsible for teaching and assessing it as an intellectual practice. Amid a national scholarly conversation about reading and its role in critical thinking, this study contributes ideas for how institutions can more explicitly align stated values with curricular outcomes in practice.


Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex autoimmune disorder. In patients with childhood SLE (cSLE), the onset of the disease occurs before 18 years of age and accounts for a high proportion of childhood autoimmune diseases. Adult SLE and cSLE differ in terms of clinical manifestations, gene expression profiles, and treatment. Because current diagnostic methods do not meet clinical requirements, researchers currently use transcriptome analysis to investigate the characteristics of the cSLE genome. In the present study, we used bioinformatics methods to genotype cSLE and identify potential therapeutic targets. Methods: The transcriptomes of 952 patients with cSLE and 94 normal controls were obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus using unsupervised class learning to determine the genotypes in the microarray dataset, and the clinical characteristics, differentially expressed genes, and biological characteristics of the subtypes were analyzed. Results: Patients with cSLE were accordingly classified into three subgroups. Subgroup I was associated with lupus nephritis, female patients, and a high SLE disease activity index, and the disease in this subgroup was more severe than that in other subgroups. The SLE disease activity index in subgroup II was low; this subgroup may be related to lupus vasculitis. Subgroup III mostly included male patients and was associated with neuropsychiatric manifestations of lupus. Conclusion: We divided patients with cSLE into three subgroups with different characteristics based on transcriptome data. Our findings provide molecular evidence for future diagnosis and individualized treatment of cSLE.


This work offers the first systematic analysis of writings on modern Chinese history by historians in China from the early twentieth century to the present. It traces the construction of major interpretive schemes, the evolution of dominant historical narratives, and the unfolding of debates on the most controversial issues in different periods. Placing history-writing in the context of political rivalry and ideological contestation, Huaiyin Li explicates how the historians' dedication to faithfully reconstructing the past was compromised by their commitment to an imagined trajectory of history that fit their present-day agenda and served their needs of political legitimation. Beginning with an examination of the contrasting narratives of revolution and modernisation in the Republican period, the book scrutinises changes in the revolutionary historiography after 1949, including its disciplinisation in the 1950s and early 1960s and radicalisation in the rest of the Mao era. It further investigates the rise of the modernisation paradigm in the reform era, the crises of master narratives since the late 1990s, and the latest development of the field. Central to the author's analysis is the issue of truth and falsehood in historical representation. Li contends that both the revolutionary and modernisation historiographies before 1949 reflected historians' lived experiences and contained a degree of authenticity in mirroring the historical processes of their own times. In sharp contrast, both the revolutionary historiography of the Maoist era and the modernisation historiography of the reform era were primarily products of historians' ideological commitment, which distorted and concealed the past no less than revealed it. In search of a more effective approach to rewriting modern Chinese history, Reinventing Modern China proposes a within-time, open-ended perspective, which allows for different directions in interpreting the events in modern China and views modern Chinese history as an unfinished process remaining to be defined as the country entered the twenty-first century.