About 1 million tons of waste rice husk are generated in Taiwan each year. Rice husk has high concentrations of nutrients, such as silicon and potassium. However, it is not decomposed easily because it contains over 70% of cellulose and lignin and hence it is not suitable to be added into soil. In this study, a large quantity of rice husk is carbonized by vertical type continuous carbonization furnace without the presence of oxygen. After it is carbonized, it becomes rice husk charcoal (RHC) and vinegar (RHV). We have found that the addition of RHC carbonized at 600 and 700°C to soil can increase the soil's concentrations of calcium, magnesium, potassium and silicon as well as its pH value (i.e., lowering its acidity level). Therefore, RHC is a great soil modifier because it can lower the soil's acidity and increase the soil's nutrients. According to our experiments, the pH values of the mixtures in different ratios exhibited an increasing and steady of final condition in the 80-day period. The reason was that the CEC (cation exchange capacity) of the mixtures were increased, the specific surface areas of the mixtures increased and the mixtures' acidity levels were lowered. Therefore, the incorporation of RHC in the soil would benefit the soil on a long-term basis.


This article highlights the very recent advances in glycopolypeptide synthesis via NCA polymerization and first studies on stimuli-responsive solution behavior and self-assembling structures. Yet glycopolypeptides are almost exclusively considered as smart biofunctional materials for use in biomedical applications, for instance in targeted drug delivery, but also have high potential for usage as structural materials to fabricate bioinspired hierarchical structures.


Ginseng has been used worldwide as traditional medicine for thousands of years, and ginsenosides have been proved to be the main active components for their various pharmacological activities. Based on their structures, ginsenosides can be divided into ginseng diol-type A and ginseng triol-type B with different pharmacological effects. In this study, six ginsenosides, namely ginsenoside Rb1, Rh2, Rg3, Rg5 as diol-type ginseng saponins, and Rg1 and Re as triol-type ginseng saponins, which were reported to be effective for ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) treatment, were chosen to compare their protective effects on cerebral I/R injury, and their mechanisms were studied by in vitro and in vivo experiments. It was found that all ginsenosides could reduce reactive oxygen species (ROS), inhibit apoptosis and increase mitochondrial membrane potential in cobalt chloride-induced (CoCl2-induced) PC12 cells injury model, and they could reduce cerebral infarction volume, brain neurological dysfunction of I/R rats in vivo. The results of immunohistochemistry and western blot showed that the expression of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4), myeloid differentiation factor 88 (MyD88), silencing information regulator (SIRT1) and nuclear transcription factor P65 (NF-κB) in hippocampal CA1 region of some ginsenoside groups were also reduced. In general, the effect on cerebral ischemia of Rb1 and Rg3 was significantly improved compared with the control group, and was the strongest among all the ginsenosides. The effect on SIRT1 activation of ginsenoside Rb1 and the inhibition effect of TLR4/MyD88 protein expression of ginsenoside Rb1 and Rg3 were significantly stronger than that of other groups. The results indicated that ginsenoside Rg1, Rb1, Rh2, Rg3, Rg5 and Re were effective in protecting the brain against ischemic injury, and ginsenoside Rb1 and Rg3 have the strongest therapeutic activities in all the tested ginsenosides. Their neuroprotective mechanism is associated with TLR4/MyD88 and SIRT1 activation signaling pathways, and they can reduce cerebral ischemic injury by inhibiting NF-κB transcriptional activity and the expression of proinflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6).


Time evolution of a magneto fluid with finite conductivity around a non-rotating compact object is presented. Along with the Maxwell equations and the Ohm law, the Newtonian limit of the relativistic fluid equations governing the motion of a finitely conducting plasma is derived. The magnetofluid is considered to possess only the colloidal components of the electromagnetic field. Moreover, the shear viscous stress is neglected, as well as the self-gravity of the disc. In order to solve the equations, we have used a self-similar solution. The main features of this solution are as follows. The azimuthal velocity is somewhat increased from the keplerian value in the equator plane to the super-keplerian values at the surface of disc. Moreover, the radial velocity is obtained proportional to the meridional velocity. Magneto fluid does not have any non-zero component of the current density. Subsequently, the electromagnetic force is vanished and does not play any role in the force balance. The pressure gradient maintains the disc structure in latitudinal direction, but this force does not have appreciable role in the radial force balance. Analogously to the parameter α in the standard model, our calculations contain one parameter η0 which specifies the size of the electrical resistivity.


This paper presentation introduces a recent teaching and learning collaboration between the Textile team at the University of Huddersfield and the Packhorse Shopping Centre in Huddersfield. Through an engagement in temporary studio and workshop spaces in the Centre the presentation showcases the teaching and learning materials designed for this collaboration including examples of student work, both written and practice-oriented.
The presentation discusses three features of this collaborative project:
Firstly, it discusses new forms of community derived workshops and interventionist approaches generated out of an encounter with spaces in The Packhorse Centre. Through this engagement Textile students were encouraged to expand their thinking and making by encountering vacant spaces in the Centre itself.
Secondly, it explores how an accompanying lecture programme helped students to respond to environmental and social practices. By positioning themselves as thinking and writing practitioners, students sought to explore how textile practitioners and artists work with and through socially engaged practices with an emphasis on interventionist projects.
Finally the presentation examines opportunities for reciprocal learning methods to inform students' ongoing analysis and reflection of their work. Through the orchestration of a series of inter-year group workshops at The Packhorse Centre students encounter socially engaged and participatory ventures from a participant's and textile practitioner's perspective.
In this respect, the presentation showcases how students, staff and external organisations can become shared partners in new and experimental teaching and learning experiences that use or subvert notions of the traditional textiles studio in extreme and conceptual ways.


In this study, we present the extraction and purification of protein fractions from the larvae of the housefly, Musca domestica . The bioactivities of the protein fractions were indicated by pseudorabies virus (PRV) and human lung cancer cell line A 549. The crude protein fractions had no toxicity to chick embryo fibroblast-like (CEF) cells but effective to PRV at the concentration of 100 μg/ml (dilute ratio of 1:100). Furthermore, they exhibited better antiviral effect when added to CEF cells 1 h after PRV infection than 1 h prior to PRV infection and could directly deactivate and hinder the adsorption or penetration of PRV into CEF cells. In addition, two major peaks (A1 and A2) were found by DEAE-52 from the crude protein fractions, but only the purified protein fraction A2 showed antiviral and antitumor activities. The results suggest that the protein fractions extracted and purified from the larvae of the housefly have antiviral and antitumor activities and can be further studied. Key words: Musca domestica , antiviral, antitumor, protein.


Objective In the present investigation we screened a large number of single nucleotide polymorphisms in the genes relevant to the neurobiology of anxiety for their association with panic disorder (PD). Methods The study sample included 127 patients with PD and 146 healthy control subjects. Using Arrayed Primer Extension technology we genotyped 90 polymorphisms in 21 candidate genes of serotonin, cholecystokinin, dopamine and opioid neurotransmitter systems. The association and haplotype analyses were performed in the whole group (PD-all) and in the subgroups of PD comorbid with major depression (PD-comorbid, n=60) and without any comorbidity (PD-pure, n=42). Results From the set of 90 polymorphisms, eight single nucleotide polymorphism markers in eight genes displayed at least a nominal association with any of the studied PD phenotype subgroups. Several polymorphisms of cholecystokinin, serotonin and dopamine systems were associated with PD-all and/or PD-comorbid phenotypes, while pure PD was associated only with HTR2A receptor 102T-C (P=0.01) and DRD1 receptor −94G-A (P=0.02) polymorphisms. Haplotype analysis supported an association of the cholecystokinin gene TG haplotype with the PD-all group (P=0.04), whereas DRD1 receptor CAA and HTR2A receptor AT haplotypes were associated with a lower risk for PD-pure phenotype (P=0.03 and P=0.04, respectively). Conclusions The study results suggest that genetic variants of several candidate genes of neurotransmitter systems, each of a minor individual effect, may contribute to the susceptibility to PD. Our data also indicate that genetic variability may have a distinctive influence on pure and comorbid phenotypes of PD.


The organization of emotional motor behavior including jaw movements is governed by neural circuits of the limbic system, such as the amygdala and hypothalamus. GABAergic neurons in the central amygdaloid nucleus (CeA) exert an inhibitory influence on premotor neurons for the trigeminal motor nucleus (Vm) in the parvicellular reticular formation (RFp) of the medulla oblongata. The CeA also influences glutamatergic posterior lateral hypothalamic neurons and non-dopaminergic neurons in the retrorubral field of the midbrain, both of which send their axons to Vm-premotor neurons in the RFp. In addition, the CeA may modulate the activity of Vm motoneurons via projections to the mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus whose neurons convey inputs from the masticatory muscle spindles and periodontal ligament receptors to jaw-closing motoneurons in the Vm. These pathways from the amygdala to the trigeminal motor system in the lower brainstem may underlie the regulation of emotional jaw movement.


This paper reports on findings of a study to examine the sources used by farmers in search of agricultural information on striga and/or stemborers control technologies and factors that influence acquisition of such information in Western Kenya region. A random sample of 476 households in Suba and Vihiga districts were interviewed and 15 information pathways were identified. Using principle component analysis (PCA) to derive few latent variables that encapsulate maximum variance in the pathways, two components (latent variables) proxying for 'agricultural knowledge' were extracted. Type I-knowledge (first component) loaded heavily with sources that had 'group' information searching. Type II-knowledge (second component) loaded heavily with sources requiring individual farmer search. Both types of knowledge positively and significantly influenced the likelihood of households using improved technology to control stemborer, while only Type-II knowledge and social economic factors were important in influencing the farmers' likelihood of using an improved technology to control striga. This study shows that information is an important factor in the households' likelihood of using improved technologies in the control of striga and stem borer in Vihiga and Suba, Kenya. Methods of individual interaction are important to striga control.


Eight specimens of synovial membrane from 6 patients with 'definite' Behcet's syndrome were available for histological examination. Only the superficial zones of the synovia were affected, all except one being replaced by dense inflamed granulation tissue composed of lymphocytes mingled with macrophages, vascular elements, fibroblasts, and neutrophils. There was a marked plasma cell infiltrate and lymphoid follicle formation in one synovium only, and there was no evidence of infection. Pannus and erosive change were present in the three specimens which included the articular surface, the erosive change being visualised radiologically in two of these. It is suggested that these appearances are characteristic of Behcet's syndrome and should be added to the list of diagnostic criteria.


We study the hydrogen production by the Auto-Thermal Reforming (ATR) process coupled with a CO 2 capture using an MonoEthanolAmine (MEA) aqueous solution and the methanation process as means of hydrogen purification technique. Under several fixed assumptions on operating conditions, we found that the large-scale production of 99mol% pure hydrogen can be reached and depends strongly on the operating temperature at the ATR and the CO 2 removed in the capture step. High purity hydrogen streams derive from a high carbon capture in the absorption column that avoids further parasitic methanation reactions.


In cooperative communications, carrier frequency offsets (CFOs) between pairs of nodes may be different, making CFO compensation difficult, if not impossible. These multiple CFOs may drastically degrade the performance of a space-frequency (SF)-coded cooperative system. In this paper, we consider the signal-detection problem in an SF-coded cooperative communication system with multiple CFOs, where the SF codes are rotational based and can achieve both full spatial and full multipath diversity orders in a multiantenna system. By exploiting the structure of the SF codes, we propose three signal detection methods to deal with the multiple CFOs problem in the SF-coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) system - the minimum mean-squared error (MMSE) filtering method, the two-stage simple frequency-shift Q taps method, and the multiple fast Fourier transform (M-FFT) method - all of which offer different tradeoffs between performance and computational complexity. Simulation results indicate that our proposed detection methods work well, as long as the carrier frequency offsets between nodes are not unreasonably large.


The design of a solar heating system using a duct store in the ground requires design procedures that account for the different thermal processes involved. In order to obtain an accurate evaluation of the system heat balance, system performances have to be calculated with high resolution over several years, if not the lifetime of the system.
Reliable and accurate simulation tools which use the TRNSYS programme have been developed for the simulation of Central Solar Heating Plants with Seasonal Storage (CSHPSS) using a ground duct store. The simulated systems involve a collector array, a short-term water buffer store, a ground duct store, an auxiliary heat supply and a heat distribution network to the consumer. The version of the duct heat storage model (DST) for TRNSYS has been improved based on the results of analyses performed with more detailed programmes. The flexibility of the TRNSYS programme makes the tools easily adaptable to a particular problem.
The simulation tools are applied to a system defined for typical Swiss conditions. Optimal ratios between the main system parameters are sought for sizing purposes. The influence of the load size, load type (size of the proportion of domestic hot water) and load temperature levels are investigated. Several thousand simulations have been performed; these have helped to characterize and highlight important points in the design of such systems. Comparisons are made with systems having only a water store. They show that a duct store becomes economically more attractive for solar fraction larger than typically 50%, i.e. for seasonal heat storage. Corst reduction should be concentrated on cheaper collectors, as two thirds to three quarters of the solar cost is due to the collector array.


This work introduces three models of parabolic dish collectors with different dimension to study the effect of change diameter and depth of the dish on the position of focus point and concentration ratio and the temperature of outlet hot water or steam by using different receivers. The present work deals with a new system consists of dish and receiver to produce hot water and steam from solar energy. The parabolic dish solar collector fabricated from iron with different dimension the first model with diameter (82 cm) and depth (6 cm), this gives focus length (70cm) and Concentration ratio (25.6). The second model with a diameter (100cm) and depth (3 cm), this give focus length (208cm) and concentration ratio (15). The third model with a diameter  (150cm) and depth (12cm), This give focus length (100cm) and concentration ratio (399) and the front side covered by nickel sheet metal to focus the solar radiation upon the receiver for all models  . Three different shapes of receiver tanks used with the third model ; namely case one which used rectangular receiver tank (100×50×5) cm3 filled with 25 liter of water. Case two used helical copper coil (12.5 mm× 3 m) inside aluminum cylindrical vessel (0.2 m ×0.6 m). Case three used radiator heat exchanger receiver tank (37×47×4) cm3 filled with 3 liter of water. Use low cost and available materials to manufacture the experimental part. The dish, used as part of the solar reflector, covered by several strips of nickel sheet metal. When the parabolic dish collector was operational, the temperature of water was 60 oC in rectangular receiver tank, 75 0C within the copper coil and 125 oC in radiator device receiver. For rectangular receiver tank, hot water obtained within time (2 h), for copper coil receiver tank, hot water obtained within time (30 min) and for radiator heat exchanger receiver, steam obtained within time (20 min).


Between October 1987 and January 1989, a prospective study was performed on the nutritional state of 100 elderly patients aged 65 and over, with digestive neoplasia. We found that 47% were suffering from malnutrition. This was associated to greater postoperative complications and mortality, and prealbumin and weight-loss percentages were the nutritional parameters most often altered, and which showed better correlations to the development of postoperative complications. Based on these two parameters, we prepared a classification system for these patients, dividing them into three surgical risks groups from the nutritional standpoint, which enabled us to select those patients who would most benefit from preoperative nutritional support, and evaluate the effectiveness of this treatment in reducing postoperative complications and mortality, by means of a corresponding prospective study.


Consistent intra-population variability in foraging behaviour is found among a wide range of taxa. Such foraging specialisations are common among marine vertebrates, yet it is not clear how individuals repeatedly locate prey or foraging sites at ocean-wide scales. Using GPS and time-depth loggers we studied the fine-scale foraging behaviour of central-place northern gannets Morus bassanus at two large colonies. First, we estimated the degree of consistency in individual foraging routes and sites across repeated trips. Second, we tested for individual differences in searching behaviour in response to environmental covariates using reaction norms, estimated from mixed effect models. Adult gannets tracked over multiple foraging trips showed repeatable between-individual differences in terminal points and departure angles of foraging trips, but low repeatability in trip duration and trip length. Importantly, individual birds showed highly repeatable dive locations, with consistently different environmental conditions (such as copepod abundance), suggesting a high degree of foraging site specialisation. Gannets also showed between-individual differences in searching behaviour along environmental gradients, such that individuals intensified searching under different conditions. Together these results suggest that widespread individual foraging consistency may represent specialisation and be linked with individual responses to environmental conditions. Such divergent searching behaviour could provide a mechanism by which consistent foraging behaviour arises and is maintained among animals that forage across large spatial scales.


This paper examines the distribution of output around capacity when money demand is a nonlinear function of the nominal interest rate such that nominal interest rates cannot become negative. When fluctuations in output result primarily from disturbances to the money market, the variance of output is shown to be an increasing function of the trend inflation rate. When they result from disturbances to the goods market, the variance of output is a decreasing function of the trend inflation rate. When both disturbances are significant, there exists, in general, a critical non-zero trend inflation rate that minimizes the variance of output.


BACKGROUND
Little is known about acute changes in renal function in the postoperative period and the outcome of patients undergoing major vascular surgery. Specifically, data are scarce for patients in whom renal function temporarily decreases and returns to baseline at 3 days after surgery.

STUDY DESIGN
Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
1,324 patients who underwent elective open abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery in a single center.

PREDICTOR
Renal function (creatinine clearance was measured preoperatively and on days 1, 2, and 3 after surgery. Patients were divided into 3 groups: group 1, improved or unchanged (change in creatinine clearance, +/-10% of function compared with baseline); group 2, temporary worsening (worsening > 10% at day 1 or 2, then complete recovery within 10% of baseline at day 3); and group 3, persistent worsening (>10% decrease compared with baseline).

OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS
All-cause mortality.

RESULTS
30-day mortality rates were 1.3%, 5.0%, and 12.6% in groups 1 to 3, respectively. Adjusted for baseline characteristics and postoperative complications, 30-day mortality was the greatest in patients with persistent worsening of renal function (hazard ratio [HR], 7.3; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.7 to 19.8), followed by those with temporary worsening (HR, 3.7; 95% CI, 1.4 to 9.9). During 6.0 +/- 3.4 years of follow-up, 348 patients (36.5%) died. Risk of late mortality was 1.7 (95% CI, 1.3 to 2.3) in the persistent-worsening group followed by those with temporary worsening (HR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.2 to 1.4).

LIMITATIONS
No steady state was achieved to assess renal function.

CONCLUSION
Although renal function may recover completely after aortic surgery, temporary worsening of renal function was associated with greater long-term mortality.


The sense of being stared at, or scopaesthesia, is very common, and its existence is supported by experimental evidence. However, it contravenes the standard scientific assumption, dating back to Kepler's discovery of retinal images in 1604, that vision involves only the inward movement of light – intromission – but not the outward movement of images or attention – extramission. From this point of view, scopaesthesia is impossible. Yet, paradoxically, the conventional explanation of virtual images in mirrors is still based on Euclid's (c. 300 BC) extramission theory, and most people implicitly believe in visual extramission, which could help provide a basis for scopaesthesia. If scopaesthesia depends only on the detection of another's attention, it could conceivably be a scalar phenomenon, with a magnitude but not direction, analogous to telephone telepathy, in which people feel who is calling but do not know where they are. In this case, scopaesthesia would tell us little about the nature of vision. But if scopaesthesia is normally directional, enabling those stared at to detect the direction from which the look is coming, it would be more like a vector phenomenon, with both magnitude and direction and would provide evidence for visual extramission. Experimental tests of scopaesthesia have so far been devoted to establishing its existence and have not looked at its directionality. Here, we examine the natural history of the phenomenon based on a collection of 960 case histories collected over 25 years involving both humans and non-human animals. This collection includes more than 80 interviews with surveillance officers, detectives, martial arts teachers, celebrity photographers, wildlife photographers, and hunters who have extensive experience of watching people or non-human animals. In 466 (49%) of the cases, directional effects were explicit, in that the person or animal looked at responded by turning and looking directly back at the looker rather than searching at random for the source of attention. In 186 (19%) of the cases directional effects were implicit. In most of the other cases, directional effects were not mentioned, usually because they were general statements lacking detail. In online surveys, including a survey of a group of skeptics, the great majority of respondents said they had experienced directional scopaesthesia. We conclude that directionality is a normal feature of scopaesthesia in real-life situations and suggest that this finding supports the idea that minds are extended beyond brains and that this extension involves some kind of visual extramission. We quote from more than 40 case histories and, in the online Supplementary Material make the entire collection of 960 cases available to those who would like to look at the data for themselves.


Although the protective role of dietary fiber on cancer risk has been reported in several epidemiological studies, the association of fiber intake on head and neck cancer (HNC) risk is still unclear. We investigated the association between fiber intake and the risk of HNC using data from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian (PLCO) cancer screening trial. Among 101,700 participants with complete dietary information, 186 participants developed HNC during follow‐up (January 1998 to May 2011). Dietary data were collected using a self‐administered food‐frequency questionnaire (1998–2005). We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CI), using the Cox proportional hazards model. Higher intake of total fiber, insoluble fiber and soluble fiber was associated with decreased HNC risks, with a significant trend. The HRs of highest vs. the lowest tertile of intake were 0.43 (95%CI: 0.25–0.76) for total fiber, 0.38 (95%CI: 0.22–0.65) for insoluble fiber, and 0.44 (95%CI: 0.25–0.79) for soluble fiber. These inverse association were consistent in oral cavity and pharyngeal cases, but the impact of fiber intake was weaker in laryngeal cases. We did not observe any significant interaction of potential confounders, including smoking and drinking, with total fiber intake on HNC risk. These findings support evidence of a protective role of dietary fiber on HNC risk.


Abstract—The aim of this work was to investigate the potential of soil microorganisms and the burhead plant, as well as the combination of soil microorganisms and plants to remediate monoethylene glycol (MEG), diethylene glycol (DEG), and triethylene glycol (TEG) in synthetic wastewater. The result showed that a system containing both burhead plant and soil microorganisms had the highest efficiency in EGs removal. Around 100% of MEG and DEG and 85% of TEG were removed within 15 days of the experiments. However, the burhead plant had higher removal efficiency than soil microorganisms for MEG and DEG but the same for TEG in the study systems. The removal rate of EGs in the study system related to the molecular weight of the compounds and MEG, the smallest glycol, was removed faster than DEG and TEG by both the burhead plant and soil microorganisms in the study system.


This paper presents HyNTP, a distributed hybrid algorithm that synchronizes the time and rate of a set of clocks connected over a network. Clock measurements of the nodes are given at aperiodic time instants and the controller at each node uses these measurements to achieve synchronization. Due to the continuous and impulsive nature of the clocks and the network, we introduce a hybrid system model to effectively capture the dynamics of the system and proposed hybrid algorithm. Moreover, the HyNTP algorithm allows each agent to estimate the skew of its internal clock in order to allow for synchronization to a common timer rate. We provide sufficient conditions guaranteeing synchronization of the timers, exponentially fast. Numerical results illustrate the synchronization property induced by the proposed algorithm as well as robustness to communication noise.


Advances in sensor technology for Earth observation make it possible to collect multispectral data in much high dimensionality. For example, the NASA/JPL Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) generates image data in more than 220 spectral bands simultaneously. For such high dimensionality, the appropriate selection of features has a significant effect on the cost and accuracy of an automated classifier. In this paper, a feature selection method using fuzzy Markov chains is proposed. It has been shown that the fuzzy Markov chain is a robust system with respect to small perturbations of the transition matrix, which is not the case for the classical probability Markov chains. In this paper, classical and fuzzy Markov chain approaches are applied to the problem of feature selection for high dimensionality.


The authors study the following problem: given a strongly connected digraph, find a minimal strongly connected spanning subgraph of it. Their main result is a parallel algorithm for this problem, which runs in polylog parallel time and uses O(n{sup 3}) processors on a PRAM. The authors' algorithm is simple and the major tool it uses is computing a minimum-weigh branching with zero-one weights. They also present sequential algorithms for the problem that run in time (m + n {center dot} log n).


BACKGROUND
Cancer treatment can have profound effects on the growth and development of pediatric patients. Different models of psychosocial development and behavioral treatment approaches aid children receiving medical treatment. Providing education, anticipatory guidance, and individualized support to child and their families is a psychosocial standard.

OBJECTIVE
Clarify the different models of psychosocial development and applicable psychosocial interventions to better prepare and tailor cancer treatment to pediatric patients.

METHODS
Authors reviewed existing evidenced-based literature in oncology, psychology, developmental, and psychiatric while drawing on case examples and expert knowledge to illustrate the impact of cancer treatment on pediatric patients, analyze developmentally individualized needs, and describe facilitative interventions.

RESULT
Pediatric patients of all ages cope and adjust better to all phases of treatment when their care is delivered in a developmentally-informed and psychosocially thoughtful way.

CONCLUSION
Providers can comprehensively prepare their patients and families for treatment better by utilizing a psychosocially- and developmentally-informed framework while meeting individualized unique needs of patients. An integrated multidisciplinary psychosocial support team is facilitative in anticipating and meeting the needs of pediatric cancer patients and has recently become a psychosocial standard of care.


BackgroundDeveloping, emerging and developed countries are vulnerable to disasters and might require external assistance to cope with their aftermaths. It is forecasted that disasters will increase five-fold over the next 50 years. In an environment, which is characterized by many uncertainties, humanitarian supply chains are created to provide disaster relief in a highly complex and dynamic setting. This environment is unique for every disaster, where infrastructure, government, physical, socio-economic and security situational factors can either facilitate or restrict humanitarian operations. Agile supply chain principles enable humanitarian organizations to quickly respond to disasters.PurposeThe purpose of this thesis is to explore and analyze the impact of external situational factors on the agility of humanitarian supply chains and humanitarian organizations' actions taken to address those external situational factors during the immediate response phase of an emergency event.MethodologyFor the purpose of this study a combination of an inductive and deductive research approach was applied. The study was of exploratory and qualitative nature with a single case study in its focus. Empirical data was collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with nine respondents involved in the disaster relief operations of Haiti Earthquake 2010. Empirical findings were analyzed by using the template analysis.ConclusionExternal situational factors have a strong impact on capabilities enabling humanitarian supply chains to be agile during the immediate response phase. Humanitarian organizations are able to reduce the negative impact of external situational factors while in other cases the negative impact of external situational factors is further intensified by actions taken by humanitarian organizations. Furthermore, humanitarian organizations are able to utilize and enhance some of the positive impacts of external situational factors. However, the initially positive impact of some external situational factors may be reduced by inappropriate actions taken by humanitarian organizations. Therefore, understanding the context of the disaster's broader environment is a prerequisite to an effective emergency response.


This brief addresses three issues related to the performance of the RTE cereal industry. First, consumers are dissatisfied with the high price of many breakfast cereals and farmers are concerned about the consequent impact on the demand for agricultural inputs to the industry. Second, although private label cereals are lower priced and their share of market has grown, marketing strategies of the big three cereal companies have blunted its growth and may altogether stop it in the near future. Third, RTE is a specific example of takeovers, leveraged buyouts, and/or mergers in many food industries. In many food industries these have increased prices to consumers, generated lay offs, wage give backs, and lower prices paid for other inputs in order to generate increased cash flows to meet financial terms of such deals. Mergers may generate gains in economic efficiency, but these changes are not efficiency gains. They are corporate transfers of income. By way of background for these points this memo provides a set of charts and graphs and a brief discussion: These charts and graphs have been pulled from other publications so the numbers on them don't start with one and go consecutively up.


225Ac-PSMA-617 targeted-therapy has demonstrated efficacy in 75-85% of patients; however, responses are not durable. We aimed to establish translatable mouse models of disseminated prostate cancer (PCa) to evaluate effectiveness of 225Ac-PSMA-617 at various disease stages. Methods: C4-2, C4-2B, or 22Rv1 cells were injected into the left ventricle of male NSG mice. Disease progression was monitored using bioluminescence imaging (BLI). For treatment, mice were injected with 40 kBq 225Ac-PSMA-617 at one (early treatment cohort) or three weeks (late treatment cohort) post-inoculation. Treatment efficacy was monitored by BLI of whole-body tumor burden. Mice were sacrificed based on body conditioning score. Results: C4-2 cells yielded metastases in liver, lungs, spleen, stomach, bones, and brain - achieving a clinically relevant model of widespread metastatic disease. The disease burden in the early treatment cohort was stable over 27 weeks in 5/9 mice and progressive in 4/9 mice. These mice were sacrificed due to brain metastases. Median survival of the late treatment cohort was superior to controls (13 vs. 7 weeks; p<0.0001) but inferior to that in the early treatment cohort (13 vs. 27 weeks; p<0.001). Late cohort mice succumbed to extensive liver involvement. The 22Rv1 and C4-2B systemic models were not used for treatment due to high kidney metastatic burden or low take rate, respectively. Conclusion: C4-2 cells reproduced metastatic cancer spread most relevantly. Early treatment with 225Ac-PSMA-617 prevented liver metastases and led to significant survival benefit. Late treatment improved survival without reducing tumor burden in the liver, the main site of metastasis. The current findings suggest that early 225Ac-PSMA-617 intervention is more efficacious in the setting of widespread metastatic PCa.


The development on study of Nano-ST on tribology, and lubrication characteristic of nano-particles are presented in this Paper. One kind of nano-materials was applied in rotary air conditioner compressor, whose application effect was verified by performance test and 1000 hours accelerated life experiment. The result of experiment was analyzed and compared with normal compressor. The result showed that the nano-materials could improve friction and wear and COP.


Purpose: Analysis of the impact of selected characteristics of young logisticians on the acceptance level and the level of anxiety related to working in an automated and robotic environment. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study was conducted using a questionnaire in which the questions were divided into two main sections. The first section was used to identify the individual characteristics of the respondents, the second section concerned the direct relation to work in an automated and robotized environment. Findings: Logistics students point to more positive aspects of using automated solutions and robots than negative ones. There are also features of these people determining the level of acceptance and the level of fear of working in an automated and robotized environment. Practical Implications: Knowledge of the features that predispose an employee to work in automated and robotic systems will allow for more effective recruitment and training, which will give a chance in an increase in the efficiency of processes. Originality/Value: The conducted research completes the research gap in the form of the lack of research on the relationship between the characteristics of young logistics professionals and the level of their acceptance of work in an automated and robotized environment.


The role of low level (Le Fort I) osteotomy of the maxilla alone, or combined with a mandibular procedure, is discussed for the management of maxillary hypoplasia at the supra-apical level which is commonly associated with repaired cleft lip and palate. Osteotomy at this level influences the soft tissue contours of the nasolabial region of the face. The changes in the soft tissue that can be expected and attained are examined. A brief description of operative procedures and fixation techniques is given and the possible causes of relapse considered.


This paper deals with the distribution of control effort in over-actuated nonlinear systems using control allocation (CA) methods. The developed CA methods rely on constrained optimization and have two key features. First, Lyapunov-based constraints and cost function are inserted into the optimization problem to improve the controller's response to unattainable virtual inputs. Second, the CA formulation is enhanced with control barrier functions to enforce state constraints. The effectiveness of the proposed CA methods is demonstrated through simulation tests of a motion controller for an over-actuated road vehicle.


INTRODUCTION
As a result of transnational migration, health institutions are faced with growing demand for "restoration" of virginity. The practice of hymen reconstruction constitutes a challenge for health care providers in medical, ethical, judicial, social, and cultural dimensions, for which they are not well prepared.

AIM
The aim of the presented nationwide survey was to investigate the experience of Swiss gynecologists with women requesting hymen reconstruction.

METHODS
A questionnaire specifically designed for this purpose was sent to 100 public hospitals.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Main outcome measures included demands for (number of requests, origin of women) and attitudes toward hymen reconstruction (requests granted, decision-making for or against intervention, surgical technique applied, problems associated with the requests for hymen repair, cost coverage, need for further information) in Switzerland.

RESULTS
The response rate was 68%. Of the 43 clinics (63.2%) confronted with requests for hymen reconstruction, 38 (90.5%) claimed to see up to five patients per year. The predominantly mentioned countries of origin were Turkey in the German-speaking part and Arab countries in the French-speaking part. More than half of the clinics (27/64.3%) reported that they always (12/28.6%) or mostly (15/35.7%) granted the request. Decision for surgery was made after intensive counseling in 44.2% and on demand of the patient after brief counseling in 32.7%. The so-called approximation method was the most frequently applied surgical technique. A third of the participants (19/35.2%) reported problems with confidentiality. More than half of the clinics expressed their need for further information on this topic.

CONCLUSIONS
Hymen reconstruction is rarely performed in Switzerland, even though two-thirds of the responding hospitals are confronted with this issue several times per year. No guidelines exist on how health professionals should deal with these requests. Interdisciplinary research on how to meet the needs of women and health care providers in such cross-cultural encounters is needed.


This study has been carried out to evaluate the possible In vitro interaction between ethanolic extracts of Rus coriaria (seed), Sacropoterium spinosum (seed) and Rosa damascena (flower) and certain known antimicrobial drugs including oxytetracycline HCl, penicillin G, cephalexin, sulfadimethoxine as sodium and enrofloxacin. Synergy testing of these extracts and antibiotics was carried out against 3 multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains using microdilution method. Results of this study showed that there is a decrease in the MIC in case of combination between ethanolic plant extracts and test antimicrobial agents. The most interesting result that the combination between R. coriaria and these antibiotics, which showed a high decrease in MIC and a strong bactericidal activity against these strains. These results may indicate that combinations between R. coriaria extract and these antibiotics could be useful in fighting emerging drug-resistance P. aeruginosa, this may due to that R. coriaria extract contain natural inhibitors working by different mechanisms or inhibiting efflux pumps. Now we have experiments underway leading to th e identification of the active molecules present in R. coriaria. Further, in vivo experiments are needed to confirm Pseudomonal protection.


Glucagon was given by continuous intravenous infusion for ninety-six hours to eight patients with severe congestive heart failure. The dose was 4 or 2 mg. per hour. Results were similar in both groups and are presented together. Mean fasting blood sugar increased significantly during infusion (from 87 to 103 mg./100 ml.). Mean fasting serum immunoreactive insulin (IRI) increased considerably (from 9.1 to 32.0 μU/ml.) and mean fasting serum immunoreactive growth hormone (HGH) increased from 2.8 to 11.9 ng./ml. Intravenous glucose tolerance tests were performed before and during glucagon infusion. The glucose disappearance rate (K-value) declined significantly during the infusions (from a mean of 0.85 to 0.46), although serum IRI responses to the intravenous glucose were much higher than before. Serum HGH levels were not suppressed by the glucose and sometimes even showed a rise. A carbohydrate-rich meal induced the same rises in blood sugar during glucagon infusion as before, but serum IRI responses were much higher during glucagon, and elevated serum HGH values were not normalized. It is concluded that long-term infusion of pharmacological doses of glucagon to patients with cardiac insufficiency leads to a state of mild carbohydrate intolerance, characterized by some increase in fasting blood sugar and decrease in glucose disappearance rate, in spite of very considerable rises in serum IRI. This diabetes-like state may be accounted for by elevated levels of serum HGH, although other insulin-antagonistic factors may be involved.


The present study was undertaken to study the sunscreen activity of herbal formulation. There is no evidence of the sun protection factor (SPF) studies on essential oil of Calendula flowers (Calendula officinalis L., Asteraceae). The study investigates the in vitro SPF by ultraviolet specrtophotometry method of Calendula flower oil in a cream formulation. Calendula oil was isolated by Clavenger′s apparatus, compositions were identified by GC-MS and the cream of calendula flower oil was prepared by homogenization method followed by evaluation for physical parameters. The sun protection factor of cream was evaluated by in vitro method employing UV-visible spectrophotometer (Shimazdu-1600). The SPF of Calendula oil in cream formulation exhibited good activity (SPF = 14.84 ± 0.16). Finding of this study suggested that calendula oil cream can be used to protect the skin from UV radiations in form of sunscreen cream and to maintain the natural pigmentation of the skin.


This article takes as its starting point the fundamental changes in the past two to three decades in labour market institutions and processes in the developing countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The article examines two critical forces in the evolution and development of employment relations in many of these countries: the transformation from dictatorship to democracy and the globalization of national economies. The author provides an outline of the forces at play and their implications for employment relations; it considers public policy responses and their effect on workers and employers' organizations. It then examines the changing nature of collective bargaining, the most critical benefit of unionization. Finally, the article discusses the role of national-level social dialogue and its contribution to social and economic policy making.


Although all fishes have a mechanosensory lateral line system — a system of water flow detectors (neuromasts) in canals or free on the skin's surface — particular behavioral functions are documented for only a few species. Work on lateral line use for feeding has focused on either cavefishes or night-active species (Montgomery, 1989). While surface-feeding fishes with well-developed eyes do use the lateral line to locate prey (Muller and Schwartz, 1982), it is generally assumed that diurnal/crepuscular fishes are visual predators. We show that a hydromechanical stimulus detected by the cephalic lateral line system in two sunfishes (Centrarchidae) can be the sole determinant of a strike trajectory. The response occurs without reinforcement and appears to be an unconditioned response.


Abstract. The available quantitative information (age, growth, maturation and mortality) for 103 fish stocks in Hellenic Seas was analysed here in the context of life-history theory and compared with similar information from other areas of the world. The results showed that the fish species and stocks inhabiting Hellenic waters are generally small in size, have low longevity, mature at an early age and size, and probably suffer high adult mortality rates. Such a pattern most probably is an adaptation to the synergetic combination of highly oligotrophic conditions and high subtropical temperatures prevailing in Hellenic waters and is consistent with life-history theory. Finally, the auximetric grid was used to compare the growth of four species, each represented by more than six stocks. The results revealed that the growth spaces occupied by the four species reflect their strikingly different feeding habits, especially with respect to the size of prey and the relative importance of fish prey to their diet.


The manual shift of residential wet appliances (dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers) in French households that have subscribed to a Time of Use (ToU) tariff represents a flexibility potential available already today and at zero-cost. To quantify this flexibility, a bottom-up model is here proposed and validated. This includes a stochastic occupant behaviour model for predicting the use of the wet appliances and an overlying agent-based model to predict their shifting under the ToU tariff. The model is validated using empirical data collected in a recent monitoring campaign, which provided energy measurements from 60 dishwashers, 100 washing machines and 23 tumble dryers in 107 French households for a period of 1 year.


The presence of the neural cell adhesion molecule, NCAM, is indicative for a poor prognosis in lung‐cancer patients. Using MAb 735, we have investigated the expression of polysialic acid, PSA, on NCAM in a spectrum of neuro‐endocrine lung tumors, ranging from the slowly growing typical carcinoids via the atypical carcinoids with clinically unpredictable behavior to the highly aggressive small‐eel I lung carcinomas. Our immunohistochemical findings indicate a significant association between the presence of PSA on the tumor cells and an aggressive and immature sub‐type of the tumor. This might be related to impairment of cell‐cell and cell‐matrix interactions by the presence of PSA, as we demonstrated in vitro, since detachment is one of the first steps in the metastatic process. The NCAM‐MAb 123C3 used in these studies appeared extremely useful in immunoscintigraphy and immunotherapy of SCLC xenografts in nude mice, and for immunoscintigraphy of a SCLC patient. This may be explained by internalization of the 123C3 antibody, which we demonstrated in vitro. 123C3 is the only Cluster‐1 SCLC MAb studied thus far that becomes internalized.


The purpose of this study was to determine how resource teachers (n = 13) and classroom teachers (n = 12) experience a coaching partnership, in which both teachers work in the regular classroom to support students with special educational needs. The focus of the partnerships was to build classroom teacher capacity around inclusionary practices. Classroom teachers and resource teachers completed questionnaires about the partnerships and their impact. Results indicated that both groups of teachers found the partnerships to be valuable. The partnerships were supported by coaching principles, as well as relationship, attitudes, understanding of students, and time spent together. Benefits of the model included increased support for students; increased learning for students; learning of different approaches, for classroom teachers and resource teachers; shared responsibility for students, between classroom and resource teachers; feeling more valued, for resource teachers; and seeing a model of collaboration, for students, teachers and the community.


Sprague-Dawley rats injected with a "physiological" dose of cholecystokinin octapeptide (CCK-8; 6 micrograms/kg ip) expressed c-fos immunoreactivity in the nucleus of the tractus solitarius (NTS) and the area postrema (AP) of the brain stem. Injection of the CCK-A antagonist L-364,718 30 min before CCK-8 injection eliminated c-fos expression in these regions. These findings support the hypothesis that CCK-8 induced c-fos expression is mediated by CCK-A receptors. We then tested whether a meal (Isocal) could activate c-fos, and, if so, whether this response could be eliminated by L-364,718. Ingestion of Isocal induced c-fos immunoreactivity in the NTS and AP. Meal-induced c-fos expression was not blocked by the CCK-A antagonist L-364,718. These findings demonstrate for the first time that a purely physiological nonnoxious stimulus, a meal, induces c-fos in the rat brain stem and indicate that feeding induces c-fos expression by a pathway that is largely, if not entirely, independent of CCK release.


Heat and drought are projected to increase globally but may be mitigated or exacerbated by land use/land cover (LULC) change. Here, we show that remote land-atmosphere feedbacks caused by historical European LULC change led to widespread changes in the energy and water balances, drought, and heat. Using a continental-scale bedrock-to-atmosphere model, we find that LULC change following the Soviet Union collapse and European Union formation may have substantially increased cloud cover and decreased incoming shortwave radiation in western Europe, even in locations where LULC did not change. These changes to the water and energy balances had spatially heterogeneous impacts on drought and heat, including drying in the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe regions. The response of the water and energy balances to remote feedbacks was lessened in areas with shallow groundwater, indicating that local- and continental-scale responses to LULC change are influenced by the coupling between the subsurface, land surface, and atmosphere.


In order to research the optimal parameters of dampers linking adjacent structures for seismic mitigation, two SDOF systems connected with visco-elastic damper (VED) are taken as research object and the primary structural vibration frequency ratio, connection stiffness and linking damping ratio as research parameters. Modified Kanai-Tajimi spectrum is selected to model the earthquake excitation. The peak distribution of power spectral density curves are analyzed, then the formulas of structural mean squared displacement (MSD) and research parameters is derived based on random vibration theory. Then the relationship of the adjacent structural seismic response versus the research parameters was presented. The optimal value of the linking visco-elastic damper damping ratio and stiffness ratio are investigated. Finally, the seismic responses of example structures with or without connecting dampers are contrastively analyzed. The dependence of response mitigation effective on research parameters is highlighted. The results indicate fine earthquake-reduction effectiveness of dampers connecting adjacent structures. It is also shows that optimal parameters of damper cannot reduce the seismic responses of the primary structures connected to the best extent simultaneously. The damper parameters should be determined according to the best seismic mitigation effectiveness of the primary, auxiliary structure or the combined structure system.


Background: Expert opinion is that about 20% of emergency stroke patients should receive thrombolysis. Currently, 11% to 12% of patients in England and Wales receive thrombolysis, ranging from 2% to 24% between hospitals. The aim of this study was to assess how much variation is due to differences in local patient populations, and how much is due to differences in clinical decision-making and stroke pathway performance, while estimating a realistic target thrombolysis use. Methods: Anonymised data for 246 676 emergency stroke admissions to 132 acute hospitals in England and Wales between 2016 and 2018 was obtained from the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme data. We used machine learning to learn decisions on who to give thrombolysis to at each hospital. We used clinical pathway simulation to model effects of changing pathway performance. Qualitative research was used to assess clinician attitudes to these methods. Three changes were modeled: (1) arrival-to-treatment in 30 minutes, (2) proportion of patients with determined stroke onset times set to at least the national upper quartile, (3) thrombolysis decisions made based on majority vote of a benchmark set of hospitals. Results: Of the modeled changes, any single change was predicted to increase national thrombolysis use from 11.6% to between 12.3% to 14.5% (clinical decision-making having the most effect). Combined, these changes would be expected to increase thrombolysis to 18.3%, but there would still be significant variation between hospitals depending on local patient population. Clinicians engaged well with the modeling, but those from hospitals with lower thrombolysis use were most cautious about the methods. Conclusions: Machine learning and clinical pathway simulation may be applied at scale to national stroke audit data, allowing extended use and analysis of audit data. Stroke thrombolysis rates of at least 18% look achievable in England and Wales, but each hospital should have its own target.


BACKGROUND
As about 20 % of pregnant women smoke, 137,000 of the 685,795 neonates delivered in Germany in 2005 have been affected by smoking during pregnancy. Caring for neonates born prematurely because of smoking results in additional costs. We have attempted to estimate these costs.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Data of 1,815,318 pregnancies were collected from the German perinatal statistics of 1995-1997. In 876,645 cases there was information regarding smoking. Of these, 699,134 pregnant women were non-smokers and 177,511 were smokers. To determine the number of preterm births due to smoking, we compared the distribution of the duration of pregnancy of the non-smoking cohort to that of the smoking cohort. From the difference between this and the actual distribution of the duration of pregnancy among smokers we determined the number of additional preterm births caused by smoking. For the analysis of the associated costs we used the actual costs of care and daily rates used in neonatology.

RESULTS
For 2002 we estimate 43 million Euros of additional costs due to neonates born prematurely because of smoking.

CONCLUSIONS
We present a rough estimate of the additional health care costs for neonates because of smoking. Costs were estimated only with regard to premature deliveries. Other effects of smoking during pregnancy on neonatal health were not considered. More detailed cost analyses will likely reveal even higher costs.


Classroom response systems (CRS), also called student/audience response systems or clickers, have been used by business instructors, particularly in larger classes, to allow instructors to ask students questions in class and have their responses immediately tabulated and reported electronically. While clickers have typically been used to measure attendance, gauge comprehension and test students, we propose that classroom response systems can also be used to effectively create an active learning environment. Specifically we detail the use of classroom response systems to utilize active learning in large classes (i.e., more than 70 students) through describing five sample CRS exercises in Marketing courses: Sequential Elimination, Why Do You Think That?, Experiential Exercises, What Would You Do?, and Forced Choice. These exercises though, could be adapted for use in other business classes.


The classical formulation of large displacement visco-elasticity requires the geometrically nonlinear Green tensor. Keeping track of the rotational part of strain permits alternative formulations, that allow the tensor to stay linear, and at the same time maintaining rotational invariance. We replace a recently proposed heuristical warping technique by the application of the polar decomposition. The polar decomposition exactly extracts rotations, thus enhances stability and accuracy. We combine it with a hierarchical finite element basis, which allows us to compute accurate rotations from a coarse level nonlinear simulation and use them with corotated tensors for finer detail.


ORIGINAL ARTICLE Introduction: Standards of quality have been a huge success for organizations around the world. Hospitals need to establish standards, especially environmental ones. Hence, the codification of ISO 14001 is a necessity for hospitals. The aim of this study was to conduct a survey on the preparation of the teaching hospitals of the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences to implement ISO 14001. Materials and Methods: This is a cross-sectional study based on a questionnaire with internal reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.787) to assess manager and staff attitudes toward the establishment of ISO 14001. The data was collected from hospitals at the Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. There were also questions on environmental standards. The guidelines for environment management system auditing were used to assess the general conditions. Then the data were analyzed by the SPSS software. Results: The mean age of the 250 people in the study was 32.52 ± 6.98 years with an age range of 21 to 55 years. Females made up 64.6% of the participants in this study and 35.4% were male. The relationship between the knowledge and the variables of work experience, education, age, and sex was performed, and the Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) showed that the knowledge of the females was less than that of the males (p = 0.01). Based on the current situation with the standards, hospitals were classified. Conclusion: The application of quality management systems (e.g. ISO) can be due to the development of standards and the modification of health centers. Thus, they may promote the quality of services, reduce costs, and raise the level of public health. Article History: Received:20 April 2017 Accepted:10 July 2017


The United States is entering an era when medicines designed to treat hitherto refractory diseases are increasingly available. About 1000 U.S. biotechnology companies are working to develop these new medicines. By early 1996, 16 pharmaceuticals based on biotechnology had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and an additional 150 were in the third and final phase of clinical trials. The major pharmaceutical companies have slowly become convinced that biotechnology can help identify important new drugs. The participation of these companies in research, clinical trials, and marketing will speed the advent of the new era in medicine. The drug discovery process is being expedited by the use of costly but powerful instruments, expert data processing and analysis, and new fast methods of synthesis and testing of large families of chemicals. These techniques are producing large libraries of chemicals designed to inhibit crucial enzymes, and automated ways of testing the efficacy of these libraries are being developed. Rapid advances are also being made in sequencing the genomes of humans and other creatures, and genes whose mutations give rise to disease states are being identified. These processes will create a stream of new potential pharmaceuticals. To become commercially available, however, they must first undergo rigorous FDA procedures, including a time-consuming and costly (in the range of $100 million) series of clinical tests for efficacy and absence of deleterious side effects. Because most biotechnology firms have assets of $20 million or less and their annual operations are usually conducted at a loss, those that have good candidate pharmaceuticals are finding it desirable to enter into alliances with major pharmaceutical companies. In 1995, 170 collaborative arrangements were made between biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, in each of which the biotechnology company received $20 million or more. The creation of new therapeutic drugs based on biotechnology comes at a critical time for the major pharmaceutical firms. In the early 1990s, their conventional research programs were not producing enough new medicines. As a result, many downsized and reduced their research staffs. In the interval from 1992 to 1994, the large pharmaceutical companies fired more than 40,000 employees. Yet the major U.S. pharmaceutical companies were slow to adopt the new biotechnology. Ronald Cape, the founder of Cetus, one of the early prominent biotechnology companies, has said that the major U.S. pharmaceutical firms greeted the startup biotechnology companies with ridicule and contempt.* During the past few years, attitudes have changed rapidly. Large pharmaceutical companies have been seeking alliance with or buying control of biotechnology companies with interesting proprietary assets. In 1995, pharmaceutical companies spent $3.5 billion to acquire biotechnology companies and $1.6 billion on R&D licensing agreements. The drug companies have also spent more than $700 million to obtain access to data banks on the human genome that are being developed by nine different biotechnology firms. Five of these firms rely on positional cloning to discover medically relevant genes. One of the five, Myriad Genetics, based in Utah, has a proprietary data bank on the incidence of hereditary diseases that enables it to focus on genes related to a limited number of pathologies, including breast cancer.† Two biotechnology companies are known to have succeeded in rapid large-scale sequencing of cDNA. One, Incyte Pharmaceuticals, processes 30,000 cDNA clones per week and sells its information to clients.† Human Genome Sciences (HGS) has a larger goal; it hopes to become a major pharmaceutical company. HGS has isolated and characterized almost all the human genes. It has also compared cDNA created from mRNA expressed in many diseased tissues with cDNA produced by normal human tissues, as well as with cDNA from other creatures. Computer-based bioinformation systems are facilitating the exploration of the vast stores of genomic knowledge that are being collected. These data systems have been developed by experts and will help scientists to much better understand disease processes and improve their ability to create better drugs. The new era in medicine will not come immediately, but its foundation is being established now.


Although the paleontology of the Upper Cenozoic Santa Fe Group in New Mexico has been collected and studied since the 1870s, little is known of its ichnofossils. A newly discovered vertebrate tracksite in the Pliocene Santa Ana Mesa Member of the Ceja Formation at Rio Rancho, Sandoval County, is the most extensive ichnoassemblage known from the Santa Fe Group. This assemblage is in a large (at least 500 m 2 ), bedding plane surface of a 0.1-0.2-m-thick bed of wavy bedded sandstone in which wave crests are 4-6 cm high and separated by ~ 40 cm; crest shapes indicate that paleoflow was to N30 o E. The surface is also marked by some east-west oriented swales that were water filled during track-making. We cleared ~ 14 m 2 of this surface to reveal a low diversity invertebrate ichnoassemblage, salamander trackways and over 170 bird footprints that represent at least 18 trackways. Cochlichnus , the sinusoidal, bedding-plane parallel grazing trace of a small arthropod, dominates the invertebrate ichnofossils, which also include a few larger, horizontal and tubular grazing traces assignable to Palaeophycus and Scoyenia . The salamander tracks form at least one trackway of small (15-20 mm long), tridactyl or tetradactyl footprints of a quadruped with long, scratch-like digits. These closely resemble the " Gracilichnium " extramorphological variant of the amphibian footprint ichnogenus Batrachichnus . The bird footprints are mostly tridactyl, but tetradactyl where well preserved. They show three long and pointed, anteriorly directed digits II-IV, and well preserved tracks also have a short, and spur-like digit I impression directed backwards. In better preserved footprints, a sole imprint connects the bases of the forward-directed digits. These bird footprints are assigned to the ichnogenus Gruipeda , most similar to Gruipeda calcarifera Sarjeant & Langston. These are the footprints of anisodactyl shorebirds. On the uneven trackway surface, bird footprints in the swales are more deeply sunk into the sediment than those outside of the swales. Most unusual is a salamander trackway that emerges from a swale, turns to the northeast and walks to disappear among bird footprints, possibly because one of the birds preyed upon the salamander. The sediments and ichnoassemblage at the Rio Rancho tracksite indicate a large, lower energy sandflat, either along a lake or channel margin associated with the large, fluvial, ancestral Rio Grande system. Similar habitats, though less active depositionally, are present along some reaches of the Rio Grande today.


In this work we propose a self-adaptive clock based on a ring oscillator as the solution for the increasing uncertainty in the critical path delay. This increase in uncertainty forces to add more safety margins to the clock period which produces a circuit performance downgrade. We evaluate three self-adaptive clock systems: free running ring oscillator, infinite impulse response filter controlled RO and TEAtime controlled ring oscillator. The safety margin reduction of the three alternatives is investigated under different clock distribution delay conditions, dynamic variation frequencies and the presence of mismatch between the ring oscillator and the critical paths and the delay sensors.


Calcium is a fundamental secondary messenger responsible for relaying information from the extracellular space to the cell interior. Extracellular cues are temporally encoded through calcium signals, which often arise in the form of oscillations. These oscillations are then decoded to inform cellular decisions and regulate cellular functions. Despite its crucial role in cell signaling, the encoding and decoding of calcium oscillations is poorly understood. The current biological tools and methods used to study calcium signaling lack the temporal precision and specificity necessary to precisely manipulate, perturb, and dissect calcium signaling circuits. To address this need, we developed a new set of optogenetic techniques to regulate calcium signaling circuits and study calcium encoding and decoding. First, we created optogenetic RGS2 (opto-RGS2) for studying calcium encoding. A light-induced heterodimerization system was engineered to recruit the RGS2 domain to the membrane where it interacted with its cognate G protein. Using our engineered opto-RGS2 cell line, we revealed that RGS2 reduced periodicity and stochasticity of G-protein coupled calcium oscillations and acted as a feedback regulator in this signaling circuit. Our opto-RGS2 addresses the need for better tools to perturb calcium signaling circuits and will enable future studies in calcium encoding. Next, we developed an optogenetic method to dissect mechanisms of calcium decoding. The amplitude, frequency, and duty cycle of calcium oscillations are the principal components driving calcium-coupled cellular functions. However, how these components individually contribute to the overall calcium decoding is unknown. Using a mathematical model, an optogenetically-engineered cell line, and custom hardware, we optically re-created patterns of calcium oscillations that independently varied a single waveform component. By monitoring calcium-coupled transcription, we revealed that the calcium-dependent transcription factor NFAT was more sensitive to the duty cycle of calcium oscillations as opposed to the oscillation frequency. Therefore, NFAT acted primarily as a signal integrator rather than a frequency decoder as previously hypothesized. With our new optogenetic approach, we isolated the role of individual signaling components and resolved a prevailing and controversial question in calcium decoding. In summary, we developed novel optogenetic approaches and applied them to answer key questions in calcium encoding and decoding. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Bioengineering This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/3126 First Advisor Brian Y. Chow


It is shown by surface lattice dynamics that a new type of surface vibrational resonance arises in those frequency regions where there is a strong depletion in the bulk phonon density of states. The presence of these pseudoband gaps is due to the higher Fourier components in the phonon dispersion relations introduced by the particular coordination of atoms in layers parallel to the surface. A quantitative analysis based on surface lattice dynamics of the recorded electron energy loss spectra of Cu and Ni suggests that the outermost surface interlayer force constant is rather close to the bulk value. This resonance is found to exist throughout the direction and makes an avoided crossing with a resonance derived from a band gap at the -point. An explanation is given for the disappearance of the divergent van Hove singularities in the projected bulk density of states upon projection on a surface layer.


The Vitreoscilla hemoglobin gene (VHb), trans-zeatin secretion gene (tzs), and the modified 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase gene (EPSPS), as linked expression cassettes, were simultaneously introduced into immature embryos of the rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars Xiushui-11, Qiufeng, Youfeng, and Hanfeng by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. A total of 1153 transgenic lines composed of 4222 plants were obtained through selection for hygromycin (hyg) B resistance. Genomic polymerase chain reaction (PCR), southern and northern blotting analyses, and other relative tests showed that all transgenes had been integrated into the rice genome and expressed effectively. Approximately 90.2% of the transgenic lines harbored all the transgenes. Expression analysis revealed that all transgenes coexpressed stably in transgenic plants, and the frequency of coexpression was about 85%. Statistically significant increases were observed in plant height, panicle length, total grains per panicle, and filled grains per panicle in transgenic plant lines compared with the control. Our study demonstrates a possible way to introduce different transgenes as linked expression cassettes within a single vector into the plant genome. Moreover, this transgenic approach has great potential in developing new rice cultivars with increased productivity and enhanced tolerance to the herbicide glyphosate.


Aim:  The goal of preventive dentistry is to intervene prior to the formation of dental caries. This study evaluated the remineralization effects of fluoride varnish, casein phosphopeptide amorphous calcium phosphates (CPP-ACP) and casein phosphopeptide amorphous calcium fluoride phosphates (CPP-ACFP) cream, and tricalcium phosphate (TCP) varnish.
Materials and Methodology: Samples with early artificial caries lesions were randomly divided into the following 5 groups with 20 samples in each group: (I) control, (II) fluoride varnish, (III) CPP-ACP cream, (IV) CPP-ACFP cream and (V) TCP varnish. The effectiveness of these remineralization agents was evaluated using a laser fluorescence device (DIAGNOdent), a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX).
Results: In the pre- and post-treatment evaluations, the DIAGNOdent remineralization measurements were statistically significant in all the groups, except the control group (p 0.05). The EDX analysis evaluated the Ca/P ratio between the groups. These results indicated that the CPP-ACFP group was significantly higher than the control group, the CPP-ACP group and the TCP group (p 0.05). In SEM imaging, the most extensive mineral accumulation was observed in the CPP-ACFP group.
Conclusion: Three analytical methods demonstrated that CPP-ACFP was the most effective remineralization material tested in this study.

How to cite this article: Tatar E, Toptanci IR. Evaluation of the effectiveness of remineralization preparations used in paediatric dentistry practices. Int Dent Res 2019;9(3):138-44.

Linguistic Revision: The English in this manuscript has been checked by at least two professional editors, both native speakers of English.


CD47 is a widely expressed cell surface receptor that serves as a counter-receptor for SIRPα in recognition of self by the innate immune system. On the other hand CD47 also serves as a signaling receptor for the matricellular protein thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1), regulating cell growth and survival. Clinical studies consistently show that increased expression of CD47 is an independent poor prognosis factor in several types of cancer, including breast cancer. Moreover elevated expression of CD47 is associated with development of resistance to chemotherapy by inhibiting cell death pathways. Therefore, agents targeting CD47 are attractive to overcome therapeutic resistance in breast cancer. Using a high-throughput assay in a 1536-well microplate format we screened a comprehensive set of approved and late stage development oncology drugs in combination with an anti-CD47 morpholino to find combinatorial strategies that are more cytotoxic against breast cancer cells. Potency and efficacy measurements during the primary screen identified compounds that synergized with anti-CD47 to augment their cytotoxicity effect. One of the compound groups that demonstrated increased synergism with CD47 were the anthracycline family of drugs. We further validated these results in a syngeneic model of breast cancer and demonstrated that blockade of CD47 in combination with doxorubicin improves chemotherapeutic response when compared to mice administered doxorubicin alone. Furthermore the anti-tumor response with anti-CD47 combination is associated with a reduction in glycolytic flux and a selective up regulation of mitophagy. Overall this indicates that blockade of CD47 in the clinic may synergize with chemotherapeutic strategies to improve patient curative responses. Citation Format: David D. Roberts, Ashley Smith, John M. Sipes, Adam Wilson, Lesley Mathews-Griner, Rajarshi Guha, Craig J. Thomas, Marc Ferrer, David R. Soto-Pantoja. High-throughput matrix screening reveals synergistic chemotherapeutic combinations with blockade of CD47 to enhance cytotoxicity in breast cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 1352.


BACKGROUND
Glutathione-S-transferases (GSTs) and N-acetyltransferases (NATs) are involved in the metabolism of a wide range of carcinogenic chemicals. Allelic polymorphism of these enzymes is associated with variations in enzyme activity, hence it may affect the concentration of activated carcinogenic chemicals in the body. Previous studies suggest a possible cancer risk-modifying effect of these allelic polymorphisms, but the results are still controversial. We evaluated the effect of GSTM1, GSTT1, GSTP1, NAT1 and NAT2 enzymes on individual susceptibility to colorectal cancer, with particular attention to possible interactions between the studied genotypes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Five hundred colorectal cancer patients and 500 matched cancer-free controls were included in the study. The allelic polymorphisms of GSTM1, GSTT1 and GSTP1, NAT1 and NAT2 enzymes were determined by PCR-based methods, from peripheral blood leukocytes, and allelic distributions were compared between colorectal cancer patients and controls.

RESULTS
The GSTM1 0 allele (OR: 1.48, 95% CI: 1.15-1.92) and rapid acetylator genotypes of NAT2 (OR: 1.52, 95% CI: 1.17-1.98) were associated with an elevated risk No statistically significant correlation between NAT1, GSTT1, GSTP1 genotypes and colorectal cancer was found. Remarkably increased risk was associated with the GSTM1 0 allele--NAT2 rapid acetylator genotype combination (OR: 2.39, 95% CI: 1.75-3.26) and with the GSTM1 0 allele--NAT2 and NAT1 rapid acetylator triple combination (OR: 3.28, 95% CI: 2.06-5.23). Carrying 4 or 5 putative "high-risk" alleles substantially increased the risk of colorectal cancer (OR: 3.69, 95% CI: 2.33-5.86).

CONCLUSION
The genotype of certain metabolizing enzymes affects the risk for colorectal cancer. This effect is particularly important when certain allelic combinations are studied. In the near future, individual level risk assessment may be reached by further increasing the number of studied polymorphisms, combining them with traditional epidemiological risk factors.


were blocked by the Thorotrast particles (size about 20 By) in the reticulo-endothelial cells, leading often to thrombosis. Although no changes could be found in the peripheral blood during the observation period of 18 to 24 months, the probability of radiation damage to the bone-marrow and to other storage organs was emphasized as the yirradiation for the usual 100 ml. Thorotrast amounted to 1.24 Mg. of radium (near the toxic dose), persisting for an unlimited period. At that time a warning was sounded against the rise of Thorotrast in man because of the limited diagnostic value achieved at a very high risk. Indeed, experimental carcinogenesis was reported a few years later,' 6 and when Northfield and Russell7 published five cases of cerebral thrombosis after arteriography the Lancet8 and you, Sir,9 brought critical annotations about the use of Thorotrast. Subsequently I expressed my amazement that Thorotrast was still used for diagnostic purposes in man and repeated my previous warning.". I am now bewildered to see that it had such a widespread use in Portugal until recently, and that the conclusion of the Portuguese workers in 1965 is that Thorotrast should never be administered to patients with a life expectation of more than two years. Surely even in therapy our first principle should be nil nocere ?-I am, etc.,


The development of carcinoma of the stomach after a gastrojejunal anastomosis for chronic peptic ulcer is, on the whole, unusual. Its occurrence has been observed chiefly in certain cases of gastric ulcer for which gastro-enterostomy had been performed when, because of the great size, inaccessible location or extensive fixation of the lesion, its removal would have been an excessively difficult and hazardous undertaking. It is the consensus of most present-day writers in considering the life history of gastric ulcer that approximately 5 per cent of these benign ulcers will ultimately undergo malignant degeneration if they are not healable when treated by dietary or other nonsurgical measures. It therefore seems reasonable to assume that, likewise, gastric ulcers which fail to heal after an indirect type of operation, such as gastroenterostomy, should show similar tendencies. Jean Varnier 1 estimated that carcinoma will ultimately develop in from 2 to 5 per cent of


Crohn's disease is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease, whose pathogenesis is largely determined by an inappropriate immune response towards luminal microbiota in genetically susceptible hosts, affecting in particular genes involved in the autophagy process. The autophagy-related ATG16L1 T300A variant is one of the most frequently associated polymorphisms with susceptibility to Crohn's disease, but the functional consequences of this polymorphism on the dynamic properties of the autophagy flux remains unknown.

 Using dynamic monitoring of LC3 lipidation, a key protein marker of autophagy, we have quantitatively analysed the autophagic flux of human primary dendritic cells, which are very potent antigen-presenting cells whose function is critical in Crohn's disease.

 The detailed analysis of the dynamic properties of the autophagic flux reveal that the maturation process in dendritic cells from healthy subjects is associated with a decrease of the velocity and the intensity on the autophagy flux although the turnover of autophagosome formation was maintained, demonstrating the capacity of resilience of the autophagy flux for a maintenance of functional autophagy during maturation process. Strikingly, the expression of the ATG16L1 T300A variant, but not NOD2 R702W variant, in dendritic cells from patients with Crohn's disease is associated with a disorder of the autophagic flux dynamics in immature dendritic cells, that was not modulated upon maturation. The lack of adaptation of the autophagy flux in ATG16L1 T300A expressing dendritic cells of Crohn's disease patients, during their maturation was not associated with altered phenotypic acquisition of maturation markers but highlighted a very specific autophagic flux signature.

 Dendritic cells of Crohn's patients expressing the autophagy-related ATG16L1 T300A have an altered autophagy flux, that could affect their function and contribute to the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease.


The corporate world is drowning in disparate data. Data elements, field names, column names, row names, labels, metatags, etc. seem to reproduce at whim. Librarians have been battling data disparity for over a century with tools like controlled vocabularies and classification schemes. Data Administrators have been waging their own war using data dictionaries and naming conventions. Both camps have had limited success. A common data architecture bridges the gap between the worlds of tabular (structured) and non-tabular (unstructured) data to provide a total solution and clear understanding of all data. Using the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set Version 1.1 and its Information Resource concept as building blocks, the Rohm and Haas Company Knowledge Center has created a common data architecture for use in the implementation of an electronic document management system (EDMS). This platform independent framework, when fully implemented, will provide the ability to create specific subsets of enterprise data on demand, enable interoperability with other internal or external systems, and reduce cycle time when migrating to the next generation tool.


BACKGROUND
Relatively little attention has been paid to the significant HIV prevention role that voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) can play in populations with moderate levels of HIV prevalence. One such location is Tanah Papua, Indonesia, which in 2013 had a general population having HIV prevalence of 2.3% concentrated among indigenous Papuans (2.9% prevalence), very few of whom are circumcised. This article reports the findings of an implementation research study assessing the acceptability and feasibility of introducing VMMC for HIV prevention.

METHODS
Following a situational assessment and socialization of targeted groups of men and key stakeholders, a single-arm, open-label, prospective cohort trial using the non-surgical PrePex® device was undertaken in four cities. Study participants were recruited via study-associated socialization events. Data were collected from clients prior to and following device insertion, and at several "check-up" points (2-, 21- and 42-days) using standardized case report forms. A random sample of circumcision clients from one city was surveyed six months' post-removal to assess the prevalence of compensatory sexual risk behaviours.

RESULTS
Demand for circumcision was weak in three of the cities, reflecting insufficient prior socialization and lingering concerns over religious appropriateness and safety issues. Despite no prior experience with PrePex ®, the pilot implementation yielded side-effect and adverse event rates that were unremarkable in comparison with sub-Saharan African countries, where PrePex ® is widely used. No evidence of increased post-procedure sexual risk-taking was found.

CONCLUSION
The study findings point to both opportunity and significant challenges in introducing VMMC on a large scale in Tanah Papua, Indonesia. Although there were enough promising signs in the qualitative research and in the limited-scale implementation trial undertaken to remain optimistic as to the potential for VMMC to help contain HIV in Tanah Papua, much remains to be done to promote the benefits of VMMC and address lingering concerns as to safety and religious appropriateness. An acceleration of the pace of task-shifting from physicians to nurses will be needed in order for VMMC to be feasible for implementation on a large scale.


Commercial α−Si3N4, Al2O3 and a mixed yttrium and rare earth oxides, RE2O3, were used as starting-powders. Powder batches were milled using different Al2O3/RE2O3 contents, as additive. Hot-pressing was done at 1750oC-30 min-20MPa in N2 atmosphere. Specimens neat to 6x3x3mm3 were polished and characterized by XRD and SEM. Specimens were submitted to creep tests, under compressive stresses between 100 and 350 MPa at temperatures ranging from 1250 to 1300oC in air. Higher additive amounts resulted in larger grains of higher aspect ratios and in a decreased anisotropy in the hot-pressed ceramics. The compressive creep behavior depends on the intergranular phase content. While higher amounts of additives resulted in higher creep rates, • ε , and higher stress exponents, n, the activation energy Qss, has been inferior for samples with lower additive contents. Grain sliding has been identified to be the predominant mechanism responsible for creep deformation of these ceramics.


A study conducted over a period of two years in a Western Serbian valley included in situ identification of autochthonous plum cultivars. Observation and recording of their phenological and pomological traits were performed using IBPGR and UPOV methodologies. Fifteen cultivars derived from Prunus domestica L. and two cultivars derived from P. insititia L. were identified. Flowering started between 24 March and 7 April and fruit ripening between 12 July (Petrovaca) and 16 September (Trnovaca). Fruit weight ranged from 6.79± 0.018 to 36.62± 0.251 g and stone weight from 0.14± 0.002 to 1.95± 0.023 g. The cultivars were classified as being extremely small in terms of fruit size. Rounded fruit shape and light-yellow ground colour were dominant. Skin colour ranged from amber to black. Yellow green was a dominant flesh colour and medium flesh firmness predominated. The fruits of the above cultivars could be processed, particularly into plum brandy, or they could be used fresh or dried. The selected plum cultivars can be used both in breeding programmes and as rootstocks as well as in further disease-related systematic studies under field and laboratory conditions.


In this study, we examine flood-related variations in provenance of fine-grained palaeochannel sediments from the Bienener Altrhein (Germany), an abandoned river channel close to the apex of the Rhine river delta. Geochemical and grain size analyses were conducted on channel-fill sediments from multiple core sections, ranging from 1.15 m to 8.48 m depth, which represents pre-industrial sediment deposited from approximately 1550 AD to 1850 AD. In addition, four sediment cores of ~ 1 m length were retrieved from channel-fills or overbank deposits along the Upper Rhine and the three main tributaries of the Rhine in Germany (Neckar River, Main River and Moselle River). Sediment geochemistry was analysed using an Itrax X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) core scanner. Four elements (Ti, Co, Rb, W) were selected for further analysis based on the following a priori criteria: (1) The elements must be associated with minerals in the fine particle size fractions; 2) they must not be susceptible to precipitation-dissolution reactions during early diagenenis of the sediment; 3) the elements must be detected in the vast majority of the measurements; 4) the difference between the minimum and maximum number of the XRF counts for the upstream cores must be greater than 50% of the average number of counts. The XRF counts for these elements were standardised to z-scores and were subsequently corrected for the variation clay content ( 150 μm), which was primarily deposited during historical flood events. The results show the Mahalanobis distances are larger than 1 for most increments, which indicates that the four sampled upstream sites do not entirely cover all sources of sediment deposited in the Bienener Altrein channel. The logtransformed Mahalonibis distance correlates significantly (α = 0.05) with the >150 μm particle size fraction for the Upper Rhine River (negative) and the Moselle River (positive). This implies that the proportion of fine sediment that originates from the upper parts of the river basin and, hence, the sediment transport distance increases with flood magnitude. These results provide an excellent starting point to reconstruct the origin of historic flood events as documented in the sedimentary records of channel fills and dike breach ponds.


Every operating system embodies a collection of design decisions. Many of the decisions behind today's most popular operating systems have remained unchanged, even as hardware and software have evolved. Operating systems form the foundation of almost every software stack, so inadequacies in present systems have a pervasive impact. This paper describes the efforts of the Singularity project to re-examine these design choices in light of advances in programming languages and verification tools. Singularity systems incorporate three key architectural features: software-isolated processes for protection of programs and system services, contract-based channels for communication, and manifest-based programs for verification of system properties. We describe this foundation in detail and sketch the ongoing research in experimental systems that build upon it.


Many writers, even experienced ones, admit that one of the most frightening objects in their world is a blank piece of paper. Susan Horton feels that too many teachers, students, and writers themselves make writing harder than it needs to be. So much emphasis is placed on form and grammar-the "rules of the game," so to speak-that the essence of the writing process, the sheer joy of saying something new, is lost. Thinking Through Writing is, in Horton's words, "a 'Back-to-Basics' book"-but one with a twist. "I'm talking about the real basics," she says. "Not grammar, but basics like what writing is and is for, how you get an idea, and how and why each idea demands its own kind of organization, and how ideas turn into essays, and, even more basic, about how your mind forms ideas in the first place. You can use this book with or without a teacher in front of you. It is put together not to tell you what to do or how to write as much as it is designed to set things up so you can discover for yourself how writing works (yours and everybody else's), and, in the process, how your mind works as well. It's a kind of 'watch yourself think' book. There aren't many answers in it, but there are lots of questions: lots of things to try to explore and discover and play with. Even more than that, this is a book that tries to teach you not just how to answer questions, but how to find questions to ask." As a writer and teacher of writing for more than a decade, Horton knows firsthand the anxieties, frustrations, challenges, and rewards that are an integral part of that exciting craft. She also has extraordinary insight into the writing process itself, and it is that insight that she attempts to communicate in Thinking Through Writing. Sharp declines in standardized composition test scores and classroom performance during the past decade have created a "literacy panic" among educators and parents alike. As a result, composition is gaining a new prominence as an academic discipline. Horton's approach to the subject, emphasizing understanding oneself and one's craft rather than fear of error, is distinctive, original, and most of all, effective. Anyone who wants to learn how to write, how to think, and how thinking and writing are related will want to read this book.


This paper addresses the problem of traffic sign recognition in real-time conditions. The algorithm presented in this paper is based on detecting traffic signs in life images and videos using pattern matching of the unknown sign's shape with standard shapes of the traffic signs. The pattern matching algorithm works with shape vertices rather than the whole image. This reduces the computation time which is a crucial factor to fit real-time demands. The algorithm is translation and scaling invariant. It shows high robustness as it is tested with 500 images and several videos and a recognition rate of 97% is achieved.


The multi-element aqua regia National Geochemical Survey of Australia (NGSA) database is used to demonstrate an improved method for quantifying the degree of geochemical similarity (DOGS2) between soil samples. The improvements introduced here address issues relating to compositional data (closure, relative scale). After removing the elements with excessive censored (below detection) values, the rank-based Spearman correlation coefficient (rs) between samples is calculated for the remaining 51 elements. Each element is given equal weight through the rank-based correlation. The rs values for pairs of samples of known similar origin (e.g. granitoid-derived) are significantly positive, whereas they are significantly negative for pairs of samples of known dissimilar origin (e.g. granitoid- v. greenstone-derived). Maps of rs for all samples in the database against various reference samples are used to obtain correlation maps for lithological derivations. Likewise, the distribution of soils having a geochemical fingerprint similar to established mineralized provinces can be mapped, providing a simple, first order mineral prospectivity tool. Sensitivity of results to the removal of up to a dozen elements from the correlation indicates the method to be extremely robust. The new method is compliant with contemporary compositional data analysis principles and is applicable to various digestion methods.