Experimental data regarding the biologic consequences of exposure to several environmental variations associated with actual and simulated explosive detonations were reviewed. Blast biology is discussed relative to primary, secondary, tentiary, and miscellaneous blast effects as those attributable, respectively, to variations in environmental pressure, trauma from blast-produced missiles (both penetrating and nonpenetrating), the consequences of physical displacement of biological targets by blast-produced winds, and hazards due to ground shock, dust, and thermal phenomena not caused by thermal radiation per se. Primary blast effects were considered, noting physical-biophysical factors contributing to the observed pathophysiology. A simple hydrostatic model was utilized diagrammatically in pointing out possible etiologic mechanisms. The gross biologic response to single. "fast"-rising overpressures were described as was the tolerance of mice, rats, guinea pigs. and rabbits to "long"-duration pressure pulses rising "rapidly" in single and double steps. Data regarding biological response to "slowly" rising over-pressures of "long" duration are discussed. Attention was called to the similarities under certain circumstances between thoracic trauma from nonpenetrating missiles and that noted from air blast. The association between air emboli, increase in lung weight (hemorrhage and edema), and mortality was discussed. Data relevant to the clinical symptoms and therapy of blast injury are presented.more » The relation of blast hazards to nuclear explosions was assessed and one approach to predicting the maximal potential casualties from blast phenomena is presented making use of arbitrary and tentative criteria. (auth)« less


Background and Purpose: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are relatively rare cells defined as tumor cells circulating in the peripheral blood of patients with solid tumors. Diagnosis utilizing CTCs is expected to help guide decision-making for precision cancer medicine. We developed an automated microcavity array (MCA) system to detect CTCs based on the differences in size and deformability between tumor cells and normal blood cells. Here we evaluated its performance using preclinical spike-in model and blood samples from non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC) patients. Material and method: The automated MCA system consists of components such as chambered cartridge containing micro metal filter, reagent and waste reservoirs, and peristaltic pump. To evaluate the recovery of CTCs, preclinical experiments using NSCLC cells, NCI-H820, A549, NCI-H441 and NCI-H23 spiked into peripheral whole blood from healthy volunteers were performed. For clinical evaluation, 6 mL of peripheral whole blood was collected from 50 advanced lung cancer patients prior to the initiation of chemotherapy and from 10 healthy donors. Samples were collected in an EDTA-containing tube and were processed within 3 hours of blood draw. Recovered cells on the filter were then fixed, permeabilized, and stained automatically and high-resolution fluorescent images were obtained using fluorescence microscope. We defined CTC as DAPI-positive, cytokeratin-positive and CD45-negative cell. Results: Results of the preclinical study showed that up to 90% of spiked-in tumor cells were recovered, confirming that the detection sensitivity by this automated device is on par with that by previous manual detection procedure. Demographics of 50 lung cancer patients enrolled in clinical study were as follows: median age 72 (range, 48 to 85); male 66%; stage III/IV 12/88%; NSCLC/SCLC 78/22%. Cells defined as CTC were detected in 2 cases out of 10 healthy volunteers, of which CTC count was 1 and 2 / 6 mL, respectively. Three or more CTCs were detected in 71% of patients with advanced lung cancer (39 out of 50) and five or more CTCs were detected in 52% of patients (26 out of 50) (median CTC count 13.5). Among stage IV NSCLC patients, patients with extrathoracic metastasis tend to have more CTCs than in those with intrathoracic metasitasis (median CTC count, 8 versus 4, p = 0.058). A head-to-head comparison between CellSearch system and our system was conducted in NSCLC patients, showing the superiority of our system (median CTC count, 0 versus 11.25, p = 0.0001, n = 17). Conclusions Our results suggest that the automated MCA device has a clinical potential for CTCs diagnosis towards precision medicine in lung cancer. This device also enables higher throughput owing to its automated procedure. Further clinical evaluation including the detection of PD-L1 expression will be performed in an expansion cohort. Citation Format: Satomi Yagi, Yasuhiro Koh, Hiroaki Akamatsu, Woong Kim, Ayaka Tanaka, Kuninobu Kanai, Atsushi Hayata, Ryota Shibaki, Masayuki Higuchi, Hisashige Kanbara, Takashi Kikuchi, Keiichiro Akamatsu, Masanori Nakanishi, Hiroki Ueda, Nobuyuki Yamamoto. Development of an automated device for size-based enrichment and isolation of circulating tumor cells in lung cancer patients. [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 2244.


We study properties of the work distribution of a many-body system driven through a quantum phase transition in finite time. We focus on the non-Gaussianity of the distribution, which we characterize through two quantitative metrics: skewness and negentropy. In particular, we focus on the quantum Ising model and show that a finite duration of the ramp enhances the non-Gaussianity of the distribution for a finite size system. By examining the characteristics of the full distribution, we observe that there is a clear intermediate regime between the sudden quench and adiabatic limits, where the distribution becomes increasingly skewed.


Thermal coal prices increased markedly over the decade to 2011, driven by a substantial increase in global demand. That led to significant investments in thermal coal mine and port capacity, particularly in Australia and Indonesia. The resulting increases in the seaborne supply of thermal coal have underpinned a significant fall in global thermal coal prices. However, an easing of the pace of growth of global demand for thermal coal, reflecting a move towards cleaner energy sources and a slowing in the growth of aggregate electricity demand, has also weighed on prices. The outlook for prices and production over the next few years depends on a number of factors, particularly the response of Chinese demand to policy measures.


The introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops to Europe has been a significant source of tension among EU member states. While the political landscape is much divided there is also much unknown at the consumer level. The question of whether European consumers want GM foods made available to them or not has yet to be answered definitively. Hence, this research is considered timely; the objective is to examine willingness to pay (either a positive or negative amount) for GM Late Blight resistant (GMLBR) potatoes in Ireland. The methods used in this study serve as a new departure in the experimental auctions literature, whereby willingness to purchase bids for a new technology can have a positive and negative value in a single experiment. The results show that the majority of consumers' that participated in the experiment derived a greater utility from the conventional potato product compared to the GM potato product when priced at equivalent values. 3 out of 4 participants required the GM product to be priced at a discount in order for the utility to be derived from the GM product to be the same as the utility derived from the conventional product. However, the findings from this research would indicate that if the entry price point for the GMLBR potato product was correctly positioned then a market for the product could exist. Further investigation of the factors that influenced the participants' willingness to purchase the GMLBR potato indicated that education level, presence of children in the household and frequency of potato purchases significantly affected the purchase decision.


Formal verification techniques such as theorem proving, runtime verification, and model checking have been shown to improve program dependability. These techniques check the correctness of the system against specifications written in a formal language. Many of the verification tools, such as the highly acclaimed model checker SPIN, use Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) to specify system properties. While LTL is highly expressive and supports specification of software properties such as safety and liveness, it requires a high level of mathematical sophistication to write, read, and validate properties. There have been a number of research efforts to facilitate the generation of formal specifications in LTL using the notion of property patterns and scopes. These efforts, however, lack the general and consistent formalization of these patterns and scopes when using multiple propositions.
The dissertation research formalized the definitions of patterns and scopes including those that involve more than one proposition, and it defined an approach to automate the generation of LTL formulas for a wide range of complex software properties. The research verified the correctness of generated LTL formulas through formal proofs, and it defined techniques for testing the correctness of the formulas and for supporting their validation by visually representing the formulas using traces of computations.
The work is significant because it supports the generation of provably correct LTL specifications that can be used by a variety of formal verification techniques, and it provides an approach for clarifying and understanding properties in particular those related to sequential and concurrent properties that are characteristic of reactive systems.


We discuss the problem of instantaneous frequency (IF) estimation of phase signals using their level-crossing (LC) instant information. We cast the problem to that of interpolating the instantaneous phase (IP), and hence finding the IF, from samples obtained at the level-crossing instants of the phase signal. These are inherently irregularly spaced and the problem essentially reduces to reconstructing a signal from the samples taken at irregularly sampled points for which we propose a 'line plus sum of sines' model. In the presence of noise, the temporal structure of the level-crossings can get distorted. To reduce the effects of noise, we use a short-time Fourier transform (STFT) based enhancement scheme. The performance of the proposed method is studied through Monte-Carlo simulations for a phase signal with composite IF for various SNRs. Different level-crossing based estimates are combined to obtain a new IF estimate. Simulation studies show that the estimates obtained using zero-crossing (ZC) and other very low level values perform better than those obtained with higher level values.


Background: For patients with early-stage lung cancer (ESLC) and severe comorbidities, the cost-effectiveness of early intervention may be reduced by screening and treatment-related morbidity and mortality in addition to the risk for non-cancer-related deaths. Objectives: The use of bronchoscopic treatment (BT) for centrally located ESLC as minimally invasive technique has raised questions whether this approach will be more cost-effective than standard surgical resection in the above-mentioned cohort of patients. Methods: The cost-effectiveness of BT of 32 medically inoperable patients with intraluminal tumor has been compared to a matched control group of surgically treated stage IA cancer patients. Results: Median follow-up after BT for ESLC has been 5 years (range 2–10) versus 6.7 years (range 2–10) for the surgical group. Five patients (16%) developed subsequent primaries/local recurrences after BT versus 4 (12.5%) in the surgical group. The respective percentages of actual survival during follow-up have been 50 and 41%, non-lung-cancer-related death 22 and 31% and lung-cancer-related death 28% in both groups, respectively. So far, the average costs per individual for early management by BT have been Euro 22,638 by surgery, and total expenses have been Euro 209,492 and Euro 724,403, respectively. Conclusions: Despite the worse initial health status of patients treated with BT, actual survival rates and costs for early intervention underscore the superior cost-effectiveness of BT as early intervention in properly selected individuals with ESLC in the central airways.


Recently, there have been rapid advances in polymer solar cells (PSCs) based on nonfullerene small-molecule acceptors (n-SMAs) due to their outstanding properties. Silicon, which is a member of group 14 in the periodic table, may endow small-molecule acceptors with unique properties, especially when it is incorporated into conjugated backbones. In this work, a narrow band gap n-SMA based on a dithienosilole (DTS) unit incorporating silicon bridging atom, named Si4TIC-F, was designed and synthesized. Si4TIC-F has a rigid, planar conjugated backbone, benefiting intermolecular stacking and charge transport. Pairing Si4TIC-F with a wide band gap copolymer, poly[4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl)thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]-dithiophene-alt-N-(2-hexyldecyl)-5′5-bis[3-(decylthio)thiophene-2-yl]-2′2-bithiophene-3′3-dicarboximide] (PBTIBDTT), achieved a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 10.2%. The PCE is much better than those of other systems with DTS-based acceptors. Our results demonstrate the potential of the classical DTS unit in constructing new n-SMAs to realize high-performance nonfullerene PSCs, which will help advance the development of PSCs.


Background: Conventional cancer treatment is associated with resistant cancer development, treatment and quality of life limiting adverse effects, and patients' inability to complete intended treatment plans. Conventional cancer treatment's adverse effects lead 36.1% of cancer patients to seek integrative cancer treatments, which can provide a 15 percentage-point improvement in their health status. Therefore, a review of the extent of nutraceuticals applicable to conventional chemoradiation sensitization and adverse effect amelioration, as well as, for chemoprevention is valuable.
Methods: PubMed searches in September 2016 and January 2017, and hand searches in August 2016 and January 2017 were performed for English language, free full text articles published from 2012 onwards. Search terms were combinations of the key words: Homeopathy, nutraceuticals, phytochemicals, cancer, breast cancer, cervical cancer, endometrial cancer, ovarian cancer, prevention, and treatment. Adjuvant characteristics, adverse effects, and chemoradiation sensitization treatments were taken from these searches.
Findings: Organosulphurs are immunologic chemosensitizers. Terpenes can inhibit or reverse drug resistance. Epigallocatechin modulates estrogen receptor expression. Polyunsaturated fatty acids are cancer cell membrane chemoradiation sensitizers. Esterified vitamin E analogues and Ayurvedic Triphala radiosensitize the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Curcumin and resveratrol also radiosensitize cancer cells. Withaferin A is synergistic with cisplatin permitting reduced cisplatin doses while maintaining cisplatin's effectiveness. Conventional cancer treatment associated hand-foot syndrome, hematologic toxicity, mucositis, pain, sleep dysfunction, and overall toxicity respond to several nutraceuticals.
Conclusion and significance: The evidence for concurrent nutraceutical use with conventional chemoradiation to reduce conventional chemoradiation doses, and to prevent or limit conventional chemoradiation associated adverse effects exists. In vitro, and murine and human in vivo evidence suggests that nutraceuticals are effective chemoradiation sensitizers and adjuvants, with synergistic potential. Expanded scope positive human trials would facilitate a broader and deeper role for nutraceuticals in integrative cancer treatment.


Introduction
Previous studies suggest that autonomic dysfunction may be an underlying factor in Gulf War Illness. This study examined self-reported symptoms of autonomic dysfunction and their relationship with physical functioning among veterans with Gulf War Illness.

Materials and Methods
We abstracted medical records of Gulf War Veterans clinically evaluated at the New Jersey War Related Illness and Injury Study Center between 2010 and 2016. The outcome measure was the Veteran version of the Short Form Health Survey (VR-36) physical functioning scale. Autonomic function was assessed using a composite variable constructed from the chart abstraction to mimic the Composite Autonomic Symptom Scale (COMPASS-31).

Results
Seventy-six veterans were included in the final analysis. The autonomic symptom burden score was 45 (±14). Increased autonomic symptom burden, greater mental health burden (PTSD/depression), and greater body mass index were individually associated with poorer physical functioning. A general linear regression containing these variables revealed that patients with both PTSD and depression (b = -15.2, p = 0.03) or either PTSD or depression (b = -22.7, p < 0.01) had lower physical functioning than those without; the other variables became not significant (body mass index: p = 0.07; autonomic function: p = 0.89).

Conclusion
The average autonomic function score indicated significant burden in Gulf War Veterans, consistent with published research. We did not detect an independent association between autonomic symptom burden and physical functioning, likely due to the non-specific nature of the measure used to capture autonomic symptoms or the stronger association between mental health conditions and physical functioning. Future work utilizing valid and standardized instruments to clinically evaluate autonomic function is warranted.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association of human leukocyte antigen-E (HLA-E) gene polymorphisms and plasma soluble HLA-E (sHLA-E) levels with genetic susceptibility to breast cancer in Zhangjiakou women of Han nationality.

METHODS
HLA-E typing was performed in 200 patients with breast cancer and 228 healthy controls from Zhangjiakou area by means of polymerase chain reaction-sequence-specific priming (PCR-SSP). Simultaneously, sHLA-E was detected by ELISA.

RESULTS
We found two alleles of HLA-E: HLA-E*0101 and HLA-E*0103, and three genotypes, namely HLA-E*0101/HLA-E*0101, HLA-E*0101/HLA-E*0103 and HLA-E*0103/HLA-E*0103. The frequencies of HLA-E*0103 allele and HLA-E*0103/HLA-E*0103 genotype showed a significant difference between healthy controls and patients with breast cancer. The HLA-E*0103/HLA-E*0103 genotype significantly increased the risk for breast cancer. Plasma levels of sHLA-E showed no significant difference in breast cancer patients and controls. While in breast cancer patients with HLA-E*0103/HLA-E*0103 genotype, plasma levels of sHLA-E were significantly elevated compared with those in healthy controls. HLA-E genotypes and sHLA-E levels had no obvious relationship with tumor grading.

CONCLUSION
HLA-E gene polymorphisms are associated with the development of breast cancer in Zhangjiakou women of Han nationality. HLA-E*0103/HLA-E*0103 genotype is probably susceptible genotype for breast cancer, while plasma sHLA-E level probably has no association with breast cancer susceptibility.


We give a construction of a family of nontempered (local and global) Arthur packets of the exceptional group G2. One particular local packet contains a reducible representation. Using a Rankin-Selberg integral, we show that the subspace of the discrete spectrum associated to each packet is a full near equivalence class and this implies the Arthur multiplicity formula for these packets.


The large Taolin zinc–lead–fluorite deposit in the People's Republic of China was discovered 28 years ago, but whether its genetic affiliation is Mississippi Valley-type, epithermal, or mesothermal has remained uncertain. Both the ore and gangue (cherty to coarse quartz, plus barite, chlorite and calcite) occur as open space filling in a major fault zone between granite and metasedimentary rocks. Following barren, pre-ore quartz, three stages of ore are recognized by Wang (1978) and Wang et al. 1981. Our studies on 400 fluid inclusions, from all 4 stages, show homogenization temperatures of 120–200°C (av. =160) and salinities of 0 to 14wt% equiv. NaCl (av. 7.7). These results differ greatly from some previously published sulphur isotopic temperatures (221–344°C), and data for five inclusions that are more saline (9.0–17.7 wt% equiv. NaCl) and much hotter (up to 345°C). This study provides good examples of a variety of problems that are encountered in the application of fluid inclusion data to mineral deposit research in general. These problems include mine sampling, inclusion sampling, inclusion measurement, changes in inclusions after trapping, disagreement with other data, genetic affiliation of the deposit, and possible application of the results to exploration.


We analyze a model for N different measurements of a persistent latent time series when measurement errors are mean-reverting, which implies a common trend among measurements. We study the consequences of overdifferencing, finding potentially large biases in maximum likelihood estimators of the dynamics parameters and reductions in the precision of smoothed estimates of the latent variable, especially for multiperiod objects such as quinquennial growth rates. We also develop an R measure of common trend observability that determines the severity of misspecification. Finally, we apply our framework to US quarterly data on GDP and GDI, obtaining an improved aggregate output measure.


The decrease of heat demands in the low energy buildings requires to reexamine modeling approaches in the building simulation, particularly the dynamic response of the building and its equipments lead to re-examine modeling rules. From a review of air-to-air heat pump models, three types are compared in order to evaluate the ability of each one to predict the energy consumption and power demands. These air-to-air heat pump models coupled to a single zone building are simulated on Modelica. The aim is to underline the advantages and the drawbacks of the different modeling approaches for dynamic simulation in respect of the different phenomena to represent.


Objective: The atrial contraction wave is the single most important component of the ductus venosus (DV) indices used in predicting acidosis and adverse outcome. Based on the assumption that some pre-terminal changes in cardiac compliance and performance are rather reflected in the systolic and early diastolic components of the DV waveform, we aimed to establish and test new indices suitable for clinical use. Methods: DV velocities of 381 low-risk pregnancies were used to establish reference ranges for systolic pulsatility [DV-SPuls = (systolic peak − systolic nadir)/systolic peak] and early diastolic pulsatility [DV-DPuls = (diastolic peak − systolic nadir)/diastolic peak]. The DV-SPuls and DV-DPuls were determined in 123 cases where the DV Doppler recording was done ≤2 days before Cesarean section and where arterial cord pH and base excess (BE) were available at delivery, and in 15 cases of intrauterine fetal death (IUD). Power-transformation was used to achieve normality and fractional polynomial regression to calculate reference ranges, and SD-score statistics to assess deviation from the reference means. P < 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Arterial cord pH < 7.15 (n = 12), BE <−8.7 (n = 10), and particularly IUD (n = 15) were associated with increased DV-SPuls and DV-DPuls (overall p < 0.0001, and no overlap of 95%CI) when compared with the reference population. The DV-SPuls and DVDPuls were particularly high in cases with IUD (means were 2.4 and 3.1 SDs above means for the reference population) and also significantly higher than in fetuses that had arterial cord pH < 7.15 and BE <−8.7 (no overlap of 95%CI). Conclusions: Changes in the ductus venosus waveform during systole and early diastole are linked to alterations in acid base status at birth and intrauterine death. Augmented pulsations in this part of the DV wave may give valuable additional information on pre-terminal deterioration of the fetal circulation.


Graphical monitoring of the state of the system patient-apparatus for artificial lung ventilation (MLV) provides instant and illustrative information about the state of the system, which is particularly important under conditions of resuscitation and intensive care. Graphs of time dependence of gas pressure in respiratory pathways, gas flow rate, and changes of lung volume during respiration cycle provide on-line information about ventilation mode and patient state including lungs, respiratory pathways, positive pressure at the end of exhalation, etc. These curves allow MLV efficacy to be monitored and improved. Under certain conditions the capnogram shape provides an opportunity for objective evaluation of ventilation adequacy and patient state. The shapes of the curves in the norm and various pathology are considered. This graphical information is concluded to be important for effective use of modern MLV apparatuses for intensive care and resuscitation.


The reflection and transmission functions of an inhomogeneous slab are calculated by labeling the wave by the number of reflections it has undergone in the medium. The Riccati equation, satisfied by the reflected amplitude, is decomposed into a finite set of linear equations by taking into account the number of scatterings taking place inside the medium and is solved by a novel iterative approach. The order-of-scattering reflection functions method presented here and the coupled integral equation approach of the Bremmer solutions for the internal fluxes are set in a unified frame. The solutions of the Riccati equation are computed numerically for the reflection function using the order-of-scattering technique, and it is demonstrated that the method leads to better convergence and stability as compared to usual linearization methods. The Order-of-Scattering Solutions (BVU Series) of the Riccati Equation for the reflection function of an inhomogeneous slab are used to calculate the mean power intensity for a medium having random fluctuations of its dielectric constant. A solution for a Fokker-Planck-like differential equation for the joint probability density of the real and imaginary parts of the reflection function is obtained using a technique due to Van Kampen for nonlinear equations with multiplicative noise. The mean reflected power calculated from the probability density function is in agreement with that derived from the BVU solution. These results are in good agreement with the works of earlier investigators.


Infection following total hip or total knee arthroplasty can be devastating. It can result in instability of the hip or knee, diminished function, amputation, or death. Fulminant infection is unusual. Chronic low-grade infection is more commonly seen clinically. Differentiation of pain in a total hip or total knee replacement from loosening or infection may be difficult. Aspiration of the hip or knee for three aerobic and anaerobic cultures and sensitivities is the most reliable method of diagnosing infection. In the hip joint, aspiration should be performed under radiographic control. Treatment of the infected total hip or total knee by antibiotics alone is ineffective. Debridement of the hip or knee joint with retention of the prosthesis and intravenous antibiotics is successful in 18% to 40% of cases. Resection arthroplasty of the hip or knee usually results in eradication of the infection but leaves a painful, unstable, and shortened extremity and diminished ability to ambulate. Arthrodesis of the knee usually clears the infection but imposes the disability of a stiff knee. Two-stage reimplantation of the hip or knee is the most successful means of treating the infected total hip or knee replacement. In the knee, the success rate with two-stage reimplantation is 80% to 97%. In the hip joint, the success rate of two-stage reimplantation is 83% to 87%. Recently, debridement of the hip or knee with retention of the prosthesis and the local installation of antibiotics for a prolonged period has been used in cases of acute infection of less than 3 months' duration without evidence of implant loosening.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Although the uptake of green retrofit measures (GRM) in the UK is increasing,
empirical data often reveals significant shortfalls in the energy performance realised
by domestic green retrofit projects. Such results pose a threat to UK emissions targets
and are particularly problematic for the credibility of the government's flagship
scheme: The Green Deal. The energy performance of a dwelling may be influenced
by both its physical properties and the energy behaviours of its occupants and, whilst
the retrofitting of GRM seeks to improve energy performance through physical
alteration, the way in which users interact with these measures is likely to influence
the extent of that performance. It is theorised that greater consideration for these
socio-technical factors by those selecting GRM may yield more predictable energy
performance in-use whilst better accommodating the needs and expectations of the
occupants. A series of qualitative interviews were used to explore the decisionmaking
processes and in-use practices of early adopters of domestic GRM. The
research concludes that those currently realising exemplary energy performance
demonstrate a level of technical understanding and interest which is not representative
of social norms. Furthermore, acknowledging that the installation of multiple,
interoperating GRM may lead to higher energy performance, it is evident that a lack
of technical understanding may currently inhibit the effective operation and
maintenance of such systems, regardless of users' willingness to interact with them.
As such, a better understanding of the technical abilities and in-use expectations of
UK householders is required to aid the development of more intuitive and intelligent
green retrofit solutions. Where this could be achieved, improved predictability and
superior energy performance would likely follow.


The response time of DSS (decision support system) queries is typically several orders of magnitude higher than the response time of OLTP (online transaction processing) queries. Since DSS queries are often submitted interactively, techniques for reducing their response time are becoming increasingly important. We argue that caching of query results is one such technique particularly well suited to the DSS environment. We have designed a query cache manager for such an environment. The cache manager can lookup query results from the cache either based on an exact query match or using a query split algorithm to efficiently find query results which subsume the submitted query. The cache manager dynamically maintains the cache content by deciding whether a newly generated query result should be admitted to the cache and if so, which query results should be evicted from the cache to free space for the new query result. The decisions are aimed at minimizing the query response time. The decisions are explicitly based on a cost function that considers the execution cost of each query, the size of each query result, the reference frequency to each result, the cost of maintenance of each result due to updates of the base tables, and the frequency of such updates. Experimental evaluation shows that our cache manager can improve performance on TPC-D like workloads.


Background: The outcome of radioiodine (RAI) treatment in Graves' disease patients depends mostly on the percentage of RAI uptake in the thyroid gland. Most Graves' disease patients have a high percentage of RAI uptake while some have low uptake even after continuation of a low-iodine diet before RAI treatment. Hydrochlorothiazide has been proven to increase the percentage of uptake in low-iodine diet low-uptake Graves' disease patients. However, the effect on the patient's outcome has never been demonstrated. Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the outcome of RAI treatment in low-iodine uptake Graves' disease patients who were pre-treated with hydrochlorothiazide (HCTZ). The results were then compared with those who continued the low-iodine diet alone. Methods: All patients had Graves' disease and had low iodine uptake at baseline (1 RAI uptake). This retrospective study aimed to compare the treatment outcomes between two groups. The control group consisted of patients who discontinued an iodine-containing diet for 2 weeks before the 2 RAI uptake. The HCTZ group consisted of patients who discontinued an iodine-containing diet for 2 weeks together with 50 mg of HCTZ in two divided doses for 5 days before the 2 RAI uptake. 131 I treatment doses were calculated based on the size of the thyroid gland, and the second 24-hr RAI uptake. The outcomes of treatment were then compared between the two groups at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after treatment. Results: There were 13 subjects in each group. At baseline, there was significantly higher 24-hr RAI uptake in the control group than the HCTZ group. However, in the second RAI uptake, the HCTZ group had significantly higher 3-hr and 24-hr uptake than the control group. Regarding the thyroid size, the HCTZ group had a larger mean of thyroid size than the control group. There was no significant difference in the percentage of remission at each time point between the two groups. However, after adjustment of the thyroid size and baseline 24-hr uptake, patients in the HCTZ group were 3.06 (adjusted OR = 3.06, 95%CI: 0.45, 20.68) times more likely to have disease remission than those in the control group, but this was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Pre-treatment with HCTZ together with a low-iodine diet in low-uptake Graves' disease patients are more likely to have a higher remission rate than using a low-iodine diet alone.


We use detailed multispacecraft observations to study the interaction of an interplanetary (IP) shock with the bow shock of the Earth on August 9–10, 1998. We can distinguish four different phases of particle acceleration in the shock-shock interaction: (1) formation of magnetic contact with IP shock and the seed population of energetic particles accelerated by it, (2) reacceleration of this population by the bow shock, (3) first order Fermi acceleration as the two shocks approach each other, and (4) particle acceleration and release as the shocks collide. Such a detailed analysis was made possible by the particularly advantageous quasi-radial interplanetary magnetic field configuration. To our knowledge this is the first time the last phase of acceleration at a shock-shock collision has been reported using in situ space plasma observations.


Funny, lively and unpredictable, stand-up comedy is above all a medium to be enjoyed. Popular as a good night out and packing the TV schedules, stand-up permeates British society and culture.
 Ubiquitous though it is, we are generally reluctant to consider comedy's social consequences. When comedians offend we seem ready to consider the potential for stand-up to do some wider harm, yet we rarely consider the good that it might do.
 This book looks at the social and political impact of stand-up comedy in both its positive and negative forms. Drawing on exclusive interviews with comedians such as Stewart Lee, Josie Long, Joe Wilkinson and Mark Thomas, and examples of comic material on everything from revolution, terrorism and homosexuality, to knitting and the inefficiency of the home shower, it explores comedy's role in determining our attitudes and opinions. While revealing the conventions comics use to manage audience response, Sophie Quirk demonstrates how comedy audiences allow themselves to be manipulated, and the potential harm – and real benefits – that may arise from 'just' being funny.


Over 11 million undocumented individuals live in the United States. Every day, immigrants flood to this country in search of the "American Dream." Men, women, and children risk their lives to escape crime, drug use, gang-related territorial control, and poverty. Congress recognized the importance of family unification when it created immigration laws promoting family unity. The I-601 Hardship Waiver affords illegal immigrants a method for legalization. Immigrants must establish extreme hardship to a United States citizen spouse, parent, or child to qualify for a waiver of inadmissibility. One factor to determine extreme hardship is an immigrant's ties to the United States. Other factors are those affecting the qualifying relative including financial considerations, education, physical and mental conditions, ties to and outside the United States, and conditions in the country in which the citizen relative would relocate if the waiver were denied. Once extreme hardship is established, it is a favorable factor for the United States Citizens and Immigration Services to consider. Sometimes, it is the determinative factor.

This Article focuses on the psychological stress qualifying relatives experience throughout their loved one's legalization process. The author, a licensed clinical social worker, conducts psychosocial evaluations of immigrant relatives. The evaluations serve as evidence of extreme hardship. She concludes, based upon her experience and research, that lack of definition of the term "extreme hardship" is causing unnecessary delays, inconsistent results, or family disruption pertaining to approval or denial of waivers. Relatives experience anxiety, depression, trauma, and fear — the emotions that foster approval of waivers — due to the subjective nature of the process. Thus, the family-based goals of the immigration laws are thwarted because of the legislature intended to keep families together. Congress can remedy the problem by defining extreme hardship, removing the waiver's subjectivity, reforming immigration laws, or giving more credence to a relative's mental health, which would improve the relative's emotional state and promote family unity.


Among the many sources of risk explaining corporate bond spreads, the role of liquidity is the least well understood. This article investigates the impact of liquidity risk of unknown functional form on the yield spread over time. Heterogeneity is introduced via a latent group structure explaining differences in nonlinear liquidity effects across groups. A key feature of the model is that it can be estimated from highly unbalanced longitudinal data, allowing us to work with data at minimum levels of temporal aggregation. In an extensive empirical study we apply the suggested method to a large panel of trade data for U.S. corporate bonds. Our procedure identifies nonlinear liquidity effects for a large fraction of the securities. Nonlinearities become more pronounced as bond-idiosyncratic illiquidity increases. The classification clearly distinguishes groups differing, e.g., in bond characteristics such as spread levels and trading activity. While groups share similar dynamics of liquidity effects, their magnitudes as well as the interplay between idiosyncratic and market illiquidity are different across groups.


We have numerically studied the thermodynamic properties of the spin $\frac{1}{2}$ $XXZ$ chain in the presence of a transverse (noncommuting) magnetic field. The thermal, field dependence of specific heat and correlation functions for chains up to 20 sites has been calculated. The area where the specific heat decays exponentially is considered as a measure of the energy gap. We have also obtained the exchange interaction between chains in a bulk material using the random phase approximation and derived the phase diagram of the three-dimensional material with this approximation. The behavior of the structure factor at different momenta verifies the antiferromagnetic long-range order in the $y$ direction for the three-dimensional case. Moreover, we have concluded that the low temperature Lanczos results [M. Aichhorn et al., Phys. Rev. B 67, 161103(R) (2003)] are more accurate for low temperatures and closer to the full diagonalization ones than the results of finite temperature Lanczos method [J. Jaklic and P. Prelovsek, Phys. Rev. B 49, 5065 (1994)].


In this paper, we present a new approach to solving the distributed facility location problem using the recent modeling and computational methodology of factor graph and message-passing. We first formulate the problem as finding a valid network configuration that minimizes the overall cost. We then represent the problem using a factor graph, and derive simplified, localized, broadcast-based message-passing rules which can elect a near-optimal set of facility nodes in a few iterations. Simulation results for small-world network topologies show that the algorithm is able to achieve good convergence rate and approximation ratio, and scalable to the network size.


Prolonged incubation of two antigenically distinct, chemically induced guinea pig hepatomas with relatively high concentrations of chemotherapeutic drugs or metabolic inhibitors increases their susceptibility to killing by antibody and complement. This effect is reversible when the cells are cultured in the absence of the drugs. The drug-induced sensitivity and the ability of the cells to recover their resistance to killing are directly correlated to their ability to synthesize complex lipids.


The usage of parallel hardware platforms has become a standard in the high performance computing community. The problem of scalability for high numbers of prcessors used in parallel are faced within each of the different software vendors. In this paper we describe some basic algorithms, which are used in the different FEM software programs. Different parallelization concepts are shortly described and the resulting scalability problems are discussed.


This study investigates the relations between "Belief in a Just World" (BJW), religiosity and victim-blaming attitudes. In particular, the influence of BJW and religiosity on social attitudes is probed. Recent theoretical and psychometric developments in the BJW construct are considered. Thus, 176 Turkish subjects completed measures for BJW-Self (BJW-S)/BJW-Other (BJW-O), "Belief in Immanent/Ultimate Justice," attitudes towards the poor, and religiosity. Results show that Belief in Ultimate Justice and BJW-S are uniquely related to religiosity. As hypothesized, BJW-O and Belief in Immanent Justice are strongly related to harsh attitudes towards the poor. However, contrary to our expectation, results do not indicate a positive link between religiosity and negative attitudes towards the poor. Study findings also provide strong cross-cultural support for the conceptual and psychometric revisions of the Just-World construct (BJW-S/BJW-O and Immanent/Ultimate Justice).


ABSTRACT From 1978 to 2006, oviposition was induced in 13 North American turtle species. Of 245 inductions, 195 used oxytocin alone, 22 used arginine vasotocin (AVT) alone, 13 used a combination of oxytocin and ketamine, 8 combined propranolol and oxytocin, and 7 used propranolol and AVT. For wild Chrysemys picta picta, oxytocin-induced eggs were as viable as natural nest eggs. Suggested dosage ranges for oxytocin used alone vary from 0.7 to 4.0 units per 100 g, depending on species. In species where more than 28 animals were injected with the suggested dosage all eggs were oviposited after the first injection between 74% and 82% of the time. With a second injection, all eggs were laid between 83% and 94% of the time. It would be desirable to find a combination of easy-to-use drugs that yielded a higher success rate with the initial injection, especially for species with a history of not responding to oxytocin. Although only small numbers (13 animals) were involved, there was a suggestion that the combination of ketamine and oxytocin may prove more effective than oxytocin alone. A significant adverse effect observed with oxytocin induction was that some successfully induced turtles still displayed nesting behavior over the following days to weeks. This adverse effect might increase the risk of predation or trauma to wild animals after treatment with oxytocin. It might be avoided by using a more physiologic drug combination to induce oviposition rather than oxytocin alone. Natural oviposition is complex and, at least, involves the interaction of peripheral beta-adrenergic neurons, AVT, and prostaglandin F2α (PGF). Other, more physiologic approaches to induce oviposition might be to use a beta-adrenergic blocker with oxytocin or PGF, PGF +  oxytocin, PGF + ketamine, or oxytocin +  ketamine.


My research asks whether or not micro-finance represents a viable alternative to waged employment for women, as is the current international policy claim. To answer this question, I compared the accounts of 22 micro-finance agency employees in the UK and in Belgium with those of 20 self-employed women who received support from these agencies.

The results suggest that there are major differences between what most agency employees imagine being problems for women in self-employment (e.g. lack of confidence, lack of training), and what women actually ex- perience (e.g. competitive markets pressures, low-profit sectors, insufficient regular unpaid helpers in their businesses). The data collected among these 20 women has also revealed that most self-employed women earn low or no income in self-employment, and wage employment would represent a better alternative to meet their needs.

My thesis is that the individual's quest for self-fulfilment at work and the current political argument for the increase of economic growth through micro-businesses have favoured the idealisation of both self-employment and micro- finance for women.


A groundwater flowmeter whose working principle is based on an array of thermal sensor axes was studied to analyze the errors introduced when the angular response of the sensor axes is partially cosine and varies with flow velocity. It is shown that, although errors due to the partially cosine response can be reduced by increasing the number of sensor axes, the increment in the number of axes introduces some additional errors. A method is proposed to keep the advantages of increasing the number of axes and to minimize the observed additional errors. This method could be extended to other type of arrays whose sensors have a partial cosine response varying with the physical quantity of interest.


An illustrated and annotated catalogue is presented of 84 species of Sphingidae confirmed to occur in Trinidad. Adhemarius daphne (Boisduval), Aleuron chloroptera (Perty), Nyceryx stuarti (Rothschild) and Erinnyis impunctata Rothschild & Jordan are new records for Trinidad. In addition, five prior species records have not been confirmed, and seven reported species are considered to be in error. Images of living adults of 33 species and the early stages of six species are included. Very little has been recorded regarding food plants and early stages in Trinidad, but known food plants from elsewhere in the Neotropics are tabulated, as are data of the months of capture and localities in suburban and forested localities in Trinidad.


The 128 bits of IPv6 address space is considerably bigger than the 32
bits of address space in IPv4. In particular, the IPv6 subnets to
which hosts attach will by default have 64 bits of host address space.
As a result, traditional methods of remote TCP or UDP port scanning to
discover open or running services on a host will potentially become
far less computationally feasible, due to the larger search space in
the subnet. This document discusses that property of IPv6 subnets, and
describes related issues for site administrators of IPv6 networks to
consider, which may be of importance when planning site address
allocation and management strategies.


In this study, the authors present a novel voicing detection algorithm which employs the well-known aperiodicity measure to detect voiced speech in signals contaminated with non-stationary noise. The method computes a signal-adaptive decision threshold which takes into account the current noise level, enabling voicing detection by direct comparison with the extracted aperiodicity. This adaptive threshold is updated at each frame by making a simple estimate of the current noise power, and thus is adapted to fluctuating noise conditions. Once the aperiodicity is computed, the method only requires a small number of operations, and enables its implementation in challenging devices (such as hearing aids) if an efficient approximation of the difference function is employed to extract the aperiodicity. Evaluation over a database of speech sentences degraded by several types of noise reveals that the proposed voicing classifier is robust against different noises and signal-to-noise ratios. In addition, to evaluate the applicability of the method for speech enhancement, a simple F 0-based speech enhancement algorithm integrating the proposed classifier is implemented. The system is shown to achieve competitive results, in terms of objective measures, when compared with other well-known speech enhancement approaches.


The Cretaceous and Tertiary Senegal-Mauritanian basin was almost completely unknown below the surface, before its reconnaissance was started in 1952 by the French "Bureau de Recherches de Petrole." The great depth of the basin was at first indicated by airborne magnetometer and refraction seismograph tests and checked by a deep stratigraphic well (3,403 m., 11,165 ft.). Active exploration was carried on since 1955, three companies being active now in the French part of the basin. Reflection and refraction seismograph and geological core holes were effective tools for exploration, gravity having been useful only locally. A marine section of about 5,000 meters (16,400 ft.) is known in deep wells, from Lower Cretaceous (Aptian) up to Miocene, mainly shale and sands in various proportions, with some limestones, overlapping the basement toward the East. The basin is open toward the Atlantic Ocean. The regional westward dip is very low and structure is mainly controlled by deep north-south flexures and by basement uplifts. A first gas well producing 3½ m.c.f./day was drilled near Dakar in 1959. In Ivory Coast, a narrow coastal basin, almost as deep as broad on land, was discovered by gravity and checked by refraction-seismograph since 1952. Active exploration was started in 1957. Marine, lagoonal, and terrestrial reflection-seismograph and geological coreholes were done at first in the French part of the basin, before spudding deep exploratory tests. The northern border of the basin is a fault system, and structures are related to plunging noses with southward dip. A marine section of about 2,700 m. (7,856 ft.) was drilled, with mainly shale, sands and conglomerates ranging from Aptian or Albian up to Miocene. Below Aptian or Albian, possibly non-marine dark shales and sandstones, or continental red-beds, were encountered. Good shows (tar sands and heavy oil seepages) occur in the eastern part of the basin, in Ivory Coast and in Ghana. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1258------------


Transferring objects from one place to another place is a common task performed by human in daily life. During this process, it is usually intuitive for humans to choose an object as a proper container and to use an efficient pose to carry objects; yet, it is non-trivial for current computer vision and machine learning algorithms. In this paper, we propose an approach to jointly infer container and human pose for transferring objects by minimizing the costs associated both object and pose candidates. Our approach predicts which object to choose as a container while reasoning about how humans interact with physical surroundings to accomplish the task of transferring objects given visual input. In the learning phase, the presented method learns how humans make rational choices of containers and poses for transferring different objects, as well as the physical quantities required by the transfer task (e.g., compatibility between container and containee, energy cost of carrying pose) via a structured learning approach. In the inference phase, given a scanned 3D scene with different object candidates and a dictionary of human poses, our approach infers the best object as a container together with human pose for transferring a given object.


Following the global call to action by the World Health Organization (WHO), the world is currently moving to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem. To eliminate the cancer within this century, which is defined as an age-adjusted cervical cancer incidence rate (ASIR) below 4 per 100,000 women, WHO recommends all countries to achieve "90-70-90" targets for human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination, cervical cancer screening, and treatment of precancer and cancer by 2030. In Japan, ASIR has been rising since the late 1990s to 11.1 per 100,000 women, and this rise is particularly prominent in women of reproductive age. HPV vaccination coverage is as low as 0.3%, largely due to the Governments ongoing suspension of proactive recommendations for the vaccine. Given the absence of centralized, population-based cervical cancer screening program and a nationwide surveillance system for systematic monitoring, the exact screening participation rate and treatment rate are difficult to estimate. A national survey suggested that only around 40% of women between the ages of 20 and 69 years underwent cervical cancer screening within the last two years. National policies and systems for HPV vaccination and screening should be updated in a more efficient way as new evidence and innovations become available. In the wake of powerful global momentum, actions must be taken now to further enhance cervical cancer control and ensure that Japanese girls and women are no longer left behind.


Effective and efficient reasoning in adversarial environments is important for many real-world applications ranging from cybersecurity to military operations. Deliberative reasoning techniques, such as Automated Planning, often restrict to static environments where only an agent can make changes by its actions. On the other hand, such techniques are effective and can generate non-trivial solutions. To explicitly reason in environments with an active adversary such as zero-sum games, the game-theoretic framework such as the Double Oracle algorithm can be leveraged. In this paper, we leverage the notions of critical and adversary actions, where critical actions should be applied before the adversary ones. We propose heuristics that provide a guidance for planners about what (critical) actions and in which order have to be applied in a good plan. We empirically evaluate our approach in terms of quality of generated strategies (by leveraging Double Oracle) and CPU time required to generated such strategies.


This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (PMSG) levels and the progestagen method on estrus response, onset and duration of estrus, lambing rate and litter size. A total of 20 Assaf ewes were used in the experiment, which was conducted during April, a month that is considered as non-breeding period in Palestine. Ewes were treated with intravaginal sponges containing 60 mg medroxyprogesterone acetate (MAP). Seven days later, sponges were removed and 10 new sponges were inserted to 10 of the experimental ewes. Following withdrawal of sponges at day 14, 5 ewes from each treatment groups were injected intramuscularly with a pregnant mare serum gonadotrophin (PMSG) at level of 300 or 600 IU. The results showed that level of PMSG and progesterone application methods had no significant effects on the tested parameters. This finding indicated that low level of PMSG can be applied for estrus synchronization. Results showed that using one sponge followed by a 300 IU dose of PMSG could induce estrus successfully with low cost comparing to application of two sponges and high doses of PMSG.


Neuropsychological impairment following cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) remains a serious consequence of otherwise successful surgery. The incidence of neuropsychological decline is poorly understood due to varied measurement intervals, and perhaps more importantly the use of unreliable detection and classification methods. The reported incidence varies considerably, ranging anywhere from 30% to 90% of subjects. While the nature of this impairment has not been fully elucidated, recent evidence suggests that microembolism during surgery may be the principal causative agent of postoperative cerebral dysfunction. The work described in this thesis investigates one possible source of microembolism leading to postoperative decline, namely thromboembolism arising from excessive activation of the haemostatic mechanism. Crucial to the accurate detection of significant decline in individual patients, this work also focuses on the development and use of meaningful criteria to be used when describing change in neuropsychological performance measures.

The strong haemostatic activation during CPB is controlled by heparin anticoagulation. The clinical performance of the Hepcon heparin-monitoring instrument was compared to the activated clotting time (ACT), which is used in most cardiac centres. An analysis of samples from 42 elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients shows that the ACT does not detect the significant decline in heparin concentration seen upon connection to CPB, in comparison to the Hepcon. The Hepcon appears to be in satisfactory agreement with laboratory anti-Xa analysis of heparin concentration, with the mean difference for the Hepcon at -0.46 U/ml, and the limits of agreement +/- 1.12 U/ml. Further analysis shows that that for 95% of cases, the Hepcon will give values that are between 0.53 and 1.27 times the value for anti-Xa.

The loss of relationship between ACT and heparin concentration was further investigated by converting ACT values to heparin concentration. The results provide data on the degree of prolongation in ACT times brought about by factors associated with CPB. A methodology is presented by which users can adjust for the loss of relationship between ACT and heparin. This work also demonstrates that under normal usage of the ACT, the user may obtain values up to 3 times appropriate for the plasma heparin concentration.

The computer-administered neuropsychological testing tool (the MicroCog) was validated using 40 age-matched control subjects. Using a two-week interval, the summary score correlation coefficients ranged from .49 to .84, with all scores demonstrating significant practice effects. Also presented are retest normative data that may be used to determine significant change in a homogeneous sample using both reliable change and regression models of analysis. The performance of four different models of change analysis was then analysed using data from the clinical group. The regression technique of analysis was shown to be the most useful prediction model as it provides correction for both practice effects and regression toward the mean in each individual. A novel statistical rationale is presented for the choice of criteria in the identification of patients that may be defined as overall impaired when using a battery of test scores. When using one-tailed prediction models for decline, the binomial distribution of scores was shown to be a useful descriptive statistic providing an estimate of change due to chance. When applied to a suitable selection of scores that minimise shared variance, a value +/- 20% of test scores used was demonstrated to be a rational cut-off for an individual to be classified as impaired. Using this methodology, 32.7% of patients were identified as significantly deteriorated in neuropsychological test function immediately prior to discharge from hospital. Patient age was shown to be a significant predictor of neuropsychological decline following CPB. No significant relationship was identified between thrombin generation and neuropsychological change scores, however problems with patient recruitment and retention limited the statistical power of this study. An intriguing relationship with heparin concentration was noted that might warrant further investigation.

This work highlights the complex nature of post-bypass neuropsychological dysfunction and the complexities in assessing decline. The regression-based model was shown to be highly useful in the analysis of data from a suitably validated neuropsychological testing tool. The argument that no suitable criterion exists for the identification of patients as overall impaired has been challenged with the development of a rational cut-off based on the likely distribution of change scores across a series. The work presented here confirms the need for standardised testing methods based on sound statistical criteria. This work also highlights the problems associated with current methods for monitoring anticoagulation therapy during bypass surgery. Methodology is presented that allows adjustment of ACT results to account for CPB-induced prolongation of clotting times. Current techniques for heparin monitoring overestimate heparin levels on bypass by up to threefold, which may predispose to subclinical coagulation and increased delivery of protamine.


Existence and regularity of solutions of quasilinear elliptic equations in nonsmooth domains have been interesting topics in the development of partial differential equations. The existence of finite-energy solutions of higher-order equations, also those with degenerations and singularities, can be shown by theories of monotone operators and topological methods. There are few results about singular solutions of second-order equations involving the p-Laplacian with the Dirac distribution on the right-hand side. So far the existence of singular solutions of higher-order equations with a prescribed asymptotic behavior has not been investigated.

The aims of my dissertation are to look for finite-energy and singular solutions of quasilinear elliptic equations on manifolds with conic points. We single out realizations of the p-Laplacian in particular, (p>= 2), and a cone-degenerate operator in general, which are shown to belong to the class (S)_+. Assuming further coercivity conditions and employing mapping degree theory for generalized monotone mappings, we obtain existence for the prototypical example of the p-Laplacian and for general higher-order equations.


Patient-derived xenograft (PDX) is a well-accepted experimental cancer model mimicking original patients in histo- & molecular pathology, as well as drug response. Mouse clinical trials (MCT) using PDX becomes increasingly prevalent in oncology research, yet the theory and methodology for trial design and analysis is underdeveloped. By analyzing tumor growths of 34081 PDX mice, we showed that majority of them can be satisfactorily modeled by exponential growth kinetics, based on which we derived a new drug response readout called the AUC ratio that is superior to the tumor growth inhibition (TGI) and its variants. We outlined a bootstrap algorithm to calculate its confidence interval, and showed that a 4:4 (4 mice in both treatment groups) or up design sharply increases measurement accuracy over the lesser design. Next, we introduce three approaches for drug evaluation and biomarker discovery in MCTs. In the end-point based analysis, we used a cohort of gastric PDXs to show a positive correlation between EGFR mRNA expression and cetuximab efficacy, in agreement with clinical trial results. We then used linear mixed models (LMMs) to describe MCTs as clustered longitudinal studies that capture the growth and drug response heterogeneities across PDXs and among mice within a PDX. Further, LMMs can separate prognostic and predictive biomarker effects, quantify response difference to a drug for multiple cancers, or efficacy difference of multiple drugs to a cohort of PDXs. Thirdly, we used additive frailty models to perform survival analysis on MCTs. We defined survival endpoints of PFS and OS in PDXs, and showed that hazard ratios can be more accurately estimated. We revealed an inherent connection between frailty and growth rate for PDXs. We performed computational simulations for the last two methods to show that statistical power improves tremendously with a 3:3 or up design. This work lays the foundation for rational design and analysis of PDX mouse clinical trials. Citation Format: Sheng Guo, Binchen Mao, Henry Q. Li. Theory and methodology for the design and analysis of PDX mouse clinical trials [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4534. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4534


Acholeplasma laidlawii possesses a biochemical pathway for tyrosine and phenylalanine biosynthesis, while Mycoplasma iowae and Mycoplasma gallinarum do not. The detection of 7-phospho-2-dehydro-3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptonate (DAHP) synthase (EC 188.8.131.52), dehydro-shikimate reductase (EC 126.96.36.199) and 3-enol-pyruvoylshikimate-5-phosphate synthase (EC 18.104.22.168) activities in cell-free extracts established the presence in A. laidlawii of a functional shikimate pathway. L-Phenylalanine synthesis occurs solely through the phenylpyruvate route via prephenate dehydratase (EC 188.8.131.52), no arogenate dehydratase activity being found. Although arogenate dehydrogenase was detected, L-tyrosine synthesis appears to occur mainly through the 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate route, via prephenate dehydrogenase (EC 126.96.36.199), which utilized NAD+ as a preferred coenzyme substrate. L-Tyrosine was found to be the key regulatory molecule governing aromatic biosynthesis. DAHP synthase was feedback inhibited by L-tyrosine, but not by L-phenylalanine or L-tryptophan; L-tyrosine was a potent feedback inhibitor of prephenate dehydrogenase and an allosteric activator of prephenate dehydratase. Chorismate mutase (EC 220.127.116.11) was sensitive to product inhibition by prephenate. Prephenate dehydratase was feedback inhibited by L-phenylalanine. It was also activated by hydrophobic amino acids (L-valine, L-isoleucine and L-methionine), similar to results previously found in a number of other genera that share the Gram-positive line of phylogenetic descent. Aromatic-pathway-encoded cistrons present in saprophytic large-genome mycoplasmas may have been eliminated in the parasitic small-genome mycoplasmas.


Network alignment plays an important role in a variety of applications. Many traditional methods explicitly or implicitly assume the alignment consistency which might suffer from over-smoothness, whereas some recent embedding based methods could somewhat embrace the alignment disparity by sampling negative alignment pairs. However, under different or even competing designs of negative sampling distributions, some methods advocate positive correlation which could result in false negative samples incorrectly violating the alignment consistency, whereas others champion negative correlation or uniform distribution to sample nodes which may contribute little to learning meaningful embeddings. In this paper, we demystify the intrinsic relationships behind various network alignment methods and between these competing design principles of sampling. Specifically, in terms of model design, we theoretically reveal the close connections between a special graph convolutional network model and the traditional consistency based alignment method. For model training, we quantify the risk of embedding learning for network alignment with respect to the sampling distributions. Based on these, we propose NeXtAlign which strikes a balance between alignment consistency and disparity. We conduct extensive experiments that demonstrate the proposed method achieves significant improvements over the state-of-the-arts.


Thread whirling process is a cutting process in which a series of cutting edges on the whirling ring remove material by turning over the rotating workpiece. Whirling unit attached to a thread whirling machine influences much on the machining accuracy because the main sources of heat generation are assumed as bearings, servo motor and chip formation during machining. Analysis of temperature distribution, thermal deformation and thermal stress of the whirling unit has been carried out. It is revealed that the highest temperature of 91°C reaches in the bearing and relative displacement from point A to tool reaches 0.02~0.03mm along X, Y and Z axis. The maximum thermal stress of 31.9MPa is developed in the unit.


It is generally known that sonication improves ultraviolet (UV) disinfection kinetics of municipal effluents by breaking large suspended particles. However, the feasibility of sonication as a pretreatment technology largely depends on wastewater quality and discharge requirements. The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential benefits of ultrasound for improving the UV disinfectability of various effluent types, including primary, activated sludge, and trickling filter effluents. It was found that the tailing level of the dose-response curve at high UV doses (>40 mJ/cm 2 ) decreased with the increased sonication time. The reduction in the tailing level had a strong correlation with the decrease in the number concentration of large particles (>60 μm) such that 1 log reduction in the number concentration of large particles resulted in 1.4, 1.1, and 1.7 log reductions in the tailing level for primary, activated sludge, and trickling filter effluents, respectively. However, the improvement in the UV disinfectability due to sonication was partly offset by the reduction in the UV transmittance of the effluent.


Compression is necessary in medical image preservation because of the huge data quantity. Medical images are different from the common images because of their own characteristics, for example, part of information in CT image is useless, and it's a kind of resource waste to save this part information. The region selective EZW coder was proposed with which only useful part of image was selected and compressed, and the test image provides good result.


A 630 kVA 10.5 kV/0.4 kV three-phase high temperature superconducting (HTS) power transformer was successfully developed and tested in live grid. The windings were wound by hermetic stainless steel-enforced multifilamentary Bi2223/Ag tapes. The structures of primary windings are solenoid with insulation and cooling path among layers, and those of secondary ones double-pancakes connected in parallel. Toroidal cryostat is made from electrical insulating GFRP materials with room temperature bore for commercial amorphous alloy core with five limbs. Windings are laid in the toroidal cryostat so that the amorphous core operates at room temperature. An insulation technology of double-half wrapping up the Bi2223/Ag tape with kapton film is performed by winding machine which was developed by ourselves. Fundamental characteristics of the transformer are obtained by standard short-circuit and no-load tests, it is shown that the transformer meets operating requirements in live grid.


With approximately 12% of adults in the United States affected by osteoarthritis (OA), constant research is being performed to advance treatment techniques for this ailment. 3D printed bio-polymer caps have been proposed as a potential treatment for severe cases of OA, and are an alternative to traditional implants. This report considers the feasibility of one such bio-polymer cap using a simplified, linear, finite element analysis (FEA) model. Material properties for both Bionate 80A and articular cartilage are considered for comparison. The simulation modeled joint loading for a 195 lb, 867.4 N, adult male squatting from 0 to 90-degrees flexion with a mathematical model governing the changing contact area on the medial and lateral condyles. Menisci effects were neglected as a part of the model reduction. For Bionate 80A, minimum and maximum stress values of 1.124 MPa and 3.555 MPa were obtained, with corresponding deflections of 126.8 μm and 316.8 μm. The articular cartilage model gave stress values of 1.102 MPa and 3.623 MPa, with deflections of 170.2 μm and 420.8 μm. A maximum shear stress value of 1.988 MPa was obtained in the Bionate 80A simulation. From these results, it was determined that the Bionate cap is comparable to articular cartilage and could be a viable replacement in the cases of advanced OA, but the Bionate cap may have limitations on joint flexibility due to the relatively small 1.65 factor of safety at 90-degree. The maximum shear stress value indicates it would be viable to use specific biocompatible cements as a method of fixture.© 2017 ASME


Multichannel seismic-reflection data show that the Victoria Land-basin, unlike other sedimentary basins in the Ross Sea, includes a rift-depression 15 to 25 kilometers wide that parallels the Transantarctic Mountains and contains up to 12 kilometers of possible Paleozoic to Holocene age sedimentary rocks. An unconformity separates the previously identified Cenozoic sedimentary section from the underlying strata of possible Mesozoic and Paleozoic age. Late Cenozoic volcanic rocks intrude into the entire section along the eastern flank of the basin. The Victoria Land basin is probably part of a more extensive rift system that has been active episodically since Paleozoic time. Inferred rifting and basin subsidence during Mesozoic and Cenozoic time may be associated with regional crustal extension and uplift of the nearby Transantarctic Mountains.


Glass fiber reinforced composites has been used in a variety of applications because of their various advantages such as a relatively low cost of production, easy to fabricate and superior strength compares to neat polymer resins Synthetic. Glass fiber has high specific strength. In this connection, an investigation has been carried out to make better utilization of graphite powder for making value added products The present work describes the development and mechanical characterization of new composites consisting of glass fiber reinforcement, epoxy resin and filler materials such as graphite powder. The newly developed composites are characterized by their mechanical properties. Experiments like a tensile test, three-point bending, and compressive test were conducted to find the significant influence of filler material on mechanical characteristics of GFP composites. The tests result have shown that higher the filler material volume percentage greater the strength for graphite powder filled glass fiber epoxy composites. A multi-criteria decision-making approach called TOPSIS is also used to select the best alternative from a set of alternatives. Also, the surface morphology of fractured surfaces after tensile testing is examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).


THE MIGDAL-JENSEN COLLECTIVE MODEL AND THE WILKINSON SHELL MODEL BOTH GIVE REASONABLE AGREEMENT WITH PHOTONUCLEAR EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING THE INTEGRATED CROSS SECTION, THE RESONANCE ENERGY, AND THE WITH OF THE RESONANCE. WE DISCUSS POSSIBLE REASONS FOR THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN THE PREDICTIONS OF THE TWO DIFFERENTS MODELS. EXPERIMENTS ON EMISSION OF FAST NUCLEONS SHOW THAT THE EXCITED STATE REACHED BY ELECTRIC DIPOLE PHOTON ABSORPTION CONTAINS A LARGE AMPLITUDE OF MODEL WAVE FUNCTIONS REPRESENTING SINGLE PARTICLE EXCITATION.


The article shares with the public the recommendations of the Final Declaration prepared within the scope of the Third (Turkish) National Open Access Workshop organized by ANKOS (Anatolian University Libraries Consortium), AEKA (ANKOS Open Access and Consortial Archives), YOK (Higher Education Council), and HU BBY (Hacettepe University Department of Information Management). The article urges that as soon as possible the necessary arrangements be made for the acceptance of the free circulation of information—one of the priorities of the European Union's European Research Area― and for the transition to implementation of open access at the national level―important in order to integrate with the Horizon 2020 project.


ABSTRACT Red blood cell (RBC) transfusion is associated with alterations in systemic concentrations of IL-8/CXCL8 functional homologs in a murine model. Whether RBC transfusion alters systemic neutrophil chemokine concentrations in individuals sustaining traumatic injury is not known. We conducted a retrospective, single-center study of severely injured trauma patients presenting within 12 h of injury with a base deficit greater than 6 and hypotension in the field. Plasma concentrations of 25 chemokines, cytokines, and growth factors were obtained from both transfused (n = 22) and nontransfused (n = 33) groups in the first 48 h following admission. The transfused group (mean RBC units, 2.7 [SD, 1.7]) tended to be older (49.9 [SD, 21.1] vs. 40.4 [SD, 19.9] years, P = 0.10), with a higher percentage of females (40.9% vs. 18.2%, P = 0.06) and a higher Injury Severity Score (27.1 [SD, 12.7] vs. 21.4 [SD, 10.2], P = 0.07). In univariate and multivariate analyses, transfusion was associated with increased hospital and intensive care unit length of stay but not ventilator-free days. Plasma CXCL8 concentrations were higher in the transfused (84 [SD, 88] pg/mL) than the nontransfused group (31 [SD, 21] pg/mL, P = 0.003). Using a linear prediction model to calculate bioanalyte concentrations standardized for age, sex, Injury Severity Score, and admission SBP, we observed that CXCL8 concentrations diverged within 12 h following injury, with the transfused group showing persistently elevated CXCL8 concentrations by contrast to the decay observed in the nontransfused group. Other bioanalytes showed no differences across time. Red blood cell transfusion is associated with persistently elevated neutrophil chemokine CXCL8 concentrations following traumatic injury.


A Gram-stain-negative, aerobic bacterial strain, designated strain m18T, was isolated from a sea-tidal flat in South Korea. Cells were non-motile short rods showing oxidase and catalase activities. Growth of m18T was observed at 10-40 °C (optimum, 30 °C), pH 5.5-10.0 (optimum, pH 7.0) and 0.5-7.0 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum, 3.0 %). The major respiratory quinone was ubiquinone-10 and the major fatty acids of were summed feature 8 (comprising C18 : 1ω7c/C18 : 1ω6c) and C16 : 0. The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 56.7 mol%. Phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, an unidentified phospholipid, an unidentified aminolipid and four unidentified lipids were detected in m18T. The results of phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that m18T formed a tight phyletic lineage with the members of the genus Amylibacter. Strain m18T was most closely related to Amylibactercionae H-12T, Amylibacter ulvae 6Alg 255T and Amylibacter marinus 2-3T with 98.9, 96.1 and 95.5 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities, respectively. The DNA-DNA hybridization value between m18T and the type strain of A. cionae was 43.6±3.4 %. On the basis of phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and molecular properties, m18T represents a novel species of the genus Amylibacter, for which the name Amylibacterlutimaris sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is m18T (KACC 19229T=JCM 32051T).


The island of Susak differs from other Croatian islands in its geological and hydrogeological properties, because it is, for the most part, covered with fine-grained loess-type sands. At the outset of the research it was unclear whether the main aquifer lies within the superficial deposits or within the underlying carbonate rocks. This gave rise to two alternative conceptual models, depending on whether the interface between the superficial cover and the carbonates occurs above or below sea level. Hydrogeological and geophysical investigations were conducted. The primary objective of the geophysical exploration was to determine optimum positions for exploratory boreholes. The results showed that the main aquifer is contained within the carbonate rocks, and that this carbonate aquifer is overlain by a second, confined, aquifer within the superficial sandy deposits. Groundwater within the carbonate aquifer is hydraulically connected to the sea by fault zones. Measurement of electrical conductivity in boreholes established that the mixing zone of fresh and salt water is at depths from 22 to 30 m below ground level. It is necessary to ensure constant control of pumping quantities and control of the brackish water lens by monitoring of the groundwater salinity. For inclusion in public water supply, the groundwater should be treated by desalination.


The paper considers the problem of joint assignment of bandwidth and route in multi-path selfish networks. We model this problem as auction game and make mechanism design. The model is a convex optimization problem, and large computation overhead is needed to resolve it. We make theoretical analysis and present two algorithms to resolve the model. One is hybrid water filling assignment algorithm for non-linear cost function, and the other is Least-Cost-Path-based assignment algorithm for linear cost function. Extensive evaluations show that these two algorithm can decrease computation overhead and the second also decrease the total cost of participant nodes.


The pseudo-SU(3) shell model is used to describe rotational bands and B(E2) electromagnetic transition strengths in the even- and odd-mass rare earth isotopes 164,165,166,167,168Er. The building blocks of the model are the pseudo-SU(3) proton and neutron states with pseudo-spin zero and 1/2, which describe even and odd numbers of nucleons, respectively. The many-particle states are built as linear combinations of pseudo-SU(3) coupled states with well-defined particle number and total angular momentum. The Hamiltonian includes spherical Nilsson single-particle energies, quadrupole—quadrupole and pairing interactions, as well as rotor terms that are diagonal in the SU(3) basis. The use of realistic single-particle energies has a fundamental importance in the appropriate description of odd-mass nuclei.


The study presents a systematic single and two-phase analysis of fluid flow and heat transfer in a liquid hydrogen storage vessel for both earth and space applications.The study considered a cylindrical tank with elliptical top and bottom. The tank wall ismade of aluminum and a multi-layered blanket of cryogenic insulation (MLI) has been attached on the top of the aluminum. The tank is connected to a cryocooler to dissipate the heat leak through the insulation and tank wall into the fluid within the tank. The cryocooler has not been modeled; only the flow in and out of the tank to the cryocooler system has been included. The primary emphasis of this research has been the fluid circulation within the tank for different fluid distribution scenario and for different level of gravity to simulate all potential earth and space based applications. The equations solved in the liquid region included the conservation of mass, conservation of energy, and conservation of momentum.
For the solid region only the heat conduction equation was solved. The steady-state velocity, temperature and pressure distributions were calculated for different inlet positions, inlet opening sizes, inlet velocities and for different gravity values. The above simulations were carried out for constant heat flux and constant wall temperature cases. It was observed from single-phase analysis that a good flow circulation can be obtained when the cold entering fluid was made to flow in radial direction and the inlet opening was placed close to the tank wall. For a two-phase analysis the mass and energy balance at the evaporating interface was taken into account by incorporating the change in specific volume and latent heat of evaporation. A good flow circulation in the liquid region was observed when the cold entering fluid was made to flow at an angle to the axis of the tank or aligned to the bottom surface of the tank.
The fluid velocity in the vapor region was found to be higher compared to the liquid region.The focus of the study for the later part of the present investigation was the conjugate heat transfer during a confined liquid jet impingement on a uniform and discrete heating source. Equations governing the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy were solved in the fluid region. In the solid region, the heat conduction equation was solved. The solid-fluid interface temperature shows a strong dependence on several geometric, fluid flow, and heat transfer parameters. For uniform and discrete heat sources the Nusselt number increased with Reynolds number. For a given flow rate, a higher heat transfer coefficient was obtained with smaller slot width and lower impingement height.The average Nusselt number and average heat transfer coefficient are greater for a lower thermal conductivity substrate.


Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have gained wide adoption in general illumination applications in the last decade. However, the efficiency drop of LEDs with increasing current density limits the luminous flux per wafer area. In contrast, laser diodes (LDs) can achieve higher efficiency at high current density. Likewise, the etendue of LDs is very low due to the small emitting area and divergent angle, facilitating the high-luminance. Hence, LDs may outperform LEDs in future high-luminance solid-state lighting (SSL). However, the rapid development of high-luminance white laser diode (WLD) is still facing some challenges. First, the heat flux of LD chip is extremely high, leading to a higher junction temperature. Second, the laser beam exhibits an elliptical and astigmatic pattern with Gaussian intensity distribution, which may deteriorate the lighting performances. Third, to achieve high-luminance lighting, the laser beam is usually focused onto the phosphor layer, which may easily increase the phosphor temperature to the thermal quenching region. A comprehensive understanding of these problems enables the advancements of packaging designs for WLDs. In this review, we summarized the recent progress in the packaging of WLDs. First, the advantages and applications of LDs were presented. Then, the state-of-the-art methods of generating white light using LDs were reviewed, in terms of packaging structures and performances. Finally, the challenges and corresponding progresses for the packaging of WLDs were overviewed. This review intends to contribute to the development of next-generation high-luminance laser-based white lighting.


A good CV is an essential tool in the survival kit of every job hunter. It shows that you have the necessary qualities and qualifications demanded by a potential employer, and improves your chances of getting an interview. The new edition of this best-selling guide sets out the ground rules for preparing a CV by showing how to select which details go in and which stay out, how to lay out and present a CV and how to make a great first impression. There are even more easy-to-read sample CVs for a wide variety of jobs: practical, creative, administrative, sales and marketing, technical and management. They are ready to be adapted for your individual needs and are accompanied by downloadable online material - one sample letter for each job type. "Readymade CVs" also looks at specific 'tricky' situations such as getting your first job, returning to work after a career break, continuing in work as a mature employee or after retirement. With the addition of action words and positive phrases to help you put together the perfect CV for any job or situation, this is a comprehensive and indispensable resource.


Objective: To classify neuropathologic alterations in the brains of nondemented older adults using current sets of criteria for AD. Background: AD neuropathologic alterations are found in the brains of some nondemented elderly subjects and suggest the possibility of presymptomatic AD. Three sets of guidelines have been developed to classify AD using senile plaques, neuritic plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT). Methods: Neuropathologic changes in 59 older adults followed longitudinally with a standard battery of mental status measures were investigated using Khachaturian, Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer's Disease (CERAD), and National Institute on Aging–Reagan Institute (NIA-RI) guidelines. AD neuropathologic markers were evaluated in neocortical and allocortical regions. Cases were categorized as neuropathologically "normal" or "AD-like" and compared for possible mental status differences. Results: Between 11 and 49% of cases met one or more of the three classifications of AD. With adjustments for multiple comparisons, only NFT in hippocampal CA1 region were associated with autopsy age, suggesting that this may represent a pathologic process associated with normal brain aging. Using the NIA-RI guidelines, subjects in the AD-like group performed less well on the immediate paragraph recall and word-list delayed recall than their counterparts who did not meet these guidelines. Conclusions: These data indicate that the prevalence of "preclinical" AD in our population is relatively low based on the NIA-RI classification. Although many subjects had AD-like changes based on CERAD and Khachaturian guidelines, they exhibited no differences in mental performance, suggesting that the aging brain may be able to withstand such structural changes without meaningful impact on mental functioning.


ABSTRACT This article presents a thematic network analysis of Dabiq—a prominent English-language e-magazine produced by the Islamic State. Through formal qualitative analysis, the article examines the e-magazine's first 13 issues in order to better understand its structure, evolution and intended audiences. In terms of structure, thematic network analysis provides a comprehensive and holistic understanding of Dabiq's themes, identifying a range of concerns that are broader and more complex than is often supposed by academic and professional commentators. In terms of evolution, this analysis reveals a thematic landscape that has demonstrated considerable dynamism over four distinct phases throughout the magazine's publication. In terms of understanding audiences, it is argued that Dabiq has been particularly engaged with the manipulation of group-level identities in an apparent attempt to garner support from global audiences. Themes related to allegiance, the group's strengths and victories, and territorial expansion all feature consistently and prominently. They seek to create an in-group identity centred on victory, and to frame the Islamic State's expansion and successes as a group achievement on behalf of Islam itself. Additionally, Dabiq provides the Islamic State with an opportunity to justify its actions and its religious authenticity to a broader Muslim audience, and thus provide the Islamic State with legitimacy beyond its borders. Recognising these thematic dynamics will be important for those engaged in counter-messaging and the development of counternarratives.


In this paper we describe a computer system that calculates allocation to claims according to two kinds of bankruptcy rules. The first kind implemented are those whose results corresponds to the classical solutions of game theory: The Talmud rule, the Proportional rule, the Adjusted Proportional rule, the Constrained Equal Awards rule and the Random Arrival rule. The second type implemented generates assignations to claims that have no correspondence with the classical results, they are: Piniles ́ rule, the Constrained Egalitarian rule and Constrained Equal Losses rule. This computer system was developed in order to compute the different allocations to claims in Allocation problems, distribution problems and Assignment problems for real cases and to be used in education of game theory and decision problems. The system generates numerical and graphical results. It allows comparisons between the numerical results and their graphic representations. It also allows the exportation of the different outputs to any windows application.


This thesis expects to contribute to the understanding of the factors affecting the quality of joint patents based on empirical investigations using large datasets.The first empirical study looks at the propensity of different technology level sectors to engage in joint patenting activities. Higher industrial sectors are more likely to collaborate with universities for technological innovations.The second empirical study analyses the effects of co-ownerships with cross-border partners and universities on the quality of joint patents owned by Chinese firms. While cross-border co-ownership on its own is a strong predictor of joint patent quality, the positive effect of university co-ownership on quality is clearly observed when cross-border co-ownership is added. The evidence on the effect of organisational proximity (joint patents between subsidiaries of an enterprise) is ambiguous.The third empirical study investigates whether the relationships observed in China are also found in international evidence by using a larger data set for 80 countries covering industrialised emerging and developing countries. Collaborations between countries with substantial income differences, for example emerging and developed countries, positively impact on joint patent quality. Collaborations between low-income countries have been unsuccessful in improving patent quality.The fourth empirical study explores the roles of cognitive proximity and organizational proximity in shaping the innovation performance of firm-university collaborations in China. Cognitive proximity has a positive impact on the quality of joint patents. However, beyond a certain level of cognitive proximity, the positive impact on value creation diminishes. Organizational proximity is insignificantly related to the value of joint patents.In summary, joint patenting performance is stronger where there is greater cognitive proximity of firms with cross-border partners and universities and firms have a sufficiently high level of technological capacity. Generally organizational proximity is less significant


To understand the kinetics of the reaction products (Li-Si alloys, Li2 Oa nd Li 4SiO4 )i n SiO x anodes for Li-ion batteries, the irreversible behavior of the batteries is studied while controlling the amount of Li-ion insertion at various current densities. SiOx is charged when the amount of Li inserted into SiOx is varied (0.1, 0.2, 0.5, and 4 mol per 1 mol of SiOx, also called "mole control") and is discharged to 1.5 V at various Crates. The irreversible capacity of SiOx increases at high mole rate, but decreases at high Crates. To observe the formation of the reaction products after mole control at various current densities, impedance and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy are used. Also, the relative quantity of irreversible products (Li4SiO4) after mole control at various current densities is detected by Fast Fourier transform (FFT). Upon evaluating the dQ/dV curves, it was determined that the elevated rate of the overpotential of the irreversible products (Li2O, Li4SiO4) was higher than that of the reversible products (Li-Si alloys) as the current density increased. The use of the Butler-Volmer equation shows that the activation energy of the reaction products is affected by the current density, which changes the irreversible capacity of SiOx during cycling.


The pinch technique has been found to be useful in repairing cosmetic eyelid deformities. However, the local anesthetic containing hyaluronidase must be injected only in small amounts and only into the subcutaneous space. Scar tissue and skin that is firmly adherent to underlying muscle do not yield a satisfactory ridge, and therefore, the pinch technique should not be used. Ectropion can be predicted by the observation of eversion of the lid margin when even only minimal skin is pinched, and impending ectropion can be discovered by our "lean forward and look up" maneuver. An ectropion repair can then be combined with the blepharoplasty surgical operation. The pinch technique has also been found useful when upper and lower blepharoplasties are joined laterally to elevate the lateral canthus and eliminate "crow's feet." One component of a repair of trichiasis also involves the use of the pinch technique.


Climatic fluctuations affect water management in a variety of ways. Much emphasis has been placed in recent years on climatic changes that may occur in the future due to global warming resulting from increases in greenhouse gases. If and when global warming takes place, water availability and use patterns will most certainly change. At our present state of knowledge it is not possible to predict the onset of climatic changes, including their magnitude and spatial distribution, with any degree of confidence so that they can be explicitly incorporated into water management in a cost‐effective manner. The problem of climatic fluctuations appears to be more complex than the water resources profession has so far realized. Development of new methodologies to deal efficiently with climatic fluctuations is urgently needed.