Objective To develop and disseminate tools for interactive visualization of HIV cohort data. Design and Methods If a picture is worth a thousand words, then an interactive video, composed of a long string of pictures, can produce an even richer presentation of HIV population dynamics. We developed an HIV cohort data visualization tool using open-source software (R statistical language). The tool requires that the data structure conform to the HIV Cohort Data Exchange Protocol (HICDEP), and our implementation utilized Caribbean, Central and South America network (CCASAnet) data. Results This tool currently presents patient-level data in three classes of plots: (1) Longitudinal plots showing changes in measurements viewed alongside event probability curves allowing for simultaneous inspection of outcomes by relevant patient classes. (2) Bubble plots showing changes in indicators over time allowing for observation of group level dynamics. (3) Heat maps of levels of indicators changing over time allowing for observation of spatial-temporal dynamics. Examples of each class of plot are given using CCASAnet data investigating trends in CD4 count and AIDS at antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation, CD4 trajectories after ART initiation, and mortality. Conclusions We invite researchers interested in this data visualization effort to use these tools and to suggest new classes of data visualization. We aim to contribute additional shareable tools in the spirit of open scientific collaboration and hope that these tools further the participation in open data standards like HICDEP by the HIV research community.


The innate recognition of fungi by leukocytes is mediated by pattern recognition receptors (PRR), such as Dectin-1, and is thought to occur at the cell surface triggering intracellular signalling cascades which lead to the induction of protective host responses. In the lung, this recognition is aided by surfactant which also serves to maintain the balance between inflammation and pulmonary function, although the underlying mechanisms are unknown. Here we have explored pulmonary innate recognition of a variety of fungal particles, including zymosan, Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus, and demonstrate that opsonisation with surfactant components can limit inflammation by reducing host-cell fungal interactions. However, we found that this opsonisation does not contribute directly to innate fungal recognition and that this process is mediated through non-opsonic PRRs, including Dectin-1. Moreover, we found that pulmonary inflammatory responses to resting Aspergillus conidia were initiated by these PRRs in acidified phagolysosomes, following the uptake of fungal particles by leukocytes. Our data therefore provides crucial new insights into the mechanisms by which surfactant can maintain pulmonary function in the face of microbial challenge, and defines the phagolysosome as a novel intracellular compartment involved in the innate sensing of extracellular pathogens in the lung.


As Medical sciences become more advanced and grow each day, so do the challenges of medical education. To overcome the new obstacles which are an inseparable part of science evolution, it is necessary to renew and improve the educational system .Achieving this, requires individuals who are educated in the new methods of learning and therefore can lead others through educational system development. During the past decade, these facts have led many medical universities toward establishing and pursuing new master and PhD. programs of medical education. As a Pioneer in the field of medical education and the first teacher training center in EMRO since 1972, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (SUMS) has also contributed to educational system transformation by establishing master courses in medical education since 2008, with a goal of not only updating faculties` educational knowledge but also training efficient educational experts. In SUMS, these courses which are also mentioned in Dr. ARA Tekian's article in Chicago University (1), were designed based on reviewing what Some of the greatest universities in the field of education such as Dundee, Maastricht and Chicago University have done. The courses last for five semesters and are available for all medical and paramedical faculty members, GPs and paramedical masters. To enter the program applicants must send their resume including their degree, previous education, and published articles. Moreover, they must also take part in an entrance exam which evaluates their knowledge of general English language along with their educational knowledge and computer skills. These courses are conducted using the newest methods and references of learning such as "A practical guide for medical teachers" (2). The students are also asked to study the most recent AMME Guidelines which are provided for them. According to students' work field, in each semester, proper homework has been considered to improve what they've been instructed in practice. After becoming educational experts, these students can be hired in different sections of education departments, acting as educational ambassadors, initiating educational leaders & curriculums designers which, in turn, can little by little change the culture and face of education, hoping that these changes may someday result in spurring medical educational system.


On September 13th, 1959, Mr. Tex Geddes and Mr. James Gavin were fishing one mile from Soay (a small island off the south coast of Skye, Inner Hebrides, Scotland), when a strange marine creature appeared and passed fairly close to their boat. Although Dr. Maurice Burton received a report on the sighting from Mr. Geddes in September, 1959, and an account of it from Mr. Gavin in November, 1959, nothing seems to have been published about it at the time. The story was released when in 1960 the autobiography of Mr. Geddes ("Hebridean Sharker") appeared. Then, the Soay Beast was dealt with by McKay in "The Press & Journal" (Aberdeen) of May 20th, 1960, and by Burton in "The Illustrated London News" of June 4th, 1960. Both McKay and Burton suggest that the Soay beast features in "Hebridean Sharker"; Burton (1961) and Heuvelmans (1965 : 257) also refer to this book. During a brief visit to the library of the British Museum I looked through the book, but I could not find any reference to the Soay Beast. That indeed it does not occur in it, was shown by Dr. H. W. Parker, who kindly read the book more thoroughly. However, the Soay Beast appears in another book, viz., in "Ring of Bright Water" by Gavin Maxwell, who (p. 64) based his remarks upon information sent to him by Mr. Geddes. "The Press & Journal" of May 21st, 1960, states that according to Dr. J. H. Fraser, of the Marine Laboratory, Torry, Aberdeen, the animal seen by Mr. Geddes must have been a Leathery Turtle, an opinion with which I fully concur, as will be shown below. Burton (1960 : 972) discusses the Soay Beast, and he arrives at the conclusion that it cannot have been a Leathery Turtle; in a later paper, Burton (1961 : 632) makes the suggestion that the Soay Beast may have been an Iguanid lizard.


The article focuses on the ways through which Russian contemporary writer Sasha Sokolov conveys a general idea of indeterminacy in his works. If defamiliarization, in Shklovsky's terms, is the basis of poetic language, in Sokolov's text this technique lies at the basis of both form and content. In this sense, Sokolov overcomes the "dictatorship" of the plot (the "What") in literature, electing the "How" as aesthetic principle able to structure and organize literary texts.


Work published for the first time at the ASME PVP 2017 conference showed that when on the upper-shelf, the toughness measured directly from surface-cracked pipe tests decreased as the flaw depth increased. A similar trend existed in SENT tests. Initially it was found that this flaw depth sensitivity of the toughness occurred for a very tough material like TP304 stainless steel. The significance of that result was that even for a material where limit-load was thought to exist, as the flaw depth increased the toughness dropped appreciably, and the failure analysis mode changed from limit-load to elastic-plastic fracture. Experimentally, this made sense because it explained the observed phenomena of load-controlled leak-versus-break behavior for circumferential surface-cracked pipes (as will be shown for several pipe tests), but that LBB behavior is not predictable from circumferential flaw limit-load analysis.
 Furthermore, the flaw depth effect on toughness also exists for axial surface cracks and even in flat plates with surface cracks. For axial surface cracks the implication was that the long-used empirical surface-crack bulging factor from Maxey/Kiefner (incorporated in many international codes and standards) actually incorporated both the bulging factor and the toughness changes with flaw depth. Because of the change in toughness with flaw depth, when using detailed finite-element fracture analyses for the crack-driving force it is possible to have more error in the failure stress predictions if a constant toughness is assumed for all surface-flaw depths. In fact, in another paper in the ASME 2019 PVP conference it will be shown that the toughness in a wrought TP304 elbow at crack initiation of a circumferential surface crack that was 68% of the thickness was about 1/3rd of the toughness from a standard 1T CT specimen made from the same material. Those results will also be reviewed.
 Similar results of toughness decreasing with flaw depth in surface-cracked pipes and SENT specimens for various materials over a large range of strain-hardening behavior will show the toughness decrease trend with flaw depth is consistent.
 To understand these trends more theoretically, 3D FE analyses were also conducted for one initial set of TP304 SENT specimens with a wide range of a/w values (0.3 < a/w < 0.9). The initiation toughness decreased by a factor of 5 to 6 as the crack depth increased; however, the Q value coinciding to the load at the start of ductile tearing was constant for the wide range of a/W values. Q at the start of ductile tearing in the SENT (Qi) was more consistent at normalized distances from the crack tip, rσo/J that were in the range from 0.25 to 1.5 rather than just the popularly considered rσo/J = 2. Hence, by having one SENT test result with a single a/W value, the Ji value for any other a/W can then be calculated. This is consistent with the experimental trends to date, but unfortunately Ji was found to be not proportional to the Q values as is conventionally assumed by many researchers at this time.


Background: Delayed immunization is a major public health problem that is associated with vaccine-preventable disease epidemics. In Ethiopia, many children don't receive the benefits of age-appropriate immunization; thus more than 90% of child deaths are largely due to preventable communicable diseases. Therefore, the aim of this study to assess the magnitude and factors associated with delayed immunization among 12 -23 months old children in Edagahamus Town, Tigray, Ethiopia, and 2018 G.C.
Methods: A community-based Cross-Sectional study was carried out on July1-30, 2018. A simple random sampling method was used to select study participants. Information was collected using a structured, pre-tested questionnaire. The date of vaccinations was obtained from children's immunization cards and timeliness assessed based on the recommended age ranges. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS version 20.0. Variable with P-value < 0.2 in bivariate was exported to multivariate. The strength of association was identified using the odds ratio with a 95 % confidence interval (CI) and the P-value of <0.05 in multivariate was taken statistically significant.
Results: In this study, the overall magnitude of delayed immunization was 29.5% (95%CI 26.7-45). Private firm work of mothers (AOR=0.205 95% CI 0.068-0.617), Mothers who attend tertiary education (AOR 0.169, 95% CI 0.032-0.882), and secondary education (AOR 0.269, 95% CI 0.114-0.636) had the protective effect of delayed immunization. But sickness of a child (AOR= 11.8, 95% CI 6.16-22.65) was a risk for delayed immunization.
Conclusions: From the study, it is concluded that the magnitude of delayed immunization for children aged 12-23 months is high (29.5%) in Edagahamus. Delayed immunizations of children were predicted by the Mother's occupation, education, and Mother's consideration in the child's wellness to take the vaccine.


Regulatory bodies governing health professions and professional education set clear expectations regarding fitness to practise. Within the UK, the Equality Act, 2010, poses a challenge to regulators, educators and employers to ensure that people are not excluded on the basis of disability and to facilitate inclusion. This research took a mixed methods approach to exploring the tensions between Higher Education providers and placement providers in the health sector. Disabled and nondisabled students and health professionals engaged in semi-structured interviews and a survey in order to explore their beliefs and experiences. The findings suggest that applying equality legislation within health settings may be particularly difficult and that 'disability' is an ambiguous and multifaceted concept. Whilst small in scale, the findings have given a voice to a professional group who are underrepresented in research and have raised a number of important issues that merit discussion and further scrutiny.


Author(s): Mudder, Philip | Advisor(s): Cerny, Joseph | Abstract: This project is focused on developing an aqueous extraction and separation device to perform atom-at-a-time studies of copernicium (Cn). This device will utilize microfluidics to decrease volume and extraction time that will allow for the study of either 285Cn (t¬1/2 = 29 s) or 283Cn(t¬1/2 = 4 s) isotopes. In addition to performing the first aqueous chemistry experiments on Cn, this device will also incorporate a position sensitive detection system allowing for lifetime confirmation of the decaying nucleus. Before Cn can be studied in a chemistry setup, an extraction needs to be developed that will provide meaningful results. To do this, the chemistry of Cn will be compared to its closest homologues: cadmium and mercury. Extractions were developed that would selectively extract each homologue into the organic phase. After finding ideal solution conditions for each homologue, these extractions would be repeated with Cn. The Cn results would then provide insight into its chemical behavior. If Cn extracts under the same conditions as its homologues then it will be said to share similar, metallic properties, and follow group 12 trends. To understand the homologue extraction behavior, experiments were performed in various solutions to determine the conditions that yielded high extraction along with selectivity for that specific homologue. These extractions were done using radioactive isotopes, 109Cd for Cd and 203Hg for Hg. Several different organic ligands were tested for the selective extraction of these two homologues, with trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO) being selected as the best ligand. The ideal aqueous conditions found for Cd were 0.5 M NH¬4SCN and an organic phase of 0.25 M TOPO in toluene. The selective extraction conditions for Hg were 0.05 M HCl and 0.25 M TOPO in toluene. These conditions were then used for extractions in a microfluidic setup.A microfluidic setup was designed and tested to determine the optimum dimensions and flow rates that would eventually be used for atom-at-a-time studies. Parameters including: flow rate, flow ratio, tubing inner diameter, tubing length, membrane separator, and ligand concentration were tested. The only parameter that affected the extraction was the ligand concentration, which decreased separation efficiency in the setup above 0.20 M TOPO in toluene. This meant the microfluidic conditions used for the atom-at-a-time studies of Cn could be altered drastically to prioritize rapid extraction and separation without affecting the chemistry that is being performed.To determine the position of the probable Cn decay a detector scheme was developed using liquid scintillation counting, photomultiplier tubes (PMT) and liquid lightguides. The nuclear decay would be converted to light by liquid scintillator chemicals. This would occur in a liquid lightguide, which is tubing capable of total internal reflection, and light would travel in both directions to a PMT. Due to light attenuation along the lightguide, the position of the decay can be determined by comparing the PMT pulse heights.The combination of microfluidics and liquid lightguides was used to develop an aqueous chemistry setup that will eventually be utilized to perform atom-at-a-time aqueous chemistry on Cn. This setup will allow for studying other short-lived transactinide elements beyond Cn and broaden the chemistry knowledge on these rare and difficult to study elements.


The behavior of hybrid mixtures (combustible dusts and flammable gas in air) has been studied at concentrations near to the lower limit. The mixtues were comprised of polyethylene particles (5 to 50 μm and 30 to 44 μm) and either ethylene or methane. Experiments were undertaken in a modified Hartmann vertical tube apparatus with a resistive/capacitive spark discharge circuit. The measured variables in the system were: dust concentration, addition of flammable gas, total ignition energy, and rate of its delivery to the spark channel. Thereby, minimum ignition energies (MIE) given in terms of series resistances and lower flammable limits (LFL) were obtained. The results obtained were compared with values in the literature. This led to consideration and reporting of the significance and confidence of experimentally determined values of MIE and LFL. Extensive measurements on the ignition of hybrid mixtures demonstrated that simple additivity does not apply. Probability of ignition was increased by addition of flammable gases, the type of which proved to be of major importance.


Contemporary ecological crises fundamentally threaten our ability to continue inhabiting earth, yet geographical research has only tentatively engaged with perspectives that seek to rethink the human– earth relationship. 'Ecosophical' theories, practices and politics recognize that 'a global culture of a primarily techno-industrial nature is now encroaching upon all the world's milieu, desecrating living conditions' (Næss and Rothenberg 1989, 23) and that those who subscribe to its arguments 'have an obligation directly or indirectly to participate in the attempt to implement the necessary changes' (29). This collection of papers seeks to explore ecosophical theories and practices, analysing the relationship between techno-industrial global culture and the world. It offers understandings of attempts to change this relation. Although multiple geographical and social science theories – including feminist perspectives (Gibson-Graham 2006a, 2006b; Haraway 1991), post-human and actornetwork theory research (Latour 1993; Law 1994; Whatmore 2002), studies of the Anthropocene (Castree 2014; Clark 2013), and deconstructionist/phenomenological traditions (Morton 2007) – have worked hard to rethink the category of 'human' or 'subject', in their focus on forms of living, being and becoming with the world, environment and non-human, they have done less to rethink the 'world' part of that relationship. Ecosophy offers geography an approach to these questions which starts with how humans relate to nature and non-human at its core, alongside a strong ethical foundation for action. Specifically, it is the position of ecosophical theories that nature and the nonhuman are valuable independent of their human interaction, and that geography must contribute to ways of rethinking and practicing subjectivity that recognize this.


Individuals high in social anxiety symptoms often exhibit elevated state anxiety in social situations. Research has shown it is possible to detect state anxiety by leveraging digital biomarkers and machine learning techniques. However, most existing work trains models on an entire group of participants, failing to capture individual differences in their psychological and behavioral responses to social contexts. To address this concern, in Study 1, we collected linguistic data from N=35 high socially anxious participants in a variety of social contexts, finding that digital linguistic biomarkers significantly differ between evaluative vs. non-evaluative social contexts and between individuals having different trait psychological symptoms, suggesting the likely importance of personalized approaches to detect state anxiety. In Study 2, we used the same data and results from Study 1 to model a multilayer personalized machine learning pipeline to detect state anxiety that considers contextual and individual differences. This personalized model outperformed the baseline F1-score by 28.0%. Results suggest that state anxiety can be more accurately detected with personalized machine learning approaches, and that linguistic biomarkers hold promise for identifying periods of state anxiety in an unobtrusive way.


We investigated how different graphical representations convey the underlying uncertainty distribution in ensemble predictions. In ensemble predictions, a set of forecasts is produced, indicating the range of possible future states. Adopting a use case from life sciences, we asked non-expert participants to compare ensemble predictions of the growth distribution of individual children to that of the normal population. For each individual child, the historical growth data of a set of 20 of its best matching peers was adopted as the ensemble prediction of the child's growth curve. The ensemble growth predictions were plotted in seven different graphical formats (an ensemble plot, depicting all 20 forecasts and six summary representations, depicting the peer group mean and standard deviation). These graphs were plotted on a population chart with a given mean and variance. For comparison, we included a representation showing only the initial part of the growth curve without any future predictions. For 3 months old children that were measured at four occasions since birth, participants predicted their length at the age of 2 years. They compared their prediction to either (1) the population mean or to (2) a "normal" population range (the mean ± 2(standard deviation)). Our results show that the interpretation of a given uncertainty visualization depends on its visual characteristics, on the type of estimate required and on the user's numeracy. Numeracy correlates negatively with bias (mean response error) magnitude (i.e. people with lower numeracy show larger response bias). Compared to the summary plots that yield a substantial overestimation of probabilities, and the No-prediction representation that results in quite variable predictions, the Ensemble representation consistently shows a lower probability estimation, resulting in the smallest overall response bias. The current results suggest that an Ensemble or "spaghetti plot" representation may be the best choice for communicating the uncertainty in ensemble predictions to non-expert users.


Sir We read with interest the paper by Messrs McLauchlan and Macintyre (Br J Surg 1995; 82: 239-41), which describes their experience with patients' return to work after laparoscopic cholecystectomy. In their series they showed that the median time to return to work was 3 weeks. Our institution recently published a study of patients' experiences of cholecystectomy which looked at ability to perform daily activities, and noted similar findings'. We could identify no statistical difference between open and laparoscopic procedures in terms of performing these tasks. Both studies therefore fail to demonstrate the 'accepted' view that one of the main benefits of laparoscopic cholecystectomy when compared with open cholecystectomy is a quicker recovery and earlier return to We believe that lack of patient motivation is a major contributing factor; if they lack incentive, then return to daily activity (and to work) will be delayed. The catchment area of our hospital includes a large population with a high unemployment rate. Similarly, we note that the 53 per cent of the population studied by Messrs McLaughlan and Macintyre were neither employees nor self-employed. This factor together with the lack of awareness amongst general practitioners of minimally invasive surgery and lack of effective communication with patients may help to explain why postoperative recovery following laparoscopic cholecystectomy in Britain lags far behind that of patients in the USA.


Landscape architecture is unique as a design practice in its engagement with living nonhumans as instrumental media. However, contemporary landscape architecture theory has struggled to integrate fauna as components of the designed landscape beyond calls to provide and preserve habitat and address the philosophical implications of such a gesture. Animals and other mobile entities, when recognized as integral components of landscapes rather than occasional inhabitants, challenge static notions of landscapes as passive spaces and instead invigorate them as lively events. Some early writings on landscape practice and theory, dating back to the picturesque movement, acknowledge the presence of animals in the landscape. More recently, some landscape designers have imagined new roles for animals. No longer are they passive objects or visitors or inhabitants, blindly providing ecosystem services. Increasingly, these designers have explored the role of animals as active agents shaping the landscape, in ways that reimagine interspecies relationships and subjectivities. Provocations for "animal-aided design" are emblematic of this novel take on the animal in the landscape. Using animacy as a tool for revealing various relational qualities of landscapes, this article joins with calls to attend to the liveliness of other beings as productive and creative agents.


Background: in Chile, the increase of childhood obesity has become a major public health problem. The aim of the study is to determine and compare the levels of overweight and obesity of schoolchildren and their association with fitness levels and predictors of cardiovascular risk. Patients and methods: an association study and comparison of variables by gender and nutritional status was performed, 113 students (58 men and 55 women) between 13 and 16 years old were evaluated. Nutritional condition and physical performance through the set used by the agency of quality of education in Chile was measured. Results: 57.5% of the sample was overweight. The contour waist and fat percentage is higher in women (p < 0.05). BMI was not significantly different. Men had better physical performance in jumping, abdominal strength, and Navette Test (p < 0.05). Regarding the assessment of weight status on physical performance there were significant differences (p < 0.05) in the variables; abs, flexion and extension, Navette Test and jump higher results in subjects with normal weight. Obese school students had a higher percentage of fat mass and waist contour (p < 0.05). Regarding the association of variables according to BMI, body fat percentage and waist contour, these had negative associations with physical performance. Conclusions: 57.5% of the evaluated students were overweight or obese, associating these results negatively with physical performance, and increased levels of fat mass and waist contour, all these health indicators and predictors of cardiovascular risk.


OBJECTIVE
To review the major changes and advances in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) since its first description over 100 years ago.

DATA SOURCES
A MEDLINE search of the English literature (1966 to 1994) was done using the key words 'cardiopulmonary resuscitation', 'CPR', 'heart massage', 'techniques' and 'methods'.

STUDY SELECTION
Articles were selected based on content related to promising CPR techniques and specifically on alternate methods of closed chest compression.

DATA EXTRACTION
Performed independently by the authors.

DATA SYNTHESIS
Over the past three and a half decades, the importance of rapid institution of CPR has become increasingly recognized. This has led to a strenuous effort to educate the public in CPR delivery in addition to making definitive treatment with emergency medical systems more readily accessible. Furthermore, as the physiology of closed chest massage has become better understood, investigators have been able to focus their efforts appropriately to exploit the mechanisms that are operative during CPR. As a result, several modifications have been proposed in adjuvant therapies administered concomitantly with CPR, as well as in new, innovative methods of CPR delivery. Many of these changes and new methods show promise for improving vital organ perfusion and patient survival.

CONCLUSIONS
CPR has become increasingly recognized as an important element in the chain of survival for victims of cardiopulmonary arrest. Several advances in delivery and technique have resulted in improved resuscitation of cardiopulmonary arrest victims. However, despite these advances, additional research is needed to improve further the still dismal overall survival of victims of cardiopulmonary arrest.


This paper revisits the case for exible vs. fixed exchange rate regime in a two-country model with firm heterogeneity and nominal wage rigidity under incomplete financial markets. Dampening nominal exchange rate fluctuations simultaneously stabilizes the firm turnover in the export market. When firms are homogeneous and low productive, the fixed exchange rate regime dominates the flexible one because it reduces the fluctuations in labor demand arising from entry and exit of exporters following a demand shock. We also show that an alternative regulation policy in the export market does not rule out the possible adoption of a managed floating regime.


This article follows transnational avian influenza scientists as they move their experimental systems and research objects into what they refer to as the "epicenter" of flu pandemics, southern China. Based on the hypothesis that contact between wild and domestic bird species could produce new pandemic flu viruses, scientists set up a research program into the wild–domestic interface at China's Poyang Lake. As influenza comes to be understood in terms of multispecies relations and ecologies in addition to the virus proper, the scientific knowledge of influenza is increasingly dependent on research conducted at particular sites, such as Poyang Lake. What does this movement of influenza research from laboratory to field mean for anthropological concepts of scientific knowledge? A widely shared premise among anthropologists is that scientific knowledge is made in experimental practice, but this practice turn in science studies draws largely from fieldwork inside laboratories. In this article, drawing on fieldwork with both influenza scientists and poultry breeders, I show how scientific research objects can be displaced by the practices of poultry breeders rather than by experimental practice itself. For these poultry breeders, refusing to respect the distinction of wild and domestic, were breeding wild birds.


Geriatric dentistry developed as a consequence of world population aging and has contributed to improve the quality of life of elderly individuals by both preventive and curative measures. Elderly people who are edentulous or use dentures that are worn out or inappropriately adjusted may have functional limitations, such as chewing difficulties. Due to such limitations, these individuals may limit their food choices to those that they find easier to chew. In addition to reducing their eating pleasure, this change in feeding may compromise their overall health, since they often choose foods that have less fiber and are of low nutritional value. Aging has different effects on the organs and systems of each human being. In the oral cavity, it appears to have a great influence and may reduce chewing efficiency due to either tooth loss and/or bad conditions of remaining teeth, which results in difficulties in eating appropriately. The aging process produces a typical structural deterioration of the estomatognatic system as well as muscles and nerves throughout the entire body. In case of tooth loss, parts of the mandibular bone are reabsorbed and the oral mucosa loses its morphological characteristics, the muscular fibers become atrophic, a great part of motor neurons and their receptors are lost, and there is also a reduction of neurotransmitters. As age advances, sensory functions, including taste, smell, and touch (for texture and temperature) become less precise. Studies of mandibular masticatory movements have shown there is a reduction in vertical development during the chewing cycle in elderly individuals, complete denture wearers, when compared to dentate individuals. Karlsson and Carlsson attributed this differences to several factors such as volume reduction in masticatory muscles, poor neuromotor coordination, and energy reduction in muscle cells...


Gentzen's sequent calculi LK and LJ are landmark proof systems. They identify the structural rules of weakening and contraction as notable inference rules, and they allow for an elegant statement and proof of both cut elimination and consistency for classical and intuitionistic logics. Among the undesirable features of those sequent calculi is that their inferences rules are low-level and frequently permute over each other. As a result, large-scale structures within sequent calculus proofs are hard to identify. In this paper, we present a different approach to designing a sequent calculus for classical logic. Starting with Gentzen's LK proof system, we examine the proof search meaning of his inference rules and classify those rules as involving either don't care nondeterminism or don't know nondeterminism . Based on that classification, we design the focused proof system LKF in which inference rules belong to one of two phases of proof construction depending on which flavor of nondeterminism they involve. We then prove that the cut rule and the general form of the initial rule are admissible in LKF . Finally, by showing that the inference rules for LK are all admissible in LKF , we can give a relative completeness proof for LKF provability with respect to LK provability. We shall also apply these properties of the LKF proof system to establish other meta-theoretic properties of classical logic, including Herbrand's theorem.


A 69-year-old man presented with sudden onset of pain with acute tense swelling of his left leg. Initially he was treated empirically with antibiotics for cellulitis while the possibility of deep vein thrombosis was ruled out. His symptoms gradually worsened with progressive distal neurological deficit and increasing pain. Further investigations suggested that he had a ruptured Baker's cyst in the calf with development of compartment syndrome.


Distributionally robust optimization (DRO) is a modeling framework in decision making under uncertainty in which the probability distribution of a random parameter is unknown although its partial information (e.g., statistical properties) is available. In this framework, the unknown probability distribution is assumed to lie in an ambiguity set consisting of all distributions that are compatible with the available partial information. Although DRO bridges the gap between stochastic programming and robust optimization, one of its limitations is that its models for large-scale problems can be significantly difficult to solve, especially when the uncertainty is of high dimension. In this paper, we propose computationally efficient inner and outer approximations for DRO problems under a piecewise linear objective function and with a moment-based ambiguity set and a combined ambiguity set including Wasserstein distance and moment information. In these approximations, we split a random vector into smaller pieces, leading to smaller matrix constraints. In addition, we use principal component analysis to shrink uncertainty space dimensionality. We quantify the quality of the developed approximations by deriving theoretical bounds on their optimality gap. We display the practical applicability of the proposed approximations in a production–transportation problem and a multiproduct newsvendor problem. The results demonstrate that these approximations dramatically reduce the computational time while maintaining high solution quality. The approximations also help construct an interval that is tight for most cases and includes the (unknown) optimal value for a large-scale DRO problem, which usually cannot be solved to optimality (or even feasibility in most cases). Summary of Contribution: This paper studies an important type of optimization problem, that is, distributionally robust optimization problems, by developing computationally efficient inner and outer approximations via operations research tools. Specifically, we consider several variants of such problems that are practically important and that admit tractable yet large-scale reformulation. We accordingly utilize random vector partition and principal component analysis to derive efficient approximations with smaller sizes, which, more importantly, provide a theoretical performance guarantee with respect to low optimality gaps. We verify the significant efficiency (i.e., reducing computational time while maintaining high solution quality) of our proposed approximations in solving both production–transportation and multiproduct newsvendor problems via extensive computing experiments.


Identification and verification first line of defence of every secure system. Due to the advancement of technology and miniaturization, the use of mobile devices is highly increased since last decade. Nowadays, mobile phones are more powerful than the computers of early days of last decade. Today, mobile phones hold a lot of personal and sensitive data, which must be protected using most reliable, robust, convenient and cost effective authentication mechanisms.Biometric authentication is one of the three methods of identi cation. Gait authentication is one type of biometric authentication that operates on behavioral characteristics of human beings. There are dierent approaches in gait authentication. In this thesis, we have used wearable sensor based approach and for this purpose Google G1 smart phone is used to collect gait data. This thesis is an attempt tond out the inuence of dierent walking speeds (slow, normal and fast) and surfaces (at carpeted, grass, gravel and inclined) on gait recognition. This gait data is collected from 48 subjects for these six dierent walk settings in two sessions on dierent days to measure same day and cross day performance. Later, dierent mathematical and machine learning concepts are used to analyze recorded data and extract typical gait cycle for each subject. Dierent evaluations are conducted to nd out best parameter settings of these methods.For different walking speeds, same-day results vary between 14% to 29%, and cross day results vary between 29% and 35%. Similarly, for different walking surfaces, same-day results vary between 9.78% to 39%, and cross day results vary between 28% to 42%. Results of tests conducted for one walk setting clearly reects that slight change in parameters also inuences the results.


The development of refurbishment concepts for residential buildings is a complex and time-consuming track that requires deep technical knowledge and broad experience. Heterogeneous building typologies with different characteristics and needs for action make the concept developing process more complicated. This paper provides an efficient development approach for refurbishment concepts based on a guideline of prioritised refurbishment recommendations for multi-family houses from the 1970s in Western Germany. These buildings contribute about 2.4 million dwellings (13 %) to the entire multi-family housing stock in Western Germany. In many cases, these multi-family houses are in substantial need of refurbishment measures. In two empirical case studies, the guideline of prioritised refurbishment recommendations is applied and investigated. The refurbishment recommendations are derived from a broad analysis of data from housing corporations and 13,700 energy certificates, a secondary analysis of a representative survey of the housing demand in Germany as well as from 20 expert interviews and an extensive literature review. The case studies indicate that the refurbishment recommendations are suitable for the feasible development of refurbishment concepts for individual multifamily houses from the 1970s in Western Germany. Therefore, the guideline is useful for property owners, real estate developers, engineers, consultants or foreign investors to develop refurbishment alternatives for their buildings and to estimate their costs and economic efficiency.


Channa striatus and Curcuma longa are two well known natural
products that have long been used in treating various kinds of ailments. Channa striatus is high in essential amino acids and fatty acids that played an important role in wound healing as well as in anti-nociceptive activities.
Curcuma longa on the other hand, contains an active compound called curcuminoids that are responsible for its anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-cancer properties.
Therefore, in this study, Channa striatus and Curcuma longa extracts were used in the treatment of experimentally induced Osteoarthritis (OA) in rabbits. OA was induced on the right stifle joint of the rabbits in the treatment and the negative control groups by transecting the anterior cruciate ligaments. These animals were left for 8 weeks to develop OA. Radiography and ultrasonography were performed on the induced joints to determine the development of OA prior to Channa striatus and Curcuma Jonga treatments. During the progression of OA, the induced joints began to show sign of OA development as early as the 2nd week after induction of OA as observed in ultrasonograph. Slight joint space narrowing, which reflect the deteriorating articular cartilage was detected by the ultrasonography as early as the 2nd week post induction. On the 3rd week after the induction of OA, ultrasonography was able to detect significant joint space narrowing and total diminution of joint space on the 4th week post induction. In addition to that, irregular joint surface has developed in the induced joints as seen on the ultrasonograph taken on the 5th and the 6th week post induction. Apart from these, other structures such as the infra patellar fat, the patellar ligament and the synovial membrane in the induced joints also underwent osteoarthritic changes as seen in ultrasonographs. On the 8th week post induction there was a significant periarticular soft tissue swelling detected by radiography and ultrasonography. Soft tissue swelling detected on the radiographs was seen as an increased radiopacity area around the joint. In ultrasonographs, the swelling of the joint could be observed as an increased distance between the surface of joint and the skin compared to the normal uninduced joints. On the 9th week of treatment, a significant reduction of soft tissue swelling was observed on Channa striatusand Curcuma longa- treated joints compared to the untreated joints. Although the treatments were effective in reducing inflammations and
swelling, these extracts d id not exhibit any improvement on other structures of the joints. Extra bone formation and diminution of the joint space were observed on both radiographs and ultrasonographs on the 9th week of treatment. These similar changes were further confirmed with the gross findings on the opened joints upon euthanasia. In the immunohistochemistry study, synovial membrane biopsies from the normal, treated and negative control joints were obtained to study the general innervation of the synovial membrane. The immunoreactive fibres stained against PGP 9.5, CGRP and NPY antisera were not detected in the control joints compared to the normal synovial membrane. The synovial membrane from the untreated joints was heavily infiltrated with inflammatory cells, which may be account for the diminished immunoreactive nerve fibres from the synovial membrane. However, the number of immunoreactive nerve fibres detected in the
synovial membranes from Channa striatus and Curcuma longa treated joints was higher than in the synovial membrane from the control untreated joint. They exhibited a similar distribution to the nerve fib res found in normal synovial membrane but less numerous. Therefore, the present study showed that both Channa striatus and Curcuma tonga extracts showed good signs of healing in OA and these extracts can be used as a good alternative treatment in OA.


Models of teacher education in England have undergone major upheaval in recent years. Teacher Education in England draws on the experiences of some of the people directly involved in these changes and explores the implications that they have had on their professional lives. The book also explores the challenges faced by universities in responding to the ascendance of school-led teacher trainingand the ways in which this impacts on conceptions of teacher education more generally, in England and beyond. Drawing on 150 interviews with teacher educators and trainees, this book documents how the systemic changes to teacher education have been implemented, and explores the impact of these changes on the people directly affected by them. Presenting insider accounts, the book shows that structural adjustments have impacted on many dimensions of teacher education that had characterised university input and have also unsettled more familiar understandings of professional identity and staffing composition. Demonstrating that the redistribution of teacher education across new apparatuses bolsters market forces, whilst maintaining the option of creating new forms of training that transcend established boundaries, Brown also explores the opportunities that are opened up by the new models. Teacher Education in England is the first substantial study to focus on School Direct since its implementation in 2013. As such, the book should be of great interest to academics, researchers and postgraduate students engaged in the study of teacher education and educational policy. It should also be essential reading for teacher educators, as well as for teachers and trainee teachers. Tony Brown is Professor of Mathematics Education at Manchester Metropolitan University.


This report describes the findings in a four-year-old Toggenburg goat with demodicosis. The skin had multifocal nodules, which were approximately 5 mm in diameter and contained thick yellow exsudate. Microscopic examination of the exsudate revealed numerous Demodex caprae. The goat was clipped and treated topically every five to seven days for a total of 12 treatments with a 1:100 dilution of amitraz (Ectodex, Hoechst Roussel Vet). The treatment resulted in a marked decrease in the number of skin nodules. However, new nodules appeared after treatment was discontinued and complete clinical cure was not achieved.


Ensemble-based measurements of kinetic isotope effects (KIEs) have advanced physical understanding of enzyme-catalyzed reactions, but controversies remain. KIEs are used as reporters of rate-limiting H-transfer steps, quantum mechanical tunnelling, dynamics and multiple reactive states. Single molecule (SM) enzymatic KIEs could provide new information on the physical basis of enzyme catalysis. Here, single pair fluorescence energy transfer (spFRET) was used to measure SM enzymatic KIEs on the H-transfer catalyzed by the enzyme pentaerythritol tetranitrate reductase. We evaluated a range of methods for extracting the SM KIE from single molecule spFRET time traces. The SM KIE enabled separation of contributions from nonenzymatic protein and fluorophore processes and H-transfer reactions. Our work demonstrates SM KIE analysis as a new method for deconvolving reaction chemistry from intrinsic dynamics.


Background: Previous studies show that people with lower limb amputation (LLA) have a sedentary lifestyle, reduced walking capacity, and low cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2peak). There is, however, no knowledge on the relationship between cardiorespiratory fitness and objectively measured level of physical activity in daily life. Objectives: To investigate the relationship between upper-body VO2peak, physical activity levels, and walking capacity in persons with LLA. Study design: Correlational and descriptive study. Methods: Fourteen participants with LLA performed an assessment of VO2peak on an arm-crank ergometer and walking capacity (preferred walking speed and 2-minute walking test). Level of physical activity was measured over 7 days with a step activity monitor (number of steps; sedentary time; and proportion of low-intensity, moderate-intensity, high-intensity, and peak-intensity activity level). Results: VO2peak correlated significantly with number of steps per day (r = 0.696, p = 0.006), sedentary time (r = −0.618, p = 0.019), high-intensity activity level (r = 0.769, p = 0.001), and peak-intensity activity level (r = 0.674, p = 0.008). After correcting for age, correlations were still large and significant. Large correlations were also found between VO2peak, preferred walking speed (r = 0.586, p = 0.027), and 2-minute walking test (r = 0.649, p = 0.012). Conclusions: We provide the first evidence of the strong relationships between upper-body VO2peak, sedentary behavior, high-intensity activity level, and walking capacity in persons with LLA. Further research is needed to investigate the potential effect of upper-body cardiorespiratory fitness on the level of activity in daily life, or vice versa.


Permeability of a porous interface is important for many areas of research and technology ranging from transport of nutrients in marine sediments to produce separations in bio‐pharmaceuticals. Biot theory has shown that porous materials are able to support the propagation of two longitudinal waves: fast and slow wave. By measuring the propagation threshold of the slow longitudinal wave when the wave number is higher than the critical wave number kcr, we can obtain the intrinsic permeability of a porous interface. The ability to sense permeability change due to differences in pore size and fluid viscosity is demonstrated. The measurement is compared to an exact solution for kcr as well as previously published analytical solutions. This technique for measuring permeability has been shown in a model material and can now be extended to a wide range of materials of scientific and technical importance.


Background: Interactive health information technology (HIT) can support the complex self-management tasks for diabetes. However, less is known about between-visit interactions and patient safety among chronic illness patients treated in the outpatient setting. Methods: We classified 13 categories for safety events and potential safety events within a larger trial evaluating a multilingual automated telephone self-management support system for diabetes using interactive voice response. Participants could trigger safety concerns by reporting hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia, inability to obtain medications, medication nonadherence and side effects, and needing appointments and/or supplies. We then examined these triggers across patient demographic and health characteristics to determine which patients were most likely to experience safety events. Results: Overall, there were 360 safety triggers that occurred among 155 participants, which represented 53% of individuals and 7.6% of all automated calls over the 27-week intervention. The most common triggers were for pain or medication side effects (22%) and not checking blood sugars (13%). In adjusted models, race/ethnicity and language were related to safety triggers; Spanish-speaking participants were significantly (p = .02) more likely than English-speaking participants to experience a safety trigger, and black participants were marginally more likely (p = .09) than white participants to experience a safety trigger. Conclusion: About half of patients enrolled in a self-management technology intervention triggered at least one potential safety event over the course of the trial, and this was more frequent among some patients. Systems implementing HIT strategies to improve self-care and remote monitoring should consider specific program design elements to address these potential safety events.


Metastatic cancers are difficult to treat and are the cause of about 90% of cancer related deaths. Furthermore, predictive diagnostics are not readily available, and lack of good translational assays has impaired drug discovery. Mestastop has developed a platform of cell based functional assays that aims to address these drug discovery and diagnostic gaps. The platform is comprised of a set of 14 cell based phenotypic assays that capture multiple aspects of the complex process of metastasis, including characterization of the plasticity ratios (EMT, MET) and stemness of cells, invasion, intravasation, circulation, extravasation, and survival in secondary tissues (e.g metabolic shift, exosome secretion). Wild type tumor cells (initially a set of colon tumor cell lines) are utilized in the platform. Non-metastatic wild type cells (e.g. HT-29) that have been engineered into metastatic cells are also utilized to further elucidate metastatic processes, thereby creating two baseline data sets for each assay; one for the normal growing tumor and the other for the select metastatic population. Patient derived tumors are now being analyzed in the platform to help build a translational model. Preclinical animal models are being jointly developed with Immunobiome Inc. (South Korea). As the data from all these assays present a multivariate problem, we are developing a machine learning algorithm, METSCANTM, to analyze the results. The platform will be applied to the screening of novel compounds for drug discovery and of approved drugs for repurposing. Analysis of patient derived tumors may allow for the early detection of patients with high metastatic potential. Four colon cancer cell lines and several standard chemotherapy drugs have been used to validate the platform. A group of triple negative breast cancer cell lines is now being tested. Preliminary data for a set of approved, marketed drugs has further validated the potential of the platform for drug discovery and repurposing. The Mestastop proprietary assay platform will empower biopharma in the discovery of novel drug candidates and repurposing of approved drugs for the treatment of metastasis, and the early diagnosis of cancers with high metastatic potential, thereby addressing the unmet need in the area of cancer metastasis. Citation Format: Arnab Roy Chowdhury, Debabani Roy Chowdhury, Manoj Pandre, Samrat Roy, Sundarajan Kannan, John W. Ellingboe. A cell based phenotypic assay platform for cancer metastasis drug discovery and diagnostics [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2021; 2021 Apr 10-15 and May 17-21. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2021;81(13_Suppl):Abstract nr 2868.


The first generation of synthetic bone substitute materials, hydroxyapatite (or HA), was initially investigated as a "non self-hardening" biomaterial for remodeling of bone defects. CPBCs concepts were used as a platform to initiate a second generation of injectable, self-hardening cement. The variety of CPBC's chemical composition leads to a better understanding of their mechanism of reaction and their proposed classification: acid-base, mono-component and hydrolysable. After hydration, mixing, and full chemical reaction, these cements have the ability to precipitate different end products (e.g. HA, calcium deficient apatite, carbonated apatite, brushite, etc.). In fact, the initial idea of having higher mechanical performance (>50 MPa in compression) for a bone void filler application was abandoned and has led to a greater focus on cement fast-hardening (<15 min), higher total porosity (>60%), extended performance of injectability (8 to 22 G), fast resorbability (< 2 years) and user-friendliness for the clinicians. A new CPBC combination (cement plus additives) has particularly improved rheological and biointegrity performance. A hybrid of CPBC-DBM (Demineralized Bone Matrix) has also added an osteoinductivity performance to the initial osteoconductive CPBC.This paper will propose a comparison of the chemical composition, reaction, and performance characteristics of major commercially available CPBC products. Furthermore, it will describe today's surgeon's CPBC needs as bone substitute materials for different clinical applications. Finally, we will discuss what we learned so far, how we can resolve several clinical impacts & product recall, and how we believe CPBC designers can meet development challenges, and users' specific requirements.


Fundamentals of Aircraft Structural Analysis. Frederick Teichmann. Pitman, London, 1968. 132 pp. Illustrated. 33s. The author's preface suggests that this book will be useful for students and practising aeronautical engineers. A glance at the contents will be sufficient to warn the informed reader that this suggestion is ill-founded. The prevailing tone of the book is superficial, and the substance is often in error. The inclusion of some sketches of pressure distributions around aerofoils, and one of an aeroplane in shallow climb, scarcely justifies the use of the word aircraft in the title. A particularly sensational howler occurs on page eighteen, where it is shown that the tip deflection of a cantilever under a given vertical load concentrated at the free end is directly proportional to the span. This contention is supported by elaborate sketches. The description of instability effects in structures is almost incomprehensible. This is perhaps just as well since many errors of principle may be noted. Often, when a subject seems likely to require treatment in depth, it is rapidly dismissed with a comment about its being beyond the scope of the book. Indeed, the effective scope of this book is so limited than in the final analysis it must be considered irrelevant.—D. M. RICHARDS.


Recent empirical studies have found evidence for the rehabilitative effect of social networks and support by these networks. Specifically for individuals convicted for a sexual offense it is assumed that their social network and support by this network are important protective factors against further delinquency (Dong & Krohn, 2017). However, empirical studies have also found that the quality of social support and the network of individuals convicted for a sexual offense is often inadequate, causing sex offenders to experience high levels of social isolation and loneliness (Marshall, 1989; 2010; Miner & Munns, 2005). For juveniles who committed a sexual offense the role of social networks and support by these networks might be even more salient, because they are in a developmental stage where the social network of family and peers is highly influential on their life outcomes (Sampson & Laub, 1993). This presentation will focus on examining a sample of about 150 juveniles who received treatment for committing a sexual offense. First, the influence of their social network and support by this network on the commission of the sexual offense will be presented. Thus, testing the assumption of an association between social support and the social network of the offender on the type of sexual offense committed. Second, the role of social networks and support during and after treatment will be examined to establish whether and how they have an effect on treatment outcomes.


Using the new version of the photoionization code Titan designed for plane-parallel photoionized thick hot media, which is unprecedented from the point of view of line transfer, we have undertaken a systematic study of the influence of different parameters on the He-like and H-like emission of a medium photoionized by an X-ray source. We explain why in modelling the emitting medium it is important to solve in a self-consistent way the thermal and ionization equilibria and to take into account the interconnection between the different ions. We insist on the influence of the column density on the He-like ion emission, via stratification of ion species, temperature gradient, resonance trapping and continuum absorption, and we show that misleading conclusions can be deduced if it is neglected. In particular a given column density of an He-like ion can lead to a large range of total column densities and ionization parameters. We show also that there is a non-model-dependent relation between an ion column density and its corresponding temperature, and that the ion column density cannot exceed a maximum value for a given ionization parameter. We give the equivalent widths of the sum of the He-like triplets and the triplet intensity ratiosG and R, for the most important He-like ions, for a range of density, column density, and ionization parameter, in the case of constant density media. We show in particular that the line intensities from a given ion can be accounted for, either by small values of both the column density and of the ionization parameter, or by large values of both quantities, and it is necessary to take into account several ions to disentangle these possibilities. We show also that a "pure recombination spectrum" almost never exists in a photoionized medium: either it is thin, and resonance lines are formed by radiative excitation, or it is thick, and free-bound absorption destroys the resonance photons as they undergo resonant diffusion. Consequently, the G ratio is much smaller than the pure recombination ratio for a small value of the total column density, and it exceeds the recombination ratio for large values of the total column density and of the ionization parameter.


Acylphosphatase purified from heart muscle actively hydrolyzes the phosphoenzyme intermediate of cardiac sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+-ATPase. This effect was evident with acylphosphatase concentrations (up to 100 units/mg sarcoplasmic reticulum .protein) that fall within the physiological range, and the low value of the apparent Kin, on the order of 10t M, suggests a high affinity towards this special substrate. Moreover, acylphosphatase addition to sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles significantly enhanced the rate of Ca2+-dependent ATP hydrolysis. Maximal stimulation, observed with 100 units/mg vesicular protein, resulted in an ATPase activity which was about two folds over basal value. The same acylphosphatase concentration increased at a similar extent the rate of ATP driven Ca 2+ influx into sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles. Taken together these findings lead to suppose that acylphosphatase, owing to its hydrolytic activity, induces an accelerated turnover of the phosphoenzyme intermediate, whence an overall stimulation of heart sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca 2+ pump, affecting both ATP hydrolysis and Ca 2+ influx.


This study compared genetic polymorphisms (factor V Leiden [FVL] 1691G/A, factor VII [FVII] 10976G/A, FVII HVR4, platelet membrane glycoproteins GP1BA 1018C/T, GP1BA VNTR, integrin ITGB3 1565T/C, ITGA2 807C/T and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase [MTHFR] 677C/T), biochemical (fibrinogen and homocysteine), and conventional risk factors in 184 young and 166 elderly north Indian patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Univariate analysis revealed higher prevalence of hypertension and obesity in elderly patients while smoking, alcohol intake, and low socioeconomic status in young patients (P < .001). Although mean fibrinogen predominated (P = .01) in elderly patients, mean homocysteine was higher (P < .001) among young patients. Prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia was greater in young than in elderly patients (odds ratio: 2.8, 95% confidence interval: 1.8-4.4, P < .001); however, genetic polymorphisms were equally prevalent in young and elderly patients. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed smoking (P < .001), alcohol intake (P = .046), and hyperhomocysteinemia (P = .001) to be associated with AMI in the young patients while hypertension (P = .006) in elderly patients. To conclude, smoking, alcohol intake, and elevated homocysteine are the risk factors for AMI among young while hypertension among elderly patients.


Classical parking functions can be defined in terms of drivers with preferred parking spaces searching a linear parking lot for an open parking spot. We may consider this linear parking lot as a collection of n vertices (parking spots) arranged in a directed path. We generalize this notion to allow for more complicated "parking lots" and define parking functions on arbitrary directed graphs. We then consider a relationship proved by Lackner and Panholzer between parking functions on trees and "mapping digraphs" and we show that a similar relationship holds when edge orientations are reversed.


Current studies provide evidence that proteins are initial targets of ROS (reactive oxygen species) in biological systems and that the damaged proteins can in turn damage other cell constituents. This study was designed to test the possibility that protein radicals generated by ROS can oxidize GSH and assess the probability of this reaction in vivo by measurement of the rate constant of this reaction. Lysozyme radicals were generated by hydroxyl and azide radicals in steady-state gamma ray radiolysis. In the absence of dioxygen, a range of protein carbon-centred amino acid radicals were produced by the hydroxyl radicals, and defined tryptophan radicals by the azide radicals. In the presence of dioxygen, each carbon-centred radical was converted to a protein peroxyl radical. Each of the peroxyl radicals was able to oxidize a molecule of GSH, regardless of its location in the protein. The peroxyl radicals were 10 and 20 times more effective GSH oxidants than the carbon-centred radicals produced randomly in the lysozyme, or the defined tryptophan lysozyme radicals respectively. We obtained for the first time the rate constant of reaction between a protein free-radical and GSH. Lysozyme tryptophan carbon radicals generated by nanosecond pulse radiolysis and flash photolysis oxidized GSH with a rate constant of (1.05+/-0.05)x10(5) M(-1) x s(-1). Overall, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that protein radicals may be important intermediates in the pathway linking oxidative stress and damage in living organisms and emphasize the strongly enhancing role of dioxygen in this process.


High school students talk of summer in terms of vacationing, relaxing, and spending time with friends. Rarely do students say leisure reading will be a part of their summer. This gap in literacy activities often results in a decline in learning, particularly in minority and lower income students. Many schools use summer reading programs with the dual purpose of encouraging reading and to offset summer learning loss. Most existing research on summer reading programs focuses on library programs, young students, or remediation. Little research exists on the nature of school-wide summer reading programs in high school, yet many high schools use such programs. Further, there is no instrument available to explore student motivation regarding summer reading programs. The purpose of this article is to add to research on reading motivation among secondary students and to create an instrument to measure reading motivation within the context of a summer reading program.


This article provides a framework for conducting economic analysis for educational institutions. Such institutions, because they affect future output and income through human capital formation, have effects beyond the usual form of economic impact. To date, we are aware of no published impact studies that have adequately dealt with this issue, and most have not effectively handled the traditional sources of impact as arise through the import substitution phenomenon (the impact from increased local source spending in the area caused by the institution's presence.) This study demonstrates an approach to handling all three sources of impact (export, import substitution, and human capital) and provides a description of the data sources needed to conduct such a study. In addition, the authors include a case study of Xavier University's impact to demonstrate the viability of their proposed methodology.


This proposal for penguin island closures in 2021 matches that of the proposal of FISHERIES/2020/OCT/SWGPEL/ 102, but considering the 2021 year only.This proposal for the closure or opening of a 20km radius around Robben, Dassen, St Croix and Bird islands to purse seine fishing during 2021 is extracted from the multi‐year proposal by de Moor (2020a). That proposal was primarily based on the summary of both sets of GLMM analyses available to the SWG‐PEL, which were tabled and noted in de Moor (2020b).


Timber is an intriguing structural material and the only one that is truly renewable. Being biodegradable, hygroscopic and non-isotropic, it presents special challenges when assessing its integrity in structures. The presented paper outlines the major issues related to in-situ evaluation of structural timber and summarizes the work of the RILEM Technical Committee 215-AST "In-situ assessment of structural timber". The committee was established in 2005 to bring together leading scientists and practitioners in the field of evaluation of timber in existing structures. Timber structures have been investigated for decades using numerous techniques that have been either developed specifically for the material or were transferred from other fields of investigation. A state-of-the-art report describing existing and emerging technologies and methods was prepared by the RILEM committee. The report describes the principles, the applications and the limitations of major evaluation techniques for in-situ assessment of timber. A brief discussion of codes standards and future research needs shows that much needs to be done in this area. As a present activity, harmonized test procedure recommendations are being prepared that will provide the engineering community with valuable guidance when evaluating timber structures.


In this research, two hybrid intelligent models are proposed for prediction accuracy enhancement for wind speed and power modeling. The established models are based on the hybridisation of Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition (EEMD) with a Pattern Sequence-based Forecasting (PSF) model and the integration of EEMD-PSF with Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model. In both models (i.e., EEMD-PSF and EEMD-PSF-ARIMA), the EEMD method is used to decompose the time-series into a set of sub-series and the forecasting of each sub-series is initiated by respective prediction models. In the EEMD-PSF model, all sub-series are predicted using the PSF model, whereas in the EEMD-PSF-ARIMA model, the sub-series with high and low frequencies are predicted using PSF and ARIMA, respectively. The selection of the PSF or ARIMA models for the prediction process is dependent on the time-series characteristics of the decomposed series obtained with the EEMD method. The proposed models are examined for predicting wind speed and wind power time-series at Maharashtra state, India. In case of short-term wind power time-series prediction, both proposed methods have shown at least 18.03 and 14.78 percentage improvement in forecast accuracy in terms of root mean square error (RMSE) as compared to contemporary methods considered in this study for direct and iterated strategies, respectively. Similarly, for wind speed data, those improvement observed to be 20.00 and 23.80 percentages, respectively. These attained prediction results evidenced the potential of the proposed models for the wind speed and wind power forecasting. The current proposed methodology is transformed into R package 'decomposedPSF' which is discussed in the Appendix.


Symmetrical multilevel diversity coding (SMDC) is a network compression problem introduced by Roche (1992) and Yeung (1995). In this setting, a simple separate encoding strategy known as superposition coding was shown to be optimal in terms of achieving the minimum sum rate (Roche-Yeung-Hau 1997) and the entire admissible rate region (Yeung-Zhang 1999) of the general problem. This paper considers a natural generalization of SMDC to the secure communication setting with an additional eavesdropper. It is required that all sources need to be kept perfectly secret from the eavesdropper as long as the number of encoder outputs available at the eavesdropper is no more than a given threshold. First, the problem of encoding individual sources is studied. A precise characterization of the entire admissible rate region is established via a connection to the problem of ramp-type secret sharing (Yamamoto 1985 and Blakley-Meadows 1985) and utilizing some basic polyhedral structure of the admissible rate region. Building on this result, it is then shown that superposition coding remains optimal in terms of achieving the minimum sum rate for the general secure SMDC problem.


Education and Transformation:Marianist Ministries in America since 1849. By Christopher J. Kauffman. (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company. 1999. Pp. xvii, 366. $29.95.) Since the publication of Tamers of Death: The History of the Alexian Brothers (1973), Professor Christopher J. Kauffman of the Catholic University of America has demonstrated a wonderful excellence in relating the histories of American Catholic religious communities and their service to the Church. This most recent book addition with its focus on the Marianist ministries in this country since 1849 reveals his most robust and full-fledged demonstration of, what may be called, the emerging integrative pattern for American Catholic institutional historiography. Building on eleven archival visits here and in Rome, Kauffman powerfully integrates appropriate thematic discussions of the national context, the founder of the community and his spirituality the growth of community, various apostolic directions and episcopal negotiating, the broadening ecclesial contextualism relating to the community's assimilation of American customs and ever increasing interest by Vatican authorities, and most recent responses to the Second Vatican Council. In other words, this work is an excellent interpretive model for the very demanding task of appropriately accounting for the external and internal forces that shape the history of a religious community. The Reverend Joseph P. Chinnici, O.F.M., in his praiseworthy foreword puts this task for the historian very well: a project that "points to an understanding of a religious group as a mediating institution in the context of church and society" (p. xv). Echoing Cardinal Newman's famous ecciesiological realpolitik on the university's role as a way station between the Church and the world, Chinnici's historical clarity of the community's journey and Kauffman's superb retelling offer the knowledgeable reader a delightful intellectual treatise. Similar to his 1997 entry on the Marianists for The Encyclopedia of American Catholic History, Kauffman's organizational structure here follows the major transformations of the community: its founding, developments in France, missionary work in the United States, national expansion, internal conflicts between the apostolic and religious piety at the turn of the twentieth century, Americanization pressures on its German-speaking members, struggles in adopting the American high school model, international missionary activities, and adapting to the norms of the Second Vatican Council. In his other works, especially on the Sulpicians, and in this one, he knowledgeably explains initially the seventeenth-century French and Spanish spiritual roots of this lay sodality, as derived from the pieties of Ignatius Loyola and later of Jean Jacques Offer and Cardinal Pierre de Berulle in the prologue. Founded by William Joseph Chaminade (1761-1850), a sodality began with five lay people in 1817, devoted to Mary Immaculate and the Sacred Heart. This group was transformed eventually into the religious Society of Mary, dedicated to "ministering to young people" (pp. 6-8). The laity, brothers, and priests formed this apostolic community "to evangelize `from below"' (p. 18) through education in parish churches initially and later in Catholic schools in postrevolutionary Enlightenment France. While dressed in secular clothing, thereby not inciting the then prevalent anticlericalism among the populace, its members sought their own perfection and encouraged others "to lead a Christian life" (p. 23). They became a major educational force in the country by 1850 with sixty-two mostly elementary schools. Had the thirty-three year old founder lived beyond that year, he would have subsequently witnessed how the new liberte d'enseignement with the French lot Falloux allowed Catholic religious communities to establish their own secondary schools. Taking advantage of this law, the Marianist community established rapidly fifteen secondary schools with some 2,200 students. …


Abstract Energy or heat recovery schemes are keys for the performance improvement of any heat-activated cycles such as the absorption and adsorption cycles. We present two innovative heat recovery schemes between the condensing and evaporating units of an adsorption desalination (AD) cycle. By recovering the latent heat of condenser and dumping it into the evaporative process of the evaporator, it elevates the evaporating temperature and hence the adsorption pressure seen by the adsorbent. From isotherms, this has an effect of increasing the vapour uptake. In the proposed configurations, one approach is simply to have a run-about water circuit between the condenser and the evaporator and a pump is used to achieve the water circulation. This run-around circuit is a practical method for retrofitting purposes. The second method is targeted towards a new AD cycle where an encapsulated condenser–evaporator unit is employed. The heat transfer between the condensing and evaporative vapour is almost immediate and...


This paper presents a simple but effective method to reduce on-chip access latency and improve core isolation in CMP Non-Uniform Cache Architectures (NUCA). The paper introduces a feasible way to allocate cache blocks according to the access pattern. Each L2 bank is dynamically partitioned at set level in private and shared content. Simply by adjusting the replacement algorithm, we can place private data closer to its owner processor. In contrast, independently of the accessing processor, shared data is always placed in the same position. This approach is capable of reducing on-chip latency without significantly sacrificing hit rates or increasing implementation cost of a conventional static NUCA. Additionally, most of the unnecessary interference between cores in private accesses is removed.
 To support the architectural decisions adopted and provide a comparative study, a comprehensive evaluation framework is employed. The workbench is composed of a full system simulator, and a representative set of multithreaded and multiprogrammed workloads. With this infrastructure, different alternatives for the coherence protocol, replacement policies, and cache utilization are analyzed to find the optimal proposal. We conclude that the cost for a feasible implementation should be closer to a conventional static NUCA, and significantly less than a dynamic NUCA.
 Finally, a comparison with static and dynamic NUCA is presented. The simulation results suggest that on average the mechanism proposed could improve system performance of a static NUCA and idealized dynamic NUCA by 16% and 6% respectively.


Bioleaching is the extraction of metals, such as copper or gold, from ore by microorganisms. Bacterial attachment increases leaching activities due to the formation of a "reaction space" between the metal sulfide surface and the cell. This process depends on abiotic characteristics such as purity and degree of crystallization of the metal sulfide, as well as biotic ones such as the capacity of the bacteria for detecting favourable attachment sites and synthesizing a suitable cell envelope (EPS), for adhesion. Planktonic and sessile cells should differ significantly in their metabolic activities and therefore in their gene expression patterns. To help to understand At. ferrooxidans biofilm formation, microarray transcript profiling was carried out to compare planktonic and sessile cells. The high contents of EPS and ferric iron of the biofilms are interfering with RNA extraction, causing inhibition of DNAse, reverse transcriptase and/or polymerase activities required to get labelled target cDNA. In order to have sufficient high quality RNA suitable for transcriptomic analysis, we have optimized the biofilm formation of At. ferrooxidans on pyrite (FeS2) and the RNA extraction from the sessile cell population. DNA microarrays have been hybridized with labelled cDNAs from sessile and planktonic cells and preliminary data suggest that some genes are differently expressed between these two subpopulations. The understanding of these differences may help us to shift populations of leaching bacteria from the planktonic state towards the sessile state in order to influence bioleaching.


Digital microfluidics (DMF) is a powerful platform for a broad range of applications, especially immunoassays having multiple steps, due to the advantages of low reagent consumption and high automatization. Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has been proven as an attractive method for highly sensitive and multiplex detection, because of its remarkable signal amplification and excellent spatial resolution. Here we propose a SERS-based immunoassay with DMF for rapid, automated, and sensitive detection of disease biomarkers. SERS tags labeled with Raman reporter 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (4-MBA) were synthesized with a core@shell nanostructure and showed strong signals, good uniformity, and high stability. A sandwich immunoassay was designed, in which magnetic beads coated with antibodies were used as solid support to capture antigens from samples to form a beads-antibody-antigen immunocomplex. By labeling the immunocomplex with a detection antibody-functionalized SERS tag, antigen can be sensitively detected through the strong SERS signal. The automation capability of DMF can greatly simplify the assay procedure while reducing the risk of exposure to hazardous samples. Quantitative detection of avian influenza virus H5N1 in buffer and human serum was implemented to demonstrate the utility of the DMF-SERS method. The DMF-SERS method shows excellent sensitivity (LOD of 74 pg/mL) and selectivity for H5N1 detection with less assay time (<1 h) and lower reagent consumption (∼30 μL) compared to the standard ELISA method. Therefore, this DMF-SERS method holds great potentials for automated and sensitive detection of a variety of infectious diseases.


A methodology is investigated to optimize technological parameters to reduce distribution of circuit performance. Major attention is paid to treat all characteristics from device level to circuit level on one basis, namely technological parameters. The key point of the whole procedure is the quality of the analytical MOSFET model used for circuit simulations. Due to the physical description of our model, only three independent technological parameters have to be studied, namely the effective channel length, the oxide thickness, and the substrate doping concentration. These values are available directly or indirectly from measurements. The methodology is applied to optimize the oxide thickness for a 23-stage ring oscillator to obtain narrow delay distribution for low voltage application.


In the rural areas, green leaves and stems mainly from vegetable crops, banana, grapes, etc., are underutilized after harvesting. Some green leaves and stem are used as fodder for animals which is not completely digested by them. Otherwise they are burned or thrown away. Green leaves contain proteinous matter, waxes, resin, lignin and cellulose. Many people are under impression that green leaves and stems produce good manure. They have no idea that cellulose and lignin in these green leaves cannot give good quality of manure and even cannot be decomposed easily. Our idea of a Bio-Village will give biogas to the villagers. The green leaves and the stems are crushed to produce juice. This juice is fermented to produce biogas which can be used for cooking. Also the residual lignin + cellulose (lingo-cellulose) can be used to make the doors and windows of houses, furniture etc. Here, the ligno-cellulose bonds are partially broken and made them to be in-situ bonds again to form dense hard-board. The strength of ligno-cellulose can be enhanced by adding phenol resin to the ligno-cellulose residue. We assume that a group of few villages come forward to produce biogas centrally which further can be distributed amongst them. The low cost set up for manufacture of particle wood can also be established in the village which can provide the employment to the villagers. Gandhiji always said that Villages should prosper, then Country will prosper and then the World.


Pituitary enlargement can occur in primary hypothyroidism. Pituitary volume determination in 20 cases of primary hypothyroidism showed pituitary fossa enlargement in 25% of the patients, with close correlation to highest serum thyrotropin (TSH) levels. Normalization of TSH serum levels should prevent hypertrophy of the thyrotropic cells.


Text production research tends to analyse corpora of text products as its data. However, for the aim of investigating especially text production processes, such an approach falls short; a written text does its best to hide any traces of its genesis. This article argues for a holistic approach in text production research by presenting five methodological guidelines for future research: 1) what/how-research questions need to be followed by why-questions, and such research frameworks require 2) several methods to be applied in order to 3) encompass both product and process perspectives, 4) reveal material, mental and social activities, and 5) move from micro-level activities towards macro-level contexts. The holistic approach is empirically illustrated by drawing on a study on journalistic quoting (Haapanen 2017a).


CYP17A1 is an essential human steroidogenic enzyme, which catalyzes two sequential reactions leading to the formation of androstenedione from progesterone and dehydroepiandrosterone from pregnenolone. The second reaction is the C17-C20 bond scission, which is strongly dependent on the presence of cytochrome b5 and displays a heretofore unexplained more pronounced acceleration when 17OH-progesteone (17OH-PROG) is a substrate. The origin of the stimulating effect of cytochrome b5 on C-C bond scission catalyzed by CYP17A1 is still debated as mostly due to either the acceleration of the electron transfer to the P450 oxy complex or allosteric effects of cytochrome b5 favoring active site conformations that promote lyase activity. Using resonance Raman spectroscopy, we compared the effect of Mn-substituted cytochrome b5 (Mn-Cytb5) on the oxy complex of CYP17A1 with both proteins co-incorporated in lipid nanodiscs. For CYP17A1 with 17OH-PROG, a characteristic shift of the Fe-O mode is observed in the presence of Mn-b5, indicating reorientation of a hydrogen bond between the 17OH group of the substrate from the terminal to the proximal oxygen atom of the Fe-O-O moiety, a configuration favorable for the lyase catalysis. For 17OH-pregnenolone, no such shift is observed, the favorable H-bonding orientation being present even without Mn-Cytb5. These new data provide a precise allosteric interpretation for the more pronounced acceleration seen for the 17OH-PROG substrate.


Wireless sensor nodes are traditionally powered by individual batteries, and a significant effort has been devoted to maximizing the lifetime of these devices. However, as the batteries can only store a finite amount of energy, the network is still doomed to die, and changing the batteries is not always possible. A promising solution is to enable each node to harvest energy directly in its environment, using individual energy harvesters. Moreover, novel ultra-low power wake-up receivers, which allow continuous listening of the channel with negligible power consumption, are emerging. These devices enable asynchronous communication, further reducing the power consumption related to communication, which is typically one the most energy-consuming tasks in wireless sensor networks. Energy harvesting and wake-up receivers can be combined to significantly increase the energy efficiency of sensor networks. In this paper, we propose an energy manager for energy harvesting wireless sensor nodes and an asynchronous medium access control protocol, which exploits ultra-low power wake-up receivers. The two components are designed to work together and especially to fit the stringent constraints of wireless sensor nodes. The proposed approach has been implemented on a real hardware platform and tested in the field. Experimental results demonstrate the benefits of the proposed approach in terms of energy efficiency, power consumption and throughput, which can be up to more than two-times higher compared to traditional schemes.


Existing methods for single-view 3D object reconstruction directly learn to transform image features into 3D representations. However, these methods are vulnerable to images containing noisy backgrounds and heavy occlusions because the extracted image features do not contain enough information to reconstruct high-quality 3D shapes. Humans routinely use incomplete or noisy visual cues from an image to retrieve similar 3D shapes from their memory and reconstruct the 3D shape of an object. Inspired by this, we propose a novel method, named Mem3D, that explicitly constructs shape priors to supplement the missing information in the image. Specifically, the shape priors are in the forms of "image-voxel" pairs in the memory network, which is stored by a well-designed writing strategy during training. We also propose a voxel triplet loss function that helps to retrieve the precise 3D shapes that are highly related to the input image from shape priors. The LSTM-based shape encoder is introduced to extract information from the retrieved 3D shapes, which are useful in recovering the 3D shape of an object that is heavily occluded or in complex environments. Experimental results demonstrate that Mem3D significantly improves reconstruction quality and performs favorably against state-of-the-art methods on the ShapeNet and Pix3D datasets.


Managing major risks creates problems for governments when probabilities are hard to estimate and
outcomes are uncertain. Reviewing the experience of the 2009 swine flu pandemic fear, Adam Oliver
argues that the UK government over-reacted in some key respects. Partly underlying this response was an
'aversion to ambiguity' pattern of behaviour that has long been studied by social scientists. Ambiguity
aversion led to an under appreciation by ministers of the opportunity costs of acting, resulting in the
government prolonging an insufficiently targeted use of antivirals, and the purchasing of more flu vaccine
than was necessary, at an additional cost of perhaps £500 million.


Summary The nearshore environment of Lake Turkana, Kenya was studied to determine how coarse clastic sediments are being distributed in the modern lake. Four lake margin study localities were examined in detail: (1) an area of basaltic colluvial headlands; (2) an area of sand, sandy silt and silty mud substrates; (3) an area of highly variable substrate conditions; and (4) an area of alternating basaltic headlands and gravel/shingle terraces. Based upon quantitative observations in these areas and qualitative observations elsewhere in the lake, we believe that two interacting factors have the greatest influence on the distribution of nearshore clastics. The first is a sediment distribution system which is primarily dependent on localized supply, via rockfall and intermittent streams. The second is the presence of physiographic barriers, principally faulted and eroded volcanic flows, which border on local coarse sediment delivery systems and isolate them from adjacent systems. Volcanic barriers may operate at various scales in regulating the delivery systems of clastic sediments in rift lakes, from localized facies disruption, as observed in Lake Turkana, to the isolation of entire sedimentary basins. At the largest levels the presence or absence of volcanic activity may have an important bearing on the controversy of hydrocarbon accumulation in rift lakes.


This paper considers the terms used for designating parents in reports dealing with child protection, and explores the pragmatic impact of the reports' extremely cautious choice of words. I test the hypothesis that, even if words are not argumentative in themselves, they can become argumentative in the context of a particular discourse. To this end, this paper develops a two-pronged analysis, combining lexical description (both from a paradigmatic and from a syntagmatic perspective) with quantitative as well as qualitative methodologies. The findings suggest that lexis is argumentative not only because of its paradigmatic dimension (a word's meaning), but also because of its syntagmatic dimension (through the lexical co-occurrence and syntactic patterns within which a word is embedded). The results may find a practical application when training social workers in how to write their reports.


Inulin (general formulas GFn and Fm, with G = anhydroglucose and F = anhydrofructose) naturally occurs as a homologous series of oligo- and polysaccharides with different chain lengths. For reasons of growing interest in the food and pet food industries, the short chain inulins have to be separated from their long chain analogues because their properties (digestibility, prebiotic activity and health promoting potential, caloric value, sweetening power, water binding capacity, etc.) differ substantially. To study these properties in relation to the number average degree of polymerization (DPn), ultrafiltration, specific crystallization from aqueous solution, and precipitation from solvent/water mixtures were used to enrich native chicory and dahlia inulin in the higher molecular weight fractions. Depending on the membrane module used, the DPn of chicory inulin (DPn = 8.1) and dahlia inulin (DPn = 29) could be increased by ultrafiltration to a maximum value of, respectively, 22 and 43. With crystallization from aqueous solutions (25 degrees C), similar results were obtained but at a much higher yield. Finally, long chain inulin could be precipitated from aqueous solutions in the presence of high concentrations of methanol, ethanol, and acetone. Acetone demonstrated to be the best solvent system to increase the DPn, followed by ethanol and methanol. However, for safety reasons and food purposes, ethanol was evaluated to be the best choice. With ethanol, the DPn could be raised to 25 for chicory inulin and up to 40 for dahlia inulin.


Clustering methods have been often used to find biologically relevant groups of genes or conditions based on their expression levels. Since many functionally related genes tend to be coexpressed, by identifying groups of genes with similar expression profiles, the functionalities of unknown genes can be inferred from those of known genes in the same group. In this paper we address a novel clustering approach, called seed-based clustering, where seed genes are first systematically chosen by computational analysis of their expression profiles, and then the clusters are generated by using the seed genes as initial values for k-means clustering. The seed-based clustering method has strong mathematical foundations and requires only a few matrix computations for seed extraction. As a result, it provides stability of clustering results by eliminating randomness in the selection of initial values for cluster generation. Our empirical results reported here indicate that the entire clustering process can be systematically pursued using seedbased clustering, and that its performance is favorable compared to current approaches.


Oxazolidinone antibiotics, an important new class of synthetic antibacterials, inhibit protein synthesis by interfering with ribosomal function. The exact site and mechanism of oxazolidinone action has not been elucidated. Although genetic data pointed to the ribosomal peptidyltransferase as the primary site of drug action, some biochemical studies conducted in vitro suggested interaction with different regions of the ribosome. These inconsistent observations obtained in vivo and in vitro have complicated the understanding of oxazolidinone action. To localize the site of oxazolidinone action in the living cell, we have cross-linked a photoactive drug analog to its target in intact, actively growing Staphylococcus aureus. The oxazolidinone cross-linked specifically to 23 S rRNA, tRNA, and two polypeptides. The site of cross-linking to 23 S rRNA was mapped to the universally conserved A-2602. Polypeptides cross-linked were the ribosomal protein L27, whose N terminus may reach the peptidyltransferase center, and LepA, a protein homologous to translation factors. Only ribosome-associated LepA, but not free protein, was cross-linked, indicating that LepA was cross-linked by the ribosome-bound antibiotic. The evidence suggests that a specific oxazolidinone binding site is formed in the translating ribosome in the immediate vicinity of the peptidyltransferase center.