The examination of 29 patients with chronic pharyngitis before the treatment, 10 and 30 days after treatment and 18 controls without ENT pathology revealed that the patients' blood and oral fluid contained the antigen inherent for pharyngeal tissue in 24.1 and 89.6% cases, respectively. This antigen was not found in the controls. The appearance of the tissue antigen in the blood and oral fluid may result from destruction of the inflammed tissue and may entail autoimmune reaction. 10 days after conservative anti-inflammatory treatment 12 patients exhibited a temporary clinical and serological effect--improvement of general condition, attenuation of destructive processes, blood and oral levels of the autoantigen and humoral autoimmune reaction to the tissue antigen. 20 days after the treatment clinical and laboratory manifestations renewed. 10 days after cryosurgery antigenemia and autoimmune reaction persisted but 30 days after the treatment the antigen was found neither in the blood nor in the oral fluid, autoimmune reaction declined. This indicates termination of the inflammation and correlates with clinical results.


The aim of the research is to describe and discess the policy cycle of Bus Rapid Transit, the polemic in the policy of bus rapid transit, and the involvement of the stakeholder and their role in bus rapid transpit policy in Bandar Lampung. This research uses post positivistic paradigm with the approach of qualitative descriptive research method. This research resulted as: firstly, the bus rapid transit is an derivative regulation of Act No. 22 2009 regarding Traffic and Road  Transport, aimed to reduce traffic jam in Bandar Lampung city. Secondly, the policy of bus rapid transit was arranged stage-by-stage with a full iniative from the Municipal goverement of Bandar Lampung, collaborated with the leading sector from Transportation Bureau of Bandar Lampung, involving PT Trans Bandar Lampung as the management in charge. Thirdly, there was a polemic of bus rapid transit policy regarding the monopoly of route of people transportation by the bus rapid transit, special treatment to bus rapid transit which don't pay bus station retribution which is unfair, and there was some illegal fees on the employee in PT Trans .Bandar Lampung. Fourthly, the of bus rapid transit involves many stakeholders, such as Ministry of Transportatio of The Republic of Indonesia, |Transportation Bureau of Bandar Lampung City, The Regional Representatives Council of Bandar Lampung, Road Transportation Organization of Bandar Lampung, PT. Trans Bandar Lampung, Perum DAMRI Bandar Lampung, Lampung Region of Indonesia Transportation Society, Communication Forum of Public Car Transportation Bandar Lampung, CV. Devis Jaya, and also Indonesian Police and Civil Servant Security Forces. Keyword: Public policy, Transportation, Bus Rapid Transit


The purpose of this study was to investigate whether cholesterol plus methionine feeding may be a convenient model to produce atherosclerosis in rats, and also to examine the contribution of oxidative stress to this development. For this reason, lipid peroxide levels and antioxidant enzyme activities in the liver and aorta as well as histopathological findings were determined in male Wistar-albino rats fed a diet supplemented with cholesterol plus cholic acid and methionine for six months. This diet was found to increase lipid peroxide levels in the liver of rats. Hepatic glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) and catalase (CAT) activities increased, but superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity remained unchanged. In conclusion, cholesterol and methionine feeding in rats did not cause oxidative stress and atherosclerotic changes in the aorta, although hepatic prooxidant-antioxidant balance was affected by this diet.


The SEREX approach, the serological analysis of antigens by recombinant expression cloning, is based on the concept of "autologous typing" which was developed by Dr. Old's group in the late 70s. Like "autologous typing", SEREX exploits the patients' B cell repertoire for the identification and characterization of human tumor antigens that are immunogenic in the autologous host. The first human tumor antigen was identified by SEREX in 1993, when HOM-RCC-3.1.3, a new human carbonic anhydrase was shown to be overexpressed and immunogenic in a subpopulation of renal cancers. Since then, >2000 antigens have been defined by SEREX, demonstrating that most, if not all human cancers express multiple genes coding for proteins that are immunogenic in the autologous host. The specificities of tumor-associated antigens span the wide spectrum from strictly tumor-specific over differentiation antigens, products of mutated and viral genes, genes overexpressed or amplified in tumors to antigens which show the wide-spread distribution of common autoantigens without any differential expression between normal and malignant tissues. It has become evident that being presented in the context of "danger" (i.e. by a neoplasm) is of greater importance for the antigenicity of a molecule than its more or less restricted expression in a malignant tissue. From the clinical point of view, however, only antigens with a specific or preponderant expression in tumors are attractive candidates for vaccine strategies. Of the latter, the group of cancer testis antigens (CTA) has attracted special attention. With prominent members being the originally T-cell defined MAGE, BAGE and GAGE antigens, CTA represent a rapidly growing group of gene families that are expressed in a wide spectrum of human tumors, but not in normal tissues except for testis. Using reverse T-cell immunology, preexisting T-cell clones could be shown to react with several of SEREX-defined CTA, e.g. NY-ESO-1 and HOM-MEL-40, and we expect all SEREX antigens to be shown to elicit T-cell responses if only looked for carefully enough. Moreover, we have just started to learn about the functional role of some antigens in the pathogenesis of malignant tumors, thus gaining important insights into their biologic relevance. The availability of monoclonal antibodies will reveal the expression of antigenic products at the single tumor cell level. While the repeated detection of certain antigens suggests that the number of human tumor antigens is limited, we should aim at extending the coverage of currently 50% of the most common tumors with one and 30% with two antigens, to close to 100% of all human tumors with three or more specific antigens during the next years to provide the molecular basis for multivalent vaccine approaches for the majority of patients. Finally, carefully designed clinical studies will have to evaluate the role and susceptibility to therapeutic interventions of humoral and cellular immune responses to the molecularly defined antigens in correlation with the biology, clinical evolution and responses to therapy in antigen-positive and antigen-negative tumors.

This abstract was published in Cancer Immunity , a [Cancer Research Institute][1] journal that ceased publication in 2013 and is now provided online in association with Cancer Immunology Research .

 [1]: http://cancerresearch.org/


An orthogonal least squares technique for basis hunting (OLS-BH) is proposed to construct sparse radial basis function (RBF) models for NARX-type nonlinear systems. Unlike most of the existing RBF or kernel modelling methods, which places the RBF or kernel centers at the training input data points and use a fixed common variance for all the regressors, the proposed OLS-BH technique tunes the RBF center and diagonal covariance matrix of individual regressor by minimizing the training mean square error. An efficient optimization method is adopted for this basis hunting to select regressors in an orthogonal forward selection procedure. Experimental results obtained using this OLS-BH technique demonstrate that it offers a state-of-the-art method for constructing parsimonious RBF models with excellent generalization performance.


Abstract ATP citrate lyase (ACLY) is an important enzyme that catalyzes the conversion of citrate to acetyl-CoA in normal cells, facilitating the de novo fatty acid synthesis. Lipids and fatty acids were found to be accumulated in different types of tumors, such as brain, breast, rectal and ovarian cancer, representing a great source of energy for cancer cell growth and metabolism. Since ACLY-mediated conversion of citrate to acetyl-CoA constitutes the basis for fatty acid synthesis, ACLY seems to be quite an unexplored and promising therapeutic target for anticancer drug design. A pharmacophore-based virtual screening (VS) protocol with the aid of hierarchical docking, consensus docking (CD), molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and ligand-protein binding free energy calculations led to the identification of compound VS1, which showed a moderate but promising inhibitory activity, demonstrating to be 2.5 times more potent than reference inhibitor 2-hydroxycitrate. These results validate the reliability of our VS workflow and pave the way for the design of novel and more potent ACLY inhibitors. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma


In 2003, the jury which comprised Greg Lynn, William Mitchell (MIT), Gerhard Schmitt (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Nobuyuki Yoshida, (A+U), Birger Sevaldson (Ocean-north) and other distinguished architects, awarded the Far Eastern International Digital Design Award (FEIDAD) for the third time. This book presents the 80 best projects which architects, students and designers coming from 25 different countries had entered in the competition. The new features of this year are several awarded animation projects which explore "future space in the digital era" - products of the collaboration among different groups of artists, graphic designers, computer scientists, video designers, and sci-fi novelists. The Editor Yu-Tung Liu is Professor for Archi-tecture with emphasis on digital design at the National Chiao-Tung University in Taiwan.


ABSTRACT Psychological reactance, routinely operationalized as a latent construct comprised of anger and negative cognitions, represents an aversive state following a threatened or eliminated freedom. The current study sought to extend the literature by comparing three distinct measures of negative cognitions: (a) trained coder (thought-listing), (b) participant coding (thought-listing), and (c) Likert scale. Participants (N = 540) were randomly assigned to view messages in a 2 (language: forceful and non-forceful) x 3 (topic: exercise, fruit and vegetable consumption, and sleep) between subjects factorial design. Exposure to forceful (vs. non-forceful) language resulted in higher negative cognitions across all three measures. Moreover, all three measures of negative cognitions were negatively associated with behavioral intention. Three competing structural models were examined, each using a different measure of negative cognitions. Results demonstrated the three models performed similarly based on comparisons of model fit and variance explained. Despite similar performance among the three measures of negative cognitions, there was a slight, but consistent advantage for the Likert scale measure model in terms of fit, variance explained, and factor loadings. Validation of these three measures of negative cognitions provides communication researchers with the flexibility to choose the measure most appropriate for their needs.


Bayesian optimization (BO) is a sample-efficient method for global optimization of expensive, noisy, black-box functions using probabilistic methods. The performance of a BO method depends on its selection strategy through the acquisition function. Expected improvement (EI) is one of the most widely used acquisition functions for BO that finds the expectation of the improvement function over the incumbent. The incumbent is usually selected as the best-observed value so far, termed as ymax (for the maximizing problem). Recent work has studied the convergence rate for EI under some mild assumptions or zero noise of observations. Especially, the work of Wang and de Freitas (2014) has derived the sublinear regret for EI under a stochastic noise. However, due to the difficulty in stochastic noise setting and to make the convergent proof feasible, they use an alternative choice for the incumbent as the maximum of the Gaussian process predictive mean, μmax. This modification makes the algorithm computationally inefficient because it requires an additional global optimization step to estimate μmax that is costly and may be inaccurate. To address this issue, we derive a sublinear convergence rate for EI using the commonly used ymax. Moreover, our analysis is the first to study a stopping criteria for EI to prevent unnecessary evaluations. Our analysis complements the results of Wang and de Freitas (2014) to theoretically cover two incumbent settings for EI. Finally, we demonstrate empirically that EI using ymax is both more computationally efficiency and more accurate than EI using μmax.


The value of socializing in collocated multiplayer video games should not be underestimated. Inter-player interactions such as joking, bantering and strategizing all contribute towards creating rewarding and memorable gameplay experiences for the players involved. In this paper, we introduce Prism Squad: GO!, a cooperative, three-player video game which is designed to encourage and cultivate these enjoyable social interactions between players. Prism Squad: GO! promotes inter-player interaction through "interpersonal touch" – the physical act of touch shared between two or more players. To succeed in Prism Squad: GO! requires players to work together by interacting with their teammates. In this paper, we motivate the novel application of interpersonal touch in video games, and present a detailed description of Prism Squad: GO!'s gameplay mechanics which are currently based on a non-interpersonal-touch form of collaboration between players. We also present the results of our thirty-player user-study on Prism Squad: GO! Our analysis of these results shows that Prism Squad: GO! was well-liked by study participants, particularly because of the way it encourages teamwork and collaboration amongst players.


We will here review experimental work on subjects' reports of being hypnotized, using an attribution theory framework. Subjective experiences accompanying a hypnotic induction procedure and test suggestions are ambiguous, and, therefore, subjects rely on contextual information in order to label these experiences. Thus, subjects are most likely to define themselves as hypnotized when the situation is convincingly defined as hypnosis and when they observe that their responses are consistent with their conception of hypnosis. Other variables which influence subjects' reports include expert opinion and the wording of the scales used to assess subjective experiences. Rather than accurately reflecting a unique state of the person, reports of being hypnotized appear to represent the outcome of a complex interaction involving contextual information, self-observation, and pre-conceptions concerning hypnosis.


We introduce a measure for energetic efficiency of biological cilia acting individually or collectively and numerically determine the optimal beating patterns according to this criterion. Maximizing the efficiency of a single cilium leads to curly, often symmetric, and somewhat counterintuitive patterns. However, when looking at a densely ciliated surface, the optimal patterns become remarkably similar to what is observed in microorganisms like Paramecium. The optimal beating pattern then consists of a fast effective stroke and a slow sweeping recovery stroke. Metachronal coordination is essential for efficient pumping and the highest efficiency is achieved with antiplectic waves. Efficiency also increases with an increasing density of cilia up to the point where crowding becomes a problem. We finally relate the pumping efficiency of cilia to the swimming efficiency of a spherical microorganism and show that the experimentally estimated efficiency of Paramecium is surprisingly close to the theoretically possible optimum.


OBJECTIVES
To describe and explain the patterns of adherence to supplemental oxygen in individuals with hypoxemic chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

DESIGN
Qualitative study of a case-series of patients with COPD who use supplemental oxygen.

SETTING
Denver, Colorado.

PARTICIPANTS
Community-dwelling, English speaking individuals with hypoxemic COPD receiving long-term supplemental oxygen therapy.

MEASUREMENTS
Forced expiratory lung volume, in liters at one second (FEV1), the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire, Brief Symptom Inventory, semistructured investigator-administered interviews.

RESULTS
Respondents from a demographically representative sample with moderate to severe COPD (average age, 69; average FEV1, 1.1) described 3 distinct patterns of adherence to supplemental oxygen therapy: as-needed use, part-time use, and full-time use. For many individuals, the pattern of adherence changed with time and reflected their struggle to optimally manage their health, symptoms, physical function, and social milieu. Adherence to oxygen tended to increase with time and was often associated with significant personal compromises.

CONCLUSION
Adhering to oxygen therapy is a complex and difficult task with many barriers, including the physical difficulty of using the oxygen, self-consciousness and a sense of social stigma, lack of perceived benefit, and fear of deleterious side effects from treatment. Improving adherence may involve understanding the process of adapting to oxygen use and addressing the many barriers to therapy.


ABSTRACT Within the clinical evaluation of adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), cognitive functions are often assessed to characterize individual cognitive problems and guide treatment planning. However, the composition of an adequate neuropsychological assessment battery remains difficult given the large number of cognitive functions that can be distinguished, the variety of available tools to assess these functions, as well as the cognitive heterogeneity that has been observed between individuals with ADHD. Twenty-seven clinicians and researchers experienced in working with adults with ADHD took part in the present study. This study employed the Delphi methodology in order to compose an assessment battery for the measurement of the most important neuropsychological functions by employing the most suitable measures to assess these functions. Consensus between experts was achieved on a ranking of 16 neuropsychological functions that are important for the neuropsychological assessment of adults with ADHD. Furthermore, measures were suggested to assess each of the neuropsychological functions. The assessment battery as composed in the present study may support research and clinical practice in the selection of appropriate functions and measures for the determination of the individual level of cognitive functioning and treatment planning of adults with ADHD.


How did our relationship with nature become broken, why does it matter and how can we fix it? From a past in which we were embedded in the natural world, revolutions in farming, science and industry have seen the human bond with nature eroded with the promise of prosperity offering happiness and meaning in life. This mindset may have delivered comfortable living for many, but there is growing recognition that the root cause of wildlife loss and the warming climate is people's disconnection from nature, which is also an important factor in our mental health. Yet solutions focus on technical fixes to treat the symptoms of that damaged relationship, such as reducing carbon emissions and increasing habitat. What we urgently need is a whole new way of thinking. Reconnection explores our hidden links with nature through the science of nature connectedness, setting out a way to revivify the relationship across society. Here is a route to a meaningful life that unites both human and nature's wellbeing for a truly sustainable future. What's more, everybody has a role to play. From business leaders to conservationists, teachers to medics, from drivers to walkers, we can all reduce the damage we do and find new ways to bring nature into our lives. This timely book considers the problems scientifically, then offers simple, practical, positive steps for how we can all work towards a better world.


Over 20 states now approve medical marijuana for a long list of "indications," and more states may well offer access in the near future. Surveys have demonstrated that pain is the most common indication for medical use of cannabis. As more individuals gain access to this botanical product through state ballot initiatives and legislative mandate, the pain specialist is likely to be confronted by patients either seeking such treatment where permitted, or otherwise inquiring about its potential benefits and harms, and alternative pharmaceuticals containing cannabinoids. Whether or not they are in the position to prescribe medical cannabis, pain physicians would seem to have an obligation to understand and inform their patients on key issues of the evidence base on cannabinoid therapeutics. One way to fulfill this obligation might be to borrow from concepts developed in the prescription of opioids: the use of a written agreement to describe and minimize risks. Regrettably, the widespread adoption of opioids was undertaken while harmful effects were minimized; obviously, no one wants to repeat this misstep. This article describes a method of educating patients in a manner analogous to other treatment agreements. Undoubtedly, the knowledge base concerning risks will be an iterative process as we learn more about the long-term use of medicinal cannabis. But we should start the process now so that patients may be instructed about our current conception of what the use of medicinal cannabis entails.


Resilience is studied as a systemic property in several disciplines such as engineering, psychology, systems biology, and ecological sciences. Yet, the system view on resilience is not pervasive in management science. This dissertation is on Enterprise Resilience, which is an emerging topic within the fields of organization and management science. Corporate enterprises are viewed as type 1 complex adaptive systems (CAS) operating within an external business environment. Thus, perturbations occurring in the environment affect enterprises, whose resilience then depends on their adaptive response to them. Therefore, the focus is on system perturbances and on investigating drivers of the enterprises' adaptive response. As a result, enterprise resilience is more granularly defined as an enterprise's ability to continually remain valuable to stakeholders by simultaneously managing short-term shocks and long-term stressors. This re-definition brings forth an actionable pathway to enterprise resilience- the pursuit of improved management of the enterprise's risk and growth management functions.Two challenging issues plaguing the risk and growth functions are the lack of a comprehensive understanding of risks (especially of unknowns) and their inter-connections, and a weak link between risk management and the enterprise's growth strategy intended to continually and increasingly generate value. This work addresses both issues via the development of an enterprise-agnostic comprehensive risk typology, and by building a conceptual link between risk and growth strategy through the business model construct and its use in the study of repeatable patterns of innovation. Therefore, this work develops one pathway toward enterprise resilience i.e., via improved risk management and systematic growth management. Furthermore, it advances knowledge by bridging the theoretical conceptualization of an enterprise as a CAS1 into actionable methods for practice in the form of risk management tools and systematic innovation frameworks that aid the enterprise's adaptive response.The interdisciplinary dissertation develops hypotheses and employs appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods to test them. Overall, a theory building process is undertaken using the constructionist school of thought and using methods based in inductive logic such as the scholarship of integration, thematic analysis, and case studies. Additionally, to achieve wide and comprehensive coverage, data-driven quantitative methods using advanced computing such as data mining, machine learning, and natural language processing are employed.


The mental representation of objects can imply motion and momentum. This can be explored by investigating a distortion in recognition memory for pictures that depict objects "frozen" in mid-air, implying motion. This distortion is called representational momentum (RM). Recent functional neuroimaging studies have suggested that the V5/MT system (the area of the brain thought to be responsible for perceptual processing of motion) is involved in the mediation of RM. The results of these studies are reviewed here. However the presence of functional activity revealed in brain imaging studies does not mean that this part of the brain is necessary for a particular cognitive task. A greater degree of functional necessity can be inferred by disrupting function in that part of the brain. One way in which this can be done is with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS, a method of temporarily suspending cortical activity). We extended the findings of the previous fMRI experiments by using TMS in conjunction with an RM paradigm. Repetitive magnetic stimulation to V5/MT during the so-called freeze-frame RM task resulted in an absence of the stereotypical distortion in recognition memory (compared to stimulation at the vertex) for approximately 60% of


Our national survey demonstrated broad patient preference for stool-based tests over colonoscopy, contrasting the heavy reliance on colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening in clinical practice and highlighting the importance of considering patient preference in colorectal screening recommendations Recommended colorectal cancer screening modalities vary with respect to safety, efficacy, and cost. Better understanding of the factors that influence patient preference is, therefore, critical for improving population adherence to colorectal cancer screening. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted a panel survey focused on three commonly utilized colorectal cancer screening options [fecal immunochemical test or guaiac-based fecal occult blood test (FIT/gFOBT), multi-target stool DNA (mt-sDNA) test, and colonoscopy] with a national sample of U.S. adults, ages 40–75 years and at average risk of colorectal cancer, in November 2019. Of 5,097 panelists invited to participate, 1,595 completed the survey (completion rate, 31.3%). Our results showed that when presented a choice between two colorectal cancer screening modalities, more respondents preferred mt-sDNA (65.4%) over colonoscopy, FIT/gFOBT (61%) over colonoscopy, and mt-sDNA (66.9%) over FIT/gFOBT. Certain demographic characteristics and awareness of and/or experience with various screening modalities influenced preferences. For example, uninsured people were more likely to prefer stool-based tests over colonoscopy [OR, 2.53; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.22–5.65 and OR, 2.73; 95% CI, 1.13–7.47]. People who had heard of stool-based screening were more likely to prefer mt-sDNA over FIT/gFOBT (OR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.26–3.40). People who previously had a stool-based test were more likely to prefer FIT/gFOBT over colonoscopy (OR, 2.75; 95% CI, 1.74–4.41), while people who previously had a colonoscopy were less likely to prefer mt-sDNA or FIT/gFOBT over colonoscopy (OR, 0.39; 95% CI, 0.24–0.63 and OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.26–0.62). Our survey demonstrated broad patient preference for stool-based tests over colonoscopy, contrasting the heavy reliance on colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening in clinical practice and highlighting the importance of considering patient preference in colorectal cancer screening recommendations. Prevention Relevance: Our national survey demonstrated broad patient preference for stool-based tests over colonoscopy, contrasting the heavy reliance on colonoscopy for colorectal cancer screening in clinical practice and highlighting the importance of considering patient preference in colorectal screening recommendations.


Background: Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses. Few studies have
investigated the association between dietary patterns and depression in developing countries.
Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the association between dietary patterns and
depressive symptoms in adult women living in Tehran in 2013.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried on 217 women aged 20-45 years attending health
centers in the north and west of Tehran in 2013. The subjects were selected by systematic cluster
sampling method. Data were collected through demographic, food frequency, and physical activity
questionnaires and the beck depression inventory. Major dietary patterns were identified by factor
analysis and their association with depressive symptoms was assessed by logistic regression
analysis.
Findings: The prevalence of depressive symptoms was 63.2% in the studied women. Two major
dietary patterns were identified (healthy and unhealthy). After adjusting for confounders, subjects
with higher scores in the unhealthy dietary pattern had higher odds (OR=2.21, P=0.01) of
depressive symptoms; but the healthy dietary pattern was not associated with depressive symptoms.
Conclusion: With regards to the results, it seems that the unhealthy dietary pattern is associated
with the risk of depression in women.
Keywords: Depression, Diet, Statistical Factor Analysis


A 32-year-old woman with a history of tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) was referred for cardiac evaluation. She was diagnosed with TOF as an infant and at 8 months of age underwent complete repair, including ventricular septal defect closure, resection of right ventricular (RV) outflow tract (RVOT) muscle bundles, and pulmonary valvotomy. She was evaluated by a cardiologist at 17 years of age and was subsequently lost to follow-up because she thought she was "cured." Overall, she feels well and denies cardiac symptoms. She runs 1 to 2 miles daily, although more slowly than her friends. She is considering having children.

On physical examination, her vital signs were normal. She had a well-healed midline sternotomy scar. Her lungs were clear to auscultation. The heart rhythm was regular with a normal S1 and a single S2. There was a low-pitched, delayed diastolic murmur in the pulmonary area. Her ECG demonstrated normal sinus rhythm, a right bundle-branch block, and a QRS duration of 170 milliseconds.

A transthoracic echocardiogram showed a dilated and hypokinetic RV, with severe pulmonary regurgitation (PR) and mild tricuspid regurgitation. There was no RVOT obstruction or residual ventricular septal defect. The left ventricle was normal in size and function, with mild mitral regurgitation. Because RV size and function were not well quantified with echocardiography, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging was performed. The RV end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were 179 and 109 mL/m2, respectively, and the RV ejection fraction was 39%. A Holter study did not reveal significant ectopy or arrhythmia. A cardiopulmonary exercise test demonstrated a moderately depressed peak o2. Given her severe PR associated with a dilated and hypokinetic RV and moderately reduced exercise tolerance, she was referred for surgical pulmonary valve replacement (PVR).

This woman is 1 of ≈1 million adults with congenital heart disease …


State and Federal laws will require many local jurisdictions to implement watershed protection programs. Gwinnett County, Georgia completed a countywide Watershed Assessment and adopted a Watershed Protection Plan (WPP) in 2000. In the last three years, the WPP has been incorporated in the Storm Water Management Program (SWMP). The implementation was aided by consolidating staff and the program in one division. Gwinnett currently has five action plans that implement the program in existing developed areas. The action plans consist of Basin Master Planning, Inventory, Floodplain Studies, Watershed Dam upgrades, and Constructed Wetlands Demonstration.


Foucault's notion 'the dispositive' has been introduced in organization studies as a highly promising concept. However, its analytical and empirical potentials remain to be fully explored. This article develops dispositional analytics which conceives of organizations as pervaded by multiple dispositives that interact, reinforce or contradict one another. In this reconstruction, particular emphasis is given to the visibility produced by dispositives, through which subjects and object emerge in a particular prescriptive light. Furthermore, analytical privilege is given to relations over substance. This means foregrounding the interrelations between dispositives as well as the dispositive's 'internal relationality', that is, the relations established by each dispositive out of which organizational problems arise and transform. The framework's potentials are explored in a study of care workers' responses to a management reform that disciplined and depersonalized care-giving. The difficulties that care workers faced in straddling legal demands, service standardization and care ethics are understood as a situation of heterogeneous dispositions. In this context, care workers and their managers tactically reconstructed their subjectivities, relating to the dispositives in diverse and unexpected ways.


: Human alpha(1)-microglobulin was isolated from the urine of patients with tubular proteinuria, and its molecular weight was established by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis at 33,000 daltons. The carbohydrate content was 21.7%. Anti-alpha(1)-microglobulin serum was prepared and observed to react monospecifically in gel diffusion to purified alpha(1)-microglobulin, as well as to normal human serum and urine. Sera from the domestic chicken, mouse, rat, rabbit, dog, calf, cow, goat, sheep, and horse, however, did not react to anti-alpha(1)-microglobulin serum in immunodiffusion. The lymphocyte culture supernate was found to contain alpha(1)-microglobulin. Both thymus-derived(T)- and bone marrow-derived(B)-lymphocyte culture media clearly displayed a specific precipitin line against anti-alpha(1)-microglobulin serum when tested with the Ouchterlony immunodiffusion method. The tissue distribution of alpha(1)-microglobulin was studied under immunofluorescence, and a positive staining was recognized on the lymphocyte surface. Identical staining patterns were noted on both T and B lymphocytes, though B lymphocytes took a more intense stain. It would thus seem quite possible that lymphocytes are the primary source of alpha(1)-microglobulin and that this is filtered through the glomerular basement membrane and partly reabsorbed by the renal tubules. This, then, would suggest the possibility that alpha(1)-microglobulin shares some immunological role in vivo with lymphocytes and(or) is one of the membrane proteins of lymphocytes.


Mechanical forces play an important role in the organization, growth, maturation, and function of living tissues. At the cellular level, many of the biological responses to external forces originate at two types of specialized microscale structures: focal adhesions that link cells to their surrounding extracellular matrix and adherens junctions that link adjacent cells. Transmission of forces from outside the cell through cell-matrix and cell-cell contacts appears to control the maturation or disassembly of these adhesions and initiates intracellular signaling cascades that ultimately alter many cellular behaviors. In response to externally applied forces, cells actively rearrange the organization and contractile activity of the cytoskeleton and redistribute their intracellular forces. Recent studies suggest that the localized concentration of these cytoskeletal tensions at adhesions is also a major mediator of mechanical signaling. This review summarizes the role of mechanical forces in the formation, stabilization, and dissociation of focal adhesions and adherens junctions and outlines how integration of signals from these adhesions over the entire cell body affects how a cell responds to its mechanical environment. This review also describes advanced optical, lithographic, and computational techniques for the study of mechanotransduction.


Diabetic nephropathy (DN) has become the major cause of end-stage renal disease increasing the mortality risk of diabetes. Research has demonstrated that the oxidative damage and apoptosis of renal tubular cells is present during DN. Astragaloside IV (AS-IV) has been widely used for the treatment of many diseases, however, the role and mechanism by which AS-IV may ameliorate high glucose-induced apoptosis and oxidative stress of the human proximal tubular cell line HK-2 remains largely unknown. The present study investigated the effect of AS-IV on high glucose-induced apoptosis and oxidative stress in HK-2 cells. Cell viability, apoptosis and protein expression were detected by Trypan blue staining, Cell Counting Kit-8 assay, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase 2′-deoxyuridine-5′-triphosphate nick-end labelling, flow cytometry and western blot analyses. In addition, enzymatic activities, including superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), catalase (CAT) and lipid peroxide (LPO), were measured with the corresponding detection kits. DCFH-DA assay and flow cytometry were performed to detect the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Western blot analysis and reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction were conducted to evaluate protein and mRNA expressions of the nuclear factor erythroid 2 like 2 (Nrf2)/antioxidant response element (ARE) signaling pathway. The results demonstrated that AS-IV significantly enhanced HK-2 cell viability induced by high glucose in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, AS-IV notably inhibited HK-2 cell apoptosis stimulated by high glucose, which may be associated with inhibition of BCL2 associated X protein, Cleaved-caspase-3 and Cleaved-caspase-9, expression and the promotion of Bcl-2. AS-IV significantly increased the activities of antioxidant enzymes SOD, GSH-Px and CAT, and decreased the high-glucose-induced ROS production in HK-2 cells, in a dose-dependent manner. Finally, it was determined that AS-IV regulated the Nrf2/ARE signaling pathway and inhibited the expression of liver-type fatty acid binding protein. In conclusion, these findings may provide evidence that AS-IV has a potential role for the treatment of DN.


Statement of the Problem According to previous studies, the components of green tea extracts can inhibit the growth of a wide range of gram-pos-itive and -negative bacterial species and might be useful in controlling oral infections. Purpose The aim of this study was to determine the effect of green tea chewing gum on the rate of plaque and gingival inflammation in subjects with gingivitis. Materials and Method In this double-blind randomize controlled clinical trial, 45 patients with generalized marginal gingivitis were selected and divided into two groups of green tea (23) and placebo (22) chewing gum. The patients chewed two gums for 15 minutes daily for three weeks. Sulcus bleeding index (SBI) and approximal plaque index (API) were studied at the baseline, 7 and 21 days later. Saliva sampling was conducted before and after 21 days for evaluation of IL-1β. The results were analyzed and compared by using repeated measures ANOVA, paired t test, and independent two-sample t test (α=0.05). Result The results showed that chewing gum significantly affected the SBI and API (p< 0.001). Paired t test showed that the two groups were significantly different regarding the mean changes of SBI and API at different periods of 1-7, 1-21, and 7-21 (p< 0.001). Concerning IL-1β, the repeated measures ANOVA revealed that the effect of chewing gum was significant (p<0.001). Moreover, paired t-test represented no significant difference between the mean changes of IL-1β within 1-21 day (p= 0.086). Conclusion The green tea chewing gum improved the SBI and API and effectively reduced the level of IL-1β.


Filled with up-to-the-minute facts, figures, and commentary, the book features over 100 of the leading journalists, media critics, and experts in the country on: who owns and controls the media; how the rapidly expanding empires of Disney, Time Warner, Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp, and other media conglomerates affect what you see, hear and read; how political considerations and the radical right influence what gets on the air and who gets left out of the picture; and how advertising pervades virtually every second of your life. We the Media also highlights the alternatives - organizations, leaders, and the media makers who are successfully fighting the conglomerates and demanding that media and democracy go together. Our media system has been transformed and our lives will be changed in ways we don't even know yet. But we can do something about it. We the Media is a survival guide to navigating the brave new media landscape.


Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), an emerging promising technology; it is used widely in diversified realtime applications. WSN offers outstanding occasions to scrutinize different types of environments. Examples for different types of environments are Traffic inspection and traffic supervision, buildings, environment monitoring, smart homes and many more scenarios. Nowadays, the network security i.e., wireless sensor network security has became a most important disquiet for WSN designers as no any manual controlling of nodes and extensive security applications. In this project, an attempt has made to illustrate some of the active attacks that usually occur in networks in the data transmission process. Zero Knowledge Protocol, the key generation algorithm is utilized to address clone attack by integrating unique finger-print to each individual node. The finger-print is created using adjacent nearest neighbour node information and the node itself. Man in middle attack and reply attack can also be avoided with this protocol i.e., ZKP.


Bluetooth-equipped wireless sensor nodes can be quickly integrated in small home networks. These networks can be utilized e.g. for surveillance, home monitoring and automation. Accurate time is an important factor for time-stamping of sensor data, encryption/authentication and it can also to used to implement time synchronous schemes for low power radio communication. We argue that IP-based time synchronization, such as various flavors of the NTP protocol, can be used with Bluetooth networks. This in combination with an activation schedule allows an efficient trade-off between energy consump- tion and communication delay, and provides easy integration with available infrastructure. The proposed approach in this paper is well suited for smaller wireless home networks, typically single- hop networks with access points that are always available. Our approach is verified by experiments performed on a COTS-based platform using Bluetooth.


Snake venoms can show biochemical and toxicological variability even in specimens from the same specie. The geographical localization of the snakes is one of the factors that can influence those variations. By these reasons the venom from specimens of Bothrops (Rhinocerophis) alternatus ("crucera", "yararágrande"), one of the snakes of highest medical importance in Argentina, from three different regions of Córdoba was studied. Lehtal potency, hemorrhagic, coagulant on plasma and thrombin like activities as well as the electrophoretic patterns of venom from snakes of Calamuchita, Traslasierras and the East of the province were determined. The venom from the snakes of the three regions showed the characteristic activities of the venom of the majority of Bothrops, causing hemorrhage, hemostatic disturbances acting on plasma or directly on fibrinogen with a "thrombin like activity". The different samples were very similar regarding their biochemical characteristics and toxic potencies at difference of previous observations on venoms from the same specie in different regions of other provinces fro Argentina. Bivalent antivenom, the one used by the Provincial Ministry of Health to treat the bothropic accidents, neutralized in all the cases the toxic activities of the venom in very similar range of neutralizing potency.


The immunoprecipitation reaction for the determination of microamounts of alpha1-antitrypsin was conducted in the capillaries filled with a microvolume of a 1% agarose gel (the gel length was 7--8 mm, and the diameter--0.6 mm). Microamounts of the antigen and antiserum were applied to the surface of the opposite ends of the gel. Precision control of these manipulations was carried out by means of an ocular micrometer of a binocular lens. The amount of the formed immunoprecipitate in gel was calculated by the summated optic density after staining with amido black recorded by the method of double-wave microspectrophotometry. Sensitivity of the method was 0.3--1.0 ng of alpha1-antitrypsin. The linear plot between the amount of alpha1-antitrypsin and the amount of the precipitate formed was found within the range of 1--25 ng of protein. The error was about 10%.


The survival of plants in epiphytic environments depends on vegetative adaptations capable to defraud different stresses. Based on the structural diversity of the Orchidaceae, the current study has the objective of relating the anatomical structure of Dichaea cogniauxiana and Epidendrum secundum with the distinct environments where they live. It was expected that, despite structural similarities as strategies for resource acquisition, some peculiar variations related to the distinct light microenvironments (inside or in the edge of the nebular forest, near to "campo rupestre" area) might be found. Leaves and roots of both species were collected in a nebular forest located at a "campo rupestre" area at Serra da Piedade, Brazil), in January and February 2005. D. cogniauxiana is adhered to trunks, in sites with high atmospheric humidity and shaded, while E. secundum is located at the edge of the nebular forest, in more luminous sites. The leaves of E. secundum had thicker cuticle and higher number of stomata per area than those of D. cogniauxiana, characteristics coherent with their distinct pattern of exhibition to sun light. The suprastomatic chambers formed by the thicker cuticle may function as a barrier of resistance to water evaporation. The succulence of the leaves of E. secundum propitiates organic acids storage at night, and the storage of starch may be involved in PEP-carboxylase metabolism, both propitiating CAM mechanism. Roots with larger number of cell layers of the velamen, and specialized thick walled cortical cells (both in E. secundum) help water absorption and indicate better adaptation to an environment with intense solar radiation and a probable higher water deficit. The remarkable cell wall thickening of E. secundum exodermis can confer more efficient protection against the excess of transpiration at the border of the nebular forest. On the other hand, besides D. cogniauxiana be epiphyte, it is in a low position - in a shaded environment and with high relative humidity. Its thin thickened velamen permits the entrance of the low available light, and photosynthesis, producing oxygen and helping to avoid hypoxia condition. As features registered for D. cogniauxiana and E. secundum roots, we can depict the velamen, distinct exodermis and endodermis, and specialized thick walled cortical cells as characteristic of epiphytic plants.


Designing reward functions for reinforcement learning is difficult: besides specifying which behavior is rewarded for a task, the reward also has to discourage undesired outcomes. Misspecified reward functions can lead to unintended negative side effects, and overall unsafe behavior. To overcome this problem, recent work proposed to augment the specified reward function with an impact regularizer that discourages behavior that has a big impact on the environment. Although initial results with impact regularizers seem promising in mitigating some types of side effects, important challenges remain. In this paper, we examine the main current challenges of impact regularizers and relate them to fundamental design decisions. We discuss in detail which challenges recent approaches address and which remain unsolved. Finally, we explore promising directions to overcome the unsolved challenges in preventing negative side effects with impact regularizers.


Traditional semantic segmentation methods can recognize at test time only the classes that are present in the training set. This is a significant limitation, especially for semantic segmentation algorithms mounted on intelligent autonomous systems, deployed in realistic settings. Regardless of how many classes the system has seen at training time, it is inevitable that unexpected, unknown objects will appear at test time. The failure in identifying such anomalies may lead to incorrect, even dangerous behaviors of the autonomous agent equipped with such segmentation model when deployed in the real world. Current state of the art of anomaly segmentation uses generative models, exploiting their incapability to reconstruct patterns unseen during training. However, training these models is expensive, and their generated artifacts may create false anomalies. In this paper we take a different route and we propose to address anomaly segmentation through prototype learning. Our intuition is that anomalous pixels are those that are dissimilar to all class prototypes known by the model. We extract class prototypes from the training data in a lightweight manner using a cosine similarity-based classifier. Experiments on StreetHazards show that our approach achieves the new state of the art, with a significant margin over previous works, despite the reduced computational overhead. Code is available at https://github.com/DarioFontanel/PAnS.


ABSTRACT Background Hypertension is a serious public health challenge in both economically developing and developed countries. Patients on outpatient medication for hypertension at Vanga Hospital in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) often present with uncontrolled hypertension and some with hypertension emergencies. On enquiry, the problem appeared to revolve around compliance. Method The study was a qualitative, descriptive study using the focus group interview technique for data collection. Subjects were purposely selected. Interviews were conducted from 23 March to 19 July 2006. Three focus groups were formed: The first was heterogeneous in terms of gender (five males and three females), the second homogeneous (six males) and the last also homogeneous (six females). The group members varied with respect to characteristics such as place of residence, occupation and educational standard. The data collected were analysed using the thematic analysis method within grounded theory. Results Five themes emerged as possible explanations for non-compliance: Side effects discouraged patients from taking medication; patients took medication only when they experienced perceived symptoms of hypertension; poor knowledge of the disease and the medication used; lack of support by family members; and difficulty in obtaining antihypertensive medication. Conclusion Side effects of the medication, lack of information and support, difficulty in obtaining the medication and the fact that the disease is mainly silent played a major role in the poor adherence to hypertension medication. Sustained health promotion and education should be undertaken at all levels of patient contact to ensure good compliance.


The work presented here aims to provide a composition model of semantic web services. This model is based on a semantic representation of domain concepts handled by web services, namely, operations and the static concepts used to describe static properties of Web services. Different levels of abstraction are given to the concept of operation to allow gradual access to concret services. Thus, two different levels of the composition plan are generated (abstract and concret). This will reuse plans already constructed to meet similar needs even with modified preferences.


This study investigates the use of discretion by oil and gas companies in reporting financial performance and oil and gas reserve estimates during times of high political scrutiny resulting from increases in energy prices. Hypotheses tested in prior literature state that companies facing the risk of increasing taxes or new regulations reduce reported earnings to reduce this risk. This study uses a measure of high profitability (rank order of return on assets relative to industry peers) to identify oil and gas companies more likely to manage earnings during the period from 2002 to 2008. Two measures of discretionary accruals (total and current discretionary accruals), and a measure of discretionary depreciation, depletion, and amortization (DDA) were used as indicators of discretion exercised in reporting earnings. Data on oil and gas reserve disclosures was also hand-collected from Forms 10-K to investigate whether managers use reserve estimate revisions to reduce reported earnings through increasing the annual depletion expense. Results suggest that both oil and gas refining and producing firms use negative discretionary accruals to reduce reported earnings. Results also indicate that profitability is an important determinant of the use of negative discretionary accruals by these companies regardless of the time period examined. There is also evidence that oil and gas producing firms opportunistically revise their oil and gas reserve estimates to increase depreciation, depletion, and amortization expense during periods of high oil prices.


Abstract The vertical and horizontal mass and energy transports for the layer between the sea surface and 700 mb are calculated for the first (undisturbed) period of the Atlantic Trade-Wind Experiment 1969. The trade-wind inversion represents a layer with a strong downward mass flux due to the mean motion. The height of the inversion and its thermodynamic properties seem to depend on the balance between the mean atmospheric sinking and the turbulent mixing. Because of the vertical transport from the sea surface into the atmosphere, this process assures that water vapor is totally accumulated in the layer below the inversion and transported downstream into the equatorial trough region. Thus the effectiveness of the atmospheric heat absorption in the trades as a force for driving the large-scale circulation is closely related to the vertical static structure as well as to the kinematic field of the low-level trade-wind region.


ABSTRACT Ji, H.W.; Kim, H.J., and Park, K.Y., 2020. Lateral behavior analysis due to differential deflection between jetty structures In: Malvárez, G. and Navas, F. (eds.), Global Coastal Issues of 2020. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 95, pp. 1–5. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Particular attention shall be paid to the design of steel/concrete structures supporting piping or equipment which have a sensitiveness to deflection. In case of excessive displacement generated in the substructure, the supported topside facilities can be subjected to additional stress caused by the imposed-deformation. Therefore differential deflection between structures should be estimated and then to be considered in the topside facilities. However, it is incredibly difficult for designer to predict the lateral behavior of the structures, using existing simple ways, under environmental and seismic load. Therefore a rigorous analysis should be performed to investigate the lateral behavior of the structures.


Within‐population variation in ageing remains poorly understood. In males, condition‐dependent investment in secondary sexual traits may incur costs that limit ability to invest in somatic maintenance. Moreover, males often express morphological and behavioral secondary sexual traits simultaneously, but the relative effects on ageing of investment in these traits remain unclear. We investigated the condition dependence of male life history in the neriid fly Telostylinus angusticollis. Using a fully factorial design, we manipulated male early‐life condition by varying nutrient content of the larval diet and, subsequently, manipulated opportunity for adult males to interact with rival males. We found that high‐condition males developed more quickly and reached their reproductive peak earlier in life, but also experienced faster reproductive ageing and died sooner than low‐condition males. By contrast, interactions with rival males reduced male lifespan but did not affect male reproductive ageing. High‐condition in early life is therefore associated with rapid ageing in T. angusticollis males, even in the absence of damaging male–male interactions. Our results show that abundant resources during the juvenile phase are used to expedite growth and development and enhance early‐life reproductive performance at the expense of late‐life performance and survival, demonstrating a clear link between male condition and ageing.


Continuous authentication is an important prevention-based approach to protect high security mobile ad-hoc networks (MANETs). On the other hand, intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are also important in MANETs to effectively identify malicious activities. Considering these two approaches jointly is effective in optimal security design taking into account system security requirements and resource constraints in MANETs. To obtain the optimal scheme of combining continuous authentication and IDSs in a distributed manner, we formulate the problem as a partially observable distributed stochastic system. We present structural results for this problem in order to decrease computational complexity, making our solution usable in large networks. The policies derived from structural results are easy to implement in practical MANETs. Simulation results are presented to show the performance of this method for the proposed scheme.


BACKGROUND
Antioxidant and antimicrobial potentials of Serbian red wines produced from different international Vitis vinifera grape varieties and their correlation with contents of phenolic compounds were studied by spectrophotometric and chromatographic methods. The antioxidant activity of red wines was estimated through their ability to scavenge 2,2'-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical (DPPH(•) ). The red wines, gallic acid, (+)-catechin and quercetin were screened in vitro for antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains using microdilution and disc diffusion techniques.

RESULTS
Excellent correlations between the contents of quercetin-3-glucoside (R(2) = 0.9463) and quercetin (R(2) = 0.9337) and DPPH(•) -scavenging ability of the red wines were found. Serbian red wines exhibited significant activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria inocua, Micrococcus flavus, Sarcina lutea, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enteritidis and Shigella sonnei strains, which was in correlation with their phenolic composition and antioxidant activity. The compounds gallic acid, quercetin and (+)-catechin showed high activity against B. subtilis, S. aureus, S. lutea and M. flavus Gram-positive and S. enteritidis and P. aeruginosa Gram-negative strains.

CONCLUSION
The results show that quercetin-3-glucoside and quercetin concentrations can be used as markers for the determination of antioxidant and antimicrobial potentials of red wines.


Vertical ground reaction force (vGRF) has been commonly used in human gait analysis making possible the study of mechanical overloads in the locomotor system. This study aimed at applying the principal component (PC) analysis and two Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), multi-layer feed forward (FF) and self organized maps (SOM), for classifying and clustering gait patterns from normal subjects (CG) and patients with lower limb fractures (FG). The vGRF from a group of 51 subjects, including 38 in CG and 13 in FG were used for PC analysis and classification. It was also tested the classification of vGRF from five subjects in a treatment group (TG) that were submitted to a physiotherapeutic treatment. Better results were obtained using four PC as inputs of the ANN, with 96% accuracy, 100% specificity and 85% sensitivity using SOM, against 92% accuracy, 100% specificity and 69% sensitivity for FF classification. After treatment, three of five subjects were classified as presenting normal vGRF.


Inflammation is an important contributing mechanism in ischemic stroke. Fas ligand plays a critical role in post-stroke inflammatory responses. However, little progress has been made in clinical therapy, especial the treatment of inflammation after ischemic stroke. From 2010-2012, acute brain infarction patients within 72 hours of onset in the territory of anterior circulation artery have been enrolled in this study. All the patients were randomized to the HUK treated group (HP) and non HUK treated group (control group, CP). Both two groups received the same foundation treatment. In HP group, the patients received an intravenous transfusion of HUK once a day, for 10 days. The NIHSS index were used to evaluate neurological deficit at both day 0, days 10 and day 90. All patients were imaged with 3.0T MRI at both day 0 and day 10. The ischemic lesion area was measured by both DWI, PWI and FLAIR. The brain edema extent were compared. The blood samples were taken by all the patients for sFAL and inflammation factors detection at day 0, day 10 and day 90. We found: 1) 206 patients were enrolled in this study, 117 patients were in HP group and 89 patients were in CP group. The NIHSS index and brain edema extent show no significant difference between the HP group and CP group at day 2) sFAL could be detected in peripheral blood, and the level of sFAL had an significant increase at day 10 compared to day 0. Both inflammation cells and inflammation factors were increased at day 10 as compared to day 0. 3) As patients which received the HUK treatment, we observed the obvious improvement of NIHSS score, brain edema as well as inflammatory mediators. sFAL induced inflammation might contribute to the brain injury after ischemic stroke, and HUK protects against ischemic brain injury by inhibiting inflammatory response.


Introduction
Schizophrenia is a severe psychotic disorder that is diagnosed by the presence of hallucinations or delusions along with disorganized speech, disorganized thought, or negative symptoms that are present for at least six months. Roughly 1 in 10,000 people a year are diagnosed with this psychiatric disorder. It is a chronic disorder requiring a lifetime of treatment of which antipsychotics have been the mainstay of this treatment. First-generation antipsychotics have dystonia, parkinsonism, and development of Tardive Dyskinesia as major side effects, and they are also nonspecific in terms of their actions. Second Generation antipsychotics target more specific dopamine and sometimes serotonin receptors with less dystonic side effects; however, there are additional concerns for the development of metabolic syndrome. This review aims to look at new medication on the market, lumateperone, for the treatment of Schizophrenia.

Recent studies
In one four week study with 60mg and 120mg of Lumateperone compared, 4mg of Risperdal, and a placebo found that Lumateperone significantly decreased the total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) from baseline. Safety analysis of this study also found that Lumateperone was not associated with EPS or significant weight gain. Another study found that 42mg of Lumateperone significantly decreased PANSS score over placebo and 28mg of Lumateperone with associated TEAEs of somnolence, sedation, fatigue, and constipation. In an open-label safety, patients were switched from their current antipsychotic to Lumateperone and then switched back to their previous treatment after six weeks. PATIENTS were found to have statistically significant improvements in metabolic parameters, weight, and endocrine parameters, which were all lost when they were switched back to their previous treatment and their schizophrenic symptoms at pre-trial levels or improved them while on Lumateperone. In a continuation of the previous study over 12 months, 4 TEAEs occurred in 5% or more of the participants: diarrhea, dry mouth, weight decrease, and headache. Prolactin, metabolic labs, BMI, and weight all decreased as compared to the standard of care. Pooled studies revealed EPS related TEAEs were less frequent in patients receiving 42 mg lumateperone over Risperdal. Another pooled study looked at the safety profile; they found patients treated with lumateperone, two TEAEs occurred at twice the placebo rate and at a rate of 5% or more: dry mouth (5% vs. 2.2%) and sedation (24.1% vs. 10.0%) though TEAE discontinuation rates were lower than with Risperdal.

Summary
Taken together, data from these trials suggest that lumateperone can effectively treat positive symptoms, negative symptoms, and cognitive dysfunction in schizophrenia. Lumateperone entrance to the market introduces an innovative way to treat schizophrenia featuring both a novel mechanism of action and a markedly reduced side effect profile. Further research is needed to determine the efficacy of Lumateperone in treating bipolar disorder in addition to schizophrenia.


Enovid [4] was the first hormonal birth control [5] pill. G.D. Searle and Company began marketing Enovid [4] as a contraceptive in 1960. The technology was created by the joint efforts of many individuals and organizations, including Margaret Sanger, Katharine McCormick [6], Gregory Pincus, John Rock, Syntex [7], S.A. Laboratories, and G.D. Searle and Company Laboratories. Although there were many pieces and contributors to the final product, it was first conceived of and created by Gregory Pincus and Margaret Sanger through the Worcester Foundation in Worcester, Massachusetts, and was distributed by Searle, located in Chicago. This technology is important to the history of embryology [8] because it changed the way people viewed birth control [5] and revolutionized women's birth control [5] methods. There is an extensive literature on the cultural and societal effects of the pill; for example, the effect it had on women's health care, and how it changed perceptions of female sexuality.


The peculiarity of premedication and general anesthesia used in electroconvulsive therapy was presented. We also described drugs and their therapeutic effectiveness. Our particular attention was paid to the possibilities of use of alternative agents in different clinical situations.


The Web Service Choreography Description Language (WSCDL) has been put forward as language for capturing sets of web service interactions and their control and data dependencies, seen from a global perspective. However the suitability of WS-CDL for this purpose has not been assessed in a systematic manner. This paper presents such an assessment by adopting a two-pronged approach. First, the paper studies the relation between WS-CDL and π-calculus, a well-known formalism for specifying communicating systems with dynamic topologies. Second, WS-CDL is assessed in terms of its support for two collections of patterns: the Workflow Patterns which capture recurrent control-flow dependencies in business processes, and the Service Interaction Patterns which capture recurrent compositions of interactions between services.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of short non-coding RNAs of approximately 22 nucleotides in length, which function by binding to the 3' UTR sequences of their target mRNAs. It has been reported that dysregulated miRNAs play pivotal roles in numerous diseases, including cancers, such as gastric, breast, colorectal, ovarian, and other cancers. Recent research efforts have been devoted to translating these basic discoveries into clinical applications that could improve the therapeutic outcome in patients with cancer. Early studies have shown that miR-340 may act either as an oncogene or a tumor suppressor by targeting genes related to proliferation, apoptosis, and metastasis, as well as those associated with diagnosis, treatment, chemoresistance, and prognosis. miR-340 has been shown to have a role in other diseases, such as autoimmune diseases, acute stroke, and alcoholic steatohepatitis. Nevertheless, the roles of miR-340 in human malignancies are still unclear, and the associated mechanisms are complex, involving a variety of signaling pathways, such as Wnt/β-catenin and the JAK-STAT pathways. Herein, we review the crucial roles of miR-340 in human cancers through the analysis of the latest research studies, with the aim of clarifying miR-340 function in malignant disease diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis, and to propose further investigations.


Insulin has been postulated to play a role in the pathophysiology of essential hypertension via an antinatriuretic action. To further explain the sodium insulin interaction in the kidney, we studied effects of different salt intakes on insulin receptor binding and mRNA levels in tissues from rats maintained on 0.07%, 0.3%, or 7.5% NaCl for 14 days. Scatchard analysis of competition data from in situ autoradiography studies resulted in curvilinear profiles, indicating the presence of either two classes of receptors or a single class of receptors with a negative cooperative hormone-receptor interaction. When data were analyzed using the two-site model, binding capacity of the high-affinity receptor site was significantly less in high-salt-fed rats. No significant differences between dietary groups were observed in apparent dissociation constants of the two receptor sites or in maximal binding capacity of the low-affinity, high-capacity site. Analysis of insulin binding to glomeruli, cortex, outer medulla, and inner medulla indicated that the high-salt diet was associated with decreased receptor density in all regions studied. Insulin receptor mRNA, as quantified by Northern and slot blot analysis, was inversely related to salt intake in absence of a change in plasma glucose, insulin, and corticosterone levels. Both 7.2- and 9.4-kb transcripts were similarly affected by dietary sodium content. Plasma renin concentration and renal renin mRNA levels were decreased but blood pressure was not affected by high-salt diet.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Due to the boiler main-steam temperature system exists more serious characteristics,such as much capacitive,nonlinear,time-varying and lag, so adopt cascade control strategy. This paper design a control algorithm which is based on BP neural network, it can accelerate the regulating time, and combined with the conventional PID controller, constitute the BP neural network - PID cascade control strategy. This control strategy not only contain the BP neural network control in real time system strong anti-interference ability characteristic, but also fully utilize the PID controller response speed characteristic. The simulation results show that based on the BP neural network - PID series control boiler main-steam temperature system can achieve satisfactory control effect.


— New observations of the S-type asteroids Gaspra and Ida, especially, by the Galileo spacecraft demonstrate that a "space weathering" process operates, which modifies the reflectance spectra of fresh material to be redder, straighter, and have shallower absorption bands. The weathering process appears similar to but less potent than that observed on the Moon. It operates in the sense that it would tend to convert spectra of ordinary chondrites (OC) to having the spectral traits of S-type asteroids. These results appear to resolve the major obstacles of the long standing "S-type conundrum" about the provenance of ordinary chondrite meteorites. A wide body of recent research, which is reviewed here, builds on previous meteoritical evidence to support a new, developing consensus that the larger S-type asteroids are a diverse assortment of silicaceous assemblages, which includes the ordinary chrondite parent bodies. Recent fairly realistic laboratory simulations of space weathering processes have changed OC spectra to resemble S-type spectra. J. F. Bell's highly regarded earlier paradigm that OC parent bodies would be found only among sub-10 km main-belt asteroids has been tested by an extensive observational survey by R. Binzel and his proteges; the result is that no small, main-belt analog for the OCs has been found, not even the somewhat OC-like object Boznemcova.

This article reviews the history of the S-type conundrum, which set the stage for Galileo's historic flybys. I review the findings about Gaspra and Ida, including results about their geology, their geophysical structure and probable origins, and about Ida's small moonlet, Dactyl. Density constraints on Ida set by Dactyl's orbit rule out (for Ida, at least) the classic view of S-types as metallic, stripped cores of differentiated precursor asteroids. New analysis of the Galileo spectral images of Ida is presented that provides strong evidence that space weathering occurs on Ida, and that Ida, and the Koronis family asteroids in general, are plausibly OC-like in composition. After reviewing 1990s developments on the S-type conundrum, I advocate a new perspective that the ordinary chondrite parent bodies are among the S-type asteroids, a diverse grouping that also contains other silicaceous and silicate/metal assemblages, presumably including various stony-irons and primitive achondrites represented in meteorite collections; Gaspra may be such a metal-rich assemblage.


The rhyohte plateau in Yellowstone Park is made up of flows and welded tuff with subsidiary rhyolite domes, basalt, and rhyolite-basalt mix-lava. The two most important units are the Yellowstone tuff, exposed over 600 square miles within the Park, and a group of younger flows, the Plateau flows, which cover 1000 square miles in the Madison, Central, and Pitchstone plateaus. The Plateau flows occupy a tectonic basin rimmed by Yellowstone tuff and older rocks in central and southwestern Yellowstone Park. Individual flows range up to 1000 feet in thickness and cover areas up to at least 100 square miles. Surficial features, including vent domes, are locally well preserved. Exposed portions of these flows are, for the most part, banded obsidian and perlite and breccias formed by incorporation of fragments of pumiceous crust in the moving flows. The Yellowstone tuff is welded to obsidian at its base and grades upward through indurated, lithoidal rhyolite to loose ash at the top of an uneroded section. Probably all the Yellowstone tuff was erupted in a single rapid series of eruptions from dispersed vents. Textural and structural evidence suggests that the Yellowstone tuff was emplaced as pyroclastic flows. A thermodynamic analysis of this type of eruption is given. Energy changes within the conduit and during emplacement are evaluated. The minimum temperature at which rhyolite glass will weld, determined experimentally, is approximately 600°C. The data of Tuttle and Bowen (1958) are used to fix the range of initial magma temperature. Welding in the Yellowstone tuff can be explained if the tuff was emplaced as pyroclastic flows and if the magma contained less than about 4 per cent H 2 O at the start of the eruption.


A computer program has been developed by numerically solving the nonlinear heat conduction and heat transfer equations, which are discretized using the finite difference method, to calculate the temperature and pressure distributions in high-temperature superconducting (HTS) power cables cooled using liquid nitrogen (LN2). The LN2 coolant properties are estimated using Cryodata's GASPAK software package. This evaluation of the temperature and pressure distributions is important to understand how we can make practical use of HTS power cables and to assess the effects of short-circuit accidents. To incorporate HTS power cables into real grids, it is necessary to evaluate HTS power cables that are a few kilometers long. In this study, 3-km-long HTS cables were evaluated using our proposed computer program. This program was used to model the cooling system, ac loss, dielectric loss, and intermediate-joint losses. The results revealed that the temperature of the LN2 coolant at the cable outlet could reach the saturation temperature when a fault current of 31.5 kA flowed for 2 s (worst case for the 66-kV-class transmission lines in Japan). From the results, it was also clear that the effects of the ac loss, dielectric loss, and intermediate-joint losses on the increase in the temperature of the LN2 coolant could not be ignored.


Introduction: Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular (CV) comorbidities. Little is known about this relationship in the Medicare population. Objective: To determine the risk of CV comorbidities of Medicare patients (pts) with IPF. Methods: Using Medicare data we examined characteristics of senior pts in the US who were newly diagnosed with IPF in 2010 (ICD-9: 516.3) and who lacked indication of a non-IPF ILD after the last observed IPF claim compared with IPF disease-free pts. IPF pts were matched and compared to IPF-free controls (1:1 per age, gender, and region) from 5% sample data set. Medicare plan enrollment was constant the year before diagnosis (baseline). Baseline demographics and comorbidities were compared between groups. Absolute risk difference (RD) is reported. Results: We identified 13,615 IPF pts and their matched controls. Mean age (SD) in the groups was 78.9 years (7.1), 50.3% were male. Compared to controls, IPF pts had higher mean [SD] number of chronic conditions (6.3 [2.2] vs 4.7 [2.4]; P P P Conclusions: Newly diagnosed IPF pts are typically sicker than non-IPF pts and have significantly higher rates of CV conditions. The higher rate of CV conditions needs to be taken into consideration for the management and treatment of pts with IPF.


The large-scale project, the Winter Model, will produce a model for assessing the most important effects of changes in winter maintenance strategies and operations, and their monetary value. The winter road condition model is the central part of the Winter Model. The road condition model will characterize the state of a winter in terms of a road condition description hour by hour. The road condition model provides input data for the other models where different effects such as accident risk, travel time, fuel consumption and environmental effects are assessed. In the first stage we intend to develop a model that describes how road conditions are affected by weather, maintenance measures taken and traffic on two lane rural roads with a width of 7-9 m and speed limit of 90 km/h. To a great extent, the basis for developing the winter road condition model will be data already collected from nine observation sites with the purpose of developing the accessibility model. For several periods, data from these observation sites contain information hour by hour regarding weather, traffic flow, initial road condition, maintenance measures taken and specified types of road condition development mainly connected with snow ploughing and deicing measures. Additional information, mostly development of ruts down to the pavement in hard-packed snow or thick ice caused by vehicles with studded tyres, and the mechanism for a wet or moist road to dry out, will be collected by field studies as from the winter season 2002/2003. For the covering abstract see ITRD E143097.


In addition to sharing several clinical, pathologic, and molecular characteristics, many neurodegenerative disorders show extensive familial histories suggesting a substantial contribution of genetic factors to disease causation and progression. In this review, the authors provide overviews of the status of current genetics research in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, frontotemporal dementia, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Across these four disorders alone, nearly 60 different loci can now be considered as established to be involved in pathogenesis for both Mendelian and non-Mendelian disease forms. In addition to reviewing the most compelling of these loci based on current data from genome-wide association studies and next-generation sequencing projects, genes that have been linked to more than one disease entity are emphasized. Such overlapping findings could point to one or several common genetic and mechanistic denominators for neuronal death in neurodegeneration. Unveiling the identity of these and other genetic factors will not only improve our understanding of the underlying pathophysiology, but may also lead to new avenues for preventing and treating these devastating diseases.


This study investigates the impact of climate change adaptation on farm households' downside risk exposure in the Nile Basin of Ethiopia. The analysis relies on a moment-based specification of the stochastic production function. We use an empirical strategy that accounts for the heterogeneity in the decision on whether to adapt or not, and for unobservable characteristics of farmers and their farm. We find that (i) past adaptation to climate change adaptation reduces current downside risk exposure, and so the risk of crop failure; (ii) climate change adaptation would have been more beneficial to the non-adapters if they adapted, in terms of reduction in downside risk exposure; and (iii) climate change adaptation is a successful risk management strategy that makes the adapters' more resilient to climatic conditions.


Using the Internet and other new information and communication technologies has become an inherent part of human life since a lot of our work and private activities take place in online environment – thanks to various communication tools such as smartphones, tablets, etc. These technologies have become also important ways and means used to acquire and disseminate information. The impact of technological progress on journalism and its products cannot be understated. The ongoing trends lead us to the conclusion that newspapers are currently looking for new ways of distribution and new forms of existence, especially in electronic environment, in order to attract the readers – users of new media and various technologies related to them. The basic assumption of the article is that their success fully depends on effective using of these technologies by people with physical disabilities or other disadvantages. Since these media also carry information contents, the form of the presentation of information always corresponds with the overall character of given medium. Mainly for this reason, the number of new applications for smartphones, tablets or smart televisions is increasing in these days. These applications react to the demands of effectiveness, intelligibility and interactivity of the offered services while the key factor that determines the selection of information is the reader, user of such devices. The aim of the article is to discuss the relationship between new communication technologies and journalism, focusing on new ways and forms of distribution of newspapers or – more specifically – selected news to the readers.


Hot stellar systems (HSS) are a collection of stars bound together by gravitational attraction. These systems hold clues to many mysteries of outer space so understanding their origin, evolution and physical properties is important but remains a huge challenge. We used multivariate-t-mixtures model-based clustering to analyze 13456 hot stellar systems from Misgeld & Hilker (2011) that included 12763 candidate globular clusters and found eight homogeneous groups using the Bayesian Information Criterion (BIC). A nonparametric bootstrap procedure was used to estimate the confidence of each of our clustering assignments. The eight obtained groups can be characterized in terms of the correlation, mass, effective radius and surface density. Using conventional correlation-mass-effective radius-surface density notation, the largest group, Group 1, can be described as having positive-low-low-moderate characteristics. The other groups, numbered in decreasing sizes are similarly characterised, with Group 2 having positive-low-low-high characteristics, Group 3 displaying positivelow-low-moderate characteristics, Group 4 having positive-low-low-high characteristic, Group 5 displaying positive-low-moderate-moderate characteristic and Group 6 showing positive-moderate-low-high characteristic. The smallest group (Group 8) shows negative-low-moderate-moderate characteristic. Group 7 has no candidate clusters and so cannot be similarly labeled but the mass, effective radius correlation for these noncandidates indicates that they zare larger than typical globular clusters. Assertions drawn for each group are ambiguous for a few HSS having low confidence in classification. Our analysis identifies distinct kinds of HSS with varying confidence and provides novel insight into their physical and evolutionary properties.


Abstract. Human activities may generate geometrical landscape (i.e. composed of rectilinear and repetitive landscape units) structures that can significantly influence the spatial distribution of birds. While bird distribution in various landscape types has been extensively studied, the role played by landscape configuration and composition in different facets of bird diversity remains unclear. Here, these two main components of landscape characteristics (i.e. configuration and composition) are disentangled and their relative influence on three different facets of bird assemblages: taxonomic and functional characteristics, and the presence of rare species, is tested. We chose four large coastal salinas of Western France as a relevant model of geometrical and human-dominated landscapes where each landscape unit can be easily identified and mapped. The landscape characteristics of these sites were mapped and quantified. Then, terrestrial breeding birds were sampled in 172 point-counts using a standardized protocol. 69 diurnal terrestrial bird species were detected and considered in analyses (waterbirds and owls excluded). Landscape composition was found to have a higher influence on bird communities than landscape configuration, which fits with the "landscape composition hypothesis". More specifically, the most "extreme" landscapes — those with low terrestrial surface areas, low landscape richness and diversity, low cohesion, and very patchy landscapes with complex geometrical shapes — host the lowest bird taxonomic abundance, richness and diversity and functional richness, but are characterized by the presence of rare species (mainly wetland specialist species, e.g. Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus and species with restricted ranges e.g. Bluethroat Luscinia svecica namnetum). Our results suggest that conservation plans in such geometrical and human-dominated habitats should not only focus on one aspect of landscape characteristics or one aspect of biological diversity but also consider the adverse effects of landscape characteristics on these different facets.


The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of offering an extrinsic reward to Individuals who were Involved In creative writing. Two essential components of creative writing that were Investigated were the qualtty of creative writing, as assessed by two raters who were working In the domain of writing, and motivational orientation which was assessed mainly by a locus of control test. A class of creative writing students served as sUbJects. Complete data was obtained for 17 of them and partial data for three more. The motivational orientation of the class which served as subjects of the study was profl1ed according to the locus of control test (lIE Scale) and a Likert Scale that was created for this study. The results Indicated that the class profile was no different than a random group of subjects. The study explored the relationship between the creative quality of writing students produced and Intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Inter-rater reltabl1lty on the samples of student writing could not be establtshed between the ratings of the two evaluators, so this question could not be answered. Exploratory methods were used to explore the data for discernible patterns, but none were found. The study attempted to Investigate the differential effects of offering a reward for writing on the subjects according to motivational orientation. The use of exploratory methods failed to provide any evidence for any differential effects. The conclusion of the study was that creatlvtty was a difficult area to research, particularly using a quantttative approach. It was suggested that vii the study of creativ1ty and motivation be focused on established authors whose creative quality had been already established by their publ1catlon record. Then, by qualitative techniques such as Interviews, the motivational styles of some of these established writers could be explored In the search for patterns that could provide Information on the relationship between motivation and creativity.


An ingenious data warehouse habitually contains information which must be painstaking enormously sensitive and proprietary. Protection of this information, as important as it is, is too often thorny by the presence of assorted computing environments, managerial issues, difficulties in controlling data distribution, and slipshod attitudes towards information security. We present a method of in progression fortification based on an encryption scheme which preserves the data type of the plaintext resource. We suppose that this method is particularly companionable for multifaceted data warehouse environments


A report is given on 10 children with subacute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) whose clinical illness began with visual or mental impairment. All patients showed typical clinical and neurologic features and various ophthalmological manifestations. The latter correspond to lesions generally dealt with in a number of reports and demonstrate for the individual case that ophthalmological manifestation can precede clinical manifestation. The ophthalmologist can give an important contribution to the diagnosis. In some cases the focal retinal lesions can be similar to retinal lesions in the case of toxoplasmosis. A positive antibody titer for toxoplasmosis, which can occur parallel with the typical measles or SSPE virus antibody titer, occasionally causes the misdiagnosis of toxoplasmosis acquisita. In the 10 cases reported on, the diagnosis SSPE was confirmed on the basis of the typical clinical features and elevated measles virus antibody titer. In no case the permission for autopsy was gained. The genesis of SSPE is discussed with reference to a genetic defect, to an autoimmune reaction, or as a result of a measles virus-like infection. In the diagnosis, primarily unclear 'focal retinal lesions' should be at any rate investigated with respect to measles or SSPE virus antibody titer.


Interlayer interactions play a crucial role in modifying the optical and electronic properties of layered materials in a complex way, which is of key importance for the performance of the optoelectronic devices based on these novel materials. In this contribution, we performed an investigation into the underlying influence of interlayer interactions on the relaxation dynamics of excitons in ultrathin MoS2 using the femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy technique. The experimental results manifest that interlayer interactions in bilayer MoS2 can largely facilitate the exciton–phonon scattering process and inhibit the radiative recombination process, which consequently accelerates the relaxation rate of A excitons and results in the decrease of the relaxation lifetime of A excitons in bilayer MoS2.


In this article, we attempt to trace the semantic changes two key concepts of the Modern period - fundamental law and constitution underwent at the 18th century and investigates how these European concepts were adapted and used in the Russian political language. The concept of the constitution and fundamental laws in eighteenth-century political discourse had differing connotations: while the constitution was used mainly to describe the form of government, the concept of fundamental laws referred to historically developing legal traditions which have been adopted as norms of political law. The most radical vision of constitution in the 18th century went further than identify it with the fundamental law, demanding that the latter should enshrine the principles of civil rights and liberties of the Nation, and the legal guarantees thereof. However, this radical view, arising at the end of the century, was far from universal, and the discussion around various understandings of this concept was still to continue for many years


A simple means of measuring Drosophila olfactory response is described, and the behavior which it measures is characterized. The assay was used to screen for X-linked mutants defective in olfactory function. Six ota mutants were isolated and characterized (ota = olfactory trap abnormal). Four of the mutants were found to be abnormal in another chemosensory behavior as well. Two of the mutant phenotypes extend to include another sensory system: they are defective in visual system physiology. All were normal, however, in a test of giant fiber system physiology. Two of the mutations are dominant, and the recessive mutations define two complementation groups. Mutations representing each complementation group, as well as one of the dominant mutations, were mapped. For the mutants with defective visual system physiology, the visual defects were shown to cosegregate with olfactory phenotypes.


The classical gold standard has long been associated with long-run price stability. But short-run price variability led critics of the gold standard to propose reforms that look much like modern versions of price path targeting. This paper uses a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to examine price dynamics under alternative policy regimes. In the model, a pure inflation target provides more short-run price stability than does the gold standard and, although it introduces a unit root into the price level, it leads to as much long-term price stability as does the gold standard for horizons shorter than 20 years. Relative to these regimes, Fisher's compensated dollar (or pure price path targeting) reduces inflation uncertainty by an order of magnitude at all horizons. A Taylor rule with its relatively large weight on output leads to large uncertainty about inflation at long horizons. This long-run inflation uncertainty can be largely eliminated by introducing an additional response to the deviation of the price level from a desired path.


Electric vehicle batteries (EVBs) are crucial components of electric vehicles (EVs). They also account for a major share of the initial prices of EVs, inhibiting the diffusion of green mobility solutions. After having been removed from the vehicles due to an increased internal resistance or an insufficient ca- pacity to store energy, EVBs may be recycled, refabricated, or reused to comply with legal regulations and to generate additional business returns. Making an in- formed decision on the further application of a used EVB presupposes in-depth product data, operating instructions, and status data on the battery. In this paper, a domain-specific modeling language is designed to specify the data structures required to describe EVBs. In the spirit of design research, the modeling lan- guage's validity and utility are demonstrated by modeling a typical EVB. In fu- ture research, the modeling language's meta-model can be extended and made configurable to inform various afterlife scenarios.


The technological advancements of deep learning have enabled sophisticated face manipulation schemes, raising severe trust issues and security concerns in modern society. Generally speaking, detecting manipulated faces and locating the potentially altered regions are challenging tasks. Herein, we propose a conceptually simple but effective method to efficiently detect forged faces in an image while simultaneously locating the manipulated regions. The proposed scheme relies on a segmentation map that delivers meaningful high-level semantic information clues about the image. Furthermore, a noise map is estimated, playing a complementary role in capturing low-level clues and subsequently empowering decision-making. Finally, the features from these two modules are combined to distinguish fake faces. Extensive experiments show that the proposed model achieves state-of-the-art detection accuracy and remarkable localization performance.


Encapsulated Klebsiella pneumoniae strains K21a, K10, and K50, all of which contain dimannose sequences in their capsular polysaccharides that are recognized by the mannose receptor of macrophages, stimulated interleukin secretion and cytokine mRNA expression by human monocyte‐derived macrophages. By contrast, the corresponding unencapsulated phase variants and the K2 strain, which lack the dimannose sequence, did not. Coating of unencapsulated phase variants of Klebsiella strains with surfactant protein (SP)‐D resulted in marked stimulation of cytokine mRNA accumulation. The induction of cytokine mRNA via the mannose receptor occurred only in monocyte‐derived macrophages, whereas that caused by SP‐D‐coated Klebsiella strains occurred in both macrophages and peripheral‐blood monocytes.The results suggested that innate immunity against pulmonary pathogens might be mediated by SP‐D, which acts as an opsonin to enhance the interaction of macrophages with unencapsulated phase variants originating from the upper respiratory tract, and by macrophage mannose receptors, which recognize encapsulated variants expressing capsular dimannose residues.