The rapidly improving performance of modern hardware renders convolutional codes obsolete, and allows for the practical implementation of more sophisticated correction codes such as low density parity check (LDPC) and turbo codes (TC). Both are decoded by iterative algorithms, which require a disproportional computational effort for low channel noise. They are also unable to correct higher noise levels, still below the Shannon theoretical limit. In this paper, we discuss an enhanced version of a convolutional-like decoding paradigm which adopts very large spaces of possible system states, of the order of $2^{64}$. Under such conditions, the traditional convolution operation is rendered useless and needs to be replaced by a carefully designed state transition procedure. The size of the system state space completely changes the correction philosophy, as state collisions are virtually impossible and the decoding procedure becomes a correction tree. The proposed decoding algorithm is practically cost-free for low channel noise. As the channel noise approaches the Shannon limit, it is still possible to perform correction, although its cost increases to infinity. In many applications, the implemented decoder can essentially outperform both LDPC and TC. This paper describes the proposed correction paradigm and theoretically analyzes the asymptotic correction performance. The considered encoder and decoder were verified experimentally for the binary symmetric channel. The correction process remains practically cost-free for channel error rates below 0.05 and 0.13 for the 1/2 and 1/4 rate codes, respectively. For the considered resource limit, the output bit error rates reach the order of $10^{-3}$ for channel error rates 0.08 and 0.18. The proposed correction paradigm can be easily extended to other communication channels; the appropriate generalizations are also discussed in this study.


Ex aequo et bono is a means of resolving disputes in light of fairness and good conscience. The principle has been known to jurists since the classical period of Roman Law, but commentators and practitioners have avoided using it for fear of its potential unpredictability. Being controlled by the perception that ex aequo et bono brings irreconcilable uncertainties and undue exercise of authority by arbitrators, arbitration lawyers have not extensively investigated whether their negative understanding of ex aequo et bono can still be maintained in the current arbitration environment under the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law regime. The main objective of this article is to suggest that arbitration lawyers' negative understanding of ex aequo et bono is not supported by adequate legal research. This article analyses the literature on ex aequo et bono and identifies the gaps in the research.
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AIM
This paper is a report of a systematic approach used to explore subjectivity as a research student and demonstrates how the process enhanced the quality of the research experience.

BACKGROUND
High non-completion rates of research students are of global concern and means of enhancing the quality of the doctoral experience are needed. Among the literature on doctoral education, very little is authored by students. This paper is influenced by the work of Peshkin from the discipline of education. Peshkin articulated the need for researchers to systematically identify their subjectivity by searching for their subjective I's. I share my experience of adopting this approach as a research student by using reflexive journal entries made during 2005-2007 as data.

FINDINGS
I use the analogy of the 'Yellow Brick Road' from The Wizard of Oz to represent my experience of being a doctoral student and draw comparisons between my subjectivity and the characters in the story. I demonstrate how a systematic approach to exploring my subjectivity revealed aspects of my being as a research student that had potential for influence throughout the entirety of my experience. I argue that cognizance of my subjective I's improved the quality of my research endeavour.

CONCLUSION
The approach is offered for consideration by other research students as a means of exploring subjectivity. I argue that the resultant self-awareness can enhance the quality of the doctoral experience. The flexibility of the approach means it has transferability across a number of disciplines and cultural contexts.


A guide to wildlife biology research information for Colorado State University faculty, students, staff, and researchers. There is another guide for biology.


Nonlinear free and forced oscillation of microscale simply supported beams is investigated in this paper. Introducing a material length scale parameter, the nonlinear model is conducted within the context of non-classical continuum mechanics. By using a combination of the modified couple stress theory and Hamilton's principle the nonlinear equation of motion is derived. The nonlinear frequencies of a beam with initial lateral displacement are discussed. Equations have been solved using an exact method for free vibration and multiple times scales (MTS) method for forced vibration and some analytical relations have been obtained for natural frequency of oscillations. The results have been compared with previous work and good agreement has been obtained. Also forced vibrations of system in primary resonance have been studied and the effects of different parameters on the frequency-response have been investigated. It is shown that the size effect is significant when the ratio of characteristic thickness to internal material length scale parameter is approximately equal to one, but is diminishing with the increase of the ratio. Our results also indicate that the nonlinearity has a great effect on the vibration behavior of microscale beams.


This review considers first some general aspects of the relevance of laboratory rock deformation experiments to geological conditions and then, specifically, recent work on olivine and quartz. Improvements in temperature capability and reliability of apparatus now permit the exploration of regimes of flow characteristic of higher temperatures and lower stresses and strain rates than those used hitherto. These experimental advances, together with the availability now of transmission electron microscopy, open the way to a greater understanding of the major deformation mechanisms, an understanding, or at least recognition, that must form a vital link in validly extrapolating experimentally determined flow laws to natural conditions. Recent work on olivine crystals has considerably improved our understanding of its deformation mechanisms and likely geological behaviour, but in the case of quartz there are many aspects of behaviour, especially involving the role of water, that remain obscure.


Risk-neutral individuals take more risky decisions when they have limited liability. Risk-neutral managers may not when acting as agents under contract and taking costly actions to acquire information before taking decisions. Limited liability makes it optimal to increase the reward for outcomes relatively more likely to arise from desirable than from undesirable actions. The resulting decisions may be less, rather than more, risky. Making a decision after acquiring information provides an additional reason to those in the classic principal-agent literature for using contracts with pay increasing in the return. Further results on the form of contracts are also derived.


Phase velocities of Rayleigh waves in the period range of 18 to 60 sec were determined between the seismograph stations at Golden, Colorado, and Albuquerque, New Mexico. The average phase velocity for the 50-sec waves is significantly below the average continental value of 4.0 ± 0.1 km/sec. However, the observed and theoretical values of phase velocity are in good agreement with a three-layer crustal model 59 km thick, similar to the one proposed by Smith (1962).


Case-based reasoning is a methodology with a long tradition in artificial intelligence that brings together reasoning and machine learning techniques to solve problems based on past experiences or cases. Given a problem to be solved, reasoning involves the use of methods to retrieve similar past cases in order to reuse their solution for the problem at hand. Once the problem has been solved, learning methods can be applied to improve the knowledge based on past experiences. In spite of being a broad methodology applied in industry and services, case-based reasoning has often been forgotten in both artificial intelligence and machine learning books. The aim of this book is to present a concise introduction to case-based reasoning providing the essential building blocks for the designing of case-based reasoning systems, as well as to bring together the main research lines in this field to encourage students to solve current CBR challenges.


A mobile robotic telepresence (MRP) system is characterized by a video conferencing system which is mounted on a mobile robotic base. The system allows remote pilot users to move the robot around while communicating with local users situated in the robot's environment. One of the most promising application areas for MRP systems is to deploy them in homes of elderly who are in frequent contact with health care professionals and/or alarm operators. Using MRP systems, elderly can get in immediate contact with these services even without leaving their homes. However, this poses some challenges for the health care professionals and alarm operators. The alarm operators traditionally communicate with their clients using the telephone while the health care professionals see their patients face-to-face with little interference of computer applications. The encounters between health care professionals and patients typically take place at clinics. Neither the health care professionals nor the alarm operators visit the elderly in person. Accordingly, they have no knowledge about the layout of the homes or where the elderly may reside. Thus, the social communication between them and the elderly via MRP systems is more complex than their traditional interaction with elderly.This compilation thesis makes a contribution towards understanding how interaction is affected by MRP system embodiment. The work focuses on measuring quality of interaction in MRP systems deployed in domestic settings in elder care. The thesis proposes a set of useful tools for measuring interaction quality. These tools are presence, spatial formations and sociometry. They were selected based on their ability to capture important characteristics for communication via MRP systems, e.g. social communication and mobility, and have been evaluated in experiments with real end-users, that is with alarm operators, health care professionals and elderly. The tools used to conduct the experimental evaluations of MRP systems include video-based evaluations, driving sessions and retrospective interviews. These methods were carefully chosen and take into consideration the organizational background of the participants involved and the challenge of conducting experiments with the aforementioned groups of users.


Objective: Family-based physical activity interventions have the potential to reduce obesity, but more information is needed regarding physical activity in the family context. This study used an actor–partner interdependence model to estimate the dyadic association between perceived weight status and barriers to physical activity in dyads of adults and their adolescent children. It was hypothesized that greater perceived weight would be associated with greater barriers perceived by both one's self and one's partner. Method: Data from 1,568 dyads in the Family Life, Activity, Sun, Health, and Eating study were used to examine the dyadic association between perceived weight status (i.e., greater perceived weight category) and barriers to physical activity. Models were stratified by actual weight (an overweight or obese dyad member vs. two normal weight dyad members) and adjusted for parent education, parent and adolescent age, gender, and race. Results: Among dyads with at least 1 overweight/obese member, greater perceived weight status was positively associated with one's own perceived barriers (significant actor effects, &bgr;s = 1.17 and 1.03, ps < 0.01) and one's partner's perceived barriers (significant partner effects, &bgr;s = 0.38 and 0.62, ps < 0.01). No statistically significant relationships were found for dyads with only normal weight members. Conclusions: Among dyads with at least 1 overweight or obese member, significant partner effects for parents and adolescents demonstrate that the weight perception of 1 dyad member correlates with the barriers of the other member. These dyadic associations highlight the potential importance of family-based interventions for physical activity.


L-656,224 (7-chloro-2-[(4-methoxyphenyl)methyl]-3-methyl-5-propyl-4-benzofuranol) was a potent inhibitor of leukotriene biosynthesis in intact rat and human leukocytes and CXBG mastocytoma cells (IC50 values, 18-240 nM) and of crude human leukocyte and highly purified porcine leukocyte 5-lipoxygenase (IC50 value, 4 X 10(-7) M). The selectivity of L-656,224 for 5-lipoxygenase was shown through the relative lack of activity of the compound on 12-lipoxygenase, 15-lipoxygenase, cyclooxygenase, catalase, and myeloperoxidase. The compound showed (i) oral activity against hyperalgesia induced in the rat paw by injection of yeast or platelet-activating factor, (ii) dyspnea in sensitized inbred rats induced by an aerosol of antigen, and (iii) bronchoconstriction induced by an aerosol of Ascaris in squirrel monkeys, suggesting a role for 5-lipoxygenase inhibitors in the treatment of asthma and peripheral pain.


Background and Aims To date, there are no validated measures in IBD to assess the level of preparedness for transition into adult health care. The purpose of this study was to develop and assess the reliability and validity of a "Transition Readiness" (TR) measure for adolescents with IBD, as well as to evaluate the level of TR synchronicity between adolescents themselves, their parents, and their pediatric gastroenterologists. Methods A self-assessment tool was created to evaluate TR. Items were reviewed for face validation by IBD experts, and an exploratory factor analysis was performed which yielded 3 distinct domains. The study cohort included adolescents aged 12-21 yrs, their parents, and their physicians in pediatric IBD centers. Correlations between patient/parent/physician TR between each of the domains and the overall TR score to age were assessed. Results 63 subjects (average age 16.6 yrs/79% Crohn's disease/44% male) participated in this study. There was a significant correlation between the scoring of adolescents and parents on all three domains. The correlation between adolescents and physicians, as well as between parents and physicians, was only consistent for self-efficacy. Self-efficacy significantly correlated with age, while the correlations between perceived knowledge and perception of medical care with age were not significant. Conclusion Validation of a novel TR measurement for adolescents with IBD demonstrated a good correlation between patients and parents. Out of the three proposed constructs, perceived self-efficacy is the most salient measure.


The most dominant vegetables in the global food economy are tomato, cucurbits, (pumpkin, squash, cucumber and gherkin), allium (onion, shallot, garlic) and chili. These vegetables are consumed in nearly all countries although with much variation in shape, size, color and taste, while the marketing of global vegetables accounts for significant revenue streams, traditional vegetables often have superior nutritional properties. Biodiversity is considered essential for food security and nutrition and can contribute to the achievement through improved dietary choices and positive health impacts Through conventional breeding approach, it is possible to develop new vegetable varieties or integrate the favorable genes for neutraceuticals, bioactive compounds and edible color into cultivated varieties. Advances in molecular biology and recombinant technology have paved the way for enhancing the pace of special trait variety development using marker assisted breeding and designing new vegetable crop plants following transgenic approach.


The present paper treats the backflow vortex structure observed at the turbomachinery inlet at reduced flow rate. It is caused by the roll-up of the shear layer between swirling backflow and axial main flow. In order to verify this, a simple model test was carried out in which the effect of impeller was represented by an axisymmetric swirling backflow. In the present paper, the flow field of a simplified model test is simulated by using LES calculations to investigate detailed flow structure. The computed results are compared with experimental results.


The diverse words of all kinds of language are added into the World-Wide Web in an extremely complex and arbitrary manner. Behind the apparent arbitrariness topology, as we show here, there is an order hidden in the word network. By making use of Google search engine, we find that the distributions of the basic English words and Chinese characters on the web follow a universal power law. The power law exponent of rank-ordered frequency distribution is α~0.99 for basic English words and α~0.98 for Chinese characters. The Zipf law and page size distribution on the Web are used to explain the phenomena.


A Dissertation Submitted to the School of Public Administration and Management in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Health Monitoring and Evaluation (HME) of Mzumbe University


This study provides a quantitative assessment of selected fiscal adjustment policies on income distribution in Pakistan. Using a latest social accounting matrix for the year 1989-90 and the static fixed-price model, various simulation exercises have been performed. The results show that reduction in subsidies has more adverse impact on the incomes of the richest rural and urban households, implying that the richest people in the country are the greater beneficiaries of subsidies provided by the government. The evidence also suggests that a contraction in government current spending appears to have a negative impact on the incomes of all urban and rural household groups but the largest reduction appears in the income of the richest rural, followed by the poorest urban. The simulation results indicate that a decline in public expenditure on education and health affects the poorest urban and poorest rural more than the relatively better-off urban and rural income groups. Further, the estimates of Gini-coefficients show that reduction in consumption subsidies improves income distribution in both rural and urban areas of Pakistan. Conversely, reduction in subsidies on production worsens income distribution both in urban and rural areas, while reducing overall govemment current expenditure leads to deterioration of income distribution in urban areas but improves it in rural areas marginally. Similarly, reduction in govemment expenditure on education and health adversely affects income distribution in both urban and rural areas of Pakistan.


Post-oxidation annealing (POA) in Ar at high temperature has been performed during fabrication of 4H-SiC metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs). The gate oxides were formed by thermal oxidation followed by N2O annealing, then annealed in Ar for 30 min or 5 h at 1300 °C. The results of Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) measurements indicated that the C atoms accumulated at the SiO2/SiC interface by thermal oxidation diffused during the 5h-Ar annealing. The characteristics of n-channel MOSFETs were improved and the peak value of field effect mobility was increased to 33 cm2/Vs from 19 cm2/Vs by extending the Ar annealing time.


Agents do have certain properties, such as autonomy, learning or mobility, which are useful to design and implement complex distributed applications. A multi-agent system is a network of cooperating agents each covering a well-defined and restricted part of the solution. Although agents are in principle autonomous they have to be monitored and controlled which is the task of the management of the multi-agent system. With the example of a Virtual Project Office a concrete multi-agent system and its management issues are illustrated. We introduce a management architecture which starts from existing and widely accepted concepts from the area of integrated network and systems management. One innovative aspect of the management architecture is given by the decision to model the management components of the architecture as non-mobile agents. This results in a simple and homogeneous integration of management functionality into the multi-agent system.


Breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women aged 35 to 54 which gives the need of prevention of breast cancer at an early stage. Mammography is the process of detecting and screening breast cancer at an early stage and prevents death. The mammogram image has to be processed to extract the features in the image. Feature extraction is done based on the Gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM). The mammogram image is the input and the classified image is the output which categorizes the image with the categories namely normal, benign and cancer.  Classification is done using k-nearest neighbor classifier. The classifier calculates the distance between the query image and the images in the database and assigns class name to the query image for which the distance is least, as the output.


Engineering is one of the major fields of applied science without which no country can move forward in the present global context. The teaching/learning of engineering in Nepal is not possible without English at present. The present paper attempts to highlight the relevance of English language for teaching/learning engineering in Nepal, It also attempts to indicate the relevance of the language for engineers to work in their respective fields. The focus of the paper is to suggest planners and teachers to select the need-based English, for the specific engineering purposes in the present world of specialization. Key words: Applied Science; Teaching learning of engineering DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/jie.v8i1-2.5127 Journal of the Institute of Engineering Vol. 8, No. 1&2, 2010/2011 Page: 311-314 Uploaded Date : 20 July, 2011


The thesis describes a novel 4-quadrant DC-DC converter,
supplied by a 28V DC voltage source, with an output voltage
which may be continuously varied between +180V and -180V DC.
A prototype 1.2kW DC-DC converter was designed and built,
with emphasis given to the optimization of both the converter
size and efficiency. This was achieved by means of a
computer-based simulation study, which determined the
optimal switching frequency and the size of the inductors
and capacitors while maintaining a high unit efficiency.
Mos-Gated Bimos switches, which feature the advantages of
both mosfets and bipolar transistors, were developed to
achieve high switching speed during high power operation.
A digital-controlled DC servo system based on a 16-bit
Intel 8086 microprocessor was designed, to provide both
motor speed and position control. Speed and position detection
circuits and the structure and the interfacing arrangement
of the microprocessor system were designed and
constructed. Several control algorithms were developed,
including PID Control Algorithm and Current-Limit Control
Algorithm. Based on open loop transfer function of the system,
derived through mathematical modelling using the State-Space
Averaging Method, the constants for the control
algorithms were obtained to meet the dynamic performance
specified for the system.
Computer simulation was carried out to assist with the
design of the converter and the control system.
It is expected that drives into which the novel converter
is incorporated will find many applications in situations
where accurate positional control is required, particularly
in battery-operated DC-servo system, such
as satellite system,
robots and some military vehicles.


The present study examines, based on the Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) 2010 and 2014, the unadjusted gender pay gap of the public sector (economic sectors O (Public Administration, Defence, and compulsory Social Security) and P (Education)) compared to the private economy. The unadjusted gender pay gap in the public sector stood at 5.6 % in 2014 and was virtually unchanged compared to 2010. The gap in the private economy remained about four times as high. The wage advantage of women over men among part-time workers, both in the public and in the private sector, is due to the relatively high proportion of marginally and temporarily employed workers and the relatively short firm tenure among men. Among fulltime workers, the explained part of the gap is driven by the performance group. The findings once again underline the need to review gender-based access to leading positions in the public sector. The detailed decomposition of the explained part for all workers reveals that the advantageous distribution of performance groups and levels of education, as well as the lower rate of part-time employment among men, explains their earnings advantage. In the private economy, men also benefit from their employment in wage-attractive sectors.


The local role that land‐atmosphere interactions play in the rainfall process has been often explored by investigating the initiation of moist convection as the top of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) crosses the lifting condensation level (LCL). However, this LCL crossing alone is not a sufficient indicator of the probability and intensity of subsequent convective precipitation, which is instead better characterized by the added consideration of the so‐called convective available potential energy (CAPE). In this study, both the LCL crossing and CAPE are jointly considered as the primary indicators of the occurrence and intensity of moist convection in order to analyze the land‐atmosphere interactions through a simple soil‐plant system and a zero‐dimensional mixed‐layer model. The approach is explored using the free atmospheric conditions observed at the Central Facility in the Southern Great Plains, where the ABL analysis shows both dry and wet soil can be conducive to early moist convection depending on atmospheric conditions but CAPE always tends to be larger under wetter soil conditions. The combination of the two indicators, LCL crossing and CAPE, further allows us to classify free atmosphere and soil moisture regimes into positive and negative feedback regimes for moist convection.


Roller hemming is usually applied for hang-on-parts such as hoods, doors or trunk-lids which all have complex non-linear geometries. The flange is often hemmed along both surfaces and edges which have 3D curvilinear shapes. Minimization of hemming defects and the requirement to improve cycle time of the roller hemming process are essential for roller hemmed hang-on-parts in the automotive industry. Different systems such as the driven roller hemming provide the possibility to increase the strain rate without loosing surface quality and dimensional stability. Investigating the influence of friction during roller hemming, results will give an understanding of the advantage for mentioned roller hemming systems.


BACKGROUND
Antioxidant vitamins may play a role in the prevention of stroke because they scavenge free radicals and prevent LDL oxidation. Epidemiologic studies that have examined this relation produced conflicting results.

OBJECTIVE
We examined the association between antioxidant vitamin intakes and death from stroke.

DESIGN
This was a prospective cohort study of 34492 postmenopausal women.

RESULTS
During follow-up, 215 deaths from stroke were documented. Total vitamin A, carotenoid, and vitamin E intakes were not associated with death from stroke after multivariate adjustment. Relative risks (RRs) and 95% CIs of the highest compared with the lowest category were 0.79 (0.45, 1.38; P for trend = 0.33) for vitamin A, 0.80 (0.45, 1.40; P for trend = 0.40) for carotenoids, and 0.91 (0.55, 1.52; P for trend = 0.86) for vitamin E. The test for trend for total vitamin C intake was significant, although the association appeared somewhat U-shaped, not monotonic. An inverse association was seen between death from stroke and vitamin E intake from food. RRs (and 95% CIs) of death from stroke from the lowest to highest intake categories were 1.0, 0.80 (0.51, 1.26), 0.93 (0.58, 1. 49), 0.67 (0.39, 1.14), 0.40 (0.20, 0.80); P for trend = 0.008. The results suggest inverse associations between death from stroke and intakes of the most concentrated vitamin E food sources consumed by this cohort: mayonnaise, nuts, and margarine.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest a protective effect of vitamin E from foods on death from stroke but do not support a protective role for supplemental vitamin E or other antioxidant vitamins. However, given the number of deaths from stroke in the present cohort, a small-to-moderate association could not be ruled out.


Introduction For practicing teachers of students with visual impairments, assistive technology has assumed an important role in the education of their students' assessment and learning of content. Little research has addressed this area; therefore, the purpose of the study presented here was to identify the teachers' self-reported possession of knowledge of and skills in assistive technology. Method The participants completed an online survey rating their level of expertise in assistive technology. The researchers used descriptive statistics and Pearson r correlation coefficients. Results In total, 840 teachers of students with visual impairments in the United States, Palau, and the Virgin Islands completed an online survey to identify their perceived level of mastery of assistive technology competencies. Regarding the participants' confidence in teaching and supporting the use of assistive technology for students with visual impairments, 40.7% of the participants were confident or very confident, whereas 59.3% reported no to some confidence. In addition, the younger teachers were relatively more confident in teaching assistive technology than were the older teachers. Specifically, the participants felt the least confident with the foundations domain of assistive technology and the most confident with collaboration. Discussion The results describe teachers' self-perceptions and pinpoint areas for further intervention and dialogue. Personnel preparation programs and in-service training programs can concentrate on these specific areas of assistive technology to improve teachers' levels of confidence with assistive technology domains. Collaborating to create systemic, national interventions is crucial for improving educational and vocational outcomes for all individuals with visual impairments. Implications for practitioners First, given the findings of the study, it is recommended that all university programs develop a course on assistive technology, as well as embed assistive technology competencies in their training curricula. Second, research is needed to explore further what universities are currently doing to address assistive technology in their curricula. Finally, professional organizations should provide ongoing in-service training in assistive technology for practicing teachers of students with visual impairments.


Targeting DNA repair proteins with small-molecule inhibitors became a proven anti-cancer strategy. Previously, we identified an inhibitor of a major protein of homologous recombination (HR) RAD51, named B02. B02 inhibited HR in human cells and sensitized them to chemotherapeutic drugs in vitro and in vivo. Here, using a medicinal chemistry approach, we aimed to improve the potency of B02. We identified the B02 analog, B02-isomer, which inhibits HR in human cells with significantly higher efficiency. We also show that B02-iso sensitizes triple-negative breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells to the PARP inhibitor (PARPi) olaparib.


The pseudolamellibranch is the only main bivalve particle processing system whose mechanisms of pseudofeces rejection on the mantle have not been elucidated. To this end, the entire mantle surface and underlying tissue characteristics were investigated in the oysters Crassostrea virginica and C. gigas, using scanning electron microscopy and histology, as well as observations of particle transport on half-shell preparations. Pseudofeces transport is effected by short simple cilia atop specialized radial ridges, which extend from the gill-mantle junction near the adductor muscle to the mantle edges. The histology of the ridges is characterized by a densely-ciliated pseudostratified epithelium and numerous acid mucopolysaccharide (AMPS)-containing mucocytes, and differs markedly from that of the inter-ridge regions which present a cuboidal epithelium containing few mucocytes and isolated tufts of long simple cilia. In contrast to the pseudofeces transport (infrabranchial) region of the mantle, the suprabranchial mantle region is uniformly and densely ciliated, and devoid of ridges. The sparse ciliation of the inter-ridge region and the counter-current beat of the ridge cilia (presumably isolated to varying degrees from the pallial flow by the mucus-particle rafts involved in mucociliary transport) indicate that the maintenance of pallial flow is accomplished almost exclusively by the gill and the suprabranchial mantle ciliation in these 2 species. Pallial pseudofeces rejection mechanisms to date are summarized for the 4 main bivalve gill systems, which may be grouped into 3 categories: (1) pallial transport with vertical elevation accomplished via composite cilia (homorhabdic filibranchs and eulamellibranchs), (2) pallial transport with vertical elevation accomplished via mantle ridges (pseudo-lamellibranchs), and (3) voidance via valve clapping (heterorhabdic filibranchs).


Aims and background Several countries have introduced programs for rapid diagnosis and treatment of cancer, but their impact on hospital care delay and tumor stage is not clear. We assessed the impact of a rapid diagnosis and treatment program (RDTP) for lung cancer on the diagnosis-to-treatment interval (DTI) and tumor stage. Methods and study design We performed a quasi-experimental study in an intervention group of 191 patients with lung cancer attended through the RDTP circuit and a comparison group of 171 patients attended through the routine hospital circuit. Groups were matched for age and patterns of presentation. Multivariate analysis adjusting for different factors was performed. Results The median DTI was 36 days for the RDTP group and 45 days for the comparison group (P = 0.021). More patients in the RDTP group had advanced stage illness (III-IV) than in the comparison group (P = 0.032). In the multivariate analysis, none of these associations was statistically significant. Regardless of the type of circuit, a DTI <30 days was associated with disseminated disease (OR 3.28, P = 0.003). Conclusions In this study, the RDTP circuit failed to reduce DTI and influence stage. Our results suggest tumor stage is the main determinant of both DTI and disease outcome.


CONTEXT
The Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of metabolic abnormalities and is associated with increased risk of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Phylloquinone, menaquinones, and vitamin K status are associated with several components of MetS, but the association with MetS has hardly been studied to date.

OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to examine whether the intake and/or status of vitamin K is associated with MetS and its components.

DESIGN
This study comprised two cohorts, one of 402 women and one of 400 men (age 40-80 y). At followup 625 participants were still alive and willing to participate. Data were analyzed both cross sectionally and longitudinally with Poisson and linear regression adjusted for multiple confounders. Baseline phylloquinone/menaquinone intakes were measured with a validated food frequency questionnaire and vitamin K status with serum desphospho-uncarborxylated matrix-Gla protein level.

RESULTS
At baseline 270 (34.5%) participants had MetS and 171 (35.7%) at followup. Cross sectionally, high menaquinones intakes were associated (P(trend) = .08) with a lower prevalence of MetS with a prevalence ratio (PR) of 0.74 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.54-1.03) for the highest vs the lowest tertile. At followup, the highest tertiles of menaquinones intake (PR = 0.62; 95% CI, 0.40-0.95) and vitamin K status (PR = 0.57; 95% CI, 0.38-0.87) were associated (P(trend) = .01) with a lower occurrence of MetS. These associations were mainly driven by relations with lower triacylglycerol concentrations for menaquinones and lower waist circumference for vitamin K status. Phylloquinone intake was not associated with MetS prevalence.

CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that a high intake of menaquinones and high vitamin K status are associated with a lower occurrence of MetS.


There is currently no consensus on salvage therapy for recurrent esophageal cancer. Salvage surgery is a well-established option for attaining long-term survival; however, it is associated with a high risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality. A total of 6 patients who underwent re-irradiation for recurrence of locoregional esophageal cancer following definitive chemoradiotherapy were investigated. The median interval between initial radiotherapy and re-irradiation was 17.4 months (range, 6.4-59.2 months). Re-irradiation salvage therapy was mostly administered with concurrent chemotherapy, which consisted of several cycles of nedaplatin on day 1 and oral S-1 administration on days 1-14. The median survival after re-irradiation was 13.6 months (range, 1.9-33.3 months). A total of 3 patients who completed hyperfractionated radiation therapy survived for >1 year. One patient has had no signs of recurrence or late radiation toxicity for >2 years. Severe acute hematological adverse events (AEs) occurred in 3 patients, including 1 case of grade 4 leukopenia. One severe late AE occurred in 1 patient, who developed grade 3 dysphagia and became permanently dependent on percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy tube feeding. Salvage radiotherapy is considered to be a good treatment option for inoperable locoregional recurrent esophageal cancer. The results of the present study demonstrated that re-irradiation, with or without chemotherapy, for recurrent esophageal carcinoma after definitive chemoradiotherapy was tolerable and yielded reasonably satisfactory results.


Literature to date has treated as distinct two issues (a) the influence of pornography on young people and (b) the growth of Internet child pornography, also called child exploitation material (CEM). This article discusses how young people might interact with, and be affected by, CEM. The article first considers the effect of CEM on young victims abused to generate the material. It then explains the paucity of data regarding the prevalence with which young people view CEM online, inadvertently or deliberately. New analyses are presented from a 2010 study of search terms entered on an internationally popular peer-to-peer website, isoHunt. Over 91 days, 162 persistent search terms were recorded. Most of these related to file sharing of popular movies, music, and so forth. Thirty-six search terms were categorized as spe- cific to a youth market and perhaps a child market. Additionally, 4 deviant, and persistent search terms were found, 3 relating to CEM and the fourth to bestiality. The article discusses whether the existence of CEM on a mainstream website, combined with online subcultural influences, may normalize the material for some youth and increase the risk of onset (first deliberate viewing). Among other things, the article proposes that future research examines the relationship between onset and sex offending by youth.


The Java programming language has added a new tool for delivering computing applications over the World Wide Web (WWW). WebStat is a new computing environment for basic statistical analysis which is delivered in the form of a Java applet. Anyone with WWW access and a Java capable browser can access this new analysis environment. Along with an overall introduction of the environment, the main features of this package are illustrated, and the prospect of using basic WebStat components for more advanced applications is discussed.


The addition of n-butyllithium to alkenylthiocarbamates in the presence of (-)-sparteine or the (+)-sparteine surrogate leads to asymmetric carbolithiation, and returns enantiomerically enriched thiocarbamate derivatives of secondary thiols. In THF, with the (+)-sparteine surrogate, in situ aryl migration leads to an enantiomerically enriched tertiary thiol derivative. Remarkably, the two pseudoenantiomeric chiral ligands do not always give enantiomeric products, probably as a result of a complex interplay of kinetic and thermodynamic control. In situ IR and NMR studies of a stable, hindered lithiated thiocarbamate demonstrated its chemical and configurational stability over a period of hours at 0 °C.


This essay introduces rules for building new urban squares, and for fixing existing ones that are dead. The public square as a fundamental urban element behaves both as a node and as a connector of the urban fabric. Like the components of an organism, each urban element is itself highly complex, and this conception contradicts postwar design trends based on abstract simplistic ideas: those are imposed in order to control instead of stimulating social life. Urban structures, infrastructure, human beings, their activity nodes, and all their interconnections come together to form a "super-organism", a complex and dynamic whole that is the city. This happens only when the geometry of the urban fabric is encouraged to develop in a living manner. The basic element of this "super-organism" is urban space that works with informational processes. In European culture, the square connects the local urban space with other squares, streets, and roads with a strong pedestrian use. A living city works through its connections to reach the properties of a "superorganism".


Vehicular applications must not demand too much of a driver's attention. They often run in the background and initiate interactions with the driver to deliver important information. We argue that the vehicular computing system must schedule interactions by considering their priority, the attention they will demand, and how much attention the driver currently has to spare. Based on these considerations, it should either allow a given interaction or defer it. We describe a prototype called Gremlin that leverages edge computing infrastructure to help schedule interactions initiated by vehicular applications. It continuously performs four tasks: (1) monitoring driving conditions to estimate the driver's available attention, (2) recording interactions for analysis, (3) generating a user-specific quantitative model of the attention required for each distinct interaction, and (4) scheduling new interactions based on the above data. Gremlin performs the third task on edge computing infrastructure. Offload is attractive because the analysis is too computationally demanding to run on vehicular platforms. Since recording size for each interaction can be large, it is preferable to perform the offloaded computation at the edge of the network rather than in the cloud, and thereby conserve wide-area network bandwidth. We evaluate Gremlin by comparing its decisions to those recommended by a vehicular UI expert. Gremlin's decisions agree with the expert's over 90% of the time, much more frequently than the coarse-grained scheduling policies used by current vehicle systems. Further, we find that offloading of analysis to edge platforms reduces use of wide-area networks by an average of 15MB per analyzed interaction.


The aim of this study is to re-evaluate urinary collagen cross-links, previously proposed as markers of osteoarthritis (OA). The urinary excretion of collagen cross-links, pyridinoline (PYD) and deoxypyridinoline (DPD), was measured using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in 114 patients with OA, 19 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and 40 healthy subjects. An increase in PYD and DPD, expressed per millimole of creatinine, was confirmed in RA. However, PYD and DPD in patients with hip OA, knee OA and polyOA were similar, and did not differ from controls. In patients with radiographic end-stage OA, PYD and DPD were significantly higher than in patients with an early OA, but not significantly higher than in controls. The PYD/DPD ratio did not vary with the OA stage. Thus, urinary collagen cross-links are not elevated in OA, but could reflect bone sclerosis and/or erosion in late OA.


Self-Directed Learning (SDL) is an independent learning approach that develops students" learning skills and professional skills through teaching and learning process. To embrace the SDL approach, the Department of Polytechnics has developed Curriculum Information Document Online System (CIDOS) as an online learning platform. Hence, the aim of this research is to study the impacts of SDL approach among polytechnic Mechanical Engineering students in their learning. This study targeted total 82 students from Material Science and Engineering Management classes. And the study, produced mixed findings reporting that students believed that their learning attributes, initiative, control and, self-efficacy have enhanced through SDL. However, the students have issues on motivation since a large number of them reported that they do not know what they are doing in their learning. The validity and reliability test confirmed that the survey instrument is reliable with Croanbach Alpha more than 0.70 whereas One-Sample T-Test proved that all hypotheses were considered significant, p ˂ 0.005. This study is expected to help educators to improve highlighted elements that need attention in SDL approach via CIDOS.


Alloy nanoparticles have been widely investigated due to their unique properties and various applications. In particular, electrodes based on alloy nanomaterials can be good alternatives for advanced electrode fabrication due to their inherent, unique properties. Herein, we suggest a simple one-pot synthesis of Cu3Sn nanoparticles with high oxidation-resistivity, straightforward processability, and good electron conductivity. In addition, we introduce fabrication of pressure-assisted electrodes at room temperature with the synthesized Cu3Sn nanoparticles, which have good potential for various functional devices on a plastic substrate.


An outbreak of avian influenza in August 2007 resulted in the culling of hundreds of thousands of Peking ducks. An earlier tutorial had shown that whole house gassing with carbon dioxide to kill waterfowl has to be refused because of interference with animal welfare. Culling by electrocution is a reliable method that fulfils animal welfare requirements. Stationary electrocution lines for slaughtering should be preferred if suitable for the killing of the birds. Mobile electrocution lines (MET) are a good alternative or supplementation with a capacity of circa 2,500 animals per hour. MET are suitable for killing Peking ducks with a weight of approximately 500 g. At least two veterinarians are required per MET for the supervision of animal welfare during culling. When following German animal welfare laws, killing in mobile gas containers filled with carbon dioxide is an alternative with a capacity comparable to that of MET. The problem of looking into the containers for controlled stunning and killing can be solved by installing observation windows. Manpower requirements are comparable to those of MET, while requirements for material and transportation are unlikely higher. This method is suitable for birds which are too small to be killed by electrocution.


Managed Pressure Drilling (MPD) is a pressure control and management-technology that has been around for over a decade and that is believed by service providers to have the potential of highly in-creased use in the future. Despite this there is still a limited amount of acceptance and use of the tech-nology offshore by oil companies today, and operators want to see more detailed case studies and cost benefit analysis on MPD operations before they commit to using the technology. There are not many MPD case studies available today, and the ones that exits focus exclusively on the positive effects of MPD and do not include the time required to install and test the MPD system before operations can take place. There are also few case studies available on multiple wells from the same field, and therefore a limited amount of information available on any effect that increased knowledge and experience among operators has on operations and results. This report includes a case and trend-study on the MPD operations that have been performed at the two HPTH fields, Elgin and Kvitebjorn. MPD was used, with success, for different reasons and to different extents at the two fields. At Elgin there are two wells that have been drilled using MPD mainly to manage influxes and losses. At Kvitebjorn there are five wells that have been drilled using MPD to maintain a constant bottomhole pressure. An analytic time analysis, based on the daily drilling reports from the MPD operations, has been conducted on each well on the main operations that were required for running the MPD opera-tions. The results from this analysis are included in the report. The results from the time analysis show that installing the MPD system and training and testing for the MPD operations required a significant amount of additional time when compared to conventional drilling operations. The time analysis also included additional operations to installation and training and testing the MPD system. The results from the time analysis shows that also these operations created additional time compared to conventional drilling operations. In total the results from the analysis show that performing an MPD operation requires a significant amount of time and that difficult drilling challenges should be present for making MPD a profitable solution for drilling a well.


College students pressed buttons for points delivered according to molecular concurrent reinforcement contingencies similar to those used in previous experiments with animal subjects. Relative frequency of reinforcement and the relative and absolute durations of two reinforced patterns of button pressing were experimentally varied. Qualitative effects of all three variables resembled those obtained previously with animals. Computer simulation of a cognitive processing model described these qualitative effects. A similar model was used previously to describe corresponding behavior in pigeons. Therefore, similar cognitive processing may underlie the local temporal patterning of animal and human operant behavior maintained by this concurrent reinforcement contingency. Language: en


In this work, a gradient of interpenetrating polymer networks, consisting of anionic and cationic polymers, has been investigated with respect to protein resistant properties and swelling characteristics at different pH and ionic strength conditions. The swelling and protein adsorption have been studied using \emph{in situ} spectroscopic ellipsometry(SE) and imaging surface plasmon resonance(iSPR) respectively. It has been shown that, by altering the buffer pH, the region of lowest protein adsorption on the surface could be moved laterally. The swelling has similarly been shown to respond to both changes in pH and ionic strength. Additionally, the arise of surface charge and the polymer swelling in solution, both a consequence of the ionisation of fixed charges on the polymer, have been indicated to occur at different buffer pH. The studied polymer systems show promising properties for future applications in, for example, the biosensor area, where the surface chemistry can be tailor-made to work optimally in a given environment.


Recently the problem connected with transplantation of bone marrow stromal cells for optimization of reparative osteogenesis is very actively studied. However, the objective methods allowing to observe the behavior of transplanted cells in a bone wound and to estimate character of regenerative osteogenesis after cell transplantation are used in an insufficient measure in both experimental and clinical researches. The aim of this study is to clarify the fate of stromal cells in a bone wound and to investigate the influence of bone marrow stromal cells on the process ofposttraumatic osteogenesis after cell transplantation in parietal bone defect. The experiments were carried out on 38 rabbits with artificially made parietal bone defect (diameter 1.0 cmm). The rabbits were divided into three groups: the first group was a control one; the rabbits of the second group were injected autogenic cultivated bone marrow stromal cells (10(6)); the rabbits of the third group were injected with autogenic cultivated bone marrow stromal cells (10(6)) in collagn gel. The methods of light and fluorescent microscopy, histomorphometry and statistical treatment of the data were used to estimate the results. The obtained data showed that transplanted cells were viable at least during 18 days after transplantation and efficiently took part in the reparative process. The transplantation of cultivated bone marrow stromal cells in collagen gel caused 30% increase in the part of bone tissue in the bone regenerate tissue in comparison with control after 120 days.


Abstract The Netherlands remained neutral during the First World War. For this reason, the impact of the war on this country was neglected for a long time. However, in the last decades, the way the war affected the Netherlands has been studied in more detail. Still, the cultural
 impact of the war has received only little attention. Therefore, this article studies the way in which a group of Catholic intellectuals, involved with the cultural journal De Beiaard, reflected on this war and its outcome. It shows that the First World War was only of limited importance
 to them. Those authors who did underscore the significance of the conflict did not necessarily do so wholeheartedly. They did so because of a sense of duty. With respect to the reflections on the outcome of war, two elements come to the fore. First, in almost all of the reflections, their
 connection with Flanders played a role. Several authors pleaded for the equal treatment of the Flemish language. The second element in their reflections is that the outcome of the conflict was predominantly seen from a specifically Dutch Catholic perspective. The Catholic intellectuals involved
 in De Beiaard either expressed their trust in God or triumphantly and self-consciously claimed that the future was theirs. Their reflections embodied the phase of emancipation that the Dutch Catholics had entered, and the accelerating role of the war within this emancipatory process.


A seroepidemiology survey of nine zoonoses was carried out in 2007 on 90 healthy adult volunteers in Viljujsk, a northern city in the Republic of Sakha (Eastern Siberia). The seroprevalence of Lyme borreliosis was 3.3% by immunofluorescence. None of the subjects displayed a positive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay/Western blot result for alveolar or cystic echinococcosis. The seroprevalence of toxocariasis by Western blot was 4.4%, and 8.9% of the subjects had anti-Toxoplasma IgG. By enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, the seroprevalence of trichinellosis was 4.4%. Three subjects were simultaneously positive for tick-borne encephalitis and West Nile infection, so no clear diagnostic conclusion could be reached for these flavivirus diseases. Interestingly, Crimea-Congo hemorrhagic fever had an 11.1% seroprevalence rate, indicating that Viljujsk is the most northern focus of this infection. Additionally, this finding suggests a potential involvement of Crimea-Congo hemorrhagic fever agent, or of another member of the Bunyaviridae family, in the genesis of the so-called Viljujsk encephalomyelitis.


Papillary carcinoma of the thyroid is well known for metastasis to regional lymph nodes resulting in early detection and overall favorable prognosis. Solitary metastasis of papillary carcinoma of the thyroid in the cerebrum is extremely rare with only a few cases reported in the literature. Here, we report an unusual case of a 40-year-old female patient who presented with neurological symptoms and a radiological diagnosis of meningioma was made. Subsequent histopathology from the resected brain tumor revealed a solitary cerebral metastasis from papillary carcinoma of the thyroid. There was no involvement of regional lymph nodes and the radiological findings were indicative of a primary brain tumor.


We describe Venture, an interactive virtual machine for probabilistic programming that aims to be sufficiently expressive, extensible, and efficient for general-purpose use. Like Church, probabilistic models and inference problems in Venture are specified via a Turing-complete, higher-order probabilistic language descended from Lisp. Unlike Church, Venture also provides a compositional language for custom inference strategies built out of scalable exact and approximate techniques. We also describe four key aspects of Venture's implementation that build on ideas from probabilistic graphical models. First, we describe the stochastic procedure interface (SPI) that specifies and encapsulates primitive random variables. The SPI supports custom control flow, higher-order probabilistic procedures, partially exchangeable sequences and ``likelihood-free'' stochastic simulators. It also supports external models that do inference over latent variables hidden from Venture. Second, we describe probabilistic execution traces (PETs), which represent execution histories of Venture programs. PETs capture conditional dependencies, existential dependencies and exchangeable coupling. Third, we describe partitions of execution histories called scaffolds that factor global inference problems into coherent sub-problems. Finally, we describe a family of stochastic regeneration algorithms for efficiently modifying PET fragments contained within scaffolds. Stochastic regeneration linear runtime scaling in cases where many previous approaches scaled quadratically. We show how to use stochastic regeneration and the SPI to implement general-purpose inference strategies such as Metropolis-Hastings, Gibbs sampling, and blocked proposals based on particle Markov chain Monte Carlo and mean-field variational inference techniques.


Abstract This paper describes how bilingual colleagues living in Hong Kong make small talk in instant messaging to achieve various business-oriented goals and construct multiple identities in the discursive process. Guided by James Paul Gee's revised framework of discourse analysis, the analyses evidenced that, overall, colleagues use small talk in instant messages to maintain minimal ties with distant partners, fill in silence during computer work, affect informal decision-making at work, and to diffuse useful surrounding information into business talk. These instances interplay with different affordances provided by the gadgets in the instant messenger interfaces. Such creative usage, together with the perceived nature of online interaction and instant messaging, results in multiple and turbulent identities circulating in the broader context of workplace discourse. The article concludes by arguing that computer-mediated communication has offered participants an emerging modus of interacting socially, beyond the physical and psychological constraints of time and space.


When European investment doesn't fit the bill any longer
Apparently the Greek king Menelaus was what one would refer to today as a cool dude. Maybe not as cool as one might have thought: when the Trojan prince Paris took his wife and indicated his intention not to return her, Menelaus lost his cool and took up arms. Not alone, though, a few other kings of the cities around him, such as Odysseus and Agamemnon were quick to be at his side. And a few thousand men (don't smile, quite an army in those days) went to the Asian shores of the Aegean Sea and started a war, which would last more than 10 years.


The efficacy of oxaliplatin combined with high-dose 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and folinic acid (FA) as an outpatient salvage treatment for patients with metastasized colorectal cancer was retrospectively analyzed in one center. Tumor progression had occurred for the majority of patients during two regimens (n = 11) otherwise during one (n = 1) regimen of prior 5-FU-based chemotherapy, which had been applied in a standardized sequential fashion. As third-line therapy oxaliplatin was infused intravenously over 2 h at a dose of 60 mg/m2 prior to a 2-h infusion of FA (500 mg/m2). 5-FU (2,600 mg/m2) was subsequently given over 24 h. A favorable response was observed in 9/12 (75%) of the heavily pretreated patients, including partial remissions in 3/12, minor responses in 2/12 and stable disease in 4/12 patients. The median progression free time was 23 weeks (interquartile range i. r. 0-28) for all patients, the median survival time from start of third-line therapy 55 weeks (i. r. 40-86). The median survival time from the beginning of first-line palliative chemotherapy was 34 months (i. r. 25-45 months). The highest toxicity was WHO grade III and was observed in six patients: Nausea (2), diarrhea (3), vomiting (2) and peripheral neuropathy (1). The quality of life was not adversely affected by the oxaliplatin/5-FU/FA-regimen as assessed by the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire. Thus, the results show the efficiency and low toxicity of oxaliplatin/high-dose 5-FU/FA as palliative third-line therapy of patients with metastasized colorectal cancer and emphasize that sequential palliative chemotherapy may lead to extended survival of these patients.


Abstract This study critically examined the previously reported partial independence between second language (L2) accentedness (degree to which L2 speech differs from the target variety) and comprehensibility (ease of understanding). In prior work, comprehensibility was linked to multiple linguistic dimensions of L2 speech (phonology, fluency, lexis, grammar) whereas accentedness was narrowly associated with L2 phonology. However, these findings stemmed from a single task (picture narrative), suggesting that task type could affect the particular linguistic measures distinguishing comprehensibility from accentedness. To address this limitation, speech ratings of 10 native listeners assessing 60 speakers of L2 English in three tasks (picture narrative, IELTS, TOEFL) were analyzed, targeting two global ratings (accentedness, comprehensibility) and 10 linguistic measures (segmental and word stress accuracy, intonation, rhythm, speech rate, grammatical accuracy and complexity, lexical richness and complexity, discourse richness). Linguistic distinctions between accentedness and comprehensibility were less pronounced in the cognitively complex task (TOEFL), with overlapping sets of phonology, lexis, and grammar variables contributing to listener ratings of accentedness and comprehensibility. This finding points to multifaceted, task-specific relationships between these two constructs.


To deal with the problem of depletion of iron mine reserves in the area of Xiangshui River in Heilongjiang Province, it is needed to study the geological structure of the region. Through TEM measurements and the corresponding data processing, -350 to -600 m apparent resistivity and the corresponding relationship between different lithologies are set up in the area. According to the regional differences in apparent resistivity lithology, four fracture zones are divided. According to the apparent resistivity difference between rock and ore greater than two orders of magnitude, the spatial location of the ore is explained. With the actual verification of deep drilling, see mine rate reaches 75% so that the efficiency of mining exploration is greatly improved.


Heart disease is a leading cause of death with unmet clinical needs for targeted treatment options. Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) represents a master pro-inflammatory cytokine that plays an important role in many immunopathogenic processes. Anti-TNF-α therapy is widely used in treating autoimmune inflammatory disorders, but in case of patients with heart disease, this treatment was unsuccessful or even harmful. The underlying reasons remain elusive until today. This review summarizes the effects of anti-TNF-α treatment in patients with and without heart disease and describes the involvement of TNF-α signaling in a number of animal models of cardiovascular diseases. We specifically focused on the role of TNF-α in specific cardiovascular conditions and in defined cardiac cell types. Although some mechanisms, mainly in disease development, are quite well known, a comprehensive understanding of TNF-α signaling in the failing heart is still incomplete. Published data identify pathogenic and cardioprotective mechanisms of TNF-α in the affected heart and highlight the differential role of two TNF-α receptors pointing to the complexity of the TNF-α signaling. In the light of these findings, it seems that targeting the TNF-α pathway in heart disease may show therapeutic benefits, but this approach must be more specific and selectively block pathogenic mechanisms. To this aim, more research is needed to better understand the molecular mechanisms of TNF-α signaling in the failing heart.


A Brazilian isolate of Beauveria bassiana (CG425) that shows high virulence against the coffee berry borer (CBB) was examined for the production of subtilisin-like (Pr1) and trypsin-like (Pr2) cuticle-degrading proteases. Fungal growth was either in nitrate-medium or in CBB cuticle-containing medium under both buffered and unbuffered conditions. In unbuffered medium supplemented with cuticle, the pH of cultures dropped and Pr1 and Pr2 activities were detected in high amounts only at a pH of 5.5 or higher. In buffered cultures, Pr1 and Pr2 activities were higher in medium supplemented with cuticle compared to activities with nitrate-medium. The Pr1 and Pr2 activities detected were mostly in the culture supernatant. These data suggest that Pr1 and Pr2 proteases produced by strain CG425 are induced by components of CBB cuticle, and that the culture pH influences the expression of these proteases, indicating the occurrence of an efficient mechanism of protein secretion in this fungus. The results obtained in this study extend the knowledge about protease production in B. bassiana CG425, opening new avenues for studying the role of secreted proteases in virulence against the coffee berry borer during the infection process.


This paper proposes a prediction scheme to decode in real-time H.264/AVC bitstream coded in Context-based Adaptive Binary Arithmetic Coding (CABAC). The proposed scheme predicts the subsequent syntax element type, leading to a significant reduction in cycles invoked by the syntax element switching overhead that degrades the decoding performance significantly. In addition, a new pipelined architecture combined with the proposed scheme is presented for hardware implementation. The simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves a decoding performance of 1.2 cycles/bin, which releases the CABAC parsing from a bottleneck in decoding H.264 bitstream.


Objectives: To evaluate the importance of specialized, international internet consultations of fetuses with suspected brain anomalies. To propose a method to optimize the diagnostic capabilities of the referral centers. Methods: We retrospectively retrieved clinical and imaging data of internet consultations performed between the years 2008 and 2010 on fetuses with suspected brain anomalies at two large referral centers. The original, consultation and postnatal diagnoses were compared. We also evaluated the technical characteristics of the original examinations and of the e-mailed material. Results: The study included 88 consultations originating from 45 centers in 29 countries. The mean gestational age was 25 weeks (12–38), the mean number of images analyzed was 9 (1–24). Image quality was considered appropriate in 77. In 52 cases the diagnoses were concordant and discordant in 36. The consultation significantly modified prognosis in 24 patients and management in 13. The addition of video clips, TVS, 3D-volumes and MRI improved the diagnostic certainty of the consultations. Conclusions: Internet consultations in patients with suspected brain pathologies are fast and easy to perform without the need of complicated technical facilities. In clear cut cases they provide the referring physician reassurance of his diagnosis; in more complicated cases or when the imaging provided is not optimal, the referral center provides a differential diagnosis and recommendations regarding management.


Document databases are available everywhere, both within the internal networks of the organizations and on the Internet. The database contents are often "hidden" behind search interfaces. These interfaces vary from database to database. Also, the algorithms with which the associated search engines rank the documents in the query results are usually incompatible across databases. Even individual organizations use search engines from different vendors to index their internal document collections. These organizations could benefit from unified query interfaces to multiple search engines, for example, that would give users the illusion of a single big document database. Building such "metasearchers" is nowadays a hard task because different search engines are largely incompatible and do not allow for interoperability. To improve this situation, the Digital Library project at Stanford has coordinated among search-engine vendors and other key players to reach informal agreements for unifying basic interactions in these three areas. This is the final writeup of our informal "standards" effort. This draft is based on feedback from people from Excite, Fulcrum, GILS, Harvest, Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Infoseek, Microsoft Network, Netscape, PLS, Verity, and WAIS, among others.


Principles of economics predict that the costs associated with obtaining rewards can influence choice. When individuals face choices between a smaller, immediate option and a larger, later option, they often experience opportunity costs associated with waiting for delayed rewards because they must forego the opportunity to make other choices. We evaluated how reducing opportunity costs affects delay tolerance in capuchin monkeys. After choosing the larger option, in the High cost condition, subjects had to wait for the delay to expire, whereas in the Low cost different and Low cost same conditions, they could perform a new choice during the delay. To control for the effect of intake rate on choices, the Low cost same condition had the same intake rate ratio as the High cost condition. We found that capuchins attended both to intake rates and to opportunity costs. They chose the larger option more often in the Low cost different and Low cost same conditions than in the High cost condition, and more often in the Low cost different condition than in the Low cost same condition. Understanding how non-human primates represent and use costs in making decisions not only helps to develop theoretical frameworks to explain their choices but also addresses similarities with and differences from human decision-making. These outcomes provide insights into the origins of human economic behaviour. This article is part of the theme issue 'Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates'.


Fifteen years elapsed between the discovery of the double helix (1953) and the first DNA sequencing (1968). Modern DNA sequencing began in 1977, with development of the chemical method of Maxam and Gilbert and the dideoxy method of Sanger, Nicklen and Coulson, and with the first complete DNA sequence (phage r X174), which demonstrated that sequence could give profound insights into genetic organization. Incremental improvements allowed sequencing of molecules > 200 kb (human cytomegalovirus) leading to an avalanche of data that demanded computational analysis and spawned the field of bioinformatics. The US Human Genome Project spurred sequencing activity. By 1992 the first 'sequencing factory' was established, and others soon followed. The first complete cellular genome sequences, from bacteria, appeared in 1995 and other eubacterial, archaebacterial and eukaryotic genomes were soon sequenced. Competition between the public Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics produced working drafts of the human genome sequence, published in 2001, but refinement and analysis of the human genome sequence will continue for the foreseeable future. New 'massively parallel' sequencing methods are greatly increasing sequencing capacity, but further innovations are needed to achieve the 'thousand dollar genome' that many feel is prerequisite to personalized genomic medicine. These advances will also allow new approaches to a variety of problems in biology, evolution and the environment.


The introduction of hydrophilic groups, such as -COOH, -SO3, -OH, -O-, into the polyurethane resin, so that waterborne polyurethane products in the water resistance, solvent resistance, weather and other aspects of performance are worse than solvent borne systems. In our work, to improve the water resistance of the films for waterborne polyurethane, we incorporated C=C bond into the side chain of polyurethane by using pentaerythritol diacrylate as an extension agent. By measuring the cured polyurethane films absorption and mechanical properties, we determine the conditions for UV curing, 3% TMPME, photoinitiator (2959) and to UV light application time for 30s. With the increase of the amount PEDA, water resistance, hardness and tensile strength increase. Furthermore, with the improved water resistance, it is hoped that the performance of waterborne polyurethane can be comparative or superior to the solvent-borne systems.


PT ABC is a company that develops business and products in the electronics fields for industry and infrastructure. One of the products produced by PT ABC is E-KTP Reader. Basically, E-KTP Reader consists of two main parts, upper casing and lower casing. Based on observations, process time for each workstation is greater than a predetermined time by the company. The longest process time is in workstation to assemble lower casing. The observation time is 12, 3 minutes and the predetermined time is 5,5 minutes. Work environment is expected as the causes of the long process time. The components are placed in different table with working table. Then, the components for upper and lower casing are not separated and labeled. Motion study and the application of 5S are used to improve work environment. This improvement has been implemented for one times simulation and the process time succesfully reduced for about 249,5 seconds from 740,6 seconds to 491,1 seconds. Keyword : 5S, Motion Study, Work Environment


ERCC1-XPF is a mammalian structure specific endonuclease that incises at the junction of double and 3' single-stranded DNA. ERCC1-XPF and its homologs are implicated in multiple DNA repair pathways including, nucleotide excision repair, interstrand crosslink repair, double strand break repair, repair of AP sites, and telomere maintenance, making it essential for viability. The pleiotropic phenotypes of ERCC1-XPF deficiency in humans, range from the cancer-predisposition syndrome xeroderma pigmentosum to the XPF-ERCC1 progeroid syndrome, a disease of accelerated aging.This document concentrates on dissecting the role of ERCC1-XPF in crosslink repair, elucidating the mechanisms underlying the dramatic phenotypic differences in patients with inherited XPF mutations, and exploring the utility of ERCC1 and XPF as biomarkers of tumor prognosis.Ercc1 and Xpf knockout mice are phenocopies, illustrating that the two proteins function exclusively as a heterodimer. These models present a progeroid phenotype, reflected in some patients with XPF or ERCC1 mutations. We hypothesize that this accelerated aging is consequent on a failure to repair crosslinks, which are highly cytotoxic DNA lesions. The crosslink repair mechanism in animals remains poorly elucidated and the exact relationship of ERCC1-XPF to other players in this pathway, largely unexplored. Herein we show that ERCC1-XPF functions in the same pathway of crosslink repair as the Fanconi anemia proteins and that crosslink unhooking by ERCC1-XPF is required for the efficient binding of FANCD2 to the chromatin.The pleiotropy of phenotypes associated with human ERCC1-XPF deficiency is puzzling. Often, the severity of phenotype does not correlate with the DNA incising ability of the mutant proteins. We show here that the phenotypic heterogeneity is at least partially explained by the mislocalization of mutant proteins to the cytoplasm. The public health importance of this work comes from the increasing interest in the regulation of ERCC1-XPF expression and activity, due to its involvement in DNA repair pathways implicated in the resistance of tumors to platinum-based chemotherapy. A panel of antibodies was tested extensively and optimized for use in clinical measurement of ERCC1-XPF. This will facilitate improved measurement of DNA repair proteins in clinical specimens and greater understanding of the mechanisms of tumor resistance to genotoxic therapy.


Museums are exploring new ways of using emerging digital technologies to enhance the visitor experience. In this context, our research focuses on designing, developing and studying interactions for museum exhibits that introduce cultural concepts in ways that are tangible and embodied. We introduce here a tangible tabletop installation piece that was designed for a museum exhibition contrasting Western and African notions of mapping history and place. Inspired by the Lukasa board, a mnemonic device used by the Luba peoples in Central Africa, the tabletop piece enables visitors to learn and understand symbolic and nonlinguistic mapping concepts that are central to the Lukasa by creating and sharing stories with each other. In this paper we share our design process, a user study focusing on children and learning, and design implications on how digital and tangible interaction technologies can be used for cultural learning in museum exhibits.


The application of a novel Takagi-Sugeno (TS) fuzzy-model-based approach to prohibit the onset of subharmonic instabilities in dc-dc power electronic converters is presented in this paper. The use of a model-based fuzzy approach derived from an average mathematical model to control the nonlinearities in power electronic converters has been reported in the literature, but this is known to act as a low-pass filter, thus ignoring all nonlinear phenomena occurring at converter clock frequency. This paper shows how converter fast-scale instabilities can be captured by extending the TS fuzzy modeling concept to nonsmooth dynamical systems by combining the TS fuzzy modeling technique with nonsmooth Lyapunov stability theory. The new method is applied to the current-mode-controlled boost converter to demonstrate how the stability analysis can be directly applied by formularizing the stability conditions as a numerical problem using linear matrix inequalities. Based on this methodology, a new type of switching fuzzy controller is proposed. The resulting control scheme is able to maintain the stable period-one behavior of the converter over a wide range of operating conditions while improving the transient response of the circuit.


In order to study the influence on structural vibration from pre-stress and eccentricity, a experiment is designed. After analyzing the experimental results of 9 groups of modal tests on a post-tensioned unbonded pre-stress concrete beam, the following conclusions can be drawn: The influences on first order vibration frequency which are caused by eccentricity and pre-stress really exist. The rules of influences brought about by eccentricity and pre-stress on first order vibration frequency are complicated. When the eccentricity is close to the centroid, the linear correlation between the pre-stress and the first natural frequency will be good, on the contrary, the nonlinear will be strengthened. The first order vibrational frequency of the tested beam will go up with the increase of pre-stress.


Cache coherency plays an important role in the efficiency of a cooperative proxy cache system. In this paper we propose two new cache coherency policies, namely TTL-PI-C and TTL-PI-A to maintain the consistency of cached Web documents in our selfconfigured, self-managed P2P proxy cache system. Bo th policies take advantage of flowing Web cache lines among peer proxies that is a vital feature of our P 2P proxy cache system. We exercise these policies in conjunction with our Criteria Weighted (CW) cache replacement algorithm and study the cache coherency effects using extensive simulations. We further ext end the TTL-PI-A policy into Adaptive TTL-PI that uses the number of replicas known to a certain proxy to dynamically determine the TTL value. The results sh ow that the proposed policies improve the stale access ratios and the average cost bearing (in terms of bandwidth utilization) by commendable margins as compared to the traditional TTL based cache coherency policy.


A new method for magnetic interpretation has been developed based on the generalization of the analytic signal concept to three dimensions. The absolute value of the analytic signal is defined as the square root of the squared sum of the vertical and the two horizontal derivatives of the magnetic field. This signal exhibits maxima over magnetization contrasts, independent of the ambient magnetic field and source magnetization directions. Locations of these maxima thus determine the outlines of magnetic sources. Under the assumption that the anomalies are caused by vertical contacts, the analytic signal is used to estimate depth using a simple amplitude half-width rule. Two examples are shown of the application of the method. In the first example, the analytic signal highlights a circular feature beneath Lake Huron that has been identified as a possible impact crater. The second example illustrates the continuation of terranes across the Cabot Strait between Cape Breton and Newfoundland in eastern Canada.


The U.K. power sector is facing a series of significant challenges. Wholesale prices have fallen 40% over the past two years. Fierce competition in the retail market has prevented full recovery of this slump through electricity supply operations. Some independent power projects with significant merchant exposure are having difficulty supporting high, acquisition-related debt incurred during the late 1990s with operational cash flow. While power purchase agreements are not regarded as "money in the bank" for projects, their advantage in mitigating a sharp deterioration in the overall market has come to the fore. The volatility introduced by the new market environment also calls for intensified and expanded analysis in several areas including complementing market studies with empirical market data, focusing on downside sensitivities, focusing on liquidity more than before, and analyzing trading capacity and marketing risk management. The lessons learned after the introduction of NETA in England and Wales also have some relevance to markets in continental Europe and elsewhere.


This essay traces the intense interrelatedness of the three discourses that we now consider distinct but that ask similar questions about the existential value of life and the relationship between spiritual and temporal matters. Law, literature, and theology address crucial and complementary issues of epistemology—that is, questions of evidence-based knowledge and how we ground our ethical deliberations on these evidential foundations.


Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus) were studied for thirteen months in the upper Langtang Valley, Nepal, between 3,500mand 4,600m. Two populations, numbering about.170 and 50 goats, each2occupied areas of 7km. Both populations appeared to be reproducing-2well. Density varied between 5 and 46 animals km depending on habitat and the amount of competition with livestock. Mean group size was 14.8, based on a total of 239 sightings. The largest number of animals seen together was 77. Groups mainly consisted of adult males or adult females and juveniles (both sexes), except during the rut when groups of mixed sex and age categories predominated. Adult females and juveniles maintained the same home ranges throughout the year; they often migrated about 700m vertically every day. Adult males tended to range laterally. Over the year an average of 70% of daylight hours were spent feeding, but adult males spent significantly less time feeding than adult females and juveniles during the rut. Animals fed most intensively in the early morning and late afternoon and rested around midday. This pattern of daily activity varied seasonally with day- length. Juveniles showed more aggression than adults of either sex; adult females were antagonistic during courtship; adult males were never seen fighting each other. The rut lasted, from about November until mid-February; most mating probably occurred in December. Young were born between mid-June and mid-July. The diet was investigated by faecal analysis. The mean composition of the faeces over the year was 34% grasses, 21% sedges, 27% dicotyledons, 4% ferns, 4% mosses and 11% unknown species, but there were significant seasonal differences. Although domestic animals competed with tahr for grazing grounds certain rugged terrain, inhabited by tahr, was inaccessible to livestock... Thus, conservation measures are not considered to be necessary in the immediate future.


Unidirectional L-alanine acetate (LAlA) single crystal was grown for the first time and reported. The grown crystal was characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) studies to confirm the crystal structure. Investigation has been carried out to assign the vibrational frequencies of the grown crystals by Fourier Transform infrared (FT-IR) and Fourier Transform Raman (FT-Raman) spectroscopy technique. The mechanical properties of the grown crystals have been studied using Vickers microhardness tester. The Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) in the sample was confirmed and estimated by Nd: YAG laser employing the Kurtz and Perry powder technique. The laser damage threshold of the grown crystal was also found. Thermal stability of the grown crystal was determined by Thermogravimetic (TG) and Differential theromogravimetric (DTG) analysis. Dielectric and photoconductivity studies were also carried out for the grown LAlA crystals.


This paper describes and evaluates a 3-D kinematic controller for passively-steered rovers. Passively-steered rovers have no steering motors, but rely on differential wheel velocities to change the axle steer angles. This passive steering design is reliable and efficient but more challenging to control than powered steering designs, especially when driving on rough terrain. A controller based on 2-D kinematics fails to accurately maintain the desired trajectory when traversing obstacles. The presented 3-D kinematic controller uses inertial and proprioceptive sensing to modify commanded steer angles and wheel velocities, greatly improving steering accuracy. Validation in simulation and physical experiments is presented. These results are significant because they establish the viability of the passive-steering configuration for precise navigation.


The purpose of this study was to analyze similarities and differences in how students with disabilities are identified in national databases. National data collection programs in the U.S. Departments of Education, Commerce, Labor, Justice, and Health and Human Services, as well as databases from the National Science Foundation, the American Council of Education, and the College Board, were examined. Nineteen national data collection programs were selected as being potentially useful in the extraction of policy-relevant information on the educational status and performance of students with disabilities. Among these 19 programs there was significant variability in the disability categories used. These programs were targeted for two reasons: (a) their potential usefulness in providing indicators of domains in key models of educational outcomes for children and youth with disabilities, and (b) their prominence in current efforts to monitor progress toward the attainment of national education goals. Discussed are issues related to improving disability identification in large-scale data collection programs and the effects of these issues on reporting policy-relevant information.


The prevalence of end-stage renal disease (ESRD) has increased globally to 10% due to diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and stroke. When chronic kidney disease (CKD) maintenance therapy fails, patients require renal replacement therapy (RRT) to survive, such as peritoneal dialysis (PD), hemodialysis, and renal transplantation. The most common therapy in Mexico is PD because it is a feasible, low-cost, and easy-to-perform procedure; however, fluid overload is a frequent condition in patients with this RRT modality. The usual adverse comorbidities in patients with PD are cardiovascular diseases (CVD) associated to atherosclerosis, uremia, inflammation, and oxidative stress. Fluid overload is intimately associated to hypertension, left ventricular hypertrophy, heart failure, and worsening of kidney failure, leading to increased hospital admissions, higher cardiovascular mortality, and reduced life expectancy. Two main pathologies are involved in the deterioration of both heart and kidney functions, namely, cardiorenal syndrome and uremic cardiomyopathy. Along with these phenomena, patients in PD with rapid peritoneal transport have reduced ultrafiltration, increased glucose absorption, and albumin loss in the dialysate, which lead to overhydration, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and malnutrition. This review focuses on the clinical, physiological, and biochemical mechanisms involved in fluid overload of patients with CKD undergoing PD.


Abstract Over the past two decades, the financial markets have become more competitive resulting in diminishing profit margins and blurring distinctions between banks, insurers and brokerage firms. Hence, nowadays a small number of large institutions offering a wider set of services dominate the financial-services industry. These developments stimulated the implementation of Customer Relationship Management (CRM). Given the increasing customer-acquisition cost, marketers realize that the best prospects for the sales of current and new financial services are the current customers. So cross-sell actions are created to motivate existing customers to use additional services from the firm. A great opportunity lies in cross-selling insurance products to bank clients and vice versa. In this study, we investigate purchase patterns of financial services from an international financial institution to identify cross-selling opportunities. We introduce the Mixture Transition Distribution model (MTD) as a parsimonious alternative to the Markov model enabling the estimation of high-order Markov chains and facilitating the interpretation by providing a much smaller transition matrix and lag parameters. Our results are in favor of the MTD model.


The problems associated with multipath routing in Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for Autonomous Systems (ASes) can be solved with some model or control systems from the Software Defined Networking (SDN). The SdN controller could be used to solve the inconsistencies in the scalability and latency of the Routing Information Base (RIB) of ASes. Also, a set of modules for Inter-AS routing and Brokering could be managed successfully. A good number of solutions are provided for multipath routing issues in this sense of solving critical parameters like Brokering system of Inter-AS, the increase in response time to disaster, load balancing, reliability of the route between ASes with the new paradigm of SDN and enabling technologies. We believe that the advent of software enabled network and machine will not only enable scalable inter-domain routing with defined policies, but it is achievable with optimum result.


Reliability, availability and maintainability determine whether or not a large-scale accelerator system can be operated in a sustainable, cost-effective manner. Beam transfer equipment (e.g. kicker magnets) has potentially significant impact on the global performance of a machine complex. Identifying root causes of malfunctions is currently tedious, and will become infeasible in future systems due to increasing complexity. Machine Learning could automate this process. For this purpose a collaboration between CERN and KU Leuven was established. We present an anomaly detection pipeline which includes preprocessing, detection, postprocessing and evaluation. Merging data of different, asynchronous sources is one of the main challenges. Currently, Gaussian Mixture Models and Isolation Forests are used as unsupervised detectors. To validate, we compare to manual e-logbook entries, which constitute a noisy ground truth. A grid search allows for hyper-parameter optimization across the entire pipeline. Lastly, we incorporate expert knowledge by means of semisupervised clustering with COBRAS.


Due to the relationships between human, technical and organizational factors, process industries can be considered as complex systems for which risk assessment is a key activity in order to promote a sustainable industrial development. This consideration is particularly significant for SEVESO industries that must provide safety reports to the public authorities and inspection services. The core of the safety report is mainly dedicated to the risk assessment which needs to model the industrial system with regards to its complexity. Most often this step is partially treated, or simplified or avoided. In the same time, accidents investigations have shown that their occurrence is frequently related to the complexity of industrial systems too. In order to take into account the complexity of the industrial systems and their spatial and temporal dynamic, this paper aims to propose a method based on the System Dynamics theory developed by Forrester in the 60's in order to model and simulate the behavior of a technical system. This methodology is applied in the context of risk assessment and contributes to support the development of a Dynamic Risk Assessment Framework dedicated to such economical activities. This framework includes four complementary steps applied in a case study: i) the modeling of the system using the systemic theory principles and terms; ii) the implementation of this model into a Dynamic System platform for its simulation; iii) the simulation of the system using normal and abnormal scenarios in order to identify and to estimate the consequences of the potential deviations; iv) the assessment of the proposed barriers efficiency. As a conclusion, the paper presents the benefits and limits of this approach in the safety reports and proposes ways to improve and generalize the proposed methodology and to implement the framework.


A set of kinetic differential equations relevant to the bleaching and excitation of thermoluminescence for the case of a single trapping state for electrons and a single variety of hole-recombination centre has recently been described and solved numerically. An approximate analytical solution to these equations is presented and the result compared with numerical solutions; good agreement between the analytical and numerical results is obtained. A simple analytical expression is given for the final equilibrium density of electrons at e-traps and the occupation number density of holes at r-centres, in terms of the initial densities of these carriers, and the recombination and trapping probabilities. These equilibrium values are found to be the same for both types of carrier. Furthermore, these equilibrium values do not have a very strong dependence on the incident irradiation intensity. The analysis also allows one, by a simple extension, to account for the wavelength dependence of the incident radiation. Other results that cannot be easily formulated with a purely numerical approach are also obtained. For instance, the conditions under which increases (excitation) and decreases (bleaching) in the electron density occur are given.


This course is cross listed as 342 with: AGRON, ENV S, FSHN. This course guide is for students from the 342 class: World Food Issues: Past and Present.


BACKGROUND
Invasive aspergillosis (IA) is a life-threatening systemic fungal infection in immunocompromised individuals that is caused by Aspergillus fumigatus. The human serum opsonin, L-ficolin, has been observed to recognize A. fumigatus and could participate in fungal defense.

METHODS
Using lung epithelial cells, primary human monocyte-derived macrophages (MDMs), and neutrophils from healthy donors, we assessed phagocytosis and killing of L-ficolin-opsonized live A. fumigatus conidia by flow cytometry and microscopy. Additionally, cytokines were measured by cytometric bead array, and L-ficolin was measured in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid from lung transplant recipients by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

RESULTS
L-ficolin opsonization increased conidial uptake and enhanced killing of A. fumigatus by MDMs and neutrophils. Opsonization was also shown to manifest an increase in interleukin 8 release from A549 lung epithelial cells but decreased interleukin 1β, interleukin 6, interleukin 8, interleukin 10, and tumor necrosis factor α release from MDMs and neutrophils 24 hours after infection. The concentration of L-ficolin in BAL fluid from patients with fungal infection was significantly higher than that for control subjects (P = .00087), and receiving operating characteristic curve analysis highlighted the diagnostic potential of L-ficolin for lung infection (area under the curve, 0.842; P < .0001).

CONCLUSIONS
L-ficolin modulates the immune response to A. fumigatus. Additionally, for the first time, L-ficolin has been demonstrated to be present in human lungs.