Background: Comprehensive geriatric assessment (CGA) has been shown to improve outcomes in hospitalised older adults; however, there is currently no compelling evidence to support CGA interventions within the Emergency Department (ED). The aim of this study is to explore the clinical and process outcomes of older adults who receive ED-CGA over a period of six months after their initial ED attendance. Design: Prospective cohort study. Methods: The STrengthening the Reporting of the OBservational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) standardised reporting guidelines will be adhered to. Older adults aged ≥65 years who score ≥2 on the Identification of Seniors at Risk (ISAR) tool and present to the ED with a medical complaint during the operational hours of the dedicated interdisciplinary team, will be considered eligible for recruitment. Demographic and health assessment information will be obtained at the ED index attendance followed by completion of an interdisciplinary CGA. A dedicated research nurse will complete follow-up telephone interviews with participants at 30 days and six months. The primary outcome will be incidence of hospital admission from the ED index attendance. Secondary outcomes will include functional decline, patient satisfaction with the ED index attendance, unscheduled ED reattendance(s), unscheduled hospital (re)admission(s), nursing home admission(s), healthcare utilisation, and death. Descriptive statistics will be used to profile the characteristics of the study participants and multivariate logistic and linear regression analysis will be used to analyse risk of adverse outcomes. Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval was granted by the University of Limerick Hospital Group Research Ethics Committee (107/2021). The authors will disseminate study findings through publication in a peer-reviewed journal and presentation at national and international conferences. Patient and public involvement will be sought from a panel of older adults at the Ageing Research Centre in the University of Limerick. Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT05252182.


The following guidelines were developed for the medical assessment services of the German Federal Insurance Institute for Salaried Employees (BfA). Starting from day-to-day practice, criteria and attributes to guide decisions for a systemisation of the sociomedical assessment of performance in discopathy or associated diseases were compiled. The guidelines aim at standardising the sociomedical assessment of performance and help to make the decision-making process more transparent -- e. g. for the assessment of applications for decreased earning capacity benefits. The guidelines summarise typical manifestations of discopathy or associated diseases and describe the necessary medical information for the sociomedical assessment of performance. Relevant assessment criteria for the medical history, clinical examination, and for diagnostic tests are illustrated. The assessment of the individual's capacity is outlined, taking occupational factors into account. Following the determination of dysfunctions the remaining abilities and disabilities, respectively, are deduced and compared with occupational demands. Finally, inferences are drawn regarding the occupational capacity of the individual. Guidelines for the sociomedical assessment of performance in coronary heart disease (CHD) have been published in Gesundheitswesen 2002, 64: 451-465.


Studies of sensory, cognitive, and communicative skills of bottlenose dolphins ( Tursiops truncatus ) were carried out over a Findings on sensory skills included fine discrimination of auditory frequency differences and auditory duration, good visual resolution capabilities in water and in air, and sharing of object recognition across the senses of vision and echolocation. Short-term memory for auditory and visual materials was well developed, including memory for lists of items. Concept learning was demonstrated within several paradigms, including discrimination learning sets and matching-to-sample. Dolphins understood novel instructions conveyed within artificial gestural or acoustic language systems using "sentences" as long as five words whose interpretation required processing of both the semantic and syntactic features of the languages. Gestural instructions were understood as reliably when conveyed through television images of trainers as when conveyed by live trainers. The words of these languages were understood referentially, including an ability to report whether a referenced object was present or absent in the dolphin's tank. Both vocal mimicry of novel sounds and behavioral (motor) mimicry of other dolphins and of humans was demonstrated, an extensive and unique dual ability among animals tested, including an understanding of the concept of imitate as well as an understanding of the concept of behavioral synchrony. Behavioral synchrony (two dolphins acting together) was carried out effectively for behaviors directed by a trainer and for self-directed behaviors. The dolphins understood the referring function of the human pointing gesture, possibly as a generalization from the referring function of their echolocation beam. Self-awareness was demonstrated in two domains: the dolphin's conscious awareness of its own recent behavior, and its conscious awareness of its own body parts when symbolically referenced. This suite of findings attest to the remarkable flexibility and extensibility of dolphin cognition and reveals cognitive competencies that surely aid the dolphin's effective functioning within its complex social and ecological milieu.


Cutaneous cysts are common non-neoplastic, non-inflammatory tumor-like lesions defined as epithelial-lined sac-like structures filled with keratin, hair and sebum (Scott and others 2001). Follicular cysts are classified as infundibular, isthmus-catagen, matrical and hybrid, based on the type of lining epithelium indicative of the origin of the cyst (Scott and others 2001, Gross and others 2006). In particular, infundibular cysts are characterised by squamous epithelium with an evident granular layer, and arise from the infundibulum of the hair follicle (Gross and others 2006). Very few reports of multiple/disseminated follicular cysts have been described in species including dogs, alpacas, sheep, pet birds, horses and human beings (Scott and others 2001, Ginel and others 2007, Ginn and others 2007, Newkirk and Frank 2011).

This case series describes the development of disseminated infundibular cysts in five dogs and one cat. The term 'disseminated' is preferred over 'multiple' to better describe the presence of multifocal lesions involving the entire body.

The cases enrolled in this series are characterised by a history of progressive development of multiple cutaneous cysts over the entire body. Cases 1–4 were presented to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH), while cases 5 and 6 were submitted to the diagnostic laboratory for histopathological evaluation only. See Table 1 for the signalment for each case.

View this table:

TABLE 1:
Case signalment table

Historical information revealed that the first lesions were noticed as single to …


HIV-1-specific cellular immunity serves to eliminate infected cells and disease. However, how this process specifically affects the CNS is poorly understood. To mirror the regulatory events that occur in human brain after HIV-1 infection, a murine model of viral encephalitis was used to study relationships, over time, among lymphocyte-mediated infected cell elimination, innate immune responses, and neuropathology. Nonobese diabetic SCID mice were reconstituted with human PBL and a focal encephalitis induced by intracranial injection of autologous HIV-1-infected, monocyte-derived macrophages (MDM). On days 7, 14, and 21 after MDM injection into the basal ganglia, the numbers of human lymphocytes and mouse monocytes, virus-infected MDM, glial (astrocyte and microglial) responses, cytokines, inducible NO (iNOS), neurotrophic factors, and neuronal Ags were determined in brain by immunohistochemistry, real-time PCR, and Western blot assays. Microglia activation, astrocytosis, proinflammatory cytokines, and iNOS expression accompanied the loss of neuronal Ags. This followed entry of human lymphocytes and mouse monocytes into the brain on days 7 and 14. Elimination of virus-infected human MDM, expression of IL-10, neurotropins, and a down-regulation of iNOS coincided with brain tissue restoration. Our results demonstrate that the degree of tissue damage and repair parallels the presence of infected macrophages and effectors of innate and adaptive immunity. This murine model of HIV-1 encephalitis can be useful in elucidating the role played by innate and adaptive immunity in disease progression and resolution. The Journal of Immunology, 2004, 172: 7610–7617.


Objective: Our aim was to compare the composition and diversity of Lactobacillus microbiota in infants living in Malawi and Southwestern Finland. Methods: The composition and diversity of the Lactobacillus group was analyzed in the feces of healthy 6-month-old infants living in rural Malawi (n = 44) and Southwestern Finland (n = 31), using the quantitative polymerase chain reaction method and PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis fingerprinting. Results: Malawian infants had higher counts of lactobacilli than their Finnish counterparts (7.45 log cells/g vs 6.86 log cells/g, P < 0.001, respectively) and the Lactobacillus community was richer and more diverse in the Malawian infants. Leuconostoc citreum and Weissella confusa were the predominant species in both study groups, but Malawian infants were more often colonized by these species (100% vs 74.2%, P < 0.001; 95.5% vs 41.9%, P < 0.001, respectively). Moreover, Lactobacillus ruminis, Lactobacillus gasseri, Lactobacillus acidophilus, and Lactobacillus mucosae were detected more often in the Malawian infants (59.1% vs 0.0%, P < 0.001; 38.6% vs 9.7%, P = 0.004; 29.5% vs 0.0%, P < 0.001; 22.7% vs 3.2%, P = 0.017, respectively). Lactobacillus casei group species, however, were only detected in the Finnish infants. Conclusions: Malawian infants have a more abundant Lactobacillus microbiota with a distinct composition compared with Finnish infants. The environment, including diet and hygiene, may be among the factors influencing these differences.


We present calculations of the change in phase speed of one train of water waves in the presence of another. We use a general method, based on Zakharov's (1968) integral equation. It is shown that the change in phase speed of each wavetrain is directly proportional to the square of the amplitude of the other. This generalizes the work of Longuet-Higgins & Phillips (1962) who considered gravity waves only. In the important case of gravity-capillary waves, we present the correct form of the Zakharov kernel. This is used to find the expressions for the changes in phase speed. These results are then checked using a perturbation method based on that of Longuet-Higgins & Phillips (1962). Agreement to 6 significant digits has been obtained between the calculations based on these two distinct methods. Full numerical results in the form of polar diagrams over a wide range of wavelengths, away from conditions of triad resonance, are provided.


WEBGOP is a programming architecture for collaborative Web services using graph-oriented programming. The motivation for the project comes from the realization that the integration of collaborative Web services lacks support. The aim of WEBGOP is to extend the Web from a client-server system to a structured multipoint system. A graph abstraction of the network provides the structure for the integration of Web services and facilitates their configuration and programming. Using WEBGOP, a logical graph representing a virtual-overlay network over the Internet is created to link up collaborative Web services. Web services are individually or jointly invoked through either unicast or multicast messages within the overlay network. All messages are based on the simple-object access protocol (SOAP). This forms an extension of the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) to support the distributed invocation of Web services. The Web services on different servers work collaboratively for a multipoint network application. This project provides a structured integration of Web services by extending the support of intermediary processing in a multipoint service. It also provides a rich network-programming interface for a new class of integrated Web applications while retaining the use of the Internet protocol and HTTP.


In this paper, we aim to establish a holistic framework that integrates the cyber-physical layers of a cloud-enabled Internet of Controlled Things (IoCT) through the lens of contract theory. At the physical layer, the device uses cloud services to operate the system. The quality of cloud services is unknown to the device, and hence the device designs a menu of contracts to enable a reliable and incentive-compatible service. Based on the received contracts, the cloud service provider (SP) serves the device by determining its optimal cyber defense strategy. A contract-based FlipCloud game is used to assess the security risk and the cloud quality of service (QoS) under advanced persistent threats. The contract design approach creates a pricing mechanism for on-demand security as a service for cloud-enabled IoCT. By focusing on high and low QoS types of cloud SPs, we find that the contract design can be divided into two regimes (regimes I and II) with respect to the provided cloud QoS. Specifically, the physical devices whose optimal contracts are in regime I always request the best possible cloud security service. In contrast, the device only asks for a cloud security level that can stabilize the system when the optimal contracts lie in regime II. We illustrate the obtained results via case studies of a cloud-enabled smart home.


To mitigate the microgrid instability despite the presence of dense Constant Power Load (CPL) loads in the system, a number of compensation techniques have already been gone through extensive research, proposed, and implemented around the world. In this paper, a storage based load side compensation technique is used to enhance stability of microgrids. Besides adopting this technique here, Sliding Mode Controller (SMC) and Lyapunov Redesign Controller (LRC), two of the most prominent nonlinear control techniques, are individually implemented to control microgrid system stability with desired robustness. CPL power is then varied to compare robustness of these two control techniques. This investigation revealed the better performance of the LRC system compared to SMC to retain stability in microgrid with dense CPL load. All the necessary results are simulated in Matlab/Simulink platform for authentic verification. Reasons behind inferior SMC performance and ways to mitigate that are also discussed. Finally, the effectiveness of SMC and LRC systems to attain stability in real microgrids is verified by numerical analysis.


The authors explore the feasibility of adding a performance option to DOE's EnergyStar Windows program whereby windows of differing U-factors and SHGCs can qualify so long as they have equivalent annual energy performance. An iterative simulation procedure is used to calculate trade-off equations giving the change in SHGC needed to compensate for a change in U-factor. Of the four EnergyStar Window climate zones, trade-off equations are possible only in the Northern and Southern zones. In the North/Central and South/Central zones, equations are not possible either because of large intrazone climate variations or the current SHGC requirements are already near optimum.


Received June 16, 2006 Abstract To date, 17 children with perinatally-acquired human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection have been diagnosed and reported in Hong Kong. We reported on our experience at Queen Mary Hospital with 8 of the 11 children diagnosed in 2000. Since then, 4 more children have been referred to us. This study reports on these new patients as well as provides an update on the existing patients from May 2000 to May 2006. Two of the four new patients had AIDS at the time of diagnosis. All patients were given highly active antiretroviral therapy. Over 80% of the infected children had long-term undetectable HIV viral load after initiation of treatment, the longest duration being 7 years to date. Changes in management as a result of immune reconstitution in these children included the discontinuation of monthly IVIG infusion in some children and the discontinuation of primary prophylaxis against Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia, formerly Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP). Disclosure was an important issue as the children were growing older. With the exception of one 4 years old boy who was too young, full disclosure was achieved in half of the patients with a mean age of 8.9 years. As these medically well children enter adolescence, additional services including support with disclosure to others, self acceptance, therapy and sexual health would be needed.


The ongoing power shift within the global economy calls into question the established structures of multilateral decision-making. Mainly two factors are responsible for the growing governance gap in international affairs. As the emerging powers of the South gain new prominence, the G7/G8 summit of the leading industrial countries, correspondingly, loses in significance. And as ever before, the United Nations do not provide effective mechanisms for policy coordination and collective action in economic and social affairs. In order to simultaneously enhance the effectiveness and legitimacy in global governance two complementary tracks need to be undertaken in tandem: First, the UN's ECOSOC has to be reformed in a way which allows it to function as an effective platform of global policy advocacy and coordination on economic and development issues. Second, the present G20 of Finance Ministers and Central Bankers needs to be elevated to the level of heads of state and government to become a Leaders' 20 Summit or L20.


ABSTRACT Green capsicums (Capsicum annum L.) were stored under low pressure (4 kPa) at 10°C for 5 and 11 days with 100% RH. The results showed that the incidence of stem decay under low-pressure storage for 5 and 11 days and storage at ambient atmosphere at 20°C for 3 days was lower compared to fruits that were stored at regular atmosphere at 10°C. Fruit that had been stored at low pressure at 10°C had no symptoms of flesh rots for up to 11 days, whilst fruit which had been stored at regular atmosphere at 10°C had 6% flesh rots after 11 days storage at 10°C.There was no difference in flesh firmness and colour retention between fruits stored at low pressure and regular pressure at 10°C. Capsicums stored at low pressure had higher overall acceptability compared to fruit that were stored at regular atmosphere at 10°C. These results demonstrate the potential of low pressure storage as an effective technique to manage capsicum fruit quality, however, there was no additional benefit when fruits were stored at low pressure for more than 5 days.


Little is known about how the internal structures of explosive calderas vary with time, and whether this can affect magma differentiation, eruption behaviour and periodicity. Some exhumed calderas underwent a single piecemeal collapse – e.g. Scafell caldera, UK (Branney and Kokelaar, 1994), however this study tests whether some calderas become more intensely fractured with time due to successive distinct caldera-collapse eruptions. This scenario might lead to more frequent, smaller eruptions over time (noncyclic); magma leakage through an increasingly fractured volcano might also lead to less evolved compositions with time due to shorter residence times (Ferriz and Mahood, 1984). This could have important implications for predicting future catastrophic eruptions. This study revisits the modern ~20 km diameter hydrothermally active Los Humeros caldera (México) where this hypothesis was first formulated, to see how well the structural evolution can be reconstructed, and whether changes in structure affected the styles and periodicity of eruptions. Detailed structural mapping, documentation of draping and cross-cutting field relations, together with logging, petrography, XRF major and trace element geochemistry, 40 Ar39 Ar and radiocarbon dating of the pyroclastic stratigraphy has revealed that: (1) eruptions were less frequent after the second major caldera collapse (the ~10 km diameter nested Los Potreros caldera); (2) both calderaforming and smaller explosive eruption volumes decreased by an order of magnitude over ~460 ka; (3) changes in eruption periodicity and magnitude were driven by the rate of magma replenishment, possibly superimposed over caldera cyclicity; (4) the last ~230 ka records the repeated tapping, fractionation and replenishment/re-heating of an evolved magma body; (5) the arrival of exotic, primitive magma triggered the second caldera-forming eruption and caused extensive post-caldera collapse magma mixing; (6) mapping has revealed many structural features that conform to observations at ancient calderas and analogue models; (7) Los Potreros caldera subsided in two discrete stages.


Color histogram matching has been shown to be a promising way of quickly indexing into a large image database. Yet, few experiments have been done to test the method on truly large databases, and even if they were performed, they would give little guidance to a user wondering if the technique would be useful with his or her database. In this paper we define and analyze a measure relevant to extending color histogram indexing to large databases: capacity (how many distinguishable histograms can be stored).<<ETX>>


This report reviews the use of technology for automated enforcement of traffic laws around the world and across the United States, especially red-light running and speeding, with a focus on Minnesota. Automated enforcement to tag red-light runners and speeders is common internationally and domestically. The report reviews evidence and suggests how Minnesota can use automated enforcement to improve safety, cut deaths and injuries, and reduce the appalling annual cost of property damage due to motor vehicle crashes. Citizens of libertarian bent resent laws requiring that they protect themselves while allowing society to absorb extraordinary costs when they or others are injured or killed in traffic crashes. Others express fundamental resentment of "intrusive government" at all levels and the traffic rules governments impose. Thus, linking automated enforcement technology with effective and politically acceptable public policy presents genuine public safety and public-health challenges. Chapters summarize the high cost of crashes; problems and behaviors linked to red-light running and speeding; case studies of automated enforcement of traffic laws; the short-lived Minneapolis "Stop-on-Red" program; the yellow-light phase controversy; Minnesota litigation ending the Minneapolis program; diverse political cultures and debates across the U.S. concerning automated enforcement; and best practices for implementing automated enforcement legislation and programs. Five appendices summarize legal issues surrounding automated enforcement of traffic laws.


Zygomycosis is an important emerging fungal infection, associated with high morbidity and mortality. The Working Group on Zygomycosis of the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (ECMM) prospectively collected cases of proven and probable zygomycosis in 13 European countries occurring between 2005 and 2007. Cases were recorded by a standardized case report form, entered into an electronic database and analysed descriptively and by logistic regression analysis. During the study period, 230 cases fulfilled pre-set criteria for eligibility. The median age of the patients was 50 years (range, 1 month to 87 years); 60% were men. Underlying conditions included haematological malignancies (44%), trauma (15%), haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (9%) and diabetes mellitus (9%). The most common manifestations of zygomycosis were pulmonary (30%), rhinocerebral (27%), soft tissue (26%) and disseminated disease (15%). Diagnosis was made by both histology and culture in 108 cases (44%). Among 172 cases with cultures, Rhizopus spp. (34%), Mucor spp. (19%) and Lichtheimia (formerly Absidia) spp. (19%) were most commonly identified. Thirty-nine per cent of patients received amphotericin B formulations, 7% posaconazole and 21% received both agents; 15% of patients received no antifungal therapy. Total mortality in the entire cohort was 47%. On multivariate analysis, factors associated with survival were trauma as an underlying condition (p 0.019), treatment with amphotericin B (p 0.006) and surgery (p <0.001); factors associated with death were higher age (p 0.005) and the administration of caspofungin prior to diagnosis (p 0.011). In conclusion, zygomycosis remains a highly lethal disease. Administration of amphotericin B and surgery, where feasible, significantly improve survival.


Complications after dental extraction for diabetics are common, this work was made to compare between hemostatic and healing effects of 940 nm diode laser and hemostatic sponge on the dental alveolus in a diabetes patient. We report an instance of 50 years of age diabetic female with history of post extraction entanglements (draining and swelling) went to dental center for various extractions, at that point diode laser and hemostatic wipe were utilized to quit dying. Results showed that 940 nm diode laser was better than hemostatic sponge in coagulation and healing of the extraction area.


The rate of substitution of aqua ligands by three nucleophiles, thiourea (TU), N,N-dimethylthiourea (DMTU) and N,N,N,N-tetramethylthiourea (TMTU), for the complexes [cis-{PtOH2(NH3)2}2-μ-pyrazine](ClO4)2 (pzn), [cis-{PtOH2(NH3)2}2-μ-2,3-dimethylpyrazine](ClO4)2 (2,3pzn), [cis-{PtOH2(NH3)2}2-μ-2,5-pyrazine](ClO4)2 (2,5pzn) and [cis-{PtOH2(NH3)2}2-μ-2,6-dimethylpyrazine](ClO4)2 (2,6pzn) was investigated under pseudo first-order conditions as a function of concentration and temperature by stopped-flow and UV-Visible spectrophotometry. The reaction proceeded in three consecutive steps; each step follows first order kinetics with respect to each complex and nucleophile. The pseudo first-order rate constants, k(obs(1/2/3)), for sequential substitution of the aqua ligands and subsequent displacement of the linker obeyed the rate law: k(obs(1/2/3)) = k((1/2/3))[nucleophile]. The steric hindrance properties of the pyrazine-bridging ligand control the overall reaction pattern. The order of reactivity of the complexes is 2,3pzn ≈ 2,5pzn < 2,6pzn < pzn. The difference in reactivity attributed to the steric crowding at the Pt(II) centre imposed by the methyl groups reduces the lability of the aqua complexes. The order of reactivity of the nucleophiles decreases with the increase in steric demand TU > DMTU > TMTU. 1H and 195Pt NMR spectroscopic results confirmed the observed dissociation of the bridging ligand from the metal centre of the cis-dinuclear complexes and its derivatives in the third step. The dissociation process is accelerated by the introduction of the steric effect on the linker in conjunction with the increased ligand field strength imparted by additional thiourea ligands at each metal centre. The large negative entropy of activation ΔS(≠) values in all cases support an associative substitution mechanism.


The growth of BIM technologies and their uptake within the AEC industry presents a new context within which to consider opportunities for collaboration. This extends the idea of 'collaboration' as a closer relationship, cooperation and coordination between disciplines and consultants to improve efficiencies and reduce repetition. The industry is currently evaluating the potential advantages of collaborative modelling in the early stages of BIM acceptance and identifies new issues resulting as a consequence of centralisation of the model. Several of these issues parallel the scholastic impasse of student participation and the question of authorship. This paper will present a case study identifying attempts to develop design efficiencies within the AEC industry and describe research into new design teaching models. It will address the question of how design education might adapt or respond to new professional models of collaboration.


This review summarizes the proposed mechanisms for irreversible coalescence of cellulose microfibrils within fibers during various common industrial treatments for chemical pulp fibers as well as the methods to evaluate it. It is a phenomenon vital for cellulose accessibility but still under considerable debate. The proposed coalescence mechanisms include irreversible hydrogen bonding. Coalescence is induced by high temperature and by the absence of obstructing molecules, such as water, hemicelluloses, and lignin. The typical industrial processes, in the course of which nano-scale coalescence and possible aggregation of cellulose microfibrillar elements occurs, are drying and chemical pulping. Coalescence reduces cellulose accessibility and therefore, in several instances, the quality of cellulose as a raw material for novel products. The degree of coalescence also affects the processing and the quality of the products. For traditional paper-based products, the loss of strength properties is a major disadvantage. Some properties lost during coalescence can be restored to a certain extent by, e.g., beating. Several factors, such as charge, have an influence on the intensity of the coalescence. The evaluation of the phenomenon is commonly conducted by water retention value measurements. Other techniques, such as deuteration combined with FTIR spectroscopy, are being applied for better understanding of the changes in cellulose accessibility.


Since Intersection-over-Union (IoU) based optimization maintains the consistency of the final IoU prediction metric and losses, it has been widely used in both regression and classification branches of single-stage 2D object detectors. Recently, several 3D object detection methods adopt IoU-based optimization and directly replace the 2D IoU with 3D IoU. However, such a direct computation in 3D is very costly due to the complex implementation and inefficient backward operations. Moreover, 3D IoU-based optimization is sub-optimal as it is sensitive to rotation and thus can cause training instability and detection performance deterioration. In this paper, we propose a novel Rotation-Decoupled IoU (RDIoU) method that can mitigate the rotation-sensitivity issue, and produce more efficient optimization objectives compared with 3D IoU during the training stage. Specifically, our RDIoU simplifies the complex interactions of regression parameters by decoupling the rotation variable as an independent term, yet preserving the geometry of 3D IoU. By incorporating RDIoU into both the regression and classification branches, the network is encouraged to learn more precise bounding boxes and concurrently overcome the misalignment issue between classification and regression. Extensive experiments on the benchmark KITTI and Waymo Open Dataset validate that our RDIoU method can bring substantial improvement for the single-stage 3D object detection.


Plant growth-promoting bacteria can improve host plant traits including nutrient uptake and metabolism and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses. Understanding the molecular basis of plant–bacteria interactions using dual RNA-seq analyses provides key knowledge of both host and bacteria simultaneously, leading to future enhancements of beneficial interactions. In this study, dual RNA-seq analyses were performed to provide insights into the early-stage interactions between barley seedlings and three novel bacterial strains (two Paenibacillus sp. strains and one Erwinia gerundensis strain) isolated from the perennial ryegrass seed microbiome. Differentially expressed bacterial and barley genes/transcripts involved in plant–bacteria interactions were identified, with varying species- and strain-specific responses. Overall, transcriptome profiles suggested that all three strains improved stress response, signal transduction, and nutrient uptake and metabolism of barley seedlings. Results also suggested potential improvements in seedling root growth via repressing ethylene biosynthesis in roots. Bacterial secondary metabolite gene clusters producing compounds that are potentially associated with interactions with the barley endophytic microbiome and associated with stress tolerance of plants under nutrient limiting conditions were also identified. The results of this study provided the molecular basis of plant growth-promoting activities of three novel bacterial strains in barley, laid a solid foundation for the future development of these three bacterial strains as biofertilisers, and identified key differences between bacterial strains of the same species in their responses to plants.


The "lifestyle-related disease" has been increasing in Japan as the population advances in age and the food culture becomes westernized. Although prevention, treatment and therapy for this disease have been attempted using certain kinds of food and nutritive elements, so-called "health foods" such as DHA and EPA, which are mostly contained in fish oil, have been a special focus within these attempts. There have been many reports regarding the pharmacological functions and the mechanisms of DHA and EPA. Also, in the past few years, it has become possible to produce ingestible DHA and EPA oils, oils for chemical compounds, oils for animal feed, and highly purified DHA and EPA for medical and pharmaceutical use. EPA ethyl ester has a wide market as a preventive medicine in Japan. Initially in 1990, this medicine was administered in cases of arterisclerosis obliterans, using its anti-platelet aggregation ability. Four years later, in 1994, its effectiveness in triglyceride reduction was recognized, and its application was extended to cases of hyperlipidemia, which has remarkably broadened its market. Clinical studies with DHA have shown improvement in senile dementia (cerebral thrombosis, Alzheimer's disease), atopic dermatitis, and the ability to focus on moving objects, as well as control of aggressiveness against others caused by stress, and prevention of hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and cancer.


Complex networks connect businesses, consumers, and the artifacts they create, such as pages, products, and accounts. Modeling these networks can help focus on the characteristics that will be useful for understanding or predicting important ecommerce phenomena, such as product demand or illicit behavior. Our tutorial will cover various generic models of (i) the structure of complex networks, and (ii) the probabilistic dependencies among networked entities. We will then discuss practical examples where the different types of models have been or could be used in order to improve understanding or to improve performance. For example, models of the structure of social networks can improve the theoretical understanding of network effects (Sundararajan, 2007). Modeling the structure of co-purchase networks can help explain demand patterns in electronic commerce. Models of networked probabilistic dependencies can improve prediction tasks including the targeting of advertisements/offers (Hill, Provost and Volinsky, 2006), the detection of illicit behavior (such as fraud), and the identification of interesting Web pages. The tutorial will be largely self-contained. Attendees will be assumed to know basic economics, probability and statistics.


Abstract The old Das Adam Smith Problem is no longer tenable. Few today believe that Smith postulates two contradictory principles of human action: one in the Wealth of Nations and another in the Theory of Moral Sentiments. Nevertheless, an Adam Smith problem of sorts endures: there is still no widely agreed version of what it is that links these two texts, aside from their common author; no widely agreed version of how, if at all, Smith's postulation of self-interest as the organising principle of economic activity fits in with his wider moral-ethical concerns. We argue that the enduring Adam Smith problem may be solved by recourse to a realist perspective that recognises the different levels of social reality to which Smith refers in his discourse. Essential to Smith, we try to show, is the action-theoretic distinction between motive and capacity; between a typology of empirical human acts, on the one hand—self-love and benevolence in Smiths terminology—and the (non-empirical) condition of possibility of all human action—what Smith calls the sympathetic principle—on the other.


© 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Sport and Exercise Psychology Research: From Theory to Practice provides a comprehensive summary of new research in sport and exercise psychology from worldwide researchers. Encompassing theory, research, and applications, the book is split into several themed sections. Section 1 discusses basic antecedents to performance including fitness, practice, emotion, team dynamics, and more. Section 2 identifies factors influencing individual performance. Section 3 discusses applied sport psychology for athletes and coaches, and section 4 includes approaches from exercise psychology on motivation and well-being. The book includes a mix of award winning researchers from the European Sport Psychology Association, along with top researchers from the U.S. to bring an international overview to sport psychology. Includes international contributions from Europe and the U.S. Encompasses theory, research, and applications. Includes sport psychology and exercise research. Features applied information for use with coaches, teams, and elite athletes. Identifies performance enhancers and inhibitors.


The main targets with this project were to make an "easy-to-use" database containing accounts from people present in the buildings during the attacks that can be used in future research and to make a fully usable model of one of the WTC buildings.

About 250 accounts, of varied quality, were collect, analyse and catalogue in the database. The response times were extracted and used on the population in the model of WTC1. These were found to be of an average value compared to other times found in literature. Also the descent speeds were extracted and compared to the ones obtained in the computer simulations. For the average stair descent times found in this project they generally agreed to data found in the literature but they were found to be slightly lower.

There were done simulations with three main population sizes and two of them were presented in this report. These were 7 000 representing the estimated number of people in the building on the day of the attack and 25 000 representing the number of occupants on a normal working day.

For the population of 7 000 six different scenarios were run with five of them being presented in this report. For the 25 000 population seven different scenarios were run with six of them being presented here.

For the 7 000 people scenarios it could be found that the computer simulation gave results that were in comparison with documented facts. This shows that the model and population built was giving good results. For the 25 000 scenarios, population of a normal work day, it was found that not everyone would have been able to evacuate the building before it collapsed.


We systematically investigated the structural stability and electronic properties of silicene-like nanotubes by potassium atoms encapsulated using density functional theory. The calculations show that all the structures of KnSi8(n+1) (n=2-12) nanowires are stable, the structural stable is proportional to the lengths of the nanowires. Electronic population analysis shows that K atoms gain electrons and Si atoms lose electrons as a whole, some electrons transferred from Si to K atoms. Because the peaks of d levels in DOS are contribution from the 3d hybridization levels of K and Si atoms, the magnetic moments derived from the orbitals hybridization. Maybe these kinds of nanowires will play an important role in spintronics and nanoelectronics.


This spooky research guide was created to help you with your Vampire or Witch assignment (second formal essay) for ENC1102 with Prof. Burns-Davies


Galileo Ferraris deserves to be far better known. His work with alternating current paved the way for others to develop the induction motors and the three-phase transmission of power that we take for granted today. Because of his "social" concerns, he argued that electric power should be distributed as widely as possible and available to everyone. He argued, for example, that with electric power in the home a mother might earn money by working at home with a loom, rather than by going out to work. Both for his contributions to electrical engineering and for his work to make the benefits of electricity widely available, Galileo Ferraris deserves to be remembered as one of the great names in our profession.


BACKGROUND
The recently developed Gaps-In-Noise (GIN) test has provided a new diagnostic tool for the detection of temporal resolution deficits. Previous reports indicate that the GIN is a relatively sensitive tool for the diagnosis of central auditory processing disorder ([C]APD) in adult populations.

PURPOSE
The purpose of the present study was to determine the feasibility of the GIN test in the pediatric population.

RESEARCH DESIGN
This was a prospective pseudorandomized investigation.

STUDY SAMPLE
This investigation involved administration of the GIN to 72 participants divided into six groups of normal children ranging from 7 through 18 years of age.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
The approximate GIN threshold (the shortest gap duration for which at least four of six gaps were correctly identified) served as the dependent variable. Results were analyzed using an ANOVA to examine between- and within-group differences.

RESULTS
No statistically significant differences were seen in GIN thresholds among age groups. In addition, within group analysis yielded no statistically significant differences between ears within each age group. No developmental effect was seen in GIN thresholds between the ages of 7 and 18 years. Children as young as age 7 are able to complete the GIN with no significant difficulty and perform at levels commensurate with normal adults. The absence of ear differences suggests that temporal resolution as measured by the GIN is an auditory process that develops relatively early and symmetrically (i.e., no laterality or ear dominance effects).

CONCLUSIONS
The GIN procedure appears to be a feasible measure of temporal resolution in both pediatric and adult populations.


Caches enhance the performance of multiprocessors by reducing network traffic and average memory access latency. However, cache-based systems must address the problem of cache coherence. We propose the LimitLESS directory protocol to solve this problem. The LimitLESS scheme uses a combination of hardware and software techniques to realize the performance of a full-map directory with the memory overhead of a limited directory. This protocol is supported by Alewife, a large-scale multiprocessor. We describe the architectural interfaces needed to implement the LimitLESS directory, and evaluate its performance through simulations of the Alewife machine.


To examine the seasonal availability of the major bellbird (Anthornis melanura) food sources in a mountain beech (Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides) forest at Craigieburn, the invertebrate, honeydew, and mistletoe (Peraxilla tetrapetala and Alepis flavida) fruit and nectar resources were sampled over 12 months. The total available food varied 2.6-fold from a low in October (8798 kJ/ha) to a high in December (22,959 kJ/ha) with an annual mean of 15,782 kJ/ha. Invertebrates were available all year and represented 88% of the available food energy. Only 16% of the invertebrate resource was on beech foliage, and beech trunks with honeydew had 60% more invertebrate energy than trunks without honeydew. The energy value of honeydew at Craigieburn (0.9% of the total) was much lower than at lower altitude sites. The relative rankings of honeydew standing crops on 25 permanently marked trees were very constant. On an annual basis mistletoe nectar and fruit made up 6.3% and 4.9%, respectively, of total food energy, but P. tetrapetala nectar was 46% of available food in early January, and P. tetrapetala fruit was 25% of the total in March. Bellbirds spent less time foraging on invertebrates, and more time on the other foods, than energy values would predict. However, during the peak of its short flowering season, P. tetrapetala nectar made up 46% of available energy but only 33% of bellbird foraging observations. At this site P. tetrapetala is pollen limited due to insufficient visits from pollinators. This may be because bellbirds require invertebrates for protein, or to feed to nestlings. Therefore the pollination mutualism is faltering, despite high investment in nectar by the plant.


Much has been written on the contributions learners make to their study of language learning in the classroom (Breen, 2001; Dornyei & Ushioda, 2009; Larsen-Freeman, 2001; Robinson, 2002), and how these are central to the language learning process, but there is less research that directly addresses the contributions of learners in settings that demand a greater role for the learner, such as open and distance language learning (Hurd, 2003, 2007; White, 2003). In any learning context, these contributions, both cognitive and affective, take many forms and cover a wide spectrum ranging from fixed innate factors such as age and aptitude, to variables amenable to change such as motivation, anxiety and emotional states. Others lie in an area that is less easy to categorise in that they are largely stable but may be amenable to change in certain circumstances, such as learning strategies, beliefs and attitudes, goals and approaches, and these are of particular interest as they indicate an area where intervention by others can make a positive difference. In an open and distance learning setting, it could be argued that the context itself, through its potential for isolation and reduced opportunities for face-to-face interaction, suggests a more complex picture of learner contributions. Moreover, difficulties of access to learners, their entitlement to privacy and a mode of communication that is almost entirely virtual make any investigation into their learning profiles especially problematic.

This chapter is concerned with three main topics: (1) the nature of learner contributions in an open and distance language learning setting, (2) the power of such contributions to influence learning, and (3) the appropriateness and timing of pedagogical intervention to take account of these contributions and provide targeted learner support (see also Carson, this volume). Set in the context of open and distance language learning in the UK, the chapter starts with a discussion of learner contributions in relation to research into individual difference. We examine first the research literature on individual difference and learner contributions, focusing in particular on the complex issue of context and the impact of affect as a variable amenable to change. We then offer two case studies to illustrate aspects of the range and diversity of individual differences among adult learners in open and distance language learning. We conclude with a discussion on the nature of advising in this context, the need for learners to manage and actively contribute to their learning, and the role of the tutor in providing a supportive framework which takes account of individual difference, balancing proactive support with respect for learner independence and the fostering of learner autonomy.


The aim of this paper is to approximate a Finite-State Markov (FSM) process by another process defined on a lower dimensional state space, called the approximating process, with respect to a total variation distance fidelity criterion. The approximation problem is formulated as an optimization problem using two different approaches. The first approach is based on approximating the transition probability matrix of the FSM process by a lower-dimensional transition probability matrix, resulting in an approximating process which is a Finite-State Hidden Markov (FSHM) process. The second approach is based on approximating the invariant probability vector of the original FSM process by another invariant probability vector defined on a lower-dimensional state space. Going a step further, a method is proposed based on optimizing a Kullback-Leibler divergence to approximate the FSHM processes by FSM processes. The solutions of these optimization problems are described by optimal partition functions which aggregate the states of the FSM process via a corresponding water-filling solution, resulting in lower-dimensional approximating processes which are FSHM or FSM processes. Throughout the paper, the theoretical results are justified by illustrative examples that demonstrate our proposed methodology.


This note presents a series of questions that leads students through the essential logic linking capital structure and firm value. It begins with a nontax benchmark, then proceeds through valuations with tax deductibility based on (1) a discount rate with tax effects built in (discount free cash flow at the WACC), (2) the valuation of specific claims (value equity cash flows and debt cash flows separately), and (3) the valuation of types of cash flow (value assets and interest tax shields separately). The note concludes by linking these concepts to stock price effects around recapitalizations. Financial risk (leverage effects on CAPM betas) is also introduced and illustrated.


Achieving employee engagement is crucial to the success and continued high performance of any organization. But with budgets tighter than ever before, economic struggles and an increasingly stressful workplace for staff, it has become an increasingly difficult task.

Aimed at HR practitioners and managers, Employee Engagement offers a complete, practical resource for understanding, measuring and building engagement. Grounded in engagement theory and an understanding of psychology combined with practical tools, techniques and diagnostics, this book will help you assess and drive engagement in your organization. Case studies include British Gas, Capital One, Asda, Ministry of Justice, Mace and RSA


The E5 oncoprotein of human papillomavirus type 16 downregulates surface MHC Class I and interacts with the heavy chain of the MHC complex via the first hydrophobic domain, believed to form the first helical transmembrane region (TM1) of E5. TM1 contains 4 equally spaced di‐leucine (LL1‐LL4) motifs. Di‐leucine motifs have been implicated in protein–protein interactions and as localization signals. To see if any of the 4 di‐leucine motifs of TM1 are involved in MHC downregulation by E5, we mutated each LL pair into valine pairs (VV1‐VV4), as mutation of leucine to valine is not expected to cause major structural alterations in E5. We found that all 4 mutations disrupted the intracellular location of E5 and abrogated its MHC I downregulating activity; however VV2 and VV4 mutants were still able to interact physically with the MHC I heavy chain (HC) in vitro, while VV1 and VV3 mutants had lost this activity. We conclude that LL1 and LL3 are necessary for the interaction with HC, but LL2 and LL4 are not. However all 4 LL motifs are responsible for the proper localization of E5 in the Golgi/ER, and the displacement of E5 from this location contributes to the abrogation of MHC I downregulation. LL1 and LL3 motifs are expected to be on one face of the TM1 helix and LL2 and LL4 on the opposite face. We propose that E5 interacts with HC via LL1 and LL3 and that all 4 di‐leucine motifs act as a targeting signal.


The long term ingestion of a sugar-rich diet (low fat) caused severe obesity in adult rats. In a separate experiment, the habitual consumption of a fat-rich diet (40% kcal from fat) also caused severe obesity. Severe obesity developed in both groups of animals even though they did not overeat. Voluntary food intake for the sugar-fed rats averaged 28,314 +/- 756 calories/rat per 55 wks which was similar to the value of 28,884 +/- 953 calories/rat per 55 wks for the fat-fed rats. However, both values were lower than that of 32,869 +/- 588 for the control rats eating Purina chow. Despite a lower caloric intake, carcass fat averaged 45 +/- 1% for rats eating the sugar-rich diet and 46 +/- 2% for rats eating the fat-rich diet, but only 33 +/- 2% for rats eating a diet of Purina chow. These results provide evidence that severe obesity can develop in the absence of hyperphagia in animals eating a sugar-rich or fat-rich diet. Finally, a rat model for severe obesity is presented in which carcass fat ranged from 18% (lean) to 61% (severe obesity) using dietary intervention alone at critical stages of the animal's life.


The formation of transuranium nuclides in pulsed neutron fluxes of thermo-nuclear explosions is investigated in the kinetic model of the astrophysical r-process, taking into account time dependence of the external parameters and including the processes accompanying the β-decay of neutron-rich nuclei. Time-dependent neutron fluxes in the interval ∼ 10−6 s were modeled within the developed adiabatic binary model. Probabilities of β-delayed processes were calculated using the microsco-pic theory of finite Fermi systems. Calculations of the yields of transuranium nuclides Y(A) are made for three experimental USA thermonuclear explosions "Mike" (Y


Proton Exchange Membrane for Fuel Cell (PEMFC) application is an alternative source of energy for both mobile and stationary application due to its high efficiency, zero emission and environmental friendliness. Conventional PEMFC
operates with Nafion membrane. Besides the high cost and the environmental hazards related with its disposal, Nafion also needs to be hydrated to be an effective proton conductor. The failure for Nafion to be operated above 100°C further complicates the design of fuel stack system. Therefore, it is desirable to explore an alternative, PEMFC that is capable to operate above 100 °C in order to improve its efficiency. Porous silica materials are identified as potential candidate as PEMFC due to their moderate proton
conductivity, excellent water retention at high temperature and high molecular sieving capabilities. In order to drive water out from the electrode, thus preventing flooding;
surface modification of porous silica materials with hydrophobic chains is essential. In the studies, the development of porous silica materials composite which are zeolite A, MCM-41, and aerogel loaded with sulfonated poly (styrene-co-divinylbenzene) as proton conducting membrane was carried out. The results show that PEMFC from functionalized silica based materials show appreciable conductivity compared to Nafion. The result indicate that the proton of MCM-41 sulfonated poly (styrene-co-divinylbenzene) shows similar proton conductivity with aerogel sulfonated poly(styrene-co-divinylbenzene) as 8.8345 X 10-3 Scm-1 and 6.485 X 10-3 Scm-1 respectively.


Changing and improving gender relations and reducing gender inequality involves changing men as well as changing the position of women. The EU Framework 5 European Research Network on Men in Europe (2000-2003) has aimed to develop empirical, theoretical and policy outcomes on the gendering of men and masculinities in Europe. The Network has investigated the social problem and societal problematisation of men and masculinities. 'Social problem' refers to both problems created by men, and those experienced by men. 'Societal problematisation' refers to the ways in which men and masculinities have become problematised in society. The Network comprises women and men, researching men as explicitly gendered, in Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation and UK.


Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) and The Department of Pediatric Cardiology, at Strong Memorial Hospital, have joined efforts to work on a research project funded by National Institute of Health (NIH). The goal of this research project was to design and develop a semiconductor pressure sensor, sensitive to small pressure changes within an embryonic chicken heart. A capacitive pressure sensor design was chosen and fabricated to replace the complicated electronics currently being used for pressure measurements in these fetal heart research studies. In addition to the fabrication of the mechanical sensor, an electronic circuit was developed which provided amplification of the capacitance measurement, as well as converting the pressure varying capacitance to a frequency modulated signal. Although a fully integrated chip has not been successfully completed, data has been collected that shows a frequency response verses pressure.


Playa-lake basins of the Southern High Plains, Texas and New Mexico, may originate wherever water periodically can collect in a surficial depression. They expand, however, by hydrologic and geomorphic processes including (1) dissolution of lithologic carbonates by infiltrating water; (2) transport downward of fine-grained clastic and organic material by the infiltrating ground water, leading to continuing processes of oxidation and carbonate dissolution in the subsurface; and (3) eolian removal of clastic material from the floor of playa lakes, which at some sites appears to have deepened playa depressions.

Evidence for largely hydrologic processes of playa-basin development on the Southern High Plains includes (1) a geographic occurrence restricted to relatively flat areas of the High Plains surface that have poorly developed fluvial drainage and which are underlain by generally unsaturated clastic and calcrete beds; (2) a tendency to occur where water collects and infiltrates, as along ephemeral streams and lineations suggestive of fracture systems; and (3) hydrologic, geochemical, petrographic, and bore-hole data, which suggest that recharge to the High Plains aquifer is principally from playa lakes, that various geochemical changes including carbonate dissolution and enhancement of secondary porosity occur as water moves downward through the unsaturated zone beneath playa lakes, and that calcrete beds often are missing or significantly dissolved beneath playa floors.


Automatic personal identification is playing an important role in security systems. Biometrics technologies has been emerging as a new and effective methods to achieve accurate and reliable identification results. A number of biometric traits exist and are in use in various applications. Palmprint is one of the relatively new biometrics due to its stable and unique characteristics. In this paper, multi-spectral information for the unique palmprint are integrated in order to construct an efficient multi-modal identification system based on matching score level fusion. For that, the palm lines are characterized by the contourlet coefficients sub-bands and compressed using the Principal Components Analysis (PCA). Subsequently, we use the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) for modeling. Finally, log-likelihood scores are used for palmprint matching. Experimental results show that our proposed scheme yields the best performance for identifying palmprints and it is able to provide an excellent identification rate and provide more security.


Internet businesses lose billions of dollars each year because of slow and failed Web services, and new companies and coalitions have rushed to provide the worldwide content caching that can help recapture this lost revenue. Although the media has often characterized these companies as trailblazers in the e-commerce revolution, they are merely exploiting a temporary niche along the path to Internet infrastructure commoditization and distributed e-markets. The current players have a chance to succeed, but the future belongs to innovators in the distributed storage and compute online commodities markets.


PURPOSE
To report a patient presenting a retinal pigment epithelial tear in which optical coherence tomography angiography enabled the visualization of subfoveal choroidal neovascularization (CNV) not evidenced by the fluorescein angiography. She was treated with 3 monthly intravitreous anti-VEGF injections and intraretinal fluid resolution occurred.

METHODS
Observational case report.

RESULTS
A 62-year-old Caucasian woman presented with decreased visual acuity in the right eye for 3 months. Fundus biomicroscopy revealed a yellowish macular lesion associated with intraretinal hemorrhage. Fluorescein angiography showed a large hyperfluorescent area consistent with window defect. Optical coherence tomography showed a retinal pigment epithelial tear with subretinal fluid. However, there was no clear evidence of CNV on fluorescein angiography or OCT. Optical coherence tomography angiography confirmed the presence of an active CNV by the visualization of the neovascular network in the region corresponding to the scrolled up retinal pigment epithelium.

CONCLUSION
This case report demonstrates that optical coherence tomography angiography can be useful to confirm the presence of CNV in cases where fluorescein angiography and OCT cannot establish the diagnosis. The reported case suggests the applicability of optical coherence tomography angiography in patients in whom retinal pigment epithelial tear is detected and associated CNV is suspected.


A report in this week9s issue by
 Nakamura
 et al.
 reports the sequence of telomerase, the enzyme that synthesizes the specialized structures on the ends of chromosomes, from fission yeast and humans, complementing an earlier
 report
 from the same group reporting this sequence from
 Euplotes
 and baker9s yeast. All four sequences show that these enzymes closely resemble the reverse transcriptases, which synthesize DNA from RNA. In his Perspective, Eickbush argues that telomerases may have evolved from early retrotransposons, DNA elements that can autonomously move around the genome.


With the advent of various access technologies and increasing number of applications, a set of challenges concerning efficient delivery of ubiquitous services to heterogeneous users and devices have been posed. Mobile IP protocol can be used to enable roaming across different access technologies. One of the important challenges in Mobile IP is security. The service delivery should be secured and efficient, which implicates that security should be integrated with mobility management (MM), Quality-of-Service (QoS) to minimise the negative impact of security mechanisms. It is proposed in the thesis an architectural framework, which uses Hierarchical Mobile IPv6 (HMIPv6) protocols interworking with Authentication, Authorization, Accounting (AAA) framework. The concept of Enhanced Node (EN) is introduced in the framework. The EN is empowered with intelligence to integrate security, MM and QoS. The focal point of the work is to address security challenges based on the framework and to evaluate the impact of security mechanisms on the mobile networks in terms of extra signalling load introduced. Three security mechanisms are proposed in the thesis, according to the handover domains. For handover across two access networks, an enhanced AAA solution is proposed to provide the mobile node authenticated network access. It establishes keys between serving access network and target access network for the purpose of securing context transfer. Also keys are established between mobile node and the target access network for future use after mobile node (MN) roams to the target access network. For micro-mobility handover within one EN domain, an enhanced key management scheme is proposed to generate a bunch of handover keys for all of the access routers (AR) within one EN domain instead of generating key every single time the mobile node changes the AR in the previous mechanism. The enhanced key management scheme reduces the handover disruption time introduced by security. For fast handovers within one EN domain (micro-mobility handover) and across EN domains (macro-mobility handover), the security mechanism is proposed to secure the fast handover between ARs/enhanced nodes. The fast handover key is established between previous AR/EN and new AR/EN, thus, the fast handover registration messages between ARs/ENs can be secured. More importantly, the context transfer messages between previous EN and new EN for the purpose of prompting "smooth handover", can be protected using the fast handover keys. The performance of three proposed solutions is evaluated using analytical models. Signalling cost is the main parameter to be evaluated. Discussions on advantage and disadvantage of each proposed mechanisms are also provided at the end of chapter 4, 5 and 6 respectively.


The beliefs and attitudes of physiotherapists/physiotherapy students toward elders are poorly represented in the literature with several authors highlighting the importance of pre-registration education in determining attitudes of healthcare staff. This study investigated and compared first and fourth year undergraduate physiotherapy students' beliefs and attitudes toward older people and explored if any association existed between student characteristics and attitudes. A convenience sample of 175 students completed a questionnaire. Students' attitudes toward older people were found to be mainly neutral or positive but some differences were found between first and fourth year students' attitudes and ageist tendencies were detected in some students. Previous contact with fit/healthy elders and teaching specifically about the needs of older people had a positive effect on attitudes. Students described "a person over 70" using mainly negative stereotypical traits and themselves at 70 mainly positively.


We apply a recently developed filtering approach, i.e. filter-space technique (FST), to study the scale-to-scale transport of kinetic energy, thermal energy, and enstrophy in two-dimensional (2D) Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) turbulence. Although the scaling laws of the energy cascades in 2D RT systems follow the Bolgiano–Obukhov (BO59) scenario due to buoyancy forces, the kinetic energy is still found to be, on average, dynamically transferred to large scales by an inverse cascade, while both the mean thermal energy and the mean enstrophy move towards small scales by forward cascades. In particular, there is a reasonably extended range over which the transfer rate of thermal energy is scale-independent and equals the corresponding thermal dissipation rate at different times. This range functions similarly to the inertial range for the kinetic energy in the homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. Our results further show that at small scales the fluctuations of the three instantaneous local fluxes are highly asymmetrically distributed and there is a strong correlation between any two fluxes. These small-scale features are signatures of the mixing and dissipation of fluids with steep temperature gradients at the fluid interfaces.


A retrospective analysis was made of 541 case reports of patients with coronary heart disease admitted to the infectious department with the diagnosis of influenza (n-387) and parainfluenza (n-154). In all the patients, the diagnosis was verified serologically with the aid of the hemagglutination inhibition test, with a 4-fold and greater increase of the antibody titer in the serum. In part of the patients, it was confirmed by the above test combined with immunofluorescence in examining rhinopharyngeal smears and in part of influenza patients, it was verified virologically. Exacerbation of CHD was seen in the period of early convalescence in 60% of cases whatever the etiology of viral infection (days 5-13 of the disease). As compared to parainfluenza, influenza provoked the deterioration of CHD significantly more often, especially influenza B (25 and 14.3%). The group at risk for an unfavourable outcome of CHD included patients with influenza and parainfluenza, suffering from postinfarction cardiosclerosis. In this group, exacerbation of CHD was diagnosed in 38.3 and 26.1% of cases, whereas acute myocardial infarction developed in 11.7 and 4.4% of cases. Every second influenza patient and every third parainfluenza patient with acute pneumonia and postinfarction cardiosclerosis demonstrated deterioration of CHD.


The 2020 Mw 5.8 Lone Pine earthquake, the largest earthquake on the Owens Valley fault zone, eastern California, since the nineteenth century, ruptured an extensional stepover in that fault. Owens Valley separates two normal-faulting regimes, the western margin of the Great basin and the eastern margin of the Sierra Nevada, forming a complex seismotectonic zone, and a possible nascent plate boundary. Foreshocks began on 22 June 2020; the largest Mw 4.7 foreshock occurred at ∼6  km depth, with primarily normal faulting, followed ∼40  hr later on 24 June 2020 by an Mw 5.8 mainshock at ∼7  km depth. The sequence caused overlapping ruptures across a ∼0.25  km2 area, extended to ∼4  km2, and culminated in an ∼25  km2 aftershock area. The mainshock was predominantly normal faulting, with a strike of 330° (north-northwest), dipping 60°–65° to the east-northeast. Comparison of background seismicity and 2020 Ridgecrest aftershock rates showed that this earthquake was not an aftershock of the Ridgecrest mainshock. The Mw–mB relationship and distribution of ground motions suggest typical rupture speeds. The aftershocks form a north-northwest-trending, north-northeast-dipping, 5 km long distribution, consistent with the rupture length estimated from analysis of regional waveform data. No surface rupture was reported along the 1872 scarps from the 2020 Mw 5.8 mainshock, although, the dipping rupture zone of the Mw 5.8 mainshock projects to the surface in the general area. The mainshock seismic energy triggered rockfalls at high elevations (>3.0  km) in the Sierra Nevada, at distances of 8–20 km, and liquefaction along the western edge of Owens Lake. Because there were ∼30% fewer aftershocks than for an average southern California sequence, the aftershock forecast probabilities were lower than expected. ShakeAlert, the earthquake early warning system, provided first warning within 9.9 s, as well as subsequent updates.


Biodiesel is a fatty acid alkyl ester which is renewable, biodegradable and non toxic fuel which can be derived from any vegetable oil by transesterification process. One of the popularly used non edible biodiesel in India is karanja oil methyl ester (KOME). In the present investigation, karanja oil based methyl ester (biodiesel) blended with diesel were tested for their use as a substitute fuel for diesel engine. Experiments were conducted to study the performance and emission characteristics of a direct injection diesel engine using blends of karanja methyl esters with diesel on a 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50% volume basis, respectively. The acquired data were analysed for various parameters, such as brake thermal efficiency, carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), Smoke and nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. Engine performance showed that brake thermal efficiency for 50% biodiesel blend is 21.69% poorer than diesel. Emission characteristics of CO, HC and smoke were found lower with biodiesel blends. However, oxides of nitrogen were 26% higher for 50% biodiesel blend as compared to diesel.

 Key words: Biodiesel, transesterification, karanja oil, methyl ester, emission


ABSTRACT:While the traditional understanding of human rights is to restrain state authority to prevent abuses against the individual, in the last few decades human rights have been recast in a way that has made criminal law one of the main instruments for their promotion. The article explores how, since the 1970s, human rights have allowed penal power to move and expand around the globe. Five trends are explored: i) the rise of victims' rights in criminal proceedings; ii) the emergence of United Nations instruments focusing on human rights enforcements by means of criminal law; iii) the development of transitional justice; iv) the promotion of human rights in international criminal law; and v) the imposition of positive duties in criminal matters by human rights bodies. The article argues that the universality of human rights has enabled criminal justice projects to spread and expand over time and space, mixing domestic and international elements. Victims' rights advocates, NGOs, practitioners, academics, judges, and policymakers have been involved in this process. Yet, the expansion of penality by means of human rights has generally appeared as uncontroversial and important questions have been left unanswered. In particular, the assumptions underlying the idea that human rights require criminal accountability remain unexplored and unchallenged.


In this paper, a TSK-type recurrent fuzzy network (TRFN) structure is proposed. The proposal calls for the design of TRFN by either neural network or genetic algorithms depending on the learning environment. A recurrent fuzzy network is described which develops from a series of recurrent fuzzy if-then rules with TSK-type consequent parts. The recurrent property comes from feeding the internal variables, derived from fuzzy firing strengths, back to both the network input and output layers. In this configuration, each internal variable is responsible for memorizing the temporal history of its corresponding fuzzy rule. The internal variable is also combined with external input variables in each rule's consequence, which shows an increase in network learning ability. TRFN design under different learning environments is next advanced. For problems where supervised training data is directly available, TRFN with supervised learning (TRFN-S) is proposed, and a neural network (NN) learning approach is adopted for TRFN-S design. An online learning algorithm with concurrent structure and parameter learning is proposed. With flexibility of partition in the precondition part, and outcome of TSK-type, the TRFN-S displays both small network size and high learning accuracy. For problems where gradient information for NN learning is costly to obtain or unavailable, like reinforcement learning, TRFN with Genetic learning (TRFN-G) is put forward. The precondition parts of TRFN-G are also partitioned in a flexible way, and all free parameters are designed concurrently by genetic algorithm. Owing to the well-designed network structure of TRFN, TRFN-G, like TRFN-S, is characterized by high learning accuracy. To demonstrate the superior properties of TRFN, TRFN-S is applied to dynamic system identification and TRFN-G to dynamic system control. By comparing the results to other types of recurrent networks and design configurations, the efficiency of TRFN is verified.


We present 13 high-precision and four additional light curves of four bright southern-hemisphere transiting planetary systems: WASP-22, WASP-41, WASP-42 and WASP-55. In the cases of WASP-42 and WASP-55, these are the first follow-up observations since their discovery papers. We present refined measurements of the physical properties and orbital ephemerides of all four systems. No indications of transit timing variations were seen. All four planets have radii inflated above those expected from theoretical models of gas-giant planets; WASP-55 b is the most discrepant with a mass of 0.63 MJup and a radius of 1.34 RJup. WASP-41 shows brightness anomalies during transit due to the planet occulting spots on the stellar surface. Two anomalies observed 3.1 d apart are very likely due to the same spot. We measure its change in position and determine a rotation period for the host star of 18.6 ± 1.5 d, in good agreement with a published measurement from spot-induced brightness modulation, and a sky-projected orbital obliquity of λ = 6 ± 11°. We conclude with a compilation of obliquity measurements from spot-tracking analyses and a discussion of this technique in the study of the orbital configurations of hot Jupiters.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX), a prodrug stimulant, is indicated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children 6–12 years of age and in adults. In shortterm studies, once-daily LDX provided efficacy throughout the day. This study presented here was conducted to assess the long-term safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of LDX in 6- to 12-year-olds with ADHD. Methods: This open-label, multicenter, singlearm study enrolled children with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition-Text Revision criteria for ADHD. Following 1-week screening and washout periods, subjects were titrated to LDX 30, 50, or 70 mg/day over 4 weeks and placed on maintenance treatment for 11 months. The ADHD Rating Scale and Clinical Global Impression-Improvement scale measured effectiveness. Results: Of 272 subjects receiving LDX, 147 completed the study. Most adverse events were mild to moderate and occurred during the first 4 weeks. There were no clinically meaningful changes in blood pressure or electrocardiographic parameters. From baseline to endpoint, mean ADHD Rating Scale scores improved by 27.2 points (P<.0001). Improvements occurred during each of the first 4 weeks, and were maintained throughout. Based on Clinical Global Impression-Improvement scale scores, >80% of subjects at endpoint and >95% of completers at 12 months were rated "improved." Conclusion: Long-term 30, 50, and 70 mg/day LDX was generally well tolerated and effective in children with ADHD.


This paper draws on the narratives of parents of disabled babies in order to conceptualise notions of enabling care. The linear heroic narrative is a dominant theme within Western culture. It is competitive and individualistic and tends to be future-orientated in that actions conducted in the present are evaluated according to later outcomes. The linear narrative places much store in modernist interventions such as medicine and tend to uphold professional boundaries and hierarchies. In the lifeworlds of parents of disabled babies, this narrative can reinforce disempowering interpretations of disability and impairment. On the basis of 25 in-depth interviews, accompanying stories and ethnographic data, this paper suggests that parents are developing counter-narratives which resist linear life models. These include a 'narrative of challenge' that embraces greater diversity and tolerance and a 'philosophy of the present' which involves liberation from the fight for the future, freeing parents to enjoy the present as it is: to enjoy their children as they are. If life is perceived as an open book rather than as a concluding chapter, parents are able to interpret uncertainty as opportunity and to develop stories that are neither linear nor heroic but which transcend conventional notions of normality and abnormality


The tissue distribution and excretion of an oral dose of 20 mg/kg of 14C-styrene was studied in both male and female rats at various time intervals after administration. Peak tissue levels were attained at or before 4 hours post administration. The organ with the highest concentration of radioactivity per unit weight was the kidney, followed, in order of decreasing concentration, by the liver and the pancreas. The data suggest a relationship between tissue distribution and kidney and liver toxicity. The high levels also found in the pancreas may bear some relationship to the reported increase in glucose tolerance in workers exposed to styrene. The principal route of excretion was via the kidneys, with 90% of the dose appearing in the urine within 24 hours of administration. Less than 2% of the dose was recovered from the feces.


Neoproterozoic is a very important time in the history of the Earth, during which occurred supercontinent breakup, low-latitude glaciation, and biotic diversification. These concern a series of interdisciplinary studies involving ancient plate motion, climate change and life evolution, resulting in many forefront topics of general interest in the earth sciences. These include exact ages bracketing the Cryogenian System and glaciations, initial age and lasted duration of supercontinent breakup, dynamic reconstruction of China continents in supercontinental configurations, the nature of rift magmatism and extent of hydrothermal alteration, paleoclimatic implication of water-rock interaction and low-18O magmatism, and relationship between supercontinental evolution and global change. A number of outstanding advances in the above aspects have being made by Chinese scientists, leaving many important issues to be resolved: (1) did the Cryogenian start at either 800 to 820 Ma or 760 to 780 Ma? (2) was South China in the supercontinental configuration located in either southeast to Australia or north to India? (3) are Paleoproterozoic to Archean ages of crustal rocks a valid parameter in distinguishing North China from South China? Available observations suggest that Neoproterozoic mantle superwelling occurred as conspicuous magmatism in South China but as cryptical magmatism in North China. Mid-Neoproterozoic mantle superplume event and its derived rift-magmatism would not only result in the supercontinental demise, but also play a very important role in the generation and evolution of the snowball Earth event by initiating the global glaciation, causing the local deglaciation and terminating the snowball Earth event.


Modern software systems are built by composing components drawn from large repositories, whose size and complexity increase at a fast pace. Software systems built with components from a release of a repository should be seamlessly upgradeable using components from the next release. Unfortunately, users are often confronted with sets of components that were installed together, but cannot be upgraded together to the latest version from the new repository. Identifying these broken sets can be of great help for a quality assurance team, that could examine and fix these issues well before they reach the end user. Building on previous work on component co-installability, we show that it is possible to find these broken sets for any two releases of a component repository, computing extremely efficiently a concise representation of these upgrade issues, together with informative graphical explanations. A tool implementing the algorithm presented in this paper is available as free software, and is able to process the evolution between two major releases of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution in just a few seconds. These results make it possible to integrate seamlessly this analysis in a repository development process.


We present a new approach to automatic summarization based on neural nets, called NetSum. We extract a set of features from each sentence that helps identify its importance in the document. We apply novel features based on news search query logs and Wikipedia entities. Using the RankNet learning algorithm, we train a pair-based sentence ranker to score every sentence in the document and identify the most important sentences. We apply our system to documents gathered from CNN.com, where each document includes highlights and an article. Our system significantly outperforms the standard baseline in the ROUGE-1 measure on over 70% of our document set.


This paper explores the application of compressive sensing (CS) for ultra wide band (UWB) communication. Channel estimation is an important aspect for any communication system and especially for UWB systems in order to appropriately collect the energy from the multipath channel. UWB generally requires a high sampling rate since the bandwidth is large. Channel estimation using CS is studied along with its impact on reducing the sampling rate for an ADC to reduce power. Practical issues regarding the effect of quantization on channel estimation are addressed and a hardware implementation for CS based on the Walsh-Hadamard transform (WHT) allowing sub-Nyquist sampling is proposed. To separate the effect of channel estimation with CS, the performance of the sub-Nyquist ADC is studied in a noiseless and multipath free channel and design decisions are discussed. Comparison with the Nyquist ADC shows that using the sub-Nyquist ADC reduce power by a factor of about 6×. For the proposed hardware, two receiver architectures based on matched filtering and filtering in the compressed domain (so-called "smashed filtering") are studied. It is found that with a perfect channel smashed filtering performs better than matched filtering. Finally the effect of channel estimation on the proposed hardware is studied along with two different recovery algorithms namely basis pursuit and matching pursuit.


To increase largely the performance of shaped charge, it is required to generate detonation velocity much higher than CJ velocity or detonation pressure much higher than CJ pressure of existing high explosives. One solution is the application of overdriven detonation phenomena. In this study, the effects of overdriven detonation in tungsten loaded high density explosive on the performance of shaped charge were demonstrated by experiments and numerical simulation. Sample shaped charge was composed of the inner layer tungsten loaded high density PBX and outer layer high velocity PBX. Concentration of tungsten powder in high density PBX was varied from 20 to 60% in mass. The pressure of overdriven detonation in inner layer PBX was measured by PMMA gauge, and was shown to be higher than 50GPa. The experimental results showed that the initial jet velocity and jet penetration velocity in target plates were largely increased by the effects of the overdriven detonation in tungsten loaded high density PBX.


The second wave of feminism which challenged and changed many assumptions about the world in which we live was a product of various western cultures, with no single country possessing a monopoly on the writing of the texts that became the canonical statements of the 'new' feminism. Though many of the contributions to feminist scholarship that went on to become internationally significant hailed from Europe and the United States, these works were often formed within the context of local debates and framed within traditions of feminism and other political engagements specific to these nations. Transatlantic Conversations explores the differences yielded by such conditions and their consequences for the meaning of feminism. Examining the meaning and implications of the different ways in which various shared categories have been treated on both sides of the Atlantic, this volume both analyses differences within feminism and provides a framework for the wider discussion of what is sometimes assumed to be the homogeneity of The West. With leading scholars from either side of the Atlantic presenting brand new work, Transatlantic Conversations suggests directions for future research will be of interest to scholars of feminism, gender studies, sociology, political science and international relations, geography and cultural studies, as well anyone concerned with the ways in which the different political and intellectual traditions of Europe and the US have shaped current political and intellectual debates.


Smart mobile medical computing systems (SMDCSes), e.g., mobile medical applications use context information from the environment to provide useful and often critical healthcare services such as continuous monitoring and control of blood glucose levels by infusion of insulin. Given the unsupervised nature of operation of SMDCSes, context changes that are unaccounted for can cause unprecedented faults leading to violation of requirements such as safety, energy sustainability and reliability. Analysis of SMDCSes for testing requirements violations necessitates consideration of context dependent interactions between the SMDCS software, represented by discrete operating modes and its environment, represented by non-linear partial differential equations over space and time. An intractable number of context change sequence and lack of closed form solutions to differential equations makes the requirements analysis of SMDCSes a challenging task. This paper proposes a novel technique to analyze SMDCSes taking into account the dynamic changes in the context and the constant interaction of the computing systems with the physical environment. To show the usage of the technique, Ayushman pervasive health monitoring system is considered as an example SMDCS. Analytical results show that practices considered healthy for a person such as mobility may not be beneficial when an SMDCS is controlling health.


: In behavioral experiments, toad tadpoles-recipients chose between two parts of test aquarium with chemical signals of donor tadpoles of the same or different (Rana esculenta) species. The youngest studied tadpoles (43-45 stages) preferred the part of the aquarium with chemical cues from sibs as compared to non-sibs. No reliable difference in "non-sibs: water" system was observed. In "tadpoles of the same species: tadpoles of the other species" system, recipient tadpoles chose "their" part of the aquarium. Hence, toad tadpoles revealed a trend to aggregate with their sibs and avoid R. esculenta toads in the presence of certain chemical cues and in the absence of visual signals.


As the COVID-19 storms the globe, there are many efforts to battle it. This paper looks at the development of one such an effort in a form of a mobile game. The game is a 2D arcade game called Unus Terra. It is intended to be entertaining but aims to influence people to partake in social distancing through several mechanics. An early version of the game is evaluated by five usability and user experience experts using heuristics and a few other selected methods. In this paper, we present the results from these evaluations along with our findings from using this type of evaluation method. The use of heuristics is considered from the perspectives of academics and practitioners.


Minaluli Village has the availability of mangrove ecosystem resources in coastal areas. The availability of evenly distributed mangrove ecosystems can have a direct impact on the community. Determination of mangrove status conducted previously using conventional methods such as transect quandrat and spot check. Hemispherical photography method is one of the new methods used and developed in Indonesia. The study was conducted in July 2018 in Minaluli Village, North Mangoli District, Sula Islands Regency. North Maluku Province. The research objective is to obtain information on the condition of the mangrove ecosystem using the Hemispherical photography method. The results of the study obtained measurements of environmental parameters showed that environmental ecological conditions support the existence of mangroves. Morphological identification was obtained as many as 8 species from 3 families. Station I found 82% mangrove cover presentation value, for station II found 77% cover presentation, at station III found a presentation found 78% while at station IV found a presentation of mangrove cover 72%. The total presentation of mangrove cover obtained in the solid category, based on the standard criteria for mangrove damage. The density of the mangrove ecosystem obtained shows high density at each station. Based on the standard criteria for damage, the density of mangroves in this location is in the medium to very dense category with a value range between 1,067-2,022 trees / ha. Important value index (INP) analysis of each type of mangrove found a range of values between 31.73-95.55 The highest value index of the highest species was found in the Rhizophora stylosa type with a value of 95.55% then Rhizophora apiculata with a value of 95.08%, Rhizophora mucronata namely 81.05%, Xylocarpus granatum is 45.68, Ceriops stagal with value of 40.83%, Sonneratia alba with a value of 36.27 and Bruguiera gymnorhiza 31.73%.


In this review, the importance of Japanese research on meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD) is discussed from the perspective of global academic and clinical research on this topic. Many Japanese physicians and researchers have contributed to recent worldwide progress in various fields of MGD research, including pathophysiology, epidemiology, diagnosis, and therapy. In Japan, recent studies in the field of pathophysiology have provided direct evidence for the hypothesis that lipid composition and reactive oxygen species play a crucial role in the development and worsening of MGD. In the field of diagnosis, slit-lamp examination, in vivo confocal microscopy, and meibography have been widely used in studies from Japan. On the basis of the results of these studies, the MGD working group in Japan has proposed new diagnostic criteria for obstructive MGD. According to these criteria, obstructive MGD is considered present when ocular symptoms, anatomic abnormalities, and meibomian gland obstruction are present. In the field of therapy, devices and drugs newly developed in Japan have been shown to enhance the efficacy of lid hygiene and warm compression. Moreover, diquafosol and vitamin D3 have been shown to be effective for MGD. In conclusion, standardization of the diagnosis and treatment of MGD is necessary to enable all patients with MGD to receive appropriate treatment, and specific diagnostic criteria with cutoff values for each parameter are necessary to standardize the diagnosis of MGD.


Abstract. Remote sensing via differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) has become a standard technique to identify and quantify trace gases in the atmosphere. Due to the wide range of measurement conditions, atmospheric compositions and instruments used, a specific challenge of a DOAS retrieval is to optimize the retrieval parameters for each specific case and particular trace gas of interest. Of these parameters, the retrieval wavelength range is one of the most important ones. Although for many trace gases the overall dependence of common DOAS retrieval on the evaluation wavelength interval is known, a systematic approach for finding the optimal retrieval wavelength range and quantitative assessment is missing. Here we present a novel tool to visualize the effect of different evaluation wavelength ranges. It is based on mapping retrieved column densities in the retrieval wavelength space and thus visualizing the consequences of different choices of spectral retrieval ranges caused by slightly erroneous absorption cross sections, cross correlations and instrumental features. Based on the information gathered, an optimal retrieval wavelength range may be determined systematically. The technique is demonstrated using examples of a theoretical study of BrO retrievals for stratospheric BrO and BrO measurements in volcanic plumes. However, due to the general nature of the tool, it is applicable to any type of DOAS retrieval (active or passive).


Background: Deregs been implicated in the malignancy of cancer. Since many years investigation on the traditional herbs has been the focus to develop novel and effective drug for cancer remedies. Wheatgrass is a medicinal plant, used in folk medicine to cure various diseases. The present study was undertaken to gain insights into antiproliferative effect of methanol extract of wheatgrass. Materials Methods: Cell viability was assessed via 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide and Lactate Dehydrogenase assays. Cell cycle was analyzed by flow cytometry. Western blot was performed to determine the p53 and cyclin D1 levels. In silico docking interaction of the 14 active components (identified by high-performance liquid chromatography/gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy) of the methanol extract was tested with cyclin D1 (Protein Data Bank ID: 2W96) and compared with the reference cyclin D1/Cdk4 inhibitor. Results: Methanol extract of wheatgrass effectively reduced the cell viability. The cell cycle analysis showed that the extract treatment caused G1 arrest. The level of cyclin D1 was decreased, whereas p53 level was increased. Molecular docking studies revealed interaction of seven active compounds of the extract with the vital residues (Lys112/Glu141) of cyclin D1. Conclusion: These findings indicate that the methanol extract of wheatgrass inhibits human laryngeal cancer cell proliferation via cell cycle G1 arrest and p53 induction. The seven active compounds of the extract were also found to be directly involved in the inhibition of cyclin D1/Cdk4 binding, thus inhibiting the cell proliferation.


Psychology is the study of how people think and behave – a combination of science and practice. Using direct observation, interviews and techniques such as psychometric testing, you'll make an assessment of a patient's problem. Treatment requires the cooperation of the patient and you will work in partnership with them to treat and manage their condition. This will usually take place over a series of sessions.