Metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) modulation of voltage-gated Ca2+ channels was examined in isolated deep layer frontoparietal cortical neurons under conditions designed to isolate calcium- independent modulatory pathways. Trans-1-aminocyclopentane-1,3- dicarboxylate (t-ACPD), a nonspecific mGluR agonist, produced rapid and reversible inhibition of Ca2+ channels. This effect was mimicked by agonists for group I and group II, but not group III, mGluRs. Effects of group I and II agonists often were observed in the same neurons, but separate subgroups of neurons were unresponsive to the group I agonist quisqualate or the group II agonist 2-(2,3-dicarboxycyclopropyl) glycine (DCG-IV). Inhibition by quisqualate and DCG-IV was nonocclusive in neurons responding to both agonists. These agonists thus appear to act on different mGluRs. The mGluR antagonist alpha-methyl-4- carboxylphenylglycine attenuated inhibition by t-ACPD, quisqualate, and DCG-IV. Inhibition by quisqualate and DCG-IV was voltage-dependent. Although the effects of both agonists were greatly reduced by N- ethylmaleimide (NEM), inhibition by DCG-IV was more sensitive to NEM than inhibition by quisqualate. t-ACPD-induced inhibition was reduced by omega-conotoxin GVIA (omega-CgTx) and omega-agatoxin IVA (omega- AgTx) but was affected little by nifedipine. Inhibition by DCG-IV and quisqualate also was reduced by omega-CgTx. We conclude that multiple mGluR subtypes inhibit Ca2+ channels in cortical neurons and that N- and possibly P-type channels are inhibited. Modulation is via a rapid- onset, voltage-dependent mechanism that likely involves a pertussis toxin (PTX)-sensitive G-protein. Type I mGluRs may work via additional PTX-insensitive pathways.


Drought is a natural phenomenon that occurs when a significant decrease of water availability during a significant period of time and over a larger area. Drought indices can be a useful tool to assess and respond to drought. However, current drought indices could not fully show the land use effects and they have limitation in data sources. ENSO influence the climate of Florida; where El Nino years tend to be cooler and wetter, and La Nina years tend to be warmer and drier than normal in the fall through the spring, with the strongest effect in the winter. Both prolonged heavy rainfall and drought potentially have impacts on land uses and many aspects of Florida's economy and quality of life. Hence, understanding local ENSO patterns on regional scales and developing a new land use drought index in Florida are critical and necessary in agriculture and water resources planning and managements. This paper presents a 32 km high resolution land use adapted drought index on five different land uses (lake, urban, forest, wetland, and agriculture) in Florida based on the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) North American Regional Reanalysis (RR) data from 1979 to 2002. The new regional land use drought indices were developed from normalized Bowen ratio and the results show that they could reflect not only the level of severity in drought events resulting from land use effects, but also La Nina driven drought impacts.


Optimal transmit filters for packet-based data transmission on dispersive Gaussian-noise linear time-invariant channels are derived by maximizing the mutual information, subject to a fixed input power budget. A quasi-stationary approximation to the optimal nonstationary input covariance process is derived and shown to exhibit negligible mutual information loss from the optimal case, for situations of most practical interest. Moreover, this quasi-stationary approximation results in efficiently computed lattice or pole-zero implementations of the transmit filter. By considering the popular finite-impulse-response minimum-mean-square-error decision-feedback equalizer (FIR MMSE-DFE) as a receiver structure, we show that transmitter optimization results in an appreciable improvement in the decision-point signal-to-noise ratio. Finally, we show that, as the output blocklength becomes infinite, the optimum finite-dimensional nonstationary input covariance process converges to a stationary process whose power spectrum obeys the well-known water-pouring distribution.


Full-image dependencies provide useful contextual information to benefit visual understanding problems. In this work, we propose a Criss-Cross Network (CCNet) for obtaining such contextual information in a more effective and efficient way. Concretely, for each pixel, a novel criss-cross attention module in CCNet harvests the contextual information of all the pixels on its criss-cross path. By taking a further recurrent operation, each pixel can finally capture the full-image dependencies from all pixels. Overall, CCNet is with the following merits: 1) GPU memory friendly. Compared with the non-local block, the proposed recurrent criss-cross attention module requires 11x less GPU memory usage. 2) High computational efficiency. The recurrent criss-cross attention significantly reduces FLOPs by about 85% of the non-local block in computing full-image dependencies. 3) The state-of-the-art performance. We conduct extensive experiments on popular semantic segmentation benchmarks including Cityscapes, ADE20K, and instance segmentation benchmark COCO. In particular, our CCNet achieves the mIoU score of 81.4 and 45.22 on Cityscapes test set and ADE20K validation set, respectively, which are the new state-of-the-art results. The source code is available at https://github.com/speedinghzl/CCNet.


Difficulties in recapturing radiomarked birds often prevent wildlife researchers from replacing transmitters and continuing to collect data over long time periods. We developed an effective, inexpensive capture technique for radiomarked mountain quail (Oreortyx pictus). Twenty-three of 25 mountain quail in south-central Idaho, USA, in 2006 and 2007 were recaptured for transmitter replacement. This technique will provide researchers with an opportunity to recapture relatively small birds, particularly those in dense vegetation, to help conduct long-term studies. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.


Atomicity is necessary for reliable electronic commerce transactions. Anonymity is also an issue of great importance not only to designers of commerce systems, but also to those concerned with the societal effects of information technologies, providing atomicity and anonymity is not trivial. Reliable systems, which provide highly atomic transactions, offer limited anonymity. Many anonymous systems (Rivest and Shamir, 1996) do not offer anonymous reliable transactions (Yee, 1994). Three basic approaches have been used: secure hardware for trusted record-keeping (Brands, 1993), storage of identity information with trustees for conditional anonymity (Low et al., 1993) or by providing dispute resolution only with the removal of anonymity (Chaum, 1988). In this work, the problem of anonymous atomic transactions for a generic token currency is solved using distributed trust and with the assumption that any single party may be corrupt. Defined is a transaction to include the provision of information goods or a contract to deliver specified goods, allowing for the highest degree of atomicity. The cryptographic strength of the atomicity guarantee can be made to the user's specification on a per transaction basis. The atomicity-generating protocol includes provision for dispute resolution and anonymous refunds. Also illustrated, is that any electronic token currency can be made reliable with the addition of this atomicity-generating protocol.


Nanosecond laser pulse-induced melting thresholds in refractory (Nb, Mo, Ta and W) metals are measured using detected laser-generated acoustic shear waves. Obtained melting threshold values were found to be scaled with corresponding melting point temperatures of investigated materials displaying dissimilar shearing behavior. The experiments were conducted with motorized control of the incident laser pulse energies with small and uniform energy increments to reach high measurement accuracy and real-time monitoring of the epicentral acoustic waveforms from the opposite side of irradiated sample plates. Measured results were found to be in good agreement with numerical finite element model solving coupled elastodynamic and thermal conduction governing equations on structured quadrilateral mesh. Solid-melt phase transition was handled by means of apparent heat capacity method. The onset of melting was attributed to vanished shear modulus and rapid radial molten pool propagation within laser-heated metal leading to preferential generation of transverse acoustic waves from sources surrounding the molten mass resulting in the delay of shear wave transit times. Developed laser-based technique aims for applications involving remote examination of rapid melting processes of materials present in harsh environment (e.g. spent nuclear fuels) with high spatio-temporal resolution.


Purpose of study: As women with lung cancer are particularly vulnerable to psychological distress and social isolation, which may be further exacerbated by current COVID-19 physical distancing precautions, we examined the feasibility and acceptability of a group-based telehealth psychosocial intervention for this understudied patient population. Methods: Women with a recent diagnosis (3 months) of non based telehealth psychosocial intervention for this understudied patient population. Methods: Women with a recent diagnosis (3 months) of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) currently undergoing treatment completed baseline measures of computer literacy and were randomized to a group-based telehealth psychosocial intervention consisting of ether coping skills or attention control (AC) psychoeducation. Both arms consisted of five, 60 min. telehealth (video conference over Zoom) sessions. Groups were comprised of 3–5 members and led by a masters-level clinician. Participants completed one "practice run" with technology prior to starting the group session. After the final session, patients rated overall experience of intervention delivery and telehealth platform. Results: Seventy patients (mean age = 66 yrs, 54% >65 yrs; 71% non-Hispanic White; 50% college educated; 75% advanced stage) consented (63% consent rate) and 65 were randomized to intervention or AC. At baseline, 47% of patients indicated daily computer use while 50% said they rarely or never use a computer. Attendance was high in both arms with 63% of patients attending all sessions (means: intervention = 3.18; AC = 3.56). Across arms, 89% preferred group delivery and 92% preferred online delivery. The majority used a smartphone or tablet to participate (72%). Regarding the Zoom platform, 71% said it was easy to use, 65% would recommend it to others, and 41% felt comfortable with it after one use. Only 44% thought that telehealth was the same as it would have been in-person. Conclusions: The present findings suggest the feasibility and acceptability of delivering a group-based psychosocial intervention via telehealth for middle to older aged women with NSCLC undergoing treatment, which may be particularly beneficial to address isolation during the current season of physical distancing.


Cloud computing is Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software, and information to computers and other devices on demand. Besides the benefits, it provides a new environment and convenience for network crime, which results difficulties and challenges for forensic investigation. This paper reviews the conception of cloud computing and identifies some key issues of network crime. After analyzing the mechanism and architecture of cloud computing, we propose a forensic model to obtain and fix the criminal evidences. Through investigating from cloud and client aspects, we collect relative log files and communicated data packages, which can succeed to monitor network and store original crime behaviors.


Abstract In Denmark, medical consultations and the institutional practice of going to the doctor have been expanded upon over the past decade, with e-mail consultations (e-consultations) now supplementing conventional consultations. As a form of communication with different constraints than face-to-face and telephonic communication, e-consultations are likely to both afford some benefits and present struggles. In this article, I examine the use and perception of primary care e-consultations from the perspective of the patient. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 20 patients and guided by the following research question: How do patients struggle with and master digital participation during e-consultations? The study demonstrates that e-consultations are more than a digital access point to the healthcare system: patients often struggle to maintain contact with their general practitioner, and e-consultations can help them navigate the healthcare system. Indeed, those who master this form of communication are appreciative of it and perceive it as screen care.


Diagnostic classification Diagnostic Classification Models (DCMs) are multidimensional confirmatory latent class models that can classify individuals into different classes based on their attribute mastery profiles. While DCMs represent the more prevalent parametric approach to diagnostic classification analysis, the Hamming distance method, a newly developed nonparametric diagnostic classification method, is quite promising in that it does not require fitting a statistical model and is less demanding on sample size. However, both parametric and nonparametric approach have assumptions of local item independency, which is often violated by testlet based tests. This study proposed a conditional-correlation based nonparametric approach to assess testlet effect and a set of testlet Hamming distance methods to account for the testlet effects in classification analyses. Simulation studies were conducted to evaluate the proposed methods. In the conditional-correlation approach, the testlet effects were computed as the average item-pair correlations within the same testlet by conditioning on attribute profiles. The inverse of the testlet effect was then used in testlet Hamming distance method to weight the Hamming distances for that particular testlet. Simulation studies were conducted to evaluate the proposed methods in conditions with varying sample size, testlet effect size, testlet size, balance of testlet size, and balance of testlet effect size. Although the conditional-correlation based approach often underestimated true testlet effect sizes, it was still able to detect the relative size of different testlet effects. The developed testlet Hamming distance methods seem to be an improvement over the estimation methods that ignore testlet effects because they provided slightly higher classification accuracy where large testlet effects were present. In addition, Hamming distance method and maximum likelihood estimation are robust to local item dependency caused by low to moderate testlet effects. Recommendations for practitioners and study limitations were provided.


The main subject of the work presented in this thesis is the further development of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a non-invasive method of investigating tumour microcirculation. Two different MR techniques were used: dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE)-MRI and Blood Oxygen Level Dependent (BOLD)-MRI. Intravital microscopy was used to help interpret BOLD-MRI results. The ultimate aims were to determine whether MRI methods could be relied upon to define a drug as having vascular disrupting activity and to develop techniques to predict the effectiveness of vascular disruptive agents (VDA). In DCE-MRI, tissue enhancement is continuously monitored over several minutes after intravenous injection of contrast medium. Modelling of contrast agent kinetics generates quantitative parameters related to tissue blood flow rate and permeability, e.g. Ktrans (transfer constant). In a clinical study, patients had DCE-MRI examinations before and 24 hours after cytotoxic chemotherapy to establish whether any acute ami-vascular effects could be detected. No acute reductions in Ktrans were seen. In this project, the acute effects of the VDA, combretastatin A-4-phosphate, were investigated using DCE-MRI in SW1222 tumours in mice. Responses were seen both at a clinically relevant dose and at higher doses, and a dose-response relationship established. BOLD-MRI can detect changes in oxygenation and blood flow within tumours using deoxygenated haemoglobin as an intrinsic contrast agent. Tumours contain a variable proportion of immature vessels, which may explain differential sensitivity to VDAs. In this project, BOLD-MRI was used to assess tumour vessel maturity using consequent vasoreactivity to angiotensin II and carbon dioxide (as air-5%C02 or as carbogen) in an animal model. Intravital microscopy was used to directly observe response to these agents in mouse window chambers. Results suggest that response to vasoactive agents is useful for assessing vascular maturity in tumours but that more sensitive non-invasive imaging methods than BOLD-MRI are required for clinical use.


The enhanced ionization processes taking place inside the hollow cathode region (HCR) of a transient hollow cathode discharge (THCD) are essential events which lead to final electrical breakdown. This ionization growth is permanently assisted by a virtual anode moving in the anode-cathode gap (A-K gap), which extends the anode potential to within the hollow cathode region. In the paper, the ionization growth inside the HCR under the enhanced field due to the close proximity of the anode potential has been studied using a statistical technique in a range of pressures, with three different cathode apertures. Statistical time distributions of an extensive experimental data set are analyzed to understand the mechanisms involved in the final stages, just before electric breakdown.


Host-associated microbiota help defend against bacterial pathogens; the mechanisms that pathogens possess to overcome this defense, however, remain largely unknown. We developed a zebrafish model and used live imaging to directly study how the human pathogen Vibrio cholerae invades the intestine. The gut microbiota of fish mono-colonized by commensal strain Aeromonas veronii was displaced by V. cholerae expressing its Type VI Secretion System (T6SS), a syringe-like apparatus that deploys effector proteins into target cells. Surprisingly, displacement was independent of T6SS-mediated killing of Aeromonas, driven instead by T6SS-induced enhancement of zebrafish intestinal movements that led to expulsion of the resident commensal by the host. Deleting an actin crosslinking domain from the T6SS apparatus returned intestinal motility to normal and thwarted expulsion, without weakening V. cholerae′s ability to kill Aeromonas in vitro. Our finding that bacteria can manipulate host physiology to influence inter-microbial competition has implications for both pathogenesis and microbiome engineering.


As the demand for cloud computing continues to increase, cloud service providers face the daunting challenge to meet the negotiated SLA agreement, in terms of reliability and timely performance, while achieving cost-effectiveness. This challenge is increasingly compounded by the increasing likelihood of failure in large-scale clouds and the rising impact of energy consumption and CO2 emission on the environment. This paper proposes Shadow Replication, a novel fault-tolerance model for cloud computing, which seamlessly addresses failure at scale, while minimizing energy consumption and reducing its impact on the environment. The basic tenet of the model is to associate a suite of shadow processes to execute concurrently with the main process, but initially at a much reduced execution speed, to overcome failures as they occur. Two computationally-feasible schemes are proposed to achieve Shadow Replication. A performance evaluation framework is developed to analyze these schemes and compare their performance to traditional replication-based fault tolerance methods, focusing on the inherent tradeoff between fault tolerance, the specified SLA and profit maximization. The results show that Shadow Replication leads to significant energy reduction, and is better suited for compute-intensive execution models, where up to 30% more profit increase can be achieved due to reduced energy consumption.


: The exact mechanism of action of alpha 1-antitrypsin, the major protease inhibitor in human serum, is still unknown. Several investigators report the release of a small peptide during complex formation of alpha 1-antitrypsin with various proteases. In this study the release of two peptides each from the NH2- and the COOH-terminal regions of alpha 1-antitrypsin is demonstrated, indicating the presence of two inhibitory sites in alpha 1-antitrypsin. The amino acid sequence near the NH2-terminal inhibitory site is determined to be X-Ser-Ile-Pro-Pro- and near the COOH-terminal inhibitory site Y-Ala-Ile-Pro-Met-Ser-Ile-Pro. The combined results of the present report and several other reports indicate the presence of two structurally identical inhibitory sites in alpha 1-antitrypsin located at both terminal regions in the molecule.


The article reviews the data available concerning the kinetics of reactions catalysed by eukaryotic and procaryotic aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases (E.C.6.1.1). It is shown that most of these enzymes operate in accordance with the flip-flop mechanism although individual variations do exist. It is stressed that a simplified kinetic approach of Cleland is inappropriate if applied to the aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases where subunit interactions are involved in the overall kinetics. The fidelity of aminoacylation reaction depends not only on the proofreading mechanisms at catalytic centres but also on the contribution of mutual conformational changes induced in interacting subunits of the synthetases.


This paper formalizes the ideas presented in [1]. It is shown that, the power system dynamics can be modeled as dx/dt ¿ G(x) (which we call differential inclusion) where x is a 2-vector and G() is a point to set mapping. The concept of fuzzy trajectories is defined as the solution to the above equation. The structure of G(x) provides as with a simple characterization of the solution.


OBJECTIVE
We postulated that the pneumothorax rate of transthoracic needle biopsy might improve with an ipsilateral dependent position of the affected side. We tried to determine the feasibility, effectiveness, and safety of CT-guided biopsy with the patient in this position.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
CT-guided needle biopsy with the patient in an ipsilateral dependent position was performed in 23 patients with 17 lung lesions (15 posterior and two anterior) and six mediastinal lesions. Fine-needle aspiration was used in all patients, and core biopsy was also used in six patients. The technical difficulty of the procedure was classified into three grades compared with a routine transthoracic needle biopsy as follows: grade I, no more difficult; grade II, somewhat more difficult; and grade III, much more difficult.

RESULTS
Adequate samples were obtained in 22 (96%) of 23 patients. A small asymptomatic pneumothorax occurred in two patients (8.7%). Difficulty was rated grades I, II, and III in 18 (78%), two (9%), and three (13%) procedures, respectively. Four of the five grades II and III procedures were biopsies of anterior lesions. Traversing the pleura was avoided in three of six mediastinal masses.

CONCLUSION
Transthoracic needle biopsy of selected lung and mediastinal lesions using an ipsilateral dependent position is feasible, effective, and safe. The role of this technique for reducing the rate of pneumothorax as a result of the biopsy requires further investigation.


Fresh fruits of chironja clonal varieties were evaluated by a trained taste panel; five were rated as liked moderately, four as liked very much and one as liked slightly. These results confirm the acceptance of this new citrus fruit, consumed fresh. The appearance of the fresh fruit rated as follows: nine as liked moderately and one as liked very much. Large and small fresh fruits within each clonal variety rated equally for appearance and flavor. Clonal varieties 2-4 and 3-8 had the thickest and thinnest peels, respectively; there was no difference in the peel thickness in the other varieties. Rinds of the 10 varieties processed in heavy syrup were acceptable or very acceptable. The average fruit weight and juice yield varied among varieties. The frozen and pasteurized chironja juice of all the clonal varieties was rated as unacceptable or slightly unacceptable by the taste panel. These results show that chironja juice is not suitable for canning; it must be consumed fresh.


Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) are effective and tolerant. However, the continuous development of Plasmodium strains resistance to cost effective monotherapies such as chloroquine and sulphadoxinepyrimethamine, remains the greatest setback to the global fight against malaria. Recent studies indicate that Plasmodium parasites are already becoming resistance to ACTs. A number of factors such as poor adherence can cause drug failure. Non-adherence is one of the major challenges facing optimal use of ACTs in real life settings. The objective of this study was to describe and identify factors associated with non-adherence to artemisinin lumefantrine (AL) among malaria-ailing caretakers seen in Nyando district hospital who also had children under the age of five ailing from malaria. From our study we concluded that the consents, follow-ups, strict adherence to the Kenya National Strategy for Control and Treatment of Malaria guidelines and availability of AL during the study may have influenced the observed high adherence rates. Therefore, it is critical to adequately stock health facilities with AL to enhance adherence. More specifically, healthcare providers need to educate malaria-ailing caretakers on the AL regimen as well as its possible side effects to promote adherence to the antimalarial at a household level.


Abstract Levels of insect infestation, insect spatial distribution, and the relationship between the number of insect-damaged kernels (IDK) and the number of insects present in grain samples in three-hopper railcars transporting wheat from country elevators to a mill were studied. Six of eight sampled railcars were infested with more than two species of insects. The most abundant species collected were the lesser grain borer, Rhyzopertha dominica (F.), and rusty grain beetle, Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens), with the larval stage of the two species being the most prevalent (>90%). The spatial distributions of these two species within the grain mass were typically clumped in railcar compartments containing >0.4 insect/2.75-kg sample of wheat, and these foci of high-infestation levels varied in compartments within the railcars and among the sampled railcars. There were no significant correlations between IDK and insect density for any of the different stage-specific insect populations that were collected in the grain samples. Mean numbers of immatures and IDK differed among railcars and compartments within railcars, but not among grain depths. Number of insects in the first discharge sample was not correlated with mean numbers of insects in the entire compartment. This indicates that each compartment of a railcar should be sampled to determine level of insect infestation but that sampling at different depths within a compartment is less important.


In general, standard benchmark suites are critically important for researchers to quantitatively evaluate their new ideas and algorithms. This paper proposes CHStone, a suite of benchmark programs for C-based high-level synthesis. CHStone consists of a dozen of large, easy-to-use programs written in C, which are selected from various application domains. This paper also analyzes the characteristics of the CHStone benchmark programs, which will be valuable for researchers to use CHStone for the evaluation of their new techniques. In addition, we present future challenges to be solved towards the practical high-level synthesis.


*@ # Summary Forty three patients with congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction were examined by an E.N.T. specialist in Prince Ali Hospital for presence or absence of otitis media with effusion to investigate the association, if any, between otitis media with effusion and congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction along with its impact on prognosis. Otitis media with effusion were detected in 17 patients (39.5%). A favourable response to treatment was less likely in the presence of otitis media with effusion. It is concluded that otitis media with effusion has significant association with congenital nasolacrimal duct obstruction and affects its response to medical treatment unfavourably.


An emerging body of research examines language learning of young children from experiences with digital storybooks, but little is known about the ways in which specific components of digital storybooks, including interactive elements, may influence language learning. The purpose of the study was to examine the incidental word learning and story comprehension of preschool children after interactions with interactive and noninteractive versions of a digital storybook. Thirty preschool children were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: interactive in which the story text was presented aloud and interactive features were present and not interactive in which the story text was presented aloud with no interactive features. After three sessions with the digital storybook, no group differences were observed between conditions on measures of word learning or story comprehension. Children in both groups demonstrated some learning of new words; however, gains were minimal, approximately one new word per child. This study contributes preliminary data to indicate that interactive components of digital storybooks may not be sufficient to facilitate language learning. Instruction, rather than incidental exposure, is likely necessary for meaningful language learning from digital storybooks.


Pterosaurs were a successful group of Mesozoic flying reptiles. They were the first vertebrate group to achieve powered flight and varied enormously in morphology and ecology, occupying a variety of niches and developing specialized feeding strategies. Ecomorphological principles suggest this variation should be reflected by great morphological diversity in the lower jaw, given that the mandible served as the primary apparatus for prey acquisition. Here we present the first study of mandibular shape disparity in pterosaurs and aim to characterize major aspects of variation. We use a combination of geometric morphometric approaches, incorporating both outline analysis using elliptical Fourier analysis and semi-landmark approaches. Our results show that morphological convergence is prevalent and many pterosaurs, belonging to diverse dietary groups and subclades, overlap in morphospace and possessed relatively simple 'rod-shaped' jaws. There is no clear trend of size distributions in pterosaur mandibular morphospace, and larger forms are widely distributed. Additionally, there is limited functional signal within pterosaur lower jaw morphospace. Instead, the development of a large anterior ventral crest represents the major component of disparity. This suggests that a socio-sexual trait was a key driver for innovation in pterosaur lower jaw shape.


Differentiated thyroid carcinoma accounts for 90% of all thyroid cancers and occurs as papillary carcinoma in 90% of cases. It was shown as this is characterized by an excellent long-term prognosis, although in follow-up long series, were described recurrence rates up to 35%.
Although in the past has not been attributed prognostic significance to the lymph nodes, in the last decade has shown how these can affect the rate of locoregional recurrence of differentiated thyroid carcinoma. This renewed interest in lymph node metastatic disease has prompted a shift in surgical treatments more aggressive, with a view to achieving a low incidence of locoregional recurrence. Analyzing the more recent guidelines formulated at the international level, we can highlight how we gradually consolidated the role of prophylactic central compartment lymphadenectomy in the surgical treatment of patients with differentiated thyroid carcinoma. The aim of this treatment, in fact, is not only to reduce the mortality of patients, but to obtain an adequate staging, facilitate radiotherapy treatment, obtain undetectable thyroglobulin levels, avoiding the need for repeated reiterventi, made more simple follow-up. All these objectives can be achieved by careful surgery. Total thyroidectomy associated with prophylactic lymphadenectomy of the central compartment was found to achieve these objectives, although in the absence of data from randomized trials, its role remains controversial.


The authors report on 5 cases of inadvertent iatrogenic perforation of the globe in the course of retrobulbar and parabulbar injections. Perforation occurred twice by injection of the drug into the eyeball itself (subretinally or intravitreally), while in 3 cases a double perforation occurred, as a result of which the drug penetrated behind the eye. The prognosis is better in the latter case. Even though perforation of the globe during parabulbar and retrobulbar injections is extremely rare, it must always be considered if there is a sudden deterioration in vision and/or severe pain immediately after the injection; depending on the situation, retinal and/or vitreous surgery must then be performed at once.


OBJECTIVES: To analyze the patients diagnosed of infectious mononucleosis (IM) in our institution, in order to study the symptoms and clinical evolution. MATERIAL AND METHOD: We retrospectively analyse 37 hospitalized children aged between 3 months and 14 years. Diagnosed of IM by production of immunoglobulin M (IgM) to viral capsid antigen (VCA). RESULT: In our series of 37 children, 14 were less than 4 years old. Among clinical data, lymphadenopathy (86%), fever (81%) and pharyngotonsillitis (70%) were the more striking. We found jaundice only in three of the older children. Upper airways obstruction was common, and specially severe in young children. Three patients developed pneumonia during the disease course. Only ten patients produced heterophile antibodies. Two children showed dual antibody rises to Epstein-Barr virus and cytomegalovirus. Corticotherapy was used in 7 children. The complications are presented in 68% of patients. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical aspects of IM were similar to those in the young adult, and complications occur more frequently. We found lack of heterophile antibodies, more frequent in youngest.


Purpose: We identified evidence evaluating the effect of exercise on functional mobility in adults (aged 18 y or older) with cerebral palsy (CP). Method: An exhaustive search was conducted using the electronic databases PubMed, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO, SPORTDiscus, and Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews from the earliest available evidence (1975) to the present (January 2016) for studies whose participants were ambulatory adults with CP receiving conservative treatment to address functional mobility limitations. Two independent reviewers agreed on the eligibility, inclusion, and level of evidence of each study. The Maastricht-Amsterdam List (MAL) was used to assess evidence quality. Results: Five of the six studies included were randomized controlled trials, and one was a pre-post case series. Interventions included whole-body vibration, treadmill training without body-weight support, rhythmic auditory stimulation, dynamic balance and gait activities, progressive resistance training, and interactive serious gaming for balance. All studies were considered high quality, as indicated by their MAL scores. Four studies showed no statistical difference and trivial effect sizes between the intervention and the control group. Rhythmic auditory stimulation and interactive serious gaming were found to be statistically significant in benefiting adults with CP. Conclusions: Evidence of the effect of exercise on functional mobility for ambulatory adults with CP is lacking. A need exists for quality research to determine the best interventions for adults with CP to maximize functional mobility.


With the development of immune-oncology, therapeutic antibodies have been proven to be extraordinarily effective for cancer treatment. Conventional human antibody discovery process can be divided into steps including target selection, target validation, screening preparation, hits generation, leads selection, lead optimization, and clinical candidate selection. To accelerate antibody development process, Biocytogen has developed RenMab Mouse, a fully human antibody mouse whose entire variable regions were replaced by human Ig heavy chain and κ light chain through Biocytogen9s unique Mb-scale chromosome engineering technology. RenMab Mouse provides a remarkably efficient therapeutic antibody discovery platform for fully human antibody generation, characterization, and rapid in vivo efficacy screening. We have characterized RenMab Mouse with the following features. 1. The entire mouse variable regions were replaced with complete human genome DNA in situ for complete human & mouse regulatory elements. The gene regulation of RenMab mouse is highly consistent with that of human. 2. Mouse constant region remains to ensure normal immune cell population, development and maturation. Immune system of RenMab Mouse has been proven to be almost identical to that of wild type mice. RenMab Mouse showed normal antibody immune responses to antigens. 3. RenMab Mouse generates a highly diverse repertoire of fully human antibody variable regions through V(D)J recombination. This capability can lead to improved hit rates in antibody drug discovery. In conclusion, RenMab Mouse, a fully human antibody mouse developed by Biocytogen9s chromosome engineering technology, has been proven to exhibit normal immune cell profile and rapid immune response. Combined with existing inventory of single, double or triple target humanized mouse models and a world-leading proprietary gene editing platform, Biocytogen is dedicated to providing a one-stop solution for antibody discovery and development from target validation to IND application. Citation Format: Gary Ng, Huizhen Zhao, Yabo Zhang, Lili Liu, Hui Lu, Shuwen Huang, Yuelei Shen. RenMab Mouse: A leading platform for fully human antibody generation [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 5051.


Deverbal word formation is subject to two distinct types of constraints, those concerning the syntactic category of the base (categorial constraints) and those relating to the thematic properties of the verb (thematic constraints). For instance, -able suffixation involves a transitive verb with argument structure >, as in to train > trainable. Violation of these constraints results in the creation of pseudo-words with categorial (e.g. riverable) or thematic violations (e.g. arrivable). The study discusses psycholinguistic experiments involving these types of deverbal pseudo-words, in Greek and English, two languages with morphologically distinct properties. Greek has a rich derivational system with a variety of deverbal formations, which follow strong constraints, in the sense that most suffixes that participate in deverbal word formation lack the polysemy that allows them to attach to other-than-verbal bases. English, on the other hand, demonstrates an equally rich derivational system, but it differs in two crucial ways: (a) there is significant affix homophony (e.g. -er is a nominalizer if attached to verbal stems, or forms the comparative if attached to adjectives), (b) it is extremely permissive in allowing zero-derived verbs (to fax). In an off-line and two on-line lexical decision tasks we investigated whether categorial and thematic constraints are treated in the same way by speakers of both languages. Results showed that speakers of both languages differentiated between pseudo-words that violate these two types of constraints both when it comes to acceptance rates and processing time. Taking together results from both languages, we make claims about the structured mental representation of deverbal derivatives and the fact that their various properties can be accessed via distinct operations and at distinct points of time. Implications for the psycholinguistic theory of lexical access and the morphological theory of word formation are also discussed. *


This article investigates the tactics and strategies developed during the
Provisional Consulate to stabilize the new regime in southern Champagne
while reporting on the relevant findings of the international colloquium
on Brumaire held in Rouen, France. In the department of the Aube, the
threat from below helped to push local elites into
accepting the Consulate, particularly once it showed its commitment
to the preservation of order. The rest of the article investigates the
socioprofessional breakdown of officeholders in the Aube and demonstrates
the techniques developed by the prefect to win support from the local
elite. The success of these methods shifted a department considered on
the edge of revolt in 1799 to staunch support of Bonaparte.


Background: This study was to explore the pattern and depth of social and health risk problems that may address the social drivers of HIV/AIDS in a fishing community in the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia.
Methods: Five focus group discussions were held among selected villagers to gain their experiences and perception on social problems and HIV/AIDS risk behaviours in their community.
Results: Many participants discussed on early involvement in substance use disorders and high risk sexual behaviours. Participants were frustrated with the poor parental supervision and lack of social support in the community which exposed them to social problems and subsequently to risk of HIV/AIDS infections.
Conclusion: Poor parental supervision and lack of social support from the community are factors need to be considered when designing structural intervention programme. Further research needs to be done among more specific target groups in villages like youths, parents and school children, in order to identify the causal chains of deeper structure of HIV/AIDS risk for proximal and distal risk factors intervention.


Drilling is one of the complex machining ways. The object of this investigation was to study cutting deformation in drilling by finite element method. A finite element model was developed to study the cutting deformation in drilling with various feed rates and various drilling velocities based on equivalent model. Experimental study on the cutting deformation in drilling was also carried out by a drilling quick-stop device. It is indicated that cutting deformation decreases when the drilling velocity and the feed rate increase; the closer the distance to the web is, the smaller the cutting deformation is; the laws of cutting deformation obtained from finite element method are according to that obtained from experiment.


This investigation consists of an interdisciplinary analysis of photographic, cinematographic, architectural and literary documents representing the city of Havana in Cuba during different periods of the twentieth century. These periods are: the decade of the Great Depression; the 1950s during the rapid growth of the tourist industry in the island; the first fifteen years following the 1959 Cuban Revolution; and the so-called 'Special Period' during the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was during these periods that the city went
through very important transformations due to historical and cultural contingencies. These contingencies refer to the beginnings of the development of the city as a tourist centre, the first debates and cultural manifestations related to the Afro-Cuban traditions in the island, the post - 1959 evolutionary processes and the effects of the end of the Cold War on the city. The documents analysed have been drawn firstly from cultural productions made by Cubans: Cuban filmography and photography pre- and post-1959. Secondly, there are also those documents produced by non-Cubans, mainly Hollywood productions and other types of representation, which have also contributed greatly to create a particular image of Havana. An important part of this analysis also includes the architectural particularities of the city, with an emphasis on the symbology of some of its main buildings, such as the Capitolio and the National Hotel.
This analysis relates the dominant visual tropes of the Cuban capital with more generic discourses regarding the tradition of utopian thought in the West and their embodiment in the image of the modern city. The diverse archival documents discussed throughout this thesis reflect recurrent themes that have characterised this tradition: the contemporary ideal of a
harmonious multicultural society; the romanticisation of the 'old city' as a visual reminder of our 'non-capitalist' past and the utopianism associated with the dichotomy between work and leisure and between the diurnal and the nocturnal. Most of these themes can be found as forming part of the discourse on the national in Cuba, also characterised by a deep utopianism.
The thesis examines the social and cultural history of Havana in order to analyse how the different documents have reflected, or even contributed, to the construction and problematisation of a Cuban national identity, while at the same time making testimony of the existence in the city of different cultural traditions. This has necessarily involved a reflection on the dynamics between the two main cultural traditions present in Havana: the Euro-Cuban and the Afro-Cuban. This thesis proposes that the cultural battles between the African, European and North American traditions in the city have been decisive in the modern re-fashioning of Havana as a museum-city, facilitating the predominantly nostalgic character of its most recent representations. This investigation also takes into account the crucial role of the city's spatial gendrification -
the position of women within the urban space - when describing Havana's utopian representations.
Finally, the interdisciplinary character of this thesis contributes to the analyses of the cultural history of cities as well as the relevance of the visual in the recreations of modern urban life and its relations to the narratives of the national.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of phosphorus application in the form of polyphosphates on the yield and quality of sweet pepper fruits grown with LED (light-emitting diodes) assimilation lighting. Phosphorus is absorbed by the root system of plants mainly in the form of orthophosphates ions. The availability of phosphorus depends, among other things, on the pH of the substrate and the temperature. Two cultivars of sweet pepper with red fruits were tested in hydroponic cultivation on a mineral wool substrate. The plants were fertilized with one of three schedules, each of the same concentration of components, but differing only in the form of the applied phosphorus: polyphosphates (PP) and orthophosphates (OP). In the experiment, stem length extensions and number of leaves, chlorophyll concentration in leaves and fluorescence of the chlorophyll in a leaf were measured. The number and weight of fruits in total as well as marketable and non-commercial fruits with symptoms of dry rot (BER—blossom end rot) were studied. The concentration of dry matter and selected chemical components in fruits were examined and the sensory quality of fruits was evaluated using the QDA (Quantitative Description Analysis) method. The nutrient status of the pepper plants was also examined. Polyphosphates used in the medium increase the activity of photosynthetic apparatus of leaves and have a positive effect on the share of marketable yield of the total yield in the cultivar susceptible to BER. Fertigation in hydroponic cultivation with medium containing 30% phosphorus in the form of polyphosphates increased the uptake of calcium in pepper plants growing with LED lighting. The pepper cultivars tested differ in, among other things, the susceptibility to BER and the quality attributes of the fruit.


Introduction Phosphatidylethanolamine (PE)-conjugated nanoliposomes were developed, characterized, and investigated for their accumulation in liver, kidneys, and lungs in rats. Methods Drug-excipient interaction was studied using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), surface morphology by field emission scanning electron microscopy, elemental analysis by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis, zeta potential and size distribution using a Zetasizer and particle size analyzer, and in vitro drug release by dialysis membrane. In vivo accumulation of liposomes in tissues was also studied. Results No chemical reaction was observed between drug and excipients. EDX study confirmed PE-conjugation in liposomes. Doxorubicin-loaded liposomes (DOX-L) and PE-conjugated doxorubicin-loaded liposomes (DOX-PEL) were of smooth surface and homogenously distributed in nanosize range (32–37 nm) with a negative surface charge. Loading efficiencies were 49.25% ± 1.05% and 52.98% ± 3.22% respectively, for DOX-L and DOX-PEL. In vitro drug release study showed 69.91% ± 1.05% and 77.07% ± 1.02% doxorubicin released, from DOX-L and DOX-PEL, respectively, in nine hours. Fluorescence microscopic study showed that liposomes were well distributed in liver, lungs, and kidneys. Conclusion Data suggests that PE-conjugated nanoliposomes released the drug in a sustained manner and were capable of distributing them in various organs. This may be used for cell/ tissue targeting, attaching specific antibodies to PE.


a final surface formation. While HSC represents the so called chip machining, EDM embodies a utilization of controlled thermal material reduction. With respect to the usage of these technologies, tool steels K110 and W300 were chosen for the experiments. Samples made from both the materials were primarily subjected to either HSC or EDM and residual stresses were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction, Barkhausen noise, hole-drilling, and layer removal methods.


A commonsense and empirically supported approach to explaining metropolitan real house price changes is for the theory to describe an equilibrium price level to which the market is constantly adjusting. The determinants of real house price appreciation, then, can be divided into two groups, one that explains changes in the equilibrium price and the other that accounts for the adjustment dynamics or changing deviations from the equilibrium price. The former group includes the growth in real income and real construction costs and changes in the real after-tax interest rate. The latter group consists of lagged real appreciation and the difference between the actual and equilibrium real house price levels. Either group of variables can explain a little over two-fifths of the variation in real house price movements in 30 cities over the 1977-92 period; together, they explain three-fifths.


The paper looks into the social aspects of life cycle management (LCM) in relation to sustainable development. Sustainable development is regarded as a comprehensive set of strategies enabling the satisfaction of social, material and spiritual needs of people through economic tools and technology while respecting environmental limits. To make this possible in the global scale of the contemporary world, it is necessary to re-define their social and political institutions and processes at the local, regional and global level. Sustainable development is unthinkable not only without the balance in the environmental respect; the balance in the social and economic areas is of equal importance. Social responsibility can be viewed as a parallel to a philosophy in which businesses are committed to sustainable development. Promoting social responsibility within the business can influence activities in the product life cycle. Social aspects, such as safe workplaces or organisations protecting the rights of workers are becoming prominent with increasing frequency as modern requirements. The aim of the paper is to describe and introduce management tools and systems, if they exist, that enable a successful life cycle management with a focus on social aspects. Key issues in relation to LCM will be: Which social elements can be included in LCM? Which aspects are to be included in the social "pillar" of sustainable development? etc. The result should be an adequate approach integrating the social, environmental and economic aspects in LCM.


We evaluate the performance of an environmental market in a less developed country on the basis of the experiences of the particulate matter control program of Santiago, Chile. We find that grandfathering the permits has created economic incentives for incumbent sources to more readily declare their (historic) emissions in order to claim any permits. In addition, the market has not fully developed because of transaction costs, regulatory uncertainty, and incomplete enforcement. Nonetheless, it has provided sources with the flexibility to adapt to new market conditions. Our analysis of this particular experience indicates that market‐based policies can provide important advantages over traditional command‐and‐control policies even under limited institutional capabilities.


Persistent microvascular hyperpermeability to plasma proteins even after the cessation of injury is a characteristic but poorly understood feature of normal wound healing. It results in extravasation of fibrinogen that clots to form fibrin, which serves as a provisional matrix and promotes angiogenesis and scar formation. We present evidence indicating that vascular permeability factor (VPF; also known as vascular endothelial growth factor) may be responsible for the hyperpermeable state, as well as the angiogenesis, that are characteristic of healing wounds. Hyperpermeable blood vessels were identified in healing split-thickness guinea pig and rat punch biopsy skin wounds by their capacity to extravasate circulating macromolecular tracers (colloidal carbon, fluoresceinated dextran). Vascular permeability was maximal at 2-3 d, but persisted as late as 7 d after wounding. Leaky vessels were found initially at the wound edges and later in the subepidermal granulation tissue as keratinocytes migrated to cover the denuded wound surface. Angiogenesis was also prominent within this 7-d interval. In situ hybridization revealed that greatly increased amounts of VPF mRNA were expressed by keratinocytes, initially those at the wound edge, and, at later intervals, keratinocytes that migrated to cover the wound surface; occasional mononuclear cells also expressed VPF mRNA. Secreted VPF was detected by immunofluoroassay of medium from cultured human keratinocytes. These data identify keratinocytes as an important source of VPF gene transcript and protein, correlate VPF expression with persistent vascular hyperpermeability and angiogenesis, and suggest that VPF is an important cytokine in wound healing.


The paper presents the implementation of the Actuator Cylinder (AC) flow model in the HAWC2 aeroelastic code originally developed for simulation of Horizontal Axis Wind Turbine (HAWT) aeroelasticity. This is done within the DeepWind project where the main objective is to explore the competitiveness of VAWTs for floating MW concepts. The AC model is a 2D flow model and has thus some advantages compared with the stream tube models often used in VAWT aerodynamic and aeroelastic simulation models. A major finding presented in the present paper is a simple way to correct the results from the linear version of the AC model so that they correlate closely with the results of the full AC model. The linear model has very low computational requirements and is thus well suited for implementation in an aeroelastic model where the induction in a number of points on the rotor swept surface is updated at each time step. The AC model is described and the implementation of the model in HAWC2 is briefly presented. Results illustrating the accuracy of the different versions of the AC model are presented. Finally, initial simulations on the 5MW baseline rotor with the new HAWC2 version with the AC model implemented are presented.


There is a growing popularity of computer backup pools, where a few members share the ownership, or right for service, of a computer center. Such a center stands by to provide for the lost computing capacity of a member suffering a computer breakdown and disaster recovery. The efficiency of such a solution may be examined from various points of view, such as costs, response time, reliability etc. We focus on the reliability of such an arrangement. Two types of default risks are discussed: the probability that the center itself will break down when needed, so that it would be unable to provide service (this is similar to the traditional measure of a "probability of ruin") and a "perceived probability of ruin" (the probability that a member will be affected by the failure of the center). We borrow the concepts of probability of ruin from the risk management and insurance literature, in order to reach explicit relationships between these probabilities and the pricing of a mutual computer pool. It is shown that the membership fee for each participant must be a function of both the payments of all members and their loss (call for service) distributions, reflecting thereby the simultaneity of and mutual interdependence of members.


My own experience with " lomudase " (i.e., combined isoprenaline and chymotrypsin therapy) conforms to that of Dr. D. Tilley (Jourinal, December 26, p. 1484) in that all but one of 12 patients have experienced a subjective improvement reflected in their increased ability to get about and, in some cases, go to work, and that, after all, is the object of the exercise. My ,only conclusion is that further treatment along these lines is justified, and my only object in writing is to persuade others to keep an open mind until more detailed results are available.-I am, etc.,


A new high-tech center is being built on the ruins of East Germany's Carl Zeiss, once considered the most powerful technology conglomerate in the former Soviet empire. In its heyday, the state-owned "Kombinat" with a workforce of almost 70,000 churned out an impressive assortment of high-tech products, ranging from precision instruments and cameras to lasers and electronic components for spy satellites. It also developed the first East German 1-megabyte chip, though at a huge expense. Today, having lost its major export markets in the former Soviet Union and East bloc, Zeiss is the target of an ambitious $2.4 billion German government plan to create a technology region out of its ruins. But the plan, experts agree, is not without its challenges. For one, Zeiss and Co. faces stiff competition not only from the Japanese and Americans but also from other German technology giants, notably Siemens AG and Daimler-Benz AG. Nor is it clear how long the Bonn government--severely strapped for cash--will be able to subsidize the effort. Early last year, the German Ministry for Research and Development approved a multi-billion-dollar plan to finance new technology-oriented startups and to create 15 high-tech centers in the east. Of these, the Jena high-tech park, where Zeiss was established over 100 years ago, is by far the largest and most ambitious. And for good reason: a huge reservoir of expertise remains in the area, following the loss of almost 60,000 jobs at Zeiss. After the Second World War, Zeiss was broken up into two halves. Worried about growing Soviet intervention in the region, the U.S. government enlisted 127 top Zeiss scientists and managers from Jena to relocate in Oberkochen near Stuttgart, where they were asked to establish a western counterpart. From that day in June 1945, until the fall of the Iron Curtain in November 1989, Zeiss east and west were engaged in a bitter battle to determine which was the rightful heir. That contest is now ended. Both sides have compromised on the use of the name by roughly dividing markets between east and west and by dropping overlapping production. Zeiss Oberkochen, which has a 51 percent stake in Zeiss Jena, has been quick to restructure its eastern half, focusing on traditional product lines and cutting the workforce to around 3,000. The thousands of well trained "Zeissianer" and the numerous plants shed from this major restructuring form the basis of the Jena high-tech center. One of the first enterprises to rise from the remains of the former East German Zeiss Kombinat is Jenoptik GmbH, which was launched last November. Still fully owned by the state of Thuringen, Jenoptik will eventually be privatized. The company controls 49 percent of Zeiss Jena. If it succeeds, Jenoptik would help rejuvenate the region and show that former East Germany industry can be fertile ground for launching globally competitive companies. A major force behind the technology drive in Jena is Lothar Spaeth, the outspoken former prime minister of Baden-Wuerttemberg. In less than two years, the business-minded politician has been instrumental in creating over 130 small and medium-sized technology companies, including Jenoptik, in forming several joint ventures, notably with Deutsche Aerospace AG (Dasa) and Rheinmetall AG, and in attracting significant direct investment from the west. EUROPE'S SILICON VALLEY? Under the guidance of this clever man--and with a little luck--Jena could someday become the Silicon Valley of Europe, observers say. The city, with a population over 100,000, boasts an independent research center and two universities, both strong in science and engineering. …


Numerous in vitro studies have indicated that acetaminophen is activated by mouse hepatic microsomal cytochrome P450 to form N-acetylbenzoquinone imine. This in turn covalently binds through a Michael addition to protein sulfhydryl and amino groups. Although acetaminophen adducts of several cytosolic proteins have been purified after its administration in vivo, no adducts of specific microsomal proteins have been reported. We find that, after the in vitro incubation of mouse hepatic microsomes with [ring-14C] acetaminophen in the presence of an NADPH generating system, 95% of the bound radioactivity was associated with adducts to three intraluminal microsomal proteins: calreticulin and the two forms of thiol:protein disulfide oxidoreductase, Q2 and Q5. The acetaminophen bound to 0.35, 1.32, and 0.25 mol/mol of the three proteins, respectively. Sequencing of the 14C-labeled tryptic peptides indicated that the acetaminophen bound to lysine 103 of Q2, lysines 202, 209 or 210 and 354 of Q5 and lysines 233 or 239 of calreticulin. No adducts of cysteine residues were observed. Our data might suggest that acetaminophen hepatotoxicity results from the formation of the reactive metabolite within the endoplasmic reticulum. This then binds to these essential proteins and blocks the posttranslational modification of secretory and membrane proteins. This inhibition could then lead to cellular injury and death.


This paper presents the use of problem based scenarios within an interactive online mentor update tool for healthcare professionals. Students from healthcare programmes within the United Kingdom are supported in their clinical placements by appropriately qualified members of staff who require annual updates to maintain their currency in this role; a professional and regulatory body stipulation. In response to increasing pressures within the workplace that are negatively impacting upon opportunities to access the current method for delivering these updates, an alternative has been sought. An exploration of the strategy of Problem Based Learning (PBL) and the use of scenarios within an e-learning environment is presented and a discussion surrounding the promotion of independent thought and self directed learners is undertaken. The importance of a multi-professional approach to the mentoring of students has been promoted by professional bodies, with the International Council of Nurses code (2000) stating that co-operative relationships with co-workers in other fields are necessary. The package provides a multi-professional, multi-institutional problem based approach to delivering information that is integral to the effective mentoring of students. It is recognised this is only a small scale study but it does suggest that e-learning and PBL can assist learners to become motivated and self-directed in their own learning. The PBL approach brings the information to 'life' allowing participant to critically analyse potential problems and develop solutions


The astrophysical production site of the heaviest elements in the universe remains a mystery. Incorporating heavy-element signatures of metal-poor, r-process-enhanced stars into theoretical studies of r-process production can offer crucial constraints on the origin of heavy elements. In this study, we introduce and apply the "actinide-dilution with matching" model to a variety of stellar groups, ranging from actinide-deficient to actinide-enhanced, to empirically characterize r-process ejecta mass as a function of electron fraction. We find that actinide-boost stars do not indicate the need for a unique and separate r-process progenitor. Rather, small variations of neutron richness within the same type of r-process event can account for all observed levels of actinide enhancements. The very low-Ye, fission-cycling ejecta of an r-process event need only constitute 10%–30% of the total ejecta mass to accommodate most actinide abundances of metal-poor stars. We find that our empirical Ye distributions of ejecta are similar to those inferred from studies of GW170817 mass ejecta ratios, which is consistent with neutron-star mergers being a source of the heavy elements in metal-poor, r-process-enhanced stars.


Abstract : An experimental and theoretical study of the pumping of hydrogen by adsorbents cooled at 20 K is presented. The study covers the pressure range of 10 to the minus 9 to 10 to the minus 5 torr. The adsorbents studied were charcoal, Molecular Sieves 4A, 5A, 10X, 13X, and several special Molecular Sieves containing aluminum flake. Molecular Sieve 5A was selected as the preferred adsorbent for hydrogen cryosorption pumping. Incorporation of aluminum flake into the Molecular Sieve increased its thermal conductivity and reduced its optical emissivity. Techniques were developed for bonding Molecular Sieves to metal surfaces to form cryosorption panels. A hydrogen adsorption coefficient of 0.16 was measured for a Molecular Sieve 5A surface bonded to aluminum. This coefficient corresponds to an unbaffled pumping speed of 6600 liters/sec sq ft of adsorbent. The adsorption coefficient was relatively insensitive to the volume of adsorbed hydrogen as long as the volume was less than 1.5 cc (STP)/gm of adsorbent. Small volumes of condensable gases (nitrogen) on the adsorbent surface caused a marked decrease in the hydrogen adsorption coefficient. (Author)


The topic of this paper is the simultaneous estimation of state and parameters in linear discrete-time dynamic systems. The system is subject to a known arbitrary input (control), a random input (additive driving noise) and the output observation is also contaminated by noise. The noises are Gaussian, zero-mean, independent and with known variances. The problem is formulated under the assumption that the system parameters are unknown constants. Previous works in the literature treated this problem assuming that each parameter can take values over a finite set with known a priori probabilities. The proposed scheme yields the maximum a posteriori and maximum likelihood estimates for the system's state and parameters, respectively. They are obtained by solving the likelihood equations-a system of nonlinear equations with the state and parameters as unknowns. Use is made of the fact that the dynamical system considered is linear and the problem is separated into two interconnected linear problems: one for the state, the other for the parameters. The solution is obtained by iterating between two systems of linear equations. The estimation technique presented is optimal in the following sense: no approximations are involved and the estimates of the parameters converge to the true values at the fastest possible rate, as given by the Cram�r-Rao lower bound, i.e. they are asympotically efficient. This is proved, using a theorem which states that, under certain general conditions, the maximum likelihood estimate with dependent observations is consistent and asymptotically efficient. The problem of uniqueness of the solution is discussed for the case of a scalar unknown parameter. Use is made of a theorem due to Perlman, generalized for the case of dependent observations. Due to the fact that the estimation-identification is done in the presence of input and output noise and an arbitrary known input, the procedure can be considered an on-line technique. Since estimates are available after each measurement, this estimationidentification procedure is suited for use in the adaptive control of unknown (or partially known) linear plants.


For an efficient integration of autonomous vehicles on roads, human-like reasoning and decision making in complex traffic situations are needed. One of the key factors to achieve this goal is the estimation of the future behavior of the vehicles present in the scene. In this work, we propose a new approach to predict the motion of vehicles surrounding a target vehicle in a highway environment. Our approach is based on an LSTM encoder-decoder that uses a social pooling mechanism to model the interactions between all the neighboring vehicles. The originality of our social pooling module is that it combines both local and non-local operations. The non-local multi-head attention mechanism captures the relative importance of each vehicle despite the inter-vehicle distances to the target vehicle, while the local blocks represent nearby interactions between vehicles. This paper compares the proposed approach with the state-of-the-art using two naturalistic driving datasets: Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) and the new highD Dataset. The proposed method outperforms existing ones in terms of RMS values of prediction error, which shows the effectiveness of combining local and non-local operations in such a context.


The study was conducted in eastern and western zones of Haryana in 2017-18. From eastern zone Kurukshetra and Panipat and from western zone Hisar district were selected on basis of acreage under summer mungbean. The outcomes of production function analysis reveal that there is scope for reorganization of resources used in cultivation of summer mungbean to optimize their use to enhance returns in the study area. In all the districts, the usage of resources which are showing negative production elasticity should be decreased to achieve the resource optimality and the use of resources viewing more than unity production elasticity should be encouraged to enhance the profitability condition. The analysis of constraints in cultivation of summer mungbean as opined by the sampled farmers recite that non-availability of suitable machine for harvesting, non-procurement of produce by Govt. agencies, harvest price less than MSP were recorded as the major constraints in the study area. Keeping in view the findings of the study, it is suggested that there is need to re-orient the usage of resources for attaining higher returns from summer mungbean cultivation, multiplication of short duration varieties seed, need to develop suitable and low cost harvesting machinery and procurement arrangement of produce at MSP.


The goal of this work is to learn a parsimonious and informative representation for high-dimensional time series. Conceptually, this comprises two distinct yet tightly coupled tasks: learning a low-dimensional manifold and modeling the dynamical process. These two tasks have a complementary relationship as the temporal constraints provide valuable neighborhood information for dimensionality reduction and conversely, the low-dimensional space allows dynamics to be learnt efficiently. Solving these two tasks simultaneously allows important information to be exchanged mutually. If nonlinear models are required to capture the rich complexity of time series, then the learning problem becomes harder as the nonlinearities in both tasks are coupled. The proposed solution approximates the nonlinear manifold and dynamics using piecewise linear models. The interactions among the linear models are captured in a graphical model. By exploiting the model structure, efficient inference and learning algorithms are obtained without oversimplifying the model of the underlying dynamical process. Evaluation of the proposed framework with competing approaches is conducted in three sets of experiments: dimensionality reduction and reconstruction using synthetic time series, video synthesis using a dynamic texture database, and human motion synthesis, classification and tracking on a benchmark data set. In all experiments, the proposed approach provides superior performance.


Through an examination of reactions by practitioners of ayurvedic medicine to India's new WTO-mandated Patents Act, this article problematizes approaches to agency, resistance, and the intelligibility of systems of power in social theory. The coming together of law, science, and different practices of medicine in this case is challenging to decipher in terms of its potential effects on India's ayurvedic medical system, and ayurvedic medical practitioners have very divergent positions about how to protect their knowledge from misappropriation—ranging from organized resistance to deliberate inaction—and disagree over whether the new laws present a threat. I present theoretical approaches, largely from science and technology studies, that decenter the role of human agency and consider inaction an informed reaction to power in an effort to begin to focus more fully on problems of agency and intelligibility that social analysts have only peripherally acknowledged in their considerations of power and resistance.


I would endorse very strongly that "there must be a close working relationship with the public health authorities" and that if the local hospital establishes this relationship, the "school eye clinic" becomes a "children's eye clinic" at which even very young children can be seen, sparing them the necessity of a number of hospital visits. In effect these clinics become outposts of the hospital; the staffing overlaps with that at the hospital and continuity of personnel, so essential to children, and consistency of treatment, so essential to obtaining a cooperative and understanding parent, present no difficulty. With Dr. Ingram's objectives in view, this organization was set up some years ago in the London Borough of Barnet, though not without some administrative panic. The eye clinics in the borough are split between the consultant and his assistants at the hospital. In addition, the orthoptist at the hospital not only is the orthoptist at the children's eye clinics in the borough, but holds "open door" squint diagnostic clinics which have proved a great success in very early diagnosis. Hence no child born and bred in the borough can arrive at school with an undiagnosed squint or amblyopia except by serious neglect of the practitioner or parent. The rules under which she operates have been outlined.' Dr. Ingram emphasizes the importance of family history, and the orthoptist in these clinics is encouraged to see the siblings of known squinters as part of her duties. I suggest that this type of organization should be positively aimed at in the future administration of the N.H.S. and not left to the unsupported initiative of enlightened ophthalmologists.-I am, etc.,


In the present paper, we treat the problem of learning averages out of a set of symmetric positive-definite matrices (SPDMs). We discuss a possible learning technique based on the differential geometrical properties of the SPDM-manifold which was recently shown to possess a Lie-group structure under appropriate group definition. We first recall some relevant notions from differential geometry, mainly related to Lie-group theory, and then we propose a scheme of learning averages. Some numerical experiments will serve to illustrate the features of the learnt averages.


Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to work on the relational innovation. Innovation is a key factor in understanding organizations. Emerged as a growth paradigm, it is a good indicator of their priorities. Considered in a more pragmatic way, it has been noticed that other forms of innovation linked to relationships are developing alongside the most formal technological one.

Findings

Highlighted in the 1960s, administrative innovation aimed to account for the stakeholders involved and how, by modifying the relationships, they were able to change the configurations of the organization. Since then, the authors mentioned the concept of organizational innovation which has been extended and modified. The term is still being discussed, but it has already appeared in the continuation of previous research.

Originality/value

The authors put forward a related and different form of organizational innovation: a relational innovation. This one seems to be linked to relational patterns of the organization. This theory paper aims to present relational innovation.


The relationship of accreditation to the public interest has been a topic of discussion in the media as well as in higher education circles as the topic has been politicized. This article examines the historical evolution of public involvement in the accreditation process as well as the reasons for public representation on accreditation bodies and in decision making. The links between accreditation and quality control are discussed and assessed.


Patients with ESRD have high rates of depression, which is associated with diminished quality of life and survival. We determined whether individual cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) reduces depression in hemodialysis patients with elevated depressive affect in a randomized crossover trial. Of 65 participants enrolled from two dialysis centers in New York, 59 completed the study and were assigned to the treatment-first group (n=33) or the wait-list control group (n=26). In the intervention phase, CBT was administered chairside during dialysis treatments for 3 months; participants were assessed 3 and 6 months after randomization. Compared with the wait-list group, the treatment-first group achieved significantly larger reductions in Beck Depression Inventory II (self-reported, P=0.03) and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (clinician-reported, P<0.001) scores after intervention. Mean scores for the treatment-first group did not change significantly at the 3-month follow-up. Among participants with depression diagnosed at baseline, 89% in the treatment-first group were not depressed at the end of treatment compared with 38% in the wait-list group (Fisher's exact test, P=0.01). Furthermore, the treatment-first group experienced greater improvements in quality of life, assessed with the Kidney Disease Quality of Life Short Form (P=0.04), and interdialytic weight gain (P=0.002) than the wait-list group, although no effect on compliance was evident at follow-up. In summary, CBT led to significant improvements in depression, quality of life, and prescription compliance in this trial, and studies should be undertaken to assess the long-term effects of CBT on morbidity and mortality in patients with ESRD.


This study was carried out to determine the molecular analysis of antibiotic resistance among the clinical isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. For this study, 54 P. aeruginosa isolates were obtained from blood, skin, pus, respiratory, eyes, urine and sputum of both paediatric and adult patients. Antibiotic sensitivity analysis was carried out using showed Quinolone (Ciprofloxacin) to be the most active antimicrobial agents with 83.34 % susceptibility followed by imipenem (81.49%), aminoglycosides (amikacin,74.08% and gentamicin, 72.23%) and the beta- lactams (cefepime 62.97%, ceftazidime (15%) and amikacine (14%). Among all the P. aeruginosa isolates, 29% of the strains were resistant to one antibiotic, 20% strains were resistant to two antibiotics and 51% were multidrug resistance. All the 54 strains of P. aeruginosa were subjected to MIC determination for ceftazidime and piperacillin by E-test. Piperacillin and ceftazidime showed the maximum number of resistance against P. aeruginosa 50% and 29.63% respectively. Among all the P. aeruginosa isolates, 12.97% were ESBL positive in phenotypic test whereas the 11.12% were found positive using E-test. But none of the isolates were found to produce MBLs. All these isolates were examined for the production of plasmid and were further analysed. Supercoil DNA marker was used to determine the plasmid sizes. It was used in electrophoresis gel each time along with the plasmids as molecular weight marker. Plasmid profiling analysis shown that, DNA marker was used to estimate the plasmid size and was used as molecular weight markers in each gel running. Plasmids were detected in 10 isolates with the POR of (18.51 %) by using Close and Rodriguez with modification (1982) and QIAprep Spin Kit. The overall sizes of the plasmid DNA range from the lowest 1.8 kb to the highest 14 kb. These 10 isolates appear to harbor 1 or more plasmids with the maximum of 4 plasmids. Various plasmid profiles were observed in the isolates. The plasmid analyses revealed that detectable plasmids in 10 (29.42%) out of the 34 selected multi-drug resistant P. aeruginosa isolates. Twenty four of the isolates possessed no plasmids, 3 isolates possessed single sized plasmids (3400bp- 4600bp) while 3 isolates had four plasmids with sizes from (1800bp- 5800bp). Four isolates which had 2 plasmids size of (220bp-14000bp) respectively. PCR were used to detect the ESBL genes. In this study, we examined the molecular type of blaSHV, SHV, 7EMand CTX-M derived ESBL variants produced by clinical P. aeruginosa isolates. We identified the strains carrying blaSHV and SHV genes by PCR test and confirmed the results by nucleotide sequencing. Polymerase chain reaction used in this study proved to be rapid reproducible and specific. We have found that 6 P. aeruginosa isolates carried blaSHV gene whereas 2 P. aeruginosa isolates carried SHV gene. Polymerase chain reaction produces a fragment of 200bp of blaSHV gene and 475bp of SHV gene respectively. ESBL positive isolates were found to harbour 1 or more plasmids. But TEM and CTX-M genes were not found in all the ESBL positive strains. The SHV & blaSHV genes were amplified by PCR. Approximately, 10-12 PCR reaction was carried out to have adequate amount of gene for sequencing and combined together to pool and purified by PCR purification kit. The purified product for sequencing service was sent to Medigene Sdn Bhd Selangor, Malaysia. The sequencing result was analysed online using NCBI and BLAST software.


In this paper, a new current-mode (CM) circuit for realizing all of the first-order filter responses is suggested. The proposed configuration contains low number of components, only two NMOS transistors both operating in saturation region, two capacitors and two resistors. Major advantages of the presented circuit are low voltage, low noise and high linearity. The proposed filter circuit can simultaneously provide both inverting and non-inverting first-order low-pass, high-pass and all-pass filter responses. Computer simulation results achieved through SPICE tool and experimental results are given as examples to demonstrate performance and effectiveness of the proposed topology.


The objectives of this study were to determine empirically the range of requests of persons seeking medical care and the relationship between request patterns and sociodemographic characteristics of patients. One-hundred and twenty-nine adult patients of a family medicine clinic completed a 34-item request inventory composed of seven hypothetical request categories. Factor analysis showed that four factors could explain 60% of the overall variance in responses. Analysis of variance using these four request categories (Psychosocial, Medical Explanation, Supportive Communication, Test Results/Reassurance) as dependent variables indicated significant differences in the requests of patients from various socio-economic backgrounds. Individuals who were single, divorced, Medicaid users, or recipients of free health-care service requested more psychosocial assistance than others. These results serve to underscore the importance of eliciting and identifying patient requests, keeping accurate records of patient demographics, and utilizing this information when creating, negotiating, and implementing treatment plans for individual patients.


Intent: The items in this section document the risk, presence, appearance, and change of pressure ulcers. This section also notes other skin ulcers, wounds, or lesions, and documents some treatment categories related to skin injury or avoiding injury. It is important to recognize and evaluate each resident's risk factors and to identify and evaluate all areas at risk of constant pressure. A complete assessment of skin is essential to an effective pressure ulcer prevention and skin treatment program. Be certain to include in the assessment process, a holistic approach. It is imperative to determine the etiology of all wounds and lesions, as this will determine and direct the proper treatment and management of the wound.


Recent advancements in high-quality, large-scale English resources have pushed the frontier of English Automatic Text Simplification (ATS) research. However, less work has been done on multilingual text simplification due to the lack of a diverse evaluation benchmark that covers complex-simple sentence pairs in many languages. This paper introduces the MultiSim benchmark, a collection of 27 resources in 12 distinct languages containing over 1.7 million complex-simple sentence pairs. This benchmark will encourage research in developing more effective multilingual text simplification models and evaluation metrics. Our experiments using MultiSim with pre-trained multilingual language models reveal exciting performance improvements from multilingual training in non-English settings. We observe strong performance from Russian in zero-shot cross-lingual transfer to low-resource languages. We further show that few-shot prompting with BLOOM-176b achieves comparable quality to reference simplifications outperforming fine-tuned models in most languages. We validate these findings through human evaluation.


This paper presents an experimental investigation on the behavior of encased light cold-formed steel joists with/without web openings. The study is carried on two sets of composite beams constructed of cold-formed steel joists using I-beam built-up sections. The first set has no web openings while the second set has circular web openings. Each set consists of three beams with various steel section-concrete reinforcing ratio. The constant parameters included in this study are the cross sectional area of the specimen, distribution of web openings in the encased steel I-joist, and the compressive strength of concrete. The tests have been conducted by applying two concentrated identical loads. Consequently, a comparative study is carried out to compare between the behavior of specimens within one set, and a comparison between the specimens of the two sets. This comparison is related to strength, stiffness, ductility, energy absorption capacity and failure modes. Based on the testing results, it is concluded that, the load capacity of the composite beams without web openings is greater than that with web openings for the same steel ratio. But the existence of web openings in the encased steel joists enhances the ductility and the energy absorption of the composite beams. Also using cold formed steel I-joists in the composite beams allow the failure mode to be ductile flexural failure.


The homeobox superfamily is one of the most significant gene families in the evolution of developmental processes in animals. Within this superfamily the ANTP class has expanded exclusively in animals and, therefore, the reconstruction of its origin and diversification into the different 'modern' families have become prominent questions in the 'evo-devo' field. The current burgeoning availability of animal genome sequences is improving the resolution of these questions, putting them in a genome evolution context, as well as providing the field with a large, detailed and diverse catalogue of animal homeobox complements. Here I have contributed with a new hypothesis on the origin and evolution of the Hox and ParaHox loci and the new term, ghost loci, referring to homologous genome regions that have lost their homeobox genes. This hypothesis proposes that the last common ancestor of all animals had a much more complex genome (i.e. differentiated Hox, ParaHox and NK loci) that underwent a simplification in the early animal lineages of sponges and placozoans. In collaboration with the Adamska group I resolved the orthology of the first ever ParaHox genes reported in calcareous sponges. This finding serves as an independent confirmation of the ghost loci hypothesis and further resolves the events of secondary simplification within the sponge lineage. Finally, I have catalogued the homeobox complement of the newly sequenced arthropod, the myriapod Strigamia maritima, and examined the linkage and clustering of these genes. This has furthered our understanding of the evolution of the ANTP class. The diversity of the homeobox complement and the retention in this myriapod and the retention of some homeobox genes not previously described within arthropods, in combination with the interesting phylogenetic position that this lineage occupies relative to other arthropods, makes this complement an important point of reference for comparison within the arthropods and in a broader perspective in the ecdyzosoans. These findings have provided significant further insights into the origin and evolution of the homeobox superfamily, with important implications for animal evolution and the evolution of development.


With the increasing importance of computers in all areas of life, new and innovative interaction concepts gain importance as current windows, icons, menus, and pointing concepts are rendered unusable. Well known graphical user interface currently move towards enhanced and multimodal interaction capabilities. In this paper we describe our approach to support this transition by extending graphical interfaces with multimodal interaction capabilities. Major aspects we focus on are the conveyance of the usable modalities as well as the fluent transitions between different modality combinations when the interaction context changes.


This department column explores digital and disciplinary literacies across learning contexts and disciplines within and outside of school. Digital enhancements will encourage readers to post questions, comments, and connections.


Background The value of interferon-γ release assays (IGRA) to diagnose active tuberculosis (TB) in children is not established, but these assays are being widely used for this purpose. The authors examined the sensitivity of commercially available IGRA to diagnose active TB in children in the UK compared with the tuberculin skin test (TST). Methods The authors established a paediatric tuberculosis network and conducted a retrospective analysis of data from children investigated for active TB at six large UK paediatric centres. All centres had used TST and at least one of the commercially available IGRA (T-Spot.TB or Quantiferon-Gold in Tube) in the diagnostic work-up for active TB. Data were available from 333 children aged 2 months to 16 years. The authors measured the sensitivity of TST and IGRA in definite (culture confirmed) and probable TB in children, agreement between TST and either IGRA, and their combined sensitivity. Results Of 333 children, 49 fulfilled the criteria of definite TB, and 146 had probable TB. Within the definite cohort, TST had a sensitivity of 82%, Quantiferon-Gold in tube (QFT-IT) had a sensitivity of 78% and T-Spot.TB of 66%. Neither IGRA performed significantly better than a TST with a cut-off of 15 mm. Combining the results of TST and IGRA increased the sensitivity to 96% for TST plus T-Spot.TB and 91% for TST plus QFG-IT in the definite TB cohort. Conclusions A negative IGRA does not exclude active TB disease, but a combination of TST and IGRA increases the sensitivity for identifying children with active TB.


Mechanisms in which p-coumaric acid (CA) acts as an antioxidant are not well understood. This study investigated whether CA can act as a direct scavenger of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and whether it minimizes the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL). Rats were administered CA in drinking water at low or high doses for 10, 21, and 30 days (uptakes were 29 and 317 mg/day, respectively). Blood levels of 8-epiprostaglandin F(2alpha) were monitored as a marker of LDL oxidation. Oral administration of CA (317 mg/day) for 30 days significantly inhibited LDL oxidation. CA also reduced LDL cholesterol levels in serum but had no effect on levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. In vitro studies that used electron spin resonance in combination with spin trapping techniques were used to determine the ability of CA to scavenge ROS and alter LDL oxidation. CA effectively scavenged.OH in a dose-dependent manner. IC(50) and maximum velocity for CA scavenging of.OH were 4. 72 microM and 1.2 microM/s, respectively, with a rate constant of 1. 8 x 10(11) M(-1). s(-1). Our studies suggest that the antioxidant properties of CA may involve the direct scavenging of ROS such as.OH.


Nasotracheal intubation is often required during dental and maxillofacial surgery. The complications of nasotracheal intubation are well documented, but there have been few systematic attempts to find methods for their prevention. We examined intubation-related carriage of bacteria, especially methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), into the trachea and evaluated the effects of topical nasal treatment with mupirocin on intubation-related bacterial colonization. Of 38 patients without mupirocin treatment (nontreatment group), 27 (71.1%) showed general bacterial colonization in the nasal cavities before intubation. MRSA was isolated from 13.2% of the patients in this group. However, 10 of 22 patients (45%) treated with mupirocin (treatment group) showed colonization by general bacteria, and 2 (9%) were MRSA carriers before intubation. After nasal intubation, general bacteria and MRSA were isolated from the endotracheal tube tip in 66.2% and 16.7% of these patients in the nontreatment group, respectively. In contrast, general bacteria were isolated from the endotracheal tube tip in 19.2% of these patients after oral intubation, but no MRSA was detected. However, after nasal intubation, general bacteria were isolated from the endotracheal tube tip in 3 of the patients in the treatment group (23.1%), and no MRSA was detected, whereas no bacteria were isolated from oral intubation tubes. These results indicate that bacteria were carried into the trachea at a more frequent rate by nasal intubation as compared with oral intubation, and nasal treatment with mupirocin eliminated the nasal carriage of S. aureus. Topical nasal treatment with mupirocin before nasal intubation is thus suggested to be effective for preventing carriage of bacteria into the trachea.


The increasing demand for micro/mesoscale components for electronic, biological, and medical applications has brought about continuing developments in mechanical micromachining. Various economic and technical advantages have led to decreases in the overall sizes of the machine tools used in this process, which are known as mesoscale machine tools (MMTs). Rather than shrinking and adapting conventional instruments, this technical trend has motivated the development of new techniques involving clamping devices, inspection, spindles, etc. This study reviewed possible detection techniques for mesoscale tool positioning, including conductivity-based, laser-beam, thin-plate, and acoustic-emission (AE) methods. Preliminary experimental studies of the laser-beam and AE methods were carried out using simple test beds.


Difficulties in accessing, isolating, and iterating on the components and connections of a printed circuit board (PCB) create unique challenges in PCB debugging. Manual probing methods are slow and error prone, and even dedicated PCB testing equipment remains limited by its inability to modify the circuit during testing. We present Pinpoint, a tool that facilitates in-circuit PCB debugging through techniques such as programmatically probing signals, dynamically disconnecting components and subcircuits to test in isolation, and splicing in new elements to explore potential modifications. Pinpoint automatically instruments a PCB design and generates designs for a physical jig board that interfaces the user's PCB to our custom testing hardware and to software tools. We evaluate Pinpoint's ability to facilitate the debugging of various PCB issues by instrumenting and testing different classes of boards, as well as by characterizing its technical limitations and by soliciting feedback through a guided exploration with PCB designers.