Training Reinforcement Learning (RL) agents in high-stakes applications might be too prohibitive due to the risk associated to exploration. Thus, the agent can only use data previously collected by safe policies. While previous work considers optimizing the average performance using offline data, we focus on optimizing a risk-averse criteria, namely the CVaR. In particular, we present the Offline Risk-Averse Actor-Critic (O-RAAC), a model-free RL algorithm that is able to learn risk-averse policies in a fully offline setting. We show that O-RAAC learns policies with higher CVaR than risk-neutral approaches in different robot control tasks. Furthermore, considering risk-averse criteria guarantees distributional robustness of the average performance with respect to particular distribution shifts. We demonstrate empirically that in the presence of natural distribution-shifts, O-RAAC learns policies with good average performance.


Mammalian 60-kDa heat-shock protein (hsp60) is a key target of T cell and Ab responses in chronic inflammation or atherosclerosis. We show in this study that human hsp60 is also an Ag recognized by cells of the innate immune system, such as macrophages. Both mouse and human macrophages respond to contact with exogenous human hsp60 with rapid release of TNF-alpha; mouse macrophages in addition produce nitric oxide. The proinflammatory macrophage response is hsp60 dose dependent and similar in kinetics and extent to LPS stimulation. Human hsp60 was found to synergize with IFN-gamma in its proinflammatory activity. Finally, human hsp60 induces gene expression of the Th1-promoting cytokines IL-12 and IL-15. These findings identify autologous hsp60 as a danger signal for the innate immune system, with important implications for a role of local hsp60 expression/release in chronic Th1-dependent tissue inflammation.


Objective. To explore the relationship between serum omentin, C1q/tumor necrosis factor-related protein-9 (CTRP9), and visceral fat-speci"c serine protease inhibitor (vaspin) levels in di"erent phenotypes in patients with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Methods. One hundred PCOS patients treated at our hospital's clinic of reproductive medicine were chosen and included into the research group, and 100 healthy women who came for physical examination during the same time period were included into the control group. According to the de"nition of obesity by the WHO (body mass index (BMI) ≥25 kg/m), 100 patients with PCOS were equally divided into obese (study group A) and nonobese (study group B) groups. 100 healthy women were also divided into obese (control group A) and nonobese (control group B) groups with 50 patients each. Comparison among the 4 groups was performed in factors/indicators including the serum omentin, CTRP9, and vaspin levels and biochemical indexes (triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol (TC), high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), fasting insulin (FINS), total testosterone, and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) levels), and the correlation analysis was conducted with omentin, CTRP9, and vaspin. Results. 'ere was no signi"cant di"erence in age, TG, TC, and LDL-C among the 4 groups (P> 0.05). 'e BMI, WHR, HDL-C, and omentin of the obese phenotype were signi"cantly di"erent from those of the nonobese phenotype (P< 0.05). Among the four groups, FINS, HOMA-IR, and vaspin in group A (obesity) was the highest, and the control group B (nonobese) was the lowest. 'ere was no signi"cant di"erence in the levels of study group B (nonobese) and control group A (obesity). 'e level of CTRP9 in the study group was signi"cantly lower than that in the control group (P< 0.05). Taking serum omentin, CTRP9, and vaspin levels of patients in the study group as dependent variables, Pearson correlation analysis showed that the omentin level was negatively correlated with BMI, WHR, FINS, TG, TC, LDL-C, HOMA-IR, and TT levels (P< 0.05) and was positively correlated with the HDL-C level (P< 0.05); CTRP9 level was negatively correlated with BMI, TC, and HOMA-IR (P< 0.05) and was not correlated with age, WHR, FINS, TG, HDL-C, LDL-C, HOMA-IR, and TT levels. 'e vaspin level was positively correlated with BMI, WHR, FINS, TG, TC, LDL-C, HOMA-IR, and TT levels (P< 0.05) and negatively correlated with HDL-C levels (P< 0.05) and was not correlated with age. Conclusion. When compared with healthy people, PCOS patients have higher serum vaspin levels and lower CTRP9 levels; BMI, TC, LDL-C, FINS, TG, total testosterone, HDL-C levels, waist-to-hip ratio, and HOMA-IR are all closely related to serum vaspin and CTRP9 levels; increasing serum CTRP9 levels and decreasing vaspin levels help to slow progress and promote prognosis of the disease. Serum omentin level is connected with the obesity index but not with PCOS.


A conjugated BODIPY–triphenylamine multi-aldoxime (BTN) was designed and synthesized by the Sonogashira coupling reaction. The chemodosimeter showed a red emission (670 nm), fast response (within seconds), high selectivity and good sensitivity towards hypochlorite based on the redox reaction of four aldoximes. BTN possessed two original absorption peaks at 366 nm and 588 nm, respectively, corresponding to fluorescence emissions at 440 nm and 660 nm, which exhibited a ratiometric change in the presence of hypochlorite. With the addition of hypochlorite, the redox reaction of aldoxime led to the termination of isomerization of the CN bond, the fluorescence intensity at 660 nm gradually changed from weak to strong, accompanied by a slight 10 nm red-shift; in contrast, the fluorescence intensity began to decrease at 440 nm. Moreover, as the two-photon excited fluorescent NaOCl probe, BTN afforded an enhanced signal response for hypochlorite at 686 nm under two-photon excitation (λTPEFex = 800 nm). Meanwhile, successful imaging of living cells was carried out for BTN towards hypochlorite in A-549 cells. The results demonstrated that BTN had potential application prospects and was promising for practical application in biological systems and environmental systems.


The 22 February 2011 Canterbury earthquake had a devastating impact on Christchurch property with significant damage caused to land and buildings. As at November 2011, around 530 buildings have either been demolished or identified to be demolished in central Christchurch. In addition, around 140 buildings have either been partially demolished or identified to be partially demolished. The broad aims of our ongoing research are to (i) examine the nature and extent of the CBD office relocation, (ii) identify the nature of the occupiers, (iii) determine occupier's perceptions of the future: their location and space needs post the February earthquake, and the likelihood of relocating back to the CBD after the rebuild and the release of the Christchurch Recovery Plan. To address these issues, the third of our six-monthly surveys of around 20 questions was developed. A total of 631 contacts received the survey. These contacts were obtained from two sources. Firstly, 275 suburban office occupier contact details were obtained from a physical survey of office occupiers as of August 2011. The survey recorded a response rate of 15.4% (97), a decrease from the previous two surveys when response rates were 22% (139) and 21.8% (140) respectively. This lower response rate may be due to survey fatigue. Based on the findings of the initial survey, just over half of respondents were relocated CBD occupiers and 45% were existing suburban office occupiers. Results from the first survey indicate that 66% of respondents have reduced their office size since the earthquakes. More than a quarter of relocated tenants signed leases of one year or less, and 27% of businesses are now working out of residential premises. In comparison to the previous surveys, the CBD has become less attractive to office occupiers. Currently, only 27% (26 of the 97 respondents) of the occupiers surveyed have an intention to move into CBD, which decreased as compared to the January 2012 and August 2011 surveys, recorded at 32% and 38% respectively.


Vitamin B(6) (VB6) functions as a cofactor of many diverse enzymes in amino acid metabolism. Three metabolic pathways for pyridoxal 5'-phosphate (PLP; the active form of VB6) are known: the de novo pathway, the salvage pathway, and the fungal type pathway. Most unicellular organisms and plants biosynthesize VB6 using one or two of these three biosynthetic pathways. However, animals such as insects and mammals do not possess any of the pathways and, thus, need to intake VB6 in their diet to survive. It is conceivable that breakdowns of these pathways occurred in the evolutionary lineages of insects and mammals, and one of the major reasons for this would be the loss of pertinent genes. We studied the evolution of VB6 biosynthesis from the view of the gain and loss of 10 pertinent genes in 122 species whose genome sequences were completely determined. The results revealed that each gene in the pathways was lost more than once in the entire evolutionary lineages of the 122 species. We also found the following three points regarding the evolution of PLP biosynthesis: (1) the breakdown of the PLP biosynthetic pathways occurred independently at least three times in animal lineages, (2) the de novo pathway was formed by the generation of pdxB in gamma-proteobacteria, and (3) the order of the gene loss in VB6 metabolism was conserved among different evolutionary lineages. These results suggest that the evolution of VB6 metabolism was subject to gains and frequent losses of related genes in the 122 species examined. This dynamic nature of the evolutionary changes must have been responsible for the breakdowns of the pathways, resulting in profound differentiation of heterotrophy among the species.


Context: This study is conducted to determine the correlation between retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness and optic nerve head (ONH) size in normal and glaucomatous subjects by optical coherence tomography (OCT). Objective: The objective of this study is to compare the thickness of RNFL in relation to ONH size and average retinal nerve fiber thickness in glaucomatous optic neuropathy using OCT. Subjects and Methods: A prospective study was carried out on one hundred and fifty eyes of 75 patients with 39 normal and 36 glaucoma patients aged between 20 and 60 years. Results: Stratus OCT, values were correlated with the data obtained by ONHs analysis. The values of RNFL thickness showed a high correlation with the ONH size. The RNFLA values were also positively correlated with the *2.27 value. Mean RNFL in glaucoma patients is 72.20 ± 18.79 (standard deviation [SD]) and in *2.27 is 63.57 ± 17.3 (SD) (calculated Z value is 2.58 and P ≤ 0.004) and is highly significant at 4% level in glaucoma patients. Besides correlation coefficient of RNFLA*2.27 in glaucoma patients found positive correspondence with the correlation coefficient 0.867. In normal subject, mean RNFL is 92.16 ± 9.80 and in *2.27, 85.16 ± 10.21 (calculated Z value is 4.34 and P ≤ 0.007) and significant at 3% level in normal subjects. A negative correlation was seen with the value of correlation coefficient − 0.21. Conclusions: RNFL thickness *2.27 measurement has high correlation with each other as obtained by Stratus OCT; moreover, it decreased significantly with an increase in optic disc size. Statistical Analysis Used: To test the difference between two means, Z-test was used. "Z" distribution with population variance not known at that point of time because no normative-based population data were available for Indian population to find out the correlation between two variance correlation coefficient at that point of time.


Extracellular ATP and ADP trigger vasodilatatory and prothrombotic signalling events in the vasculature. Here, we tested the hypothesis that nucleotide turnover is activated in the bloodstream of exercising humans thus contributing to the enhanced platelet reactivity and haemostasis. Right atrial, arterial and venous blood samples were collected from endurance‐trained athletes at rest, during submaximal and maximal cycle ergometer exercise, and after early recovery. ATP‐specific bioluminescent assay, together with high‐performance liquid chromatographic analysis, revealed that plasma ATP and ADP concentrations increased up to 2.5‐fold during maximal exercise. Subsequent flow cytometric analysis showed that plasma from exercising subjects significantly up‐regulated the surface expression of P‐selectin in human platelets and these prothrombotic effects were diminished after scavenging plasma nucleotides with exogenous apyrase. Next, using thin layer chromatographic assays with [γ‐32P]ATP and 3H/14C‐labelled nucleotides, we showed that two soluble nucleotide‐inactivating enzymes, nucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase and nucleoside triphosphate diphosphohydrolase, constitutively circulate in human bloodstream. Strikingly, serum nucleotide pyrophosphatase and hydrolase activities rose during maximal exercise by 20–25 and 80–100%, respectively, and then declined after 30 min recovery. Likewise, soluble nucleotidases were transiently up‐regulated in the venous blood of sedentary subjects during exhaustive exercise. Human serum also contains 5′‐nucleotidase, adenylate kinase and nucleoside diphosphate (NDP) kinase; however, these activities remain unchanged during exercise. In conclusion, intravascular ADP significantly augments platelet activity during strenuous exercise and these prothrombotic responses are counteracted by concurrent release of soluble nucleotide‐inactivating enzymes. These findings provide a novel insight into the mechanisms underlying the enhanced risk of occlusive thrombus formation under exercising conditions.


ABSTRACT Lyssaviruses are unsegmented RNA viruses causing rabies. Their vectors belong to the Carnivora and Chiroptera orders. We studied 36 carnivoran and 17 chiropteran lyssaviruses representing the main genotypes and variants. We compared their genes encoding the surface glycoprotein, which is responsible for receptor recognition and membrane fusion. The glycoprotein is the main protecting antigen and bears virulence determinants. Point mutation is the main force in lyssavirus evolution, as Sawyer's test and phylogenetic analysis showed no evidence of recombination. Tests of neutrality indicated a neutral model of evolution, also supported by globally high ratios of synonymous substitutions (dS ) to nonsynonymous substitutions (dN ) (>7). Relative-rate tests suggested similar rates of evolution for all lyssavirus lineages. Therefore, the absence of recombination and similar evolutionary rates make phylogeny-based conclusions reliable. Phylogenetic reconstruction strongly supported the hypothesis that host switching occurred in the history of lyssaviruses. Indeed, lyssaviruses evolved in chiropters long before the emergence of carnivoran rabies, very likely following spillovers from bats. Using dated isolates, the average rate of evolution was estimated to be roughly 4.3 × 10−4 dS /site/year. Consequently, the emergence of carnivoran rabies from chiropteran lyssaviruses was determined to have occurred 888 to 1,459 years ago. Glycoprotein segments accumulating more dN than dS were distinctly detected in carnivoran and chiropteran lyssaviruses. They may have contributed to the adaptation of the virus to the two distinct mammal orders. In carnivoran lyssaviruses they overlapped the main antigenic sites, II and III, whereas in chiropteran lyssaviruses they were located in regions of unknown functions.


Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the platelet to lymphocyte ratio is a prognostic factor in geriatric patients who underwent surgery for proximal femoral fractures. Materials and Methods: Clinical and laboratory data of 288 patients who underwent surgery for proximal femoral fracture were analysed. The patients were divided into six groups on the basis of sex (male and female) and survival duration after the operation (death within the first 6 months, death between the 6 and 12 months, survival for more than 12 months). Pre-operative platelet/lymphocyte ratios of these groups were compared. Results: Of 288 patients, 187 were female and 101 were male. There was no significant difference between the groups with regard to age (p = 0.123 female groups) (p = 0.207 male groups). Although the preoperative platelet to lymphocyte ratio was higher in patients who died within 12 months than in those who survived beyond that, this platelet/lymphocyte ratio was statistically significant in females who died in the first 6 months (p = 0.038). Conclusion: A high preoperative platelet to lymphocyte ratio may be associated with high risk of mortality in patients who were operated for proximal femoral fracture.


Galaxy mergers have been investigated for decades using smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH), but recent work highlighting inaccuracies inherent in the traditional SPH technique calls into question the reliability of previous studies. We explore this issue by comparing a suite of Gadget-3 SPH simulations of idealised (i.e., non-cosmological) isolated discs and galaxy mergers with otherwise identical calculations performed using the moving-mesh code Arepo. When black hole (BH) accretion and active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback are not included, the star formation histories (SFHs) obtained from the two codes agree well. When BHs are included, the code- and resolution-dependent variations in the SFHs are more significant, but the agreement is still good, and the stellar mass formed over the course of a simulation is robust to variations in the numerical method. During a merger, the gas morphology and phase structure are initially similar prior to the starburst phase. However, once a hot gaseous halo has formed from shock heating and AGN feedback (when included), the agreement is less good. In particular, during the post-starburst phase, the SPH simulations feature more prominent hot gaseous haloes and spurious clumps, whereas with Arepo, gas clumps and filaments are less apparent and the hot halo gas can cool more efficiently. We discuss the origin of these differences and explain why the SPH technique yields trustworthy results for some applications (such as the idealised isolated disc and galaxy merger simulations presented here) but not others (e.g., gas flows onto galaxies in cosmological hydrodynamical simulations).


The regeneration of decaying housing is becoming paramount in meeting the current
international demand for new dwellings within the sustainable agenda. Medium-rise
housing is proposed as ideal as it meets the planning guidance's desirable densities and
for its social and ecological sustainability possibilities through the landscape. Yet,
having few medium-rise housing areas regenerated with a sustainable-oriented
landscape approach, the amount of research undertaken in this area is limited.
Therefore, the present study addresses this gap in knowledge by studying the short- and
long-term contribution that may be made to inform future regeneration of housing.
The research investigates a regenerated case study in Sweden and another one in
Germany which were assessed for social and ecological sustainability through a set of
indicators, a survey, observational records, and semi-structured interviews. Afterwards,
the applicability of the results was tested through a survey in an additional case study in
Mexico where no regeneration has taken place.
It was found that the arrangement of landscape was essential for encouraging socializing
and the respondents' design preferences were similar despite cultural differences. It was
observed that robustness and interpersonal distancing were most important for
socializing whilst visual richness and mystery were clearly favoured by respondents.
Interestingly, it was also revealed that involving in ecological improvements facilitated
residents in knowing each other. However, it was found that perceptions and unclear
ideas of sustainability as well as poor collaboration among stakeholders resulted in poor
management of initiatives and a reduced participation of residents.
Based on these findings, the study makes design recommendations for landscape
designers as well as proposing regeneration and operational guidelines for planning,
managing, and maintenance. Further research is required to document more regenerated
housing areas to enable sustainability issues to be more generally applied.


This paper reviews the extended Cauchy model and the four-parameter model for describing the wavelength and temperature effects of liquid crystal (LC) refractive indices. The refractive indices of nine commercial LCs, MLC-9200-000, MLC-9200-100, MLC-6608, MLC-6241-000, 5PCH, 5CB, TL-216, E7, and E44 are measured by the Multi-wavelength Abbe Refractometer. These experimental data are used to validate the theoretical models. Excellent agreement between experiment and theory is obtained.


BACKGROUND
Six serotypes of Porphyromonas gingivalis have recently been described. We sought to test the hypothesis that serotype specific carbohydrates from these strains are important antigens that elicit potent immune responses.

METHODS
Serum concentrations of IgG reactive with P. gingivalis serotypes K1-K6 were determined for 28 adult (AP) and 28 generalized early-onset (G-EOP) periodontitis patients previously determined to be seropositive for a broken cell preparation of P. gingivalis. To confirm relationships suggested for K1, K2, and K6 in the analysis of initial data, the study population was increased to 133.

RESULTS
Frequency of seropositivity for the 6 serotypes ranged from 26 to 54% of subjects. IgG concentrations ranged from 0 to 453 microg/ml with many subjects seropositive to more than one serotype. Concentrations for the subset of patients who was seropositive were high (mean responses ranged from 20 to 105 microg/ml for the 6 serotypes). Significant correlations between seropositivity to serotypes K1 and K5 as well as between K5 and K6 were found.

CONCLUSIONS
We examined the relationship of diagnosis, race, gender, smoking, probing depth, attachment loss, and antibody reaction with the P. gingivalis serotypes by analysis of variance. Initial findings suggested potential relationships between diagnosis, smoking, race, gender, and antibody reactive with serotypes K1, K2, and K6. A significant relationship did exist between smoking and decreased antibody reactive with P. gingivalis serotype K2. No other relationships were substantiated. We also examined the IgG subclass distribution and found that responses were almost exclusively IgG2. These data support the concept that antibody responses to all 6 serotypes are common in both AP and G-EOP and that these K serotype carbohydrates elicit potent IgG2 responses.


The design, construction, and operations of buildings fall within the architecture and engineering domains. Buildings are highly technical and critical systems that are engineered to performance levels that allow buildings to function for 100's of years. To achieve this, buildings require engineers and managers to be of a learned, regulated and licensed profession. While many engineering degrees educate building design, perhaps best suited for the task is Architectural Engineering. Here at Penn State University, architectural engineering (AE) encompasses: Mechanical HVAC Design, Lighting/electrical Design, Structural Design and Construction Engineering and Management. The pinnacle of the program is the yearlong capstone with inherent multidisciplinary aspects to it. With an industry interface, the capstone is critical to enrich the student experience in complex building design through simulating the project to be "more real world" than traditional capstones. This capstone distinguishes itself by the level of relatively independent work done by the student teams (vs. teaching by the faculty), heavy industry practitioner interactions, mentoring roles of the faculty and lastly, utilizing real industry projects. Original contributions for this study lie in having an open-ended design project where multi-disciplinary teams within AE are expected to develop project specific goals; select proper technologies, processes and infrastructures to support achieving these goals; then performing parametric and integrative design evolutions through cyclic iterations that focus on the goals and not specific disciplines. This paper describes trends and successes we have observed throughout our 9 years of offering this team based approach. Specifically how technology and collaborative processes were approached by the students, students' results on the topic, industry practitioner engagement strategies, and best practices for future implementation of similar offerings by other programs will be covered.


We propose the application of temporally and spatially coded projection and illumination in modern television studios. In our vision, this supports ad-hoc re-illumination, automatic keying, unconstrained presentation of moderation information, camera-tracking, and scene acquisition. In this paper we show how a new adaptive imperceptible pattern projection that considers parameters of human visual perception, linked with real-time difference keying enables an in-shot optical tracking using a novel dynamic multi-resolution marker technique.


The design of mechatronic devices is a demanding process not only in terms of the time required but also of the demands placed on the knowledge and experience of development workers. The aim of this research and development was to create suitable procedures, algorithms, and databases of 3D models, with the help of which could this process be significantly shortened and simplified. The results of the development are a software tool for the design of electric drive units, procedures for creating 3D models with the possibility of using the SolidWorks software API, methods for automating the creation of assemblies of 3D models and a description of the knowledge database in which various data and algorithms are stored. The benefits of the proposed procedures, the Drive Picker software tool, and the knowledge database, are demonstrated on the design of a robotic arm with 5 degrees of freedom. Despite the complexity of the preparation of documents needed, it turns out that the chosen approach can significantly speed up and simplify the design of mechatronic devices.


Early-lactation Holstein cows (n= 261) from 32 herds in three regions (Australia, California, and Canada) were previously categorized using a discriminant analysis model as being at a high (26.1% of cows), medium (26.8% of cows), or low risk (47.1% of cows) of ruminal acidosis. We aimed to investigate if (1) risk of acidosis would be associated with ruminal bacterial taxa and dietary nutrient components, (2) there would be individual or combinations of bacterial taxa associated with acidosis-risk groups, and (3) the abundance of bacterial taxa would be associated with the intake of dietary nutrient components.Diets ranged from pasture supplemented with concentrates to total mixed rations. Bacteria 16S ribosomal DNA sequences from rumen samples collected < 3 hours after feeding via stomach tube were analyzed to determine bacterial presence. The relative abundance of each bacterial phylum and family was center log transformed and the transformed family data were subjected to two redundancy analysis biplots, one for acidosis risk group and one for region, to identify the 20 best-fit bacterial families from each respective redundancy analysis. A total of 29 unique families were identified when the lists of 20 families were combined from each redundancy analysis, and these 29 families were termed "influential" families." The association of acidosis-risk groups with the abundance of individual influential families was assessed by mixed models. Backward stepwise elimination mixed models were used to determine the bacterial taxa associated with each acidosis-risk group and the dietary nutrients associated with the abundance of the bacterial taxa.High-risk acidosis cows were associated with increased abundances of Anaerocella_f and Veillonellaceae and decreased abundances of several bacterial families with different characteristics. Five phyla: Firmicutes [odds ratio (OR) = 7.47 ± 7.43], Spirochaetes (OR = 1.28 ± 0.14), Lentisphaerae (OR = 0.70 ± 0.07), Planctomycetes (OR = 0.70 ± 0.09), and Tenericutes (OR = 0.44 ± 0.15), and nine families were associated with a higher risk of acidosis. Of the nine phyla identified to be of interest based on abundance and strength of association with acidosis-risk groups, all had one or more dietary nutrient that predicted their abundance. Sugar was the most frequently associated nutrient with the nine phyla, and was present in 78% (seven out of nine phyla) of the models; crude protein was present in 56% of models and crude fat was present in 44% of the models. Sugar and crude protein were most associated with the influential families and all but three families had one or more nutrient predictive of their abundance. Ruminal bacterial taxa are associated with ruminal acidosis; dietary sugar and crude protein are vital predictors of these and, thus, of ruminal acidosis risk.


Internet of Things (IoT) enables things to have connectivity through the internet. The number of things is growing fast and has to be uniquely identified through the Internet to communicate with other things. In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) each node can be considered as a thing. WSN node resources are very limited due to the need to communicate using low power and usually through unreliable links. Such limitations need an energy efficient routing protocol. WSN is considered as a type of Low power and Lossy Network (LLN). The routing protocol for low power and lossy network (RPL)
is being adopted for LLN and has been standardized to enable connectivity of
WSN over IoT. RPL constricted a topology similar to tree topology. Nodes in RPL optimized its path using an objective function (OF). OF depends on different node/link metrics in the optimization process. In this paper, an Energy Threshold RPL (ETRPL) protocol is proposed. ETRPL depends on a new objective function to enhance energy consumption of RPL protocol by taking into account the remaining energy of the preferred parent node. ETRPL is implemented using Cooja simulator. The results show that ETRPL provides an increase in the remaining energy of at least 87.4% for a small area with high number of nodes. ETRPL also performed better with regards to Time Delay, Packet Reception Ratio, and the number of dead nodes in a small area. For a
large area, the performance is not encouraging. Thus the proposed ETRPL protocol is useful for IoT networks with relatively small areas.


In this paper, we consider the detection of binary (antipodal) signals transmitted in a spatially multiplexed fashion over a fading multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) channel and where the detection is done by means of semidefinite relaxation (SDR). The SDR detector is an attractive alternative to maximum-likelihood (ML) detection since the complexity is polynomial rather than exponential. Assuming that the channel matrix is drawn with independent identically distributed (i.i.d.) real-valued Gaussian entries, we study the receiver diversity and prove that the SDR detector achieves the maximum possible diversity. Thus, the error probability of the receiver tends to zero at the same rate as the optimal ML receiver in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) limit. This significantly strengthens previous performance guarantees available for the semidefinite relaxation detector. Additionally, it proves that full diversity detection is also possible in certain scenarios when using a noncombinatorial receiver structure.


Abstract Hazardous organic compounds such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, o-xylene, m-xylene, and p-xylene (known as BTEX) found at work and at home can cause adverse health effects of human beings throughout their lives. Biological monitoring, an exposure assessment method, considers all exposed organic and non-organic compounds. Our goal was to perform a systematic review and a statistical analysis (meta-analysis) of peer-reviewed publications to assess urinary concentrations of BTEX biomarkers in both occupationally-exposed population and the general population. Several major electronic databases, including Scopus, Embase, Medline, Web of Science, and Google scholar (grey literature), were searched for biomonitoring studies of BTEX. Overall, 33 studies met the eligible criteria for the systematic review and six met the full inclusion criteria for meta-analysis. For meta-analysis, we included studies in which unmetabolized BTEX compounds were measured in urine samples. Due to insufficient data, studies that measured BTEX metabolites in urine samples and unmetabolized BTEX compounds in blood samples were excluded from the meta-analysis but were analyzed in the qualitative synthesis. Most studies showed increased urinary concentrations of BTEX in exposed individuals (mainly workers) compared to unexposed individuals. The results showed that the highest total BTEX concentrations were recorded in painters and policemen. This study showed that the undoubted associations between lifestyle and environmental factors and urinary levels of BTEX or its metabolites have not yet been confirmed in current biomonitoring studies. This is attributed to the few studies reported in this research area, the lack of homogeneous information, and the disagreement in the published results of the studies.


This study examined how access to microcredit through social capital networks contributes to rural households' poverty status in Southwestern Nigeria. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select a total of 300 households for this study. Structured questionnaire was used to obtain information and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT) poverty measure and Two Stage Least Square model (2SLS). Results showed that poverty incidence, depth and severity were 60%, 46.70% and 20.10% respectively among the sampled households. The results indicated that forms of social capital networks in the study area include cooperative societies, family and friends, farmers', professional career, religious, and microfinance groups. The results further showed that 66.00% of the households in the study area sourced microcredit from cooperative societies. The 2SLS estimate showed that coefficient of aggregate social capital index (β =730.83, p < 0.05) also showed a positive, significant relationship with household per capital expenditure. The result indicated that a unit increase in social capital network index of the household would increase household per capita expenditure in the study area by N730.83. The study concluded that membership of social capital networks positive influence households' access to access to microcredit and poverty reduction.


An asymptotically optimum receiver designed for detecting coherent pulse trains in compound-Gaussian clutter is introduced and assessed. The proposed receiver assumes knowledge of the structure of the clutter covariance matrix, but does not require that of its amplitude probability density function (apdf). Performance is analytically evaluated, showing that the loss, as measured with respect to the corresponding optimum structure, is kept within a few dBs even for a relatively small number of integrated pulses and that it largely outperforms the matched-filter detector under all instances of practical interest. Interestingly, the proposed detector achieves constant false alarm rate (CFAR), regardless of the clutter envelope distribution and, consequently, its power. >


Multimodal biometrics are promising for providing a strong security level for personal authentication, yet the implementation of a multimodal biometric system for practical usage need to meet such criteria that multimodal biometric signals should be easy to acquire but not easily compromised. We developed a wearable wrist band integrated with multispectral skin photomatrix (MSP) and electrocardiogram (ECG) sensors to improve the issues of collectability, performance and circumvention of multimodal biometric authentication. The band was designed to ensure collectability by sensing both MSP and ECG easily and to achieve high authentication performance with low computation, efficient memory usage, and relatively fast response. Acquisition of MSP and ECG using contact-based sensors could also prevent remote access to personal data. Personal authentication with multimodal biometrics using the integrated wearable wrist band was evaluated in 150 subjects and resulted in 0.2% equal error rate (EER) and 100% detection probability at 1% FAR (false acceptance rate) (PD.1), which is comparable to other state-of-the-art multimodal biometrics. An additional investigation with a separate MSP sensor, which enhanced contact with the skin, along with ECG reached 0.1% EER and 100% PD.1, showing a great potential of our in-house wearable band for practical applications. The results of this study demonstrate that our newly developed wearable wrist band may provide a reliable and easy-to-use multimodal biometric solution for personal authentication.


Several accounts have been proposed to explain difficulties with social interaction in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), amongst which atypical social orienting, decreased social motivation or difficulties with understanding the regularities driving social interaction. This study uses gaze-contingent eye-tracking to tease apart these accounts by measuring reward related behaviours in response to different social videos. Toddlers at high or low familial risk for ASD took part in this study at age 2 and were categorised at age 3 as low risk controls (LR), highrisk with no ASD diagnosis (HR-no ASD), or with a diagnosis of ASD (HR-ASD). When the on-demand social interaction was predictable, all groups, including the HR-ASD group, looked longer and smiled more towards a person greeting them compared to a mechanical Toy (Condition 1) and also smiled more towards a communicative over a non-communicative person (Condition 2). However, all groups, except the HR-ASD group, selectively oriented towards a person addressing the child in different ways over an invariant social interaction (Condition 3). These findings suggest that social interaction is intrinsically rewarding for individuals with ASD, but the extent to which it is sought may be modulated by the specific variability of naturalistic social interaction.


Ten patients with hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) were admitted to our ICU during the last 7 years. The mean age at entry was 26 month old. Only one child was more than 2 years of age. A greater incidence of this illness was noted during the summer season. Almost all cases (90%), were severe with arterial hypertension and requiring peritoneal dialysis. HUS is a multisystemic disorder with early renal involvement, but the possibility of other sites being affected must be kept in mind. Half of the patients presented extrarenal manifestations of disease, including: seizures (30%), colonic ischemia requiring intestinal resection, and heart failure with lung edema due to severe hypertension. The two parameters that were helpful in determining the prognosis were the interval of renal insufficiency (greater than 14 days) and neurologic impairment, with the later being of most importance.


A general, catalytic and sustainable synthesis of amides has been targeted which utilises a chemoenzymatic step to generate an activated amide coupling partner in situ. A screen of a series of known activating agents was performed and the successful agents taken forward to determine their utility in such a one-pot enzyme-catalysed process. In these studies, a new chemoselective reagent ((isopropylideneamino) 2-phenylacetate) has been identified, which demonstrates excellent selectivity for the acylation of primary anilines over secondary anilines, unlike the more conventional acid chloride equivalent, which is unselective. The development of a chemoenzymatic synthesis of 2-hydroxyethyl benzoates (ethylene glycol mono-benzoate esters) has also been achieved.


Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognosis value of tumor size and preoperative albumin levels in gastric cancer patients treated with postoperative chemoradiotherapy. Patients and Methods: Patients records reviewed retrospectively. Clinicopathologic features were analyzed. 199 patients who applied to our clinic between 15.1.2010-31.12.2016 were included in this study. The primary end points of this study were to evaluate the overall survival (OS) and the disease free survival(DFS). Results: Mean follow up time was 20.43 months. Distant metastases devoloped in 50 patients and 102 patients were alive. In multivariate analyses , advanced T stage, history of smoking, preoperative albumin level less than 3.5 gr/dl and tumor size more than 8 cm were found to have poor prognostic effect on OS. Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) and tumor size were showed negative effects on DFS. For statistical analyses SPSS( statistical package for social sciences) 21.0 statistical package was used. Conclusions: Despite recent treatment modalities the prognosis of gastric cancer is still poor and novel prognostic factors together with the current ones may be helpful to predict decision of proper treatment modalities and survival of the patients


Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has become the leading cause of chronic liver diseases worldwide. Liver inflammation and fibrosis related to NAFLD contribute to disease progression and increasing liver-related mortality and morbidity. Increasing data suggest that NAFLD may be linked to atherosclerotic vascular disease independent of other established cardiovascular risk factors. Central arterial stiffness has been recognized as a measure of cumulative cardiovascular risk marker load, and the measure of carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cf-PWV) is regarded as the gold standard assessment of aortic stiffness. It has been shown that increased aortic stiffness predicts cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in several clinical settings, including type 2 diabetes mellitus, a well-known condition associated with advanced stages of NAFLD. Furthermore, recently-published studies reported a strong association between NAFLD and increased arterial stiffness, suggesting a possible link in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis and NAFLD. We sought to review the published data on the associations between NAFLD and aortic stiffness, in order to better understand the interplay between these two conditions and identify possible common physiopathological mechanisms.


A computer produces outputs from inputs, and to do so reliably, its internal noise and variability must be managed effectively. Traditional computer architecture requires hardware determinism, but such perfect repeatability is increasingly incompatible with large-scale and real-world systems. Natural living systems, without the luxury of deterministic hardware, manage variability across the computational stack—and using such principles, soft artificial life offers a route to much larger and safer manufactured computers. This paper describes the engineering development of C214, a next-generation self-constructing digital protocell. C214 struggles to survive in a challenging environment that, while not literally malicious, goes well beyond merely non-deterministic to deliberately destructive. Improved self-repair mechanisms, as well as active defenses in depth, give the new cell's membrane a median survival time more than ten times greater than that of the earlier C211. A new grid-based cytoplasm is also presented, standing to offer a more stable environment for future layers of the 'living computation stack', and some basic cellular software engineering techniques are highlighted.


We analyze a set of three individual XMM-Newton  X-ray observation of the Serpens dark cloud. In addition to the 45 sources already reported in the analysis of the first of these XMM-Newton  observations by Preibisch ([CITE]), the complete combined data set leads to the detection of X-ray emission from four of the 19 known class I protostars in the region. The set of three observations allows us to study the variability of the sources on timescales from minutes to several months. The lightcurves of two of the four X-ray detected class I protostars show evidence for significant variability; the data suggest at least four flare-like events on these objects. This relatively high level of variability in the X-ray emission from the class I protostars is in qualitative agreement with the result by Imanishi et al. ([CITE]), who found that the class I protostars in the  ρ  Ophiuchi dark cloud show a higher level of variability than that of more evolved class II and class III young stellar objects. This may support non-coronal X-ray emission mechanisms for class I protostars and is in agreement with the predictions of models that assume magnetic interactions between the protostar and its surrounding disk as a source of high-energy emission. We also find a strong variation (by a factor of ~10) in the X-ray luminosity of the class II object EC 74 between the three observations, which may be explained by a long duration flare or by rotational modulation. Finally, we find no evidence for X-ray emission from the five class 0 protostars in the region.


Methanolic extracts of different parts of Hyperium mysorense (HM) (Hypericaceae) namely aerial parts (HMA), flowering tops (HMF), leaf (HML), root (HMR) and stem (HMS) were screened for its in vitro and in vivo anti cancer activities. The short term toxicity studies were carried out against Ehrlich Ascitic Carcinoma (EAC) cells. Different concentrations of the HM extracts (1000 µg/ml, 500 µg/ml, 250 µg/ml, 125 µg/ml, 62.5 µg/ml and 31.25 µg/ml) were tested against EAC cells and the viability of the cells were estimated by trypan blue dye exclusion method. HMF and HML showed better activity with CTC50 value of 375.39 ± 11.83 and 393.64 ± 12.28 µg/ml, respectively. In vivo antitumor studies were carried out for active HMF and HML extracts using EAC induced Swiss Albino mice model. Two different concentrations of HMF and HML were tested in vivo and compared with 5-Flurouracil (5-FU) as standard. The animals of the tumor control group inoculated with EAC survived for a period of 18.66 ± 0.65 days. The treatment with the HMF at 100 and 400 mg/kg increased the Average life span (ALS) of animals by 22.33 ± 1.28 and 26.16 ± 1.75 (p≪0.01) days, respectively. HML at a dose of 100 and 400 mg/kg increased the ALS of animals by 19.50 ± 1.73 and 23.50 ± 1.18 days, respectively. The standard 5-FU at 20 mg/kg, significantly (p≪0.001) increased the life span to 30.33 ± 1.02 (p≪0.001) days.


Introduction
 Complications such as spontaneous and trauma-related bleeding events typically experienced by people with hemophilia B (PWHB) are associated with long-term joint damage and chronic pain, and burdensome treatment with intravenous factor IX administration.
 Gene therapy, designed to enable the endogenous production of the missing clotting factor, has potential for curative benefit in PWHB (Dolan et al, 2018). Due to its link to risk for bleeding episodes, factor expression level (FEL) is commonly used as an endpoint in hemophilia gene therapy trials. However, little data currently exist linking FEL to bleeding risk in PWHB, most notably within the mild range. As such, the aim of this analysis was to examine the relationship between annual bleed rate (ABR) data across baseline FEL in PWHB.
 Methods
 Data from adult non-inhibitor PWHB, across Europe and the United States (US) who received clotting factor on-demand (OD), were drawn from the 'Cost of HaEmophilia in adults: a Socioeconomic Survey' (CHESS) studies. The CHESS studies are retrospective, burden-of-illness studies in people with hemophilia A or B, capturing the economic and humanistic burden associated with living with hemophilia. Additional data were collected to supplement the existing CHESS studies, particularly in people with exogenous FEL in the mild and moderate range. ABR was defined as the physician-reported number of bleed events experienced by the patient in the 12 months to study capture. A generalized linear model (GLM) was used to analyze variation in ABR data across FEL, adjusting for covariates age, body mass index (BMI), and blood-borne viruses. Following this, a multivariable restricted cubic spline (RCS) GLM regression was performed to create, model, and test for the potential non-linear relationship between FEL and ABR. The RCS regression employed 3 knots, located at baseline FEL values of 1, 5, and 10, and controlled once again for age, BMI, and blood-borne viruses.
 Results
 A total of 407 adult non-inhibitor PWHB, receiving an OD therapy regimen and with information on ABR, were profiled. The GLM provided adequate fit for the modeling of bleed data; the average marginal effect at the mean was computed from the GLM regression outputs. After controlling for the effects of all other model covariates, the regression analysis showed a significant association between FEL and ABR; for every 1% increase in FEL, the average ABR decreased by 0.08 units (p<0.001). The results of the RCS regression found a significant non-linear relationship between FEL and ABR, ceteris paribus (p<0.001).
 Conclusions
 The results of this analysis found baseline FEL to be significantly associated with ABR in PWHB; as baseline FEL increased, ABR reduced. This highlights the clinical importance of new hemophilia gene therapies potentially increasing FEL to that of the mild or non-hemophilic range in terms of reducing patient burden through the better prevention of bleeding events in PWHB.

 Ali: UniQure: Current Employment. Li: UniQure: Current Employment. Konkle: Pfizer, Sangamo, Sanofi, Sigilon, Spark, Takeda and Uniqure: Research Funding; BioMarin, Pfizer and Sigilon: Consultancy. O'Mahony: BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc.: Consultancy; Freeline: Consultancy; Uniqure: Speakers Bureau. Pipe: Apcintex: Consultancy; ASC Therapeutics: Consultancy; Bayer: Consultancy; Biomarin: Consultancy, Other: Clinical trial investigator; Catalyst Biosciences: Consultancy; CSL Behring: Consultancy; HEMA Biologics: Consultancy; Freeline: Consultancy, Other: Clinical trial investigator; Novo Nordisk: Consultancy; Pfizer: Consultancy; Roche/Genentech: Consultancy, Other; Sangamo Therapeutics: Consultancy; Sanofi: Consultancy, Other; Takeda: Consultancy; Spark Therapeutics: Consultancy; uniQure: Consultancy, Other; Regeneron/ Intellia: Consultancy; Genventiv: Consultancy; Grifols: Consultancy; Octapharma: Consultancy; Shire: Consultancy.


This paper proposes a new Modular Multi-level Converter (M2LC) topology, which is based on an Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) technology. The modified M2LC topology employs an IPT system to control the capacitor voltage of each module, thereby decoupling the capacitor voltage balancing control from the load current control. The IPT system maintains the capacitor voltages within a narrow band around a nominal value, simplifies the control algorithm and offers new advantages, such as operation at low output frequency, implementation of simple control schemes and reduced energy requirements over the existing topology. The concept is validated using simulations for a single-phase three-level M2LC and compared with the existing topology to demonstrate the performance improvements associated with the modified topology.


Background: Considering the increasing number of patients with hemophilia and infrastructure requirements for a comprehensive approach, development of a recombinant factor has become a milestone. The objective of this study was to assess the safety, efficacy and non inferiority of Safacto (Recombinant factor VIII) compared with plasma-derived factor in the treatment of hemophilia A. Methods: 10 patients with severe hemophilia A were enrolled in this study. Each patient was treated by a 40-50 IU/kg infusion of either plasma derived or recombinant factor VIII after initiation of each of 4 consecutive hemarthrosis episodes in a triple-blind prospective crossover permuted block randomizing method. Clinical efficacy scale score and in vivo recovery of factor VIII was assessed in each of the treated bleeding episodes. Any adverse event was also recorded. Results: The mean±SD level of factor VIII in the plasma versus recombinant groups was 111.5±39 and 115±39, respectively without any significant difference. Response scaling method which assessed pain and range of motion revealed equalized scores along with in vivo recovery, hence treatment success rate was comparable in both groups. One non-recurring, mild skin rash reaction occurred simultaneous with the administration of plasma derived factor. Conclusion: Safacto (r-FVIII) is safe and effective and non-inferior to plasma derived factor VIII in the treatment of hemophilia A related bleeding events.


As ecosystems recovered from the end-Permian extinction, many new animal groups proliferated in the ensuing Triassic. Among these were the sauropterygians, reptiles that evolved from terrestrial ancestors and transitioned to a marine environment. The first sauropterygians were small, marine-adapted taxa such as pachypleurosaurs, which are known from Middle–Late Triassic deposits, particularly in the Tethyan realm of Europe, and more recently from Lagerstatten in southwestern China. Here we report two pachypleurosaurs from Myanmar, the first Triassic vertebrate fossils from the country. These specimens demonstrate that their entombing rocks in northern Shan State, which have received less study than terrestrial sediments in southern Shan State and whose ages have long been uncertain, are Triassic. The specimens may be among the oldest pachypleurosaurs globally, potentially corroborating biogeographic scenarios that posit an eastern Tethyan origin for pachypleurosaurs, and raise the potential for future discoveries of well-preserved Triassic reptiles in Myanmar.


Thirty Gentile di Puglia and thirty Val del Belice breeds lambs have been bred. They were fed with weaning feed over a 30-day period, and later with growth feed added with omega-3. The most representative fatty acid was DHA. Lambs were divided in two groups according to the following treatments: First group:  Post weaning rationing with no omega-3 in diet; Second group post weaning rationing with diet containing 2% of omega-3; Lambs were slaughtered at 110 days of age and the carcasses were chilled at 3° C for 24 h. After the carcass was sectioned in quality cuts. The leg and rib cuts were broken down into fractions tissue. A sample of the Longissimus dorsi muscle was subjected to quality analysis. Polyunsaturated fatty acids were analyzed on the intramuscular fat. Important results were found in lambs fed with omega-3 addition, in order to improve the color and fatty acids. Further investigation is needed to define the optimal dose of integration.


This study was established to evaluate underplanting as a method of reestablishing a shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata Mill.) component to a dry upland hardwood stand in the Piedmont region of the southeastern United States. Replicated treatment plots were harvested to retain four levels (approximately 0, 3, 7, and 10 m2 of basal area per hectare) of residual overstory density. One-year-old containerized seedlings with both smaller (93.4 cm3) and larger (113.1 cm3) plugs and bareroot seedlings were underplanted beneath the residual overstory treatments. After five growing seasons, seedling survival averaged 61% and was not meaningfully affected by residual overstory density. Seedling height growth ranged from 1.42 m to 2.61 m and was inversely related to residual overstory density. Containerized seedlings with larger plugs had the highest survival (77.4%) and best height growth (2.11 m), followed by containerized seedlings with smaller plugs (64.3%, 1.76 m) and bareroot seedlings (40.2%, 1.85 m). The results of this study indicated that underplanting containerized seedlings, particularly those with higher plug volume and greater plug depth, was a suitable option for reestablishing shortleaf pine on drier, hardwood dominated upland sites in the Piedmont. However, even low levels of overstory retention suppressed seedling height growth after a few years.


The present study was designed to evaluate the effect of Plantago major Linnaeus (PM) extract on serum total sialic acid (TSA), lipid-bound sialic acid (LSA), some trace elements (copper (Cu), zinc (Zn) and iron) and mineral levels (magnesium, calcium and sodium) in Wistar albino rat administrated 7,12-dimethylbenz(a)anthracene (DMBA). Rats were divided into three equal groups (n = 6). Group I comprised the control group, group II was treated with DMBA (100 mg/kg, single dose) and group III was treated with DMBA (100 mg/kg single dose) and aqueous extract of PM 100 mg/kg/day for 60 days. After 60 days, statistical analyses showed that TSA and LSA levels in DMBA and DMBA + PM groups were significantly higher compared to the control group (TSA: p < 0.01, p < 0.05; LSA: p < 0.05, p < 0.05, respectively). Serum Zn levels were decreased in subjects treated with DMBA (p < 0.01) and DMBA + PM (p < 0.05) compared to the control group values. Serum Cu levels were increased in DMBA group and PM-treated group compared to the control group values. The results of this investigation showed that the levels of TSA and LSA changed significantly, which are sensitive markers for detecting the toxic effects of DMBA. On the other hand, observed decline in Zn levels in rats from DMBA + PM group might be due to decreased generation of free radicals and oxidative stress. Results from this study suggest that PM may be partially effective in preventing carcinogenesis initiated by environmental carcinogen DMBA.


We investigated the effect of physical exercise on colonic motor activity in the fasted and fed states in six conscious dogs. Each dog was implanted with nine strain gauge transducers: three on the proximal, three on the middle, and three on the distal colon. The dogs ran for 1 h on a treadmill at 5 km/h (slope 5%). In the fasted state, the dogs exercised during the 5th h of recording after an overnight fast, and in the fed state during the 1st, 3rd, and 5th postprandial hour. In the fasted state, exercise significantly decreased the frequency of colonic migrating motor complexes (MMCs) but had no effect on the total or the mean duration of contractile states in the proximal, middle, and distal colon. Postprandially, exercise disrupted colonic MMCs and replaced them with nonmigrating motor complexes in all three periods of exercise (1st, 3rd, and 6th h). Exercise also increased the total duration per hour of contractile activity throughout the colon during the 1st and 3rd h and only in the distal colon during the 6th h after the meal. The dogs never defecated during rest in the fasted or the fed state. Shortly after the start of exercise in the fasted and fed states, giant migrating contractions (GMCs) occurred, and they were followed by defecation. In approximately 40% of the experiments, another GMC originated in the proximal colon, approximately 10 min after the first defecation, and migrated caudad up to the middle colon. These GMCs were not associated with defecation but caused mass movements.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


We have extracted point-spread-function-fitted stellar photometry from near-ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared images, obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope, of the nearby (D ≈ 5.5 Mpc) SBm galaxy NGC 1311. The ultraviolet and optical data reveal a population of hot main-sequence (MS) stars with ages of 2–10 Myr. We also find populations of blue supergiants with ages between 10 and 40 Myr and red supergiants with ages between 10 and 100 Myr. Our near-infrared data show evidence of star formation going back ∼1 Gyr, in agreement with previous work. Fits to isochrones indicate a metallicity of Z ≈ 0.004. The ratio of blue to red supergiants is consistent with this metallicity. This indicates that NGC 1311 follows the well-known luminosity–metallicity relation for late-type dwarf galaxies. About half of the hot MS stars and blue supergiants are found in two regions in the inner part of NGC 1311. These two regions are each about 200 pc across, and thus have crossing times roughly equal to the 10 Myr age we find for the dominant young population. The luminosity functions of the supergiants indicate a slowly rising star formation rate (∼10−3 M☉ yr−1) from ∼100 Myr ago until ∼15 Myr ago, followed by a strong enhancement (∼10−2 M☉ yr−1) at ∼10 Myr ago. We see no compelling evidence for gaps in the star-forming history of NGC 1311 over the last 100 Myr, and, with lower significance, none over the last Gyr. This argues against a bursting mode, and in favor of a gasping or breathing mode for the recent star formation history.


Emergency medical triage is a necessary part of our healthcare world. The ability to sort, classify, and treat patients in a crisis is a skill that few perfect. In a disaster situation or mass casualty incident, the number of injured people can often overwhelm the ability of the local healthcare system to treat them. To help create efficient use and rationing of resources, emergency personnel use triage to assess, sort, and treat patients. Questions of public health importance immediately arise when discussing the implications of sorting patients based on their injuries in a crisis, and the triage system was created to answer these inquires. From the ideas of Napoleon's Chief surgeon in the Imperial guard, triage has developed and changed immensely over the years. In this paper, I will analyze the historical development of emergency triage, analyze two major systems (START and SALT) used today in the U.S., discuss the problems and challenges of studying triage, analyze the literature surrounding the training of triage, and discuss the ethical implications associated with performing triage. Although triage algorithms alone are simple decision trees, the implications that accompany it create a multitude of problems for emergency personnel and those being treated. With this analysis, I will provide the evidence available on the systems and recommendations for the future of triage.


Ecotoxicological risk assessment must be undertaken before a chemical can be deemed safe for application. The assessment is based on three components: hazard assessment, exposure assessment and risk characterisation. The latter is a combination of the former two. One standard approach is based on the deterministic comparison of exposure concentration estimates to the concentration of the toxicant below which adverse effects are unlikely to occur to the potentially exposed ecological assemblage. This concentration is known as the ?predicted no effect concentration? (PNEC). At the level of hazard assessment we are concerned with, there is a requirement that procedures be straightforward and efficient, as well as being transparent. The PNEC is in general currently determined using either a fixed assessment factor applied to a summary statistic of observed laboratory derived toxicity data, or as a percentile of a distribution over the ecological community sensitivity. Often it is the situation that a hazard assessment will be based on substantially small samples of data. In this thesis we evaluate proposals for determining a PNEC according to regulatory guidance and scientific literature. In particular, we explore these methods under the context of alternative probabilistic models. We also focus on the determination of conservative probabilistic estimators, which may be appropriate for this level of risk assessment. Additionally, we also discuss the detection of species non-exchangeability, a concept which is recognised by scientists and risk assessors, yet typically discounted in practice. A proposal on incorporating knowledge of a non-exchangeable species for probabilistic estimators is discussed and evaluated. The final topic of research examines a generalised deterministic estimator proposed in a recent European Food Safety Authority report. In particular, we analyse the robustness and analytical properties of some cases of this estimator which (at least) maintains the expected level of protection currently attributed. Proposals made within this thesis, many of which extend upon what is currently scientifically accepted, satisfy the requirements of being tractably straightforward to apply and are scientifically defensible. This will appeal to end users and increase the chances of gaining regulatory acceptance. All developments are fully illustrated with real-life examples.


Modern hardware is increasingly rich in diversity, including CPUs, GPUs, FPGAs and more, with new and novel architectures constantly emerging. To provide differentiation between these devices, each is typically built around architectures optimized for some classes of application or some patterns of parallelism. Numerous computational cores, varying levels of hardware vectorization, and other degrees of architectural freedom exist across the many hardware options. The need to efficiently utilize diverse hardware has led to emergence of a wide variety of programming models, execution models, and languages, and has simultaneously led to a complex landscape of confused and often conflicting terminology and abstractions. This reality makes it challenging for developers to comprehend and then choose a programming model that fits with their applications and mental model, particularly when more than one target architecture or vendor is of interest. This talk strives to untangle the landscape of modern parallel programming models, to help developers understand how the models and options relate to each other, and to frame how to think about their specific algorithms when expressing them in code. Although experienced developers typically understand much of the terminology and the relationships between models, a holistic presentation of the material is of strong value, as evidenced by feedback from parallel programming experts that have seen previews of this presentation. To begin, a brief overview will be presented to frame parallel programming and offload compute programming models, followed by characterization of the Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) abstract model and the power it exhibits when mapping to multiple classes of architecture. We will discuss how fundamental design decisions within a compiler impact the mapping from source code to an underlying programming model, highlighting that the same code can be lowered to multiple models. This is particularly relevant in the presence of vector data types, which permit multiple interpretations and are a common cause of confusion. A core element of the presentation is decomposition of how programming model and design assumptions of a compiler are ideally understood concurrently by developers to streamline the creation and tuning of performant code. SPMD and explicit Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) programming models will be discussed relative to the Khronos OpenCL and SYCL standards, as well as to OpenMP and CUDA, with the aim of clarifying the concepts and models for developers working in specific languages. The talk will conclude with an overview of an experimental extension to SYCL that proposes a mechanism for mixing SPMD and explicit SIMD programming styles with clear semantics and boundaries in code. The talk will show that providing clear points of transition with clear semantics can enable expert tuning at the granularity of a single line of code, without breaking the SPMD programming abstraction used by the rest of a kernel. Parallel programming models such as SPMD and SIMD are critical in the modern landscape of heterogeneous compute architectures. When coupled with decisions made during the implementation of specific compilers, developers are left with a complex task when working to understand how concepts and hardware mappings interact. This talk describes the most common programming models exposed through SYCL, OpenCL, OpenMP, and CUDA, with the intent of clarifying misconceptions and confusion about the mapping of software to hardware. Attendees will leave the presentation with a holistic understanding of how SPMD and SIMD-like programming models fit together, and how they relate to the code that many of us write from day to day.


The growing number of couples seeking to adopt may have outstripped the number of babies in the United States available for adoption. Although increased availability and use of abortion have resulted in fewer single women continuing their pregnancies, the increased tendency of unmarried mothers to raise rather than relinquish their children has, in particular, limited the number of babies available for adoption. Despite the unpopularity of adoption among women with unintended pregnancies, addressing this option remains an important part of pregnancy counseling. Appropriate obstetric care of women placing their babies for adoption includes acknowledgment of the loss these women experience. Knowledge of adoption resources and willingness to discuss adoption can help physicians provide better care of unintentionally pregnant as well as infertile patients.


This note provides an economic approach to consumer privacy and data security based on the extensive economic literature on how information flows, and is used, in the marketplace. We apply that approach to consumer protection in privacy and data security, as a step toward the ultimate goal of facilitating well-grounded cost-benefit analysis of future policy and law enforcement action in this area.
Over the past two decades, the FTC has led the governmental effort to protect the integrity of consumer privacy choices in the market. This note attempts to describe the economic basis for that work in one coherent piece. Given the scope of the topic, this note is only a first step in providing clarity on the economic perspective on consumer protection in this area. We hope the note will improve future actions in privacy and data security. As a matter of scope, we do not discuss the potential implications of privacy and data security for antitrust or competition. Nor do we discuss data access and data use beyond domestic commerce.
We also do not claim to provide the economics of privacy and data security. Other authors have provided the basic research and surveys that this work builds on. Other perspectives might usefully focus on how property rights in information influence the creation and flow of information through the market, or how structuring privacy as a human right would change markets and influence social welfare. Such other perspectives might also facilitate cost-benefit analyses of privacy and data security policy and enforcement.
In comparison, we articulate privacy and data security issues primarily in information economic terms. In particular, we highlight the distinction between process and outcome: while an individual's privacy outcome is the realized restriction on the flow and use of information, the process that leads to that outcome depends on many parties. The decisions that each of those parties make about how that information flows, and the control that each party exercises over the flow of the individual's information, all contribute to the privacy outcome. The distinction between process and outcome is important. This is in part because while consumers may prefer more or less privacy – the outcome – given a particular situation, they all want themselves, and by extension the sellers they interact with, to have a certain amount of control over the flow. In line with other areas of market intervention, a focus on the process ensures that consumers and sellers have the tools to exercise appropriate control on the process. In turn, this should help bolster a healthy market to facilitate and honor their choice of privacy. This approach is in contrast to a more paternalistic approach that attempts to determine consumer preferences on privacy outcomes and directly impose that determination on the market.
Next, we articulate how consumer-to-seller information flows are more complicated in practice than the typical seller-to-consumer information flows that typically concern the FTC in other areas, such as advertising enforcement. In particular, information flows generated by a transaction can persist over time and create effects outside of that initial transaction. These persistent effects often complicate market incentives.
Because the persistence of information can cause commitment problems, and tends to exacerbate information asymmetry and externality, it is more starkly important for policy makers to foster a healthy information environment about privacy outcomes and processes, to encourage industry to develop standards and mechanisms that support a healthy information market, and to police that market if necessary. In this document, we identify some market mechanisms that have arisen to address potential market failures, and when interventions in consumer protection are most likely justified. In light of these potential market failures, we then list potential policy tools and discuss their pros and cons.


This work focuses on three different classification problems. The first is Intrusion Detection System (IDS) in network, the second is heart disease prediction and the last one is skin lesion classification in images using deep learning techniques. For IDS we have trained the deep neural network (DNN) model on KDD CUP 1999 data set. Similarly, for heart disease prediction we used the UCI Heart disease data set. The DNN is trained for 100 epochs. Furthermore, for skin lesion detection, in first stage pre-processing techniques are applied to remove noise and to improve visibility of lesion area. Then Preprocessed melanoma images of benign, malignant lesions are fed to the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) learning model for classification. Different evaluation measures are applied to analyze results. Different techniques are applied to improve results such as stochastic gradient decent, augmentation and learning rate adjustment. The model is tested on 500 skin lesion images out of which 70% of the images are used for training and remaining 30% are used for testing purpose. Apart from this, in this work the Deep Neural Networks used for network intrusion detection and heart disease prediction has outperformed the state of the art method. Similarly, for CNN model our simulations results shows that our DNN model has good results in comparison to state of the art algorithm used for skin cancerous lesion detection.


Slum tourism is a globalizing trend and a controversial form of tourism. Impoverished urban areas have always enticed the popular imagination, considered to be places of 'otherness', 'moral decay', 'deviant liberty' or 'authenticity'. 'Slumming' has a long tradition in the Global North, for example in Victorian London when the upper classes toured the East End. What is new, however, is its development dynamics and its rapidly spreading popularity across the globe. Township tourism and favela tourism have currently reached mass tourism characteristics in South Africa and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In other countries of the Global South, slum tourism now also occurs and providers see huge growth potential. While the morally controversial practice of slum tourism has raised much attention and opinionated debates in the media for several years, academic research has only recently started addressing it as a global phenomenon. This edition provides the first systematic overview of the field and the diverse issues connected to slum tourism. This multidisciplinary collection is unique both in its conceptual and empirical breadth. Its chapters indicate that 'global slumming' is not merely a controversial and challenging topic in itself, but also offers an apt lens through which to discuss core concepts in critical tourism studies in a global perspective, in particular: 'poverty', 'power' and 'ethics'. Building on research by prolific researchers from ten different countries, the book provides a comprehensive and unique insight in the current empirical, practical and theoretical knowledge on the subject. It takes a thorough and critical review of issues associated with slum tourism, asking why slums are visited, whether they should be visited, how they are represented, who is benefiting from it and in what way. It offers new insights to tourism's role in poverty alleviation and urban regeneration, power relations in contact zones and tourism's cultural and political implications. Drawing on research from four continents and seven different countries, and from multidisciplinary perspectives, this ground-breaking volume will be valuable reading for students, researchers and academics interested in this contemporary form of tourism. © 2012 Fabian Frenzel, Ko Koens and Malte Steinbrink.


The research focused on Gennargentu Mountains SIC area. Territory analysis, identification
and classification of habitats, investigation of flora, vegetation and, particularly, forest formations
were carried out. Each habitat was identified, defined, cartographically represented and named
by a corresponding code according to CORINE Biotopes classification. The cartography
supports which have been developed are an important and useful instrument in environmental
monitoring and surveying and, more generally, a tool for researchers who are going to carry out
studies on ecology and forestal sciences for the Gennargentu area. The correlation found
between habitat, geo-pedological substrate and men activities highlighted the peculiar fragility
and ecological weakness of this area, and made problems related to their future management
and preservation evident. The research pointed out the necessity of introducing rational
breeding systems and a sustainable exploitation of resources, but also the need for a better
organized management of tourism and outdoors facilities for the preservation of the
environmental richness of the place. This study allowed an increase of available data, with the
updating of the number of present species and the revision of the endemic species list.


Hyperspectral Remote Sensing (HRS) is one of the most significant recent achievements of Earth Observation Technology. Classification is the most commonly employed processing methodology. In this paper three new hyperspectral RS image classification methods are analyzed. These methods are: Object-oriented FIRS image classification, HRS image classification based on information fusion and HSRS image classification by Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN). OMIS FIRS image is used as the example data. Object-oriented techniques have gained popularity for RS image classification in recent years. In such method, image segmentation is used to extract the regions from the pixel information based on homogeneity criteria at first, and spectral parameters like mean vector, texture, NDVI and spatial/shape parameters like aspect ratio, convexity, solidity, roundness and orientation for each region are calculated, finally classification of the image using the region feature vectors and also using suitable classifiers such as artificial neural network (ANN). It proves that object-oriented methods can improve classification accuracy since they utilize information and features both from the point and the neighborhood, and the processing unit is a polygon (in which all pixels are homogeneous and belong to the class). HRS image classification based on information fusion, divides all bands of the image into different groups initially, and extracts features from every group according to the properties of each group. Three levels of information fusion: data level fusion, feature level fusion and decision level fusion are used to HRS image classification. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) can perform well in RS image classification. In order to promote the advances of ANN used for HIRS image classification, Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN), the most commonly used neural network, is used to HRS image classification.


Objectives To investigate factors influencing the effectiveness of intensive sound masking therapy on tinnitus using logistic regression analysis. Design The study used a retrospective cross-section analysis. Participants 102 patients with tinnitus were recruited at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, China. Intervention Intensive sound masking therapy was used as an intervention approach for patients with tinnitus. Primary and secondary outcome measures Participants underwent audiological investigations and tinnitus pitch and loudness matching measurements, followed by intensive sound masking therapy. The Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI) was used as the outcome measure pre and post treatment. Multivariate logistic regression was performed to investigate the association of demographic and audiological factors with effective therapy. Results According to the THI score changes pre and post sound masking intervention, 51 participants were categorised into an effective group, the remaining 51 participants were placed in a non-effective group. Those in the effective group were significantly younger than those in the non-effective group (P=0.012). Significantly more participants had flat audiogram configurations in the effective group (P=0.04). Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that age (OR=0.96, 95% CI 0.93 to 0.99, P=0.007), audiometric configuration (P=0.027) and THI score pre treatment (OR=1.04, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.07, P<0.001) were significantly associated with therapeutic effectiveness. Further analysis showed that patients with flat audiometric configurations were 5.45 times more likely to respond to intervention than those with high-frequency steeply sloping audiograms (OR=5.45, 95% CI 1.67 to 17.86, P=0.005). Conclusion Audiometric configuration, age and THI scores appear to be predictive of the effectiveness of sound masking treatment. Gender, tinnitus characteristics and hearing threshold measures do not seem to be related to treatment effectiveness. A further randomised control study is needed to provide evidence of the effectiveness of prognostic factors in tinnitus interventions.


Introduction MTCT is the main HIV infection route in Brazilian children. The rates of AIDS detection in children under five years have been decreasing in Brazil since 2004, from 5.6/100,000 inhabitants in 2003 to 2.5/100,000 inhabitants in 2015, with southeast area decreasing fastly and brought the national rate down. To contribute to the reduction in MTC transmission of HIV in Brazil, the Ministry of Health (MoH) launched at the end of 2016 the certification process of cities that eliminated MTCT. The objective of this work is to present the Brazilian process of implementation of HIV MTCT elimination certification. Methods Experts working group was establish to adapt PAHO criteria to the Brazilian scenario. We included as impact indicators the HIV detection rates among children by birth year; and the proportion of children until 18 months old that were exposed to HIV and was infected, and, in addition must have more than 1 00 000 inhabitants. We analysed data from our national surveillance systems, between 2012 and 2014, to select the municipalities to initiate the process of certification. Results To be eligible municipalities has to present HIV detection rates≤0.3/1000 live births and/or proportion of children exposed to HIV classified as infected <2%. 3816 out of 5,570 Brazilian municipalities were eligible for certification. Among them 1949 presented the minimum epidemiological criteria to start the certification process, but just 82 metropolises with more than 1 00 000 inhabitants were eligible to start the process. Conclusion The selected cities must create a multidisciplinary working group to investigate the impact and process indicators established, and need to meet some process indicators that includes prenatal coverage; HIV tests performed during pre-natal among pregnant women; and antiretroviral therapy among infected pregnant. Based on these evidences the cities will receive a certificate of elimination of MTCT HIV. The certification processes is a way to further encourage other municipalities to eliminate MTCT in their territory.


I argue that the problem of 'moral luck' is an unjustly neglected topic within Computer Ethics. The concept of moral luck bears down most heavily on notions of professional responsibility and the identification and attribution of responsibility. It is the immunity from luck that conventionally marks out moral value from other kinds of values such as instrumental, technical, and use values. The paper describes the nature of moral luck and its erosion of the scope of responsibility and agency. I discuss four types of moral luck and their relevance to Computer Ethics: consequential luck (luck in the way things turn out); constitutive luck (luck in character - the kind of person you are in terms of inclinations, capacities, and temperament); circumstantial luck (luck in the problems faced and decisions that have to be made); and finally luck in antecedent circumstances. Moral luck also poses a challenge to the kinds of theoretical approaches often deployed in analyzing moral questions arising from the design and implementation of information and communication technologies: consequentialism; virtue theory; and duty ethics. I claim that by considering the concept of moral luck we arrive at some valuable insights into the scope and limits of ethical theory and professional practice.


OBJECTIVE Review the current knowledge on the use of angioplasty and stenting (A/S) for the treatment of carotid stenosis with emphasis on proposed indications. DEVELOPMENT The standard treatment for carotid stenosis is carotid endarterectomy (CE). However, excessive surgical risk and/or technical difficulty occasionally impose limitations on the surgical approach. Therefore, the option of percutaneous treatment with A/S becomes an appealing alternative. A/S techniques are constantly improved but there is very little prospective data supporting its value at present. The reported complication rates appear comparable to those of CE. Indications for A/S of the carotid artery are not fully delineated yet. We believe that adequate candidates for carotid A/S must have symptomatic high-degree carotid stenosis and at least one of the following situations: unstable coronary disease, severe systemic disease, surgically inaccessible carotid lesion (including some cases of carotid stenosis secondary to neck radiation), contralateral carotid occlusion, or recurrent stenosis after prior CE. CONCLUSIONS A/S represents a promising alternative to CE in the treatment of carotid stenosis. However, in the absence of prospective comparative trials, A/S should be currently reserved exclusively for those patients in whom surgery is prohibited by very high surgical risk or technical inaccessibility. A/S of the carotid artery should only be performed by operators with ample expertise in the field.


Resources for Auto Mechanics, Machinist Technology, Welding, Airframe & Power, Drafting, Oil & Gas, and Cosmetology Resources for students studying welding


People's perceptions of the security and bona fides of urban pervasive services, and their trust in them, do not necessarily match the reality of a given service. Taking WiFi hotspots as an example, this study investigated the effects on users' perceptions of a service's genuineness and security of allowing the user to choose the message used in the Physical Interlock device association protocol. Users were significantly more confident in the genuineness of the wireless network and the ability of PI to defend them against a Man-in-the-Middle attack if they contributed directly to the creation of the message. However, user creation of the entire message did not significantly affect user perceptions compared to user creation of half the message combined with system generation of the other half. Thus, messages that combine partial user generation with partial system generation may give people confidence in secure ad-hoc associations between their personal devices and urban pervasive services, while ensuring a known lower bound on message strength.


There is a growing recognition of the links between the increasing prevalence of noncommunicable diseases, environmental concerns including biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation, and socioecological issues such as ecological (in)justice. This has encouraged a number of recent calls for the development of integrative approaches aimed at addressing these issues—also known as nature-based solutions. An example of an emerging nature-based solution is a 'green prescription', broadly defined as a nature-based health intervention. Green prescriptions are typically designed for patients with a defined need and they have the potential to supplement orthodox medical treatments, particularly those aimed at addressing noncommunicable diseases. It is also thought that green prescriptions could bring about significant environmental, economic, and social co-benefits. However, researchers have recently expressed concerns over taking the 'dose of nature' approach, in that it may be too reductionistic for the complex social settings in which it is provided. Here we frame a holistic philosophical perspective and discuss green prescribing logic, types, mechanisms and fundamental remaining questions and challenges. We place a significant emphasis on the potential co-benefits of green prescriptions, and the importance of taking a planetary health approach. More research is needed to determine how this potential can be realised, and to further understand the complexities of the nature–human health relationship. However, with additional research and support, there is huge potential for green prescriptions to contribute to both reactive (health care) and proactive (health promoting) public health solutions whilst enhancing the natural environment.


Problem. Frederick Griggs was a pivotal figure in the development of Seventh-day Adventist education. As an administrator he was influential in clarifying educational goals, defining the scope of the educational program, and building the structure and organization necessary to achieve and maintain an educational system. Despite his considerable contribution to Adventist education, there has been no comprehensive investigation of his life. Method. This study has investigated Grigg's life from the perspective of his work as an educational administrator. A historical-documentary method of research has been used. Major sources have been collections of official correspondence; minutes of committees, boards, and faculties; official records of institutions; church periodicals; and miscellaneous archival materials. These sources have been reposited in the archives of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, the Ellen G. White Estate, and the archives of the institutions with which Griggs was associated. Conclusions. Griggs served the Seventh-day Adventist church for fifty-nine years, thirty-five of which were in the field of educational administration. As an educational administrator he was principal of a preparatory school, academy principal, president of two colleges, and twice served terms as executive secretary of the General Conference Department of Education. As executive secretary of the Department of Education, Griggs led in the development of a comprehensive system of schools, elementary through college, accompanied by appropriate organizational structures for the governance and maintenance of the system. As academy and college administrator, Griggs translated goals into educational practice, stimulated growth in enrollments and campus facilities, encouraged the professional development of faculties, and molded the values and belief systems of students. In leadership style, Griggs was open, collegial, and democratic. As an administrator he demonstrated competency in such important administrative processes as planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. Likewise, he revealed skill in handling the technical, human-relations, and conceptual demands of his work. Griggs left a lasting impression upon Adventist education.


Background/Objectives: Air conditioning in tropical buildings constitutes a major component towards the total energy consumption. General guidelines for reducing the incident solar radiation on the building envelope are available in literature. However information on the reduction in energy requirement is not readily available. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Reduction in energy requirement by varying the building planform, orientation and construction materials was studied. Findings: A building with a planform area close to the Golden Ratio and with the broader side facing North, resulted in the least amount of solar radiation on the surface of the building envelope. Further the white coloured buildings made of rammed walls and roof material with longer phase lag decrease the heat transfer into the buildings. Conclusion: The building orientation and planform are crucial in reducing the incident solar radiation on the building envelope surface. Use of white colour and materials like rammed earth for walls resulted in substantial reduction of the required cooling loads to maintain the indoor thermal comfort temperature.


Background Individuals with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) may have persistent symptoms following their acute illness. The prevalence and predictors of these symptoms, termed post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), are not fully described. Methods Participants discharged from an outpatient telemedicine program for COVID-19 were emailed a survey (1-6 months after discharge) about ongoing symptoms, acute illness severity, and quality of life. Standardized telemedicine notes from acute illness were used for covariates (comorbidities and provider-assessed symptom severity). Bivariate and multivariable analyses were performed to assess predictors of persistent symptoms. Results Two hundred and ninety patients completed the survey, of whom 115 (39.7%) reported persistent symptoms including fatigue (n= 59, 20.3%), dyspnea on exertion (n=41, 14.1%), and mental fog (n=39, 13.5%) among others. Proportion of persistent symptoms did not differ based on duration since illness (<90 days: n=32, 37.2% versus >90 days: n=80, 40.4%, p = 0.61). Predictors of persistent symptoms included provider-assessed moderate-severe illness (aOR 3.24, 95% CI 1.75, 6.02), female sex (aOR 1.99 95% 0.98, 4.04; >90 days out: aOR 2.24 95% CI 1.01, 4.95), and middle age (aOR 2.08 95% CI 1.07, 4.03). Common symptoms associated with reports of worse physical health included weakness, fatigue, myalgias, and mental fog. Conclusions Symptoms following acute COVID-19 are common and may be predicted by factors during the acute phase of illness. Fatigue and neuropsychiatric symptoms figured prominently. Select symptoms seem to be particularly associated with perceptions of physical health following COVID-19 and warrant specific attention on future studies of PASC.


Background and Aims: The neurological control of bladder function and the ability to be dry at night involves not only the acquisition of normal daytime control, but also the establishment of a circadian rhythm in vasopressin release and the ability to arouse to a full bladder during sleep. We postulated that in some children there might be a delay in maturation of the normal neurological pathways involved in establishment of nocturnal continence and examined this by using a specific neuropsychological test. Methods: Children attending an established nocturnal enuresis clinic were examined using the Rey–Osterrieth test to assess the presence or absence of boundary errors in both copy and memory reproductions. The results of the test were scored independently and blind to the response to treatment with the vasopressin analogue DDAVP. Results: A significant association was found between boundary type errors and response to DDAVP, with non-responders making significantly more errors. No child with three or more errors responded to DDAVP. Using this test, the ability to predict response to treatment was 70%. Conclusions: It is postulated that the Rey–Osterrieth test, through the presence or absence of boundary errors, reflects a delay in maturation and/or a disorganisation of the retinal-hypothalamic-cortical pathways in the brain. The association previously described with growth hormone neurosecretory dysfunction syndrome would be compatible with this.


In eukaryotes, many genes were transferred to the nucleus from prokaryotic ancestors of the cytoplasmic organelles during endosymbiotic evolution. In plants, the transfer of genetic material from the plastid (chloroplast) and mitochondrion to the nucleus is a continuing process. The cellular location of a kanamycin resistance gene tailored for nuclear expression (35SneoSTLS2) was monitored in the progeny of reciprocal crosses of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) in which, at the start of the experiments, the reporter gene was confined either to the male or the female parental plastid genome. Among 146,000 progeny from crosses where the transplastomic parent was male, 13 transposition events were identified, whereas only one atypical transposition was identified in a screen of 273,000 transplastomic ovules. In a second experiment, a transplastomic β-glucuronidase reporter gene, tailored to be expressed only in the nucleus, showed frequent stochastic expression that was confined to the cytoplasm in the somatic cells of several plant tissues. This gene was stably transferred in two out of 98,000 seedlings derived from a male transplastomic line crossed with a female wild type. These data demonstrate relocation of plastid DNA to the nucleus in both somatic and gametophytic tissue and reveal a large elevation of the frequency of transposition in the male germline. The results suggest a new explanation for the occurrence of uniparental inheritance in eukaryotes.