Efficiency of Network-on-Chip based many-core microprocessors to implement parallel fault simulation methods for different circuit sizes is explored in this paper. We show that a naive and straightforward execution of fault simulation programs on such systems does not provide the maximum speedup due to severe bottlenecks in off-chip shared memory access at memory controllers. In order to exploit the available massive parallelism of homogenous many-core microprocessors, a runtime approach capable of adaptively balancing the load during the fault simulation process is proposed. We demonstrate the proposed adaptive fault simulation approach on a many-core platform, Intels Single-chip Cloud Computer showing up to 45X speedup compared to a serial fault simulation approach.


Objective: The aim of this study was to provide quantitative measures of changes in cortical atrophy over a 2-year period associated with 3 subtypes of primary progressive aphasia (PPA) using whole-brain vertex-wise and region-of-interest (ROI) neuroimaging methods. The purpose was to quantitate disease progression, establish an empirical basis for clinical expectations, and provide outcome measures for therapeutic trials. Methods: Changes in cortical thickness and volume loss as well as neuropsychological performance were assessed at baseline and 2-year follow-up in 26 patients who fulfilled criteria for logopenic (8 patients), agrammatic (10 patients), and semantic (8 patients) PPA subtypes. Whole-brain vertex-wise and ROI imaging analysis were conducted using the FreeSurfer longitudinal pipeline. Results: Clinical deficits and cortical atrophy patterns showed distinct patterns of change among the subtypes over 2 years. Results confirmed that progression for each of the 3 subtypes showed left greater than right hemisphere asymmetry. An ROI analysis also revealed that progression was greater within, rather than outside, the language network. Conclusions: Preferential neurodegeneration of the left hemisphere language network is a common denominator for all 3 PPA subtypes, even as the disease progresses. Using a focal cortical language network ROI as an outcome measure of disease progression appears to be more sensitive than whole-brain or ventricular volume measures of change and may be helpful for designing future clinical trials in PPA.


Within the "Ten Simple Rules" series in PLoS Computational Biology, Dr. Bourne suggests that for younger investigators it is better to publish one paper in a quality journal rather than having multiple papers in lesser journals [1]. While this is certainly advisable, it can be very difficult. Indeed, for young scientists or, more to the point, for researchers with a short record of publications, it may be almost impossible to make their work and themselves visible to a larger scientific community via higher impact journals. A not-too-small share of "seasoned" scientists will argue without malignity that "we experienced similar or the same" and "good researchers will eventually be recognized." What they imply is that those who continue to provide good science shall be rewarded later, i.e., their papers will eventually find a home in quality journals, thus yielding better chances that the work will have impact. And yet, a much-cited case study ([2]; cited 264 times as of November 18, 2007, according to http://isiwebofknowledge.com/) may illustrate that the road to publication and recognition can be thorny and long for younger and less-recognized scientists.

Indeed, this "experiment" by Peters and Ceci provided empirical evidence 25 years ago that to get a paper accepted for publication can be very difficult for lesser-known scientists from less-recognized institutions. In this study, 12 psychology articles that had already been published by prestigious scientists from prestigious institutions were resubmitted to the journals that had accepted and printed the papers in the first place. Data presentation remained almost unaltered, but fictitious names and not-well-known institutions replaced the original ones. Only three of the resubmissions were identified as such, and of the other nine manuscripts, eight were rejected, mainly for methodological reasons. The Peters and Ceci study was widely discussed, and one interpretation for their observations was that work from lesser-known researchers may be subjected to a more critical peer review than material submitted by well-known investigators in institutions with a long track record. To exemplify this notion, 1977 Nobel Laureate Rosalyn Yalow commented on the article by Peters and Ceci ". . . . I am in full sympathy with rejecting papers from unknown authors working in unknown institutions. How does one know that the data are not fabricated? . . . on the average, the work of established investigators in good institutions is more likely to have had prior review from competent peers and associates even before reaching the journal" [3].

Despite this background, Dr. Bourne is right when he suggests that young investigators should aim at publication in quality journals. After all, you can only score high if you try. But be prepared that it takes very good material and perseverance to publish in well-known journals. Be aware, also, that even the highest-quality work may not see publication in high-impact journals, for numerous reasons, with the novice status of the submitting author(s) likely being a primary one. In this vein, both less and more experienced researchers may want to read the following paper for empirical comfort: "Consolation for the scientist: Sometimes it is hard to publish papers that are later highly cited" [4].


This workshop is aimed at staff who are interested in apply for funding for their placement research.

It will look from the point of view of a reviewer, in terms of what is needed to present the best possible case for your research.

Topics include:

• Why carry out placement research?

• Linking to funding priorities

• Making projects a success

• What do reviewers like and not like to see

• Writing Your proposal

• Managing risk

• Dissemination

Participants are asked to bring along a research idea that they are prepared to share with others. There will be an opportunity for sharing suggestions and working on improving your existing bids.


The effects of climate change, including ocean acidification and ocean heatwaves, on biological communities in estuaries are often uncertain. Part of the uncertainty is due to the complex suite of environmental factors in addition to acidification and warming that influence the growth of shells and skeletons of many estuarine organisms. The goal of this study was to document spatial and temporal variation in water column properties and to measure the in situ effects on larval and recently settled stages of ecologically important Olympia oysters (Ostrea lurida) and commercially important Pacific oysters (Crassostrea gigas) in a low‐inflow estuary with a Mediterranean climate in Northern California. Our results reveal that seasonal inputs of upwelled or riverine water create important and predictable gradients of carbonate system parameters, temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), and other variables that influence oyster performance, and that the influence of these gradients is contingent upon the location in the estuary as well as seasonal timing. During upwelling events (dry season), temperature, carbonate chemistry, and DO had the greatest impact on oyster performance. During runoff events (wet season), gradients in salinity, nutrient concentrations, and total alkalinity driven by river discharge were comparatively more important. These results suggest that the spatial importance of carbonate chemistry and temperature are seasonally variable and are two of several other factors that determine oyster performance. We use these results to discuss future impacts on oysters given projected regional changes in the frequency and magnitude of upwelling and precipitation‐driven runoff events.


The Ising model has been explored as a framework for modeling NP-hard problems, with several diverse systems proposed to solve it. The Magnetic Tunnel Junction– (MTJ) based Magnetic RAM is capable of replacing CMOS in memory chips. In this article, we propose the use of MTJs for representing the units of an Ising model and leveraging its intrinsic physics for finding the ground state of the system through annealing. We design the structure of a basic MTJ-based Ising cell capable of performing the functions essential to an Ising solver. The hardware overhead of the Ising model is analyzed, and a technique to use the basic Ising cell for scaling to large problems is described. We then go on to propose Ising-FPGA, a parallel and reconfigurable architecture that can be used to map a large class of NP-hard problems, and show how a standard Place and Route tool can be utilized to program the Ising-FPGA. The effects of this hardware platform on our proposed design are characterized and methods to overcome these effects are prescribed. We discuss how three representative NP-hard problems can be mapped to the Ising model. Further, we suggest ways to simplify these problems to reduce the use of hardware and analyze the impact of these simplifications on the quality of solutions. Simulation results show the effectiveness of MTJs as Ising units by producing solutions close/comparable to the optimum and demonstrate that our design methodology holds the capability to account for the effects of the hardware.


Objectives Whether smoking being an effect modifier or confounder in increased total mortality and mortality from major causes has never been formally evaluated in occupational cohort studies and this lack of knowledge was addressed in a cohort of Chinese workers with silicosis. Methods All workers with silicosis in Hong Kong diagnosed during the period 1981–2005 were followed up till the end of 2006 to ascertain their vital status and causes of death. An index of 'relative silicosis effect (RSE)' was used to examine the potential multiplicative interaction between smoking and silicosis. A smoking indirectly adjusted standardised morality ratio (SMR) according to the method of 'smoking adjustment factor (SAF)' was presented if the RSE was not statistically significant (i.e., no multiplicative interaction). Results The RSE for total deaths and the deaths from non-malignant respiratory diseases (NMRD) was 0.75 (95% CI: 0.62–0.91) and 0.59 (95%CI: 0.46–0.78); however, it was not statistically significant for other specific causes of death. Smoking indirectly adjusted SMR for oesophagus cancer, lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases, silicosis, pulmonary tuberculosis and pulmonary heart disease was 1.08 (95% CI: 0.72–1.64), 1.24 (95% CI: 1.06–1.45), 2.07 (95% CI: 1.78–2.41), 411.35 (95% CI: 377.03–448.79), 4.99 (95% CI: 3.80–6.54), and 4.09 (95% CI: 2.55–6.54). Conclusions This historical cohort study demonstrated a significant multiplicative interaction between smoking and silicosis on the mortality of total deaths and deaths from NMRD; however, smoking was more likely to play a role of confounding in an increased mortality from other major causes among Chinese silicotic workers.


ABSTRACT DNA damage and perturbations in DNA replication can induce global transcriptional responses that can help organisms repair the damage and survive. RecA is known to mediate transcriptional responses to DNA damage in several bacterial species by inactivating the repressor LexA and phage repressors. To gain insight into how Bacillus subtilis responds to various types of DNA damage, we measured the effects of DNA damage and perturbations in replication on mRNA levels by using DNA microarrays. We perturbed replication either directly with p-hydroxyphenylazo-uracil (HPUra), an inhibitor of DNA polymerase, or indirectly with the DNA-damaging reagents mitomycin C (MMC) and UV irradiation. Our results indicate that the transcriptional responses to HPUra, MMC, and UV are only partially overlapping. recA is the major transcriptional regulator under all of the tested conditions, and LexA appears to directly repress the expression of 63 genes in 26 operons, including the 18 operons previously identified as LexA targets. MMC and HPUra treatments caused induction of an integrative and conjugative element (ICEBs1) and resident prophages (PBSX and SPβ), which affected the expression of many host genes. Consistent with previous results, the induction of these mobile elements required recA. Induction of the phage appeared to require inactivation of LexA. Unrepaired UV damage and treatment with MMC also affected the expression of some of the genes that are controlled by DnaA. Furthermore, MMC treatment caused an increase in origin-proximal gene dosage. Our results indicate that different types of DNA damage have different effects on replication and on the global transcriptional profile.


Objective: To assess the feasibility, safety, and diagnostic accuracy of transoesophageal atrial pacing stress echocardiography (TAPSE) combined with two dimensional transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) for evaluation of coronary perfusion in patients undergoing arterial switch operation for transposition of the great arteries. Design: TAPSE combined with TTE was performed at the end of cardiac catheterisation. An ischaemic response was defined as > 1.5 mm horizontal or downsloping ST segment depression or as a new or worsened wall motion abnormality. The results were compared with results of coronary angiography. Setting: Tertiary referral centre for paediatric cardiology and cardiac surgery. Patients: 25 patients, mean (SD) age 29.5 (19) months, mean (SD) weight 12.5 (3.4) kg. Main outcome measures: Target heart rate (200 beats/min) was attained in 22 of 25 (88%) patients. Electrocardiographic ischaemic changes occurred in 4 of 25 (16%) and wall motion abnormalities in 3 of 25 (12%). Coronary obstructions were found in 2 of 25 (8%) patients. Results: The test was feasible in all patients, without clinical complications requiring treatment. Compared with coronary angiography, the test had a sensitivity and a specificity of 100% and 95%, respectively, for the echocardiographic stress, and of 100% and 91%, respectively, for the electrocardiographic stress. The negative predictive value was 100% for both the echocardiographic and the electrocardiographic stress tests. The positive predictive value was 66% for the echocardiographic stress and 50% for the electrocardiographic stress tests. Conclusions: In these patients TAPSE combined with TTE was feasible and safe and apparently an accurate diagnostic method for evaluation of coronary perfusion. Patients with a negative test may have a low likelihood of major coronary abnormalities and may not require coronary angiography.


Case Presentation: A 45-year-old female presented to out patient clinic of Radiotherapy with a chief complaints of bleeding per vaginum for last 6 month and foul smelling discharge per vaginum for last 5 months. The cervical biopsy was reported as squamous cell carcinoma (moderately differentiated). Her general physical examination revealed pallor only. Per speculum examination examination showed 3.5x 3 cm cervical lesion with involvement of upper 1/3rd of anterior vaginal wall. Patient was staged as FIGO IIA. Peripheral smear and bone marrow biopsy was suggestive of CML in chronic phase. The patient received a radical course of external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) with concurrent weekly cisplatin 40mg/m2 followed by HDR brachytherapy. We report here a rare case of CML with carcinoma cervix.


In chapter 1 we introduce microalgae, photosynthetic microorganisms with potential to replace commodities (such as food, feed, chemicals and fuels). Production costs are still high, reason why microalgae are still only economically feasible for niche markets. We suggest to borrow the concept of plant domestication to select industrial microalgae cells. Two approaches can be successfully used to domesticate microalgae: adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) and fluorescence assisted cell sorting (FACS). ALE takes advantage of the natural adaptability of microorganisms to different environments, while FACS actually select cells with specific phenotypes. This thesis aimed to select cells of Chlorococcum littorale with improved phenotypes, assuming that these cells could establish new populations with increased industrial performance. In Chapter 2 we wanted to know what happened during time to biomass and lipid productivities of Chlorococcum littorale repeatedly subjected to N-starvation. We tested 2 different cycles of N-starvation, short (6 days) and long (12 days). Short cycles didn't affect lipid productivity, highlighting the potential of C. littorale to be produced in semi-continuous cultivation. Repeated cycles of N-starvation could have caused adaptations of the strain. Hence, we also discussed the implications of using repeated N-starvation for adaptive laboratory evolution (ALE) experiments. Chapter 3 introduces a method to detect and to select microalgae cells with increased lipid content. The method requires only the fluorescence dye Bodipy505/515 dissolved in ethanol, and the method was designed to maintain cellular viability so the cells could be used to produce new inoculum. In chapter 4 we evaluated a question that emerged while deciding which criteria to use to sort lipid-rich cells: does cellular size affects lipid productivity of C. littorale? We hypothesized that cells with different diameters have different division rates, which could affect lipid productivity. Therefore, we assessed the influence of cell diameter, as a sorting parameter, on both biomass and lipid productivity of Chlorococcum littorale (comparing populations before and after sorting, based on different diameters). Results showed that the size of vegetative cells doesn't affect the lipid productivity of C. littorale. In chapter 5 we present a strategy to sort cells of C. littorale with increased TAG productivity using the method developed at chapter 3. Both the original and the sorted population with the highest lipid productivity (namely, S5) were compared under simulated Dutch summer conditions. The results confirmed our data from experiments done under continuous light: S5 showed a double TAG productivity. Our results showed also that the selected phenotype was stable (1.5 year after sorting) and with potential to be used under industrial conditions. In chapter 6 we extrapolated our results (indoor and outdoor) to other climate conditions. We ran simulations changing the light conditions to four different locations worldwide (the Netherlands, Norway, Brazil and Spain) to estimate both biomass and TAG productivities. Results indicated that biomass yields were reduced at locations with higher light intensities (Brazil/Spain) when compared with locations with lower light intensities (Norway/Netherlands). Hence, the choice of location should not be based on light intensity, but on how stable irradiation is. Chapter 7 is the general discussion of the thesis, demonstrating that both ALE and FACS are effective approaches to select industrial microalgae cells. We also present our view on how ALE and FACS could further improve microalgae strains for industry.


Lys67 is essential for the hydrolysis reaction mediated by class C β‐lactamases. Its exact catalytic role lies at the center of several different proposed reaction mechanisms, particularly for the deacylation step, and has been intensely debated. Whereas a conjugate base hypothesis postulates that a neutral Lys67 and Tyr150 act together to deprotonate the deacylating water, previous experiments on the K67R mutants of class C β‐lactamases suggested that the role of Lys67 in deacylation is mainly electrostatic, with only a 2‐ to 3‐fold decrease in the rate of the mutant vs the wild type enzyme. Using the Class C β‐lactamase AmpC, we have reinvestigated the activity of this K67R mutant enzyme, using biochemical and structural studies. Both the rates of acylation and deacylation were affected in the AmpC K67R mutant, with a 61‐fold decrease in kcat, the deacylation rate. We have determined the structure of the K67R mutant by X‐ray crystallography both in apo and transition state‐analog complexed forms, and observed only minimal conformational changes in the catalytic residues relative to the wild type. These results suggest that the arginine side chain is unable to play the same catalytic role as Lys67 in either the acylation or deacylation reactions catalyzed by AmpC. Therefore, the activity of this mutant can not be used to discredit the conjugate base hypothesis as previously concluded, although the reaction catalyzed by the K67R mutant itself likely proceeds by an alternative mechanism. Indeed, a manifold of mechanisms may contribute to hydrolysis in class C β‐lactamases, depending on the enzyme (wt or mutant) and the substrate, explaining why different mutants and substrates seem to support different pathways. For the WT enzyme itself, the conjugate base mechanism may be well favored.


In the context of complex network theory, the small-world network is famous for the small-world phenomenon, namely six degrees of separation. Different from its wide application in the social, physical and technological network analysis, it can be combined with the mathematical optimization algorithm recently. In this paper, the limitation of small-world network topology for application in multi-objective optimization algorithm is proposed. The optimization algorithm based on small-world network topology may be suitable for solving a few single-objective optimization problems, but has limitation and unobvious effectiveness to deal with many multi-objective optimization problems. This paper takes non-dominated sorting differential evolution algorithm (NSDE) based on small-world topology to solve eight multi-objective optimization problems (MOPs) for example. Compared with early NSDE algorithm, the limitation of the efficiency of small-world topology in NSDE is validated with the Matlab simulation results of eight MOEA test functions of early 2007. The results prove that small-world topology has limitation and unobvious effectiveness to improve a multi-objective optimization algorithm, not as good as to improve a single-objective optimization algorithm.


Burkholderia ubonensis, a nonpathogenic soil bacterium belonging to the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc), is highly resistant to some clinically significant antibiotics. The concern is that B. ubonensis may serve as a resistance reservoir for Bcc or B. pseudomallei complex (Bpc) organisms that are opportunistic human pathogens. ABSTRACT Burkholderia ubonensis, a nonpathogenic soil bacterium belonging to the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc), is highly resistant to some clinically significant antibiotics. The concern is that B. ubonensis may serve as a resistance reservoir for Bcc or B. pseudomallei complex (Bpc) organisms that are opportunistic human pathogens. Using a B. ubonensis strain highly resistant to tetracycline (MIC, ≥256 µg/ml), we identified and characterized tetA(64) that encodes a novel tetracycline-specific efflux pump of the major facilitator superfamily. TetA(64) and associated TetR(64) regulator expression are induced by tetracyclines. Although TetA(64) is the primary tetracycline and doxycycline resistance determinant, maximum tetracycline and doxycycline resistance requires synergy between TetA(64) and the nonspecific AmrAB-OprA resistance nodulation cell division efflux pump. TetA(64) does not efflux minocycline, tigecycline, and eravacycline. Comprehensive screening of genome sequences showed that TetA(64) is unequally distributed in the Bcc and absent from the Bpc. It is present in some major cystic fibrosis pathogens, like Burkholderia cenocepacia, but absent from others like Burkholderia multivorans. The tetR(64)-tetA(64) genes are located in a region of chromosome 1 that is highly conserved in Burkholderia sp. Because there is no evidence for transposition, the tetR(64)-tetA(64) genes may have been acquired by homologous recombination after horizontal gene transfer. Although Burkholderia species contain a resident multicomponent efflux pump that allows them to respond to tetracyclines up to a certain concentration, the acquisition of the single-component TetA(64) by some species likely provides the synergy that these bacteria need to defend against high tetracycline concentrations in niche environments.


Abstract This study supplements spatial panel econometrics techniques with qualitative GIS to analyse spatio-temporal changes in the distribution of integrated conservation–development projects relative to poaching activity and unauthorized resource use in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. Cluster and spatial regression analyses were performed on data from ranger monitoring containing > 35,000 combined observations of illegal activities in Volcanoes National Park, against tourism revenue sharing and conservation NGO funding data for 2006–2015. Results were enriched with qualitative GIS analysis from key informant interviews. We found a statistically significant negative linear effect of overall integrated conservation–development investments on unauthorized resource use in Volcanoes National Park. However, individually, funding from Rwanda's tourism revenue sharing policy did not have an effect in contrast to the significant negative effect of conservation NGO funding. In another contrast between NGO funding and tourism revenue sharing funding, spatial analysis revealed significant gaps in revenue sharing funding relative to the hotspots of illegal activities, but these gaps were not present for NGO funding. Insight from qualitative GIS analysis suggests that incongruity in prioritization by decision makers at least partly explains the differences between the effects of revenue sharing and conservation NGO investment. Although the overall results are encouraging for integrated conservation–development projects, we recommend increased spatial alignment of project funding with clusters of illegal activities, which can make investment decision-making more data-driven and projects more effective for conservation.


This thesis reports on the influence of an aqueous H2O2 solution on the combustion process and the pollutant emissions of a direct injection naturally aspirated diesel engine. The effect of a H2O2/water addition into a flow reactor, into the exhaust gas and into the combustion chamber of a diesel engine was monitored by the measurement of gaseous (HC, CO, NOx, O2) and solid exhaust gas constituents. The effect on solid exhaust gas constituents was observed by the means of mass-, size- and number-related measurement techniques. Additional experiments with cycle resolved spectroscopy and pressure indication were performed in the case of H2O2/water injection into the combustion chamber. The results show that a significant decrease of gaseous and solid pollutant emissions of a diesel engine is possible with H2O2/water addition. Particularly the strong effect of a H2O2/water injection into the combustion chamber on soot oxidation indicates that OH radicals play an important role in the process of soot oxidation wi in the combustion chamber.


Reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) is a standard approach for fine-tuning large language models to follow instructions. As part of this process, learned reward models are used to approximately model human preferences. However, as imperfect representations of the"true"reward, these learned reward models are susceptible to \textit{overoptimization}. Gao et al. (2023) studied this phenomenon in a synthetic human feedback setup with a significantly larger"gold"reward model acting as the true reward (instead of humans) and showed that overoptimization remains a persistent problem regardless of the size of the proxy reward model and training data used. Using a similar setup, we conduct a systematic study to evaluate the efficacy of using ensemble-based conservative optimization objectives, specifically worst-case optimization (WCO) and uncertainty-weighted optimization (UWO), for mitigating reward model overoptimization when using two optimization methods: (a) best-of-n sampling (BoN) (b) proximal policy optimization (PPO). We additionally extend the setup of Gao et al. (2023) to include 25% label noise to better mirror real-world conditions. Both with and without label noise, we find that conservative optimization practically eliminates overoptimization and improves performance by up to 70% for BoN sampling. For PPO, ensemble-based conservative optimization always reduces overoptimization and outperforms single reward model optimization. Moreover, combining it with a small KL penalty successfully prevents overoptimization at no performance cost. Overall, our results demonstrate that ensemble-based conservative optimization can effectively counter overoptimization.


This paper revisits single-channel audio source separation based on a probabilistic generative model of a mixture signal defined in the continuous time domain. We assume that each source signal follows a non-stationary Gaussian process (GP), i.e., any finite set of sampled points follows a zero-mean multivariate Gaussian distribution whose covariance matrix is governed by a kernel function over time-varying latent variables. The mixture signal composed of such source signals thus follows a GP whose covariance matrix is given by the sum of the source covariance matrices. To estimate the latent variables from the mixture signal, we use a deep neural network with an encoder-separator-decoder architecture (e.g., Conv-TasNet) that separates the latent variables in a pseudo-time-frequency space. The key feature of our method is to feed the latent variables into the kernel function for estimating the source covariance matrices, instead of using the decoder for directly estimating the time-domain source signals. This enables the decomposition of a mixture signal into the source signals with a classical yet powerful Wiener filter that considers the full covariance structure over all samples. The kernel function and the network are trained jointly in the maximum likelihood framework. Comparative experiments using two-speech mixtures under clean, noisy, and noisy-reverberant conditions from the WSJ0-2mix, WHAM!, and WHAMR! benchmark datasets demonstrated that the proposed method performed well and outperformed the baseline method under noisy and noisy-reverberant conditions.


Objectives– To propose a neuropsychological study of the various aspects of self‐consciousness (SC) in Alzheimer's disease. Methods– Forty‐five patients with probable mild or moderate AD were included in the study. Severity of their dementia was assessed by the Mini Mental State (MMS). Fourteen questions were prepared to evaluate SC. Results– No significant correlations were found between SC score and educational level, age, and duration of disease. A significant correlation was found between SC score and the severity of dementia, whereas frontal disturbances were just short of the significance threshold. The various aspects of SC were not impaired to the same degree. The most disturbed ones were awareness of cognitive deficiencies, moral judgements and prospective memory. The least disturbed aspects were awareness of identity and of mental representation of the body. Items relating to anosognosia and moral judgements were significantly correlated with the MMS score, whereas affective state, body representation disorders, prospective memory, and capacities for introspection were not related to the severity of the dementia. Consciousness of identity was sound, regardless of MMS score. Conclusions– AD clearly induces an heterogeneous impairment of SC. SC requires a convergence of many neural networks. In AD, neuronal alterations involve many cortical areas and information sent to the associative frontal cortex from memory, language and visuospatial areas is lacking or disturbed. Thus, the sequential order of successive stimuli cannot be maintained by the heteromodal associative cortex (dorsal convexity of the prefrontal cortex), and the supramodal associative cortex (located rostrally in the frontal lobes) is unable to provide reliable monitoring and assessment of simultaneous neural cognitive networks carrying insufficient and inadequate input. The core deficiency in AD patients might be impaired SC equated with the disability to maintain sequential and simultaneous "attention to life". The Self‐Consciousness Questionnaire, a clinical scale providing multidimensional measurement, indicates that different aspects of consciousness are not correlated with overall cognitive deficiency as determined by the MMSE.


The aim of this paper is to study the ethanol price dynamics in the US market and find the optimal hedging strategy. To this end, we first attempt to identify the long-term relationship between ethanol spot prices and the prices of futures contracts on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT). Then, we model the short-term dynamics between these two prices using a Markov-switching vector error correction model (Ms-VECM). Finally, accounting for the variance dynamics using a Gjr-MGarch error structure, we compute a time-varying hedge ratio and determine the optimal hedging strategy in the US ethanol market.


With an increasing urban population in Sweden, expecting to reach 90% by 2050 (UN World Urbanization prospects, The 2011 Revision), this high level of urban population put pressure on functioning infrastructure, sufficient housing and need to monitor the environmental effects such as pollution and the effects of land use change. Stockholm County currently holds 22% of the population and accounts for nearly half of the urban growth in Sweden (Svensk Handelskammare). Previous research on change detection using remote sensing cover the use of data sets from optical sensors, infrared spectrum, radar data and the use of additional derived data sets such as indices and texture measure (implemented on pixel or feature level). There is not yet any consensus regarding which change detection methods that is superior to others. Comparative studies often only test a few algorithms on one particular data set. Change detection of Stockholm urban area has not been well investigated in previous literature.This thesis is focused on a change detection analysis of Stockholm area between 1986 and 2006 using remote sensing data fusion. The data set used is SPOT-1 HRV XS data at 20m resolution from 1986, SPOT-1 HRV Panchromatic data at 10m resolution from 1987 and SPOT-5 HRG XS data of 10m resolution from 2006.The first challenge was to fuse the multispectral and panchromatic images from 1986 and 1987 to inject the details of the 10m panchromatic image into the 20m multispectral so that the resulting images will have similar spatial details as the 2006 images. This was done by wavelet transform. Haar, Daubechies, Coiflet and Biorthogonal wavelet families were tested to find the optimal fusion and the corresponding parameters. The results showed that the Daubechies, Coiflet and Biorthogonal families did not differ significantly and that for this data set and analysis purpose more than one wavelet family fusion results showed satisfactory results. The correlation coefficient for these three families was all over 0,96 at decomposition level two. Then change detection was performed using change vector analysis (CVA) and a supervised non-parametric classifier. A comparison is made between two inputs: one using only spectral information and the other adding textural information to the spectral information. The change detection analysis was undertaken in three steps: calculating texture measures from the original images, calculating change magnitude using Change Vector Analysis (CVA) and classifying change from no-change using Support Vector Machine (SVM).Three GLCM texture measures were chosen: Homogeneity, Mean and Entropy in the change detection analysis. These, as well as the spectral information, were input for change vector magnitude. Then SVM is used to classify changed pixels from no-change pixels. Two change results were obtained, the first using only spectral information, and the other using both spectral and textural information.The overall accuracy using only spectral information was rather high at 87, 86%. But the visual inspections indicate that using only spectral change magnitude is not sufficient for a good change detection result because there is an apparent overestimation of change. When adding the textural information the overall accuracy increase drastically to 97,01%, although at visual inspection there seem to be an underestimation of change. Because of the high overall accuracy an independent validation was made causing the overall accuracy and kappa to decrease. Change detection using only multispectral data got an overall accuracy of 76, 12% and kappa coefficient 0,53. For change detection result with added texture measures the overall accuracy became 85,80% and 0,72. The results further confirm the general advantages using texture measure although the independent evaluation resulted in a lower accuracy than the author's evaluations.


An isotopically labeled cross-linking reagent, succinimido 3-(3-[125I]iodo-4-azidophenyl)propionate, has been synthesized and coupled to 1-acyl-2-(aminocaproyl)phosphatidylcholine according to previously described procedures [Schroit, A. J., & Madsen, J. (1983) Biochemistry 22, 3617-3623]. 125I- and N3-labeled phosphatidylserine (125I-N3-PS) was produced from the phosphatidylcholine (PC) analogue by phospholipase D catalyzed base exchange in the presence of L-serine. These phospholipid analogues are photoactivatable, are labeled with 125I at high specific activity, completely incorporate into synthetic vesicles, and spontaneously transfer between membranes. When an excess of acceptor vesicles or red blood cells (RBC) was mixed with a population of donor vesicles containing the 125I-N3-phospholipids, approximately 40% of the analogues transferred to the acceptor population. After transfer in the dark to RBC, all of the 125I-N3-PC incorporated into the cells could be removed by washing with serum, whereas the 125I-N3-PS could not. After photolabeling of intact RBC, approximately 50% of the PC and 20% of the PS cross-linked to membrane proteins as determined by their insolubility in CHCl3/MeOH. Analysis of probe distribution by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis revealed that 125I-N3-PS preferentially labeled a Mr 30,000 peptide which contained approximately 30% of the protein-bound label.


Somalia has been exceptionally prone to disputes over representation, making it difficult to identify representatives at the negotiating table who are both legitimate and authoritative.
Somalia's susceptibility to political dynamics, exacerbated by the fractured nature of clanism, has made it especially difficult to maintain coalitions. Somalia is indeed constitutionally a federal state. However, a lack of clear understanding of how to apply and manage federalism to work in Somalia's context is pitting different political factions against one another. A major source of political factionalism is the absence of consensus on the division of power and responsibilities between the federal central authority and regional entities as well as lack of coherent guidelines for implementing the principles of the provisional federal constitution. Both issues are contributing to a stalemate in not achieving a speedy recovery, and the "rebirth of sound public institutions in Somalia. The main objective of this research was to critically examine federalism
in Somalia and recommend and on the finding. This is key in enriching the relevant field of policy analysis and academia on these complex issues. Greater understanding of the current
debate and the options for an effective federal system in Somalia could support the current attempts for reconciliation and transformation of the conflict situation. The research therefore explored federalism as the most appropriate governance model, while also discussing the other three governance models. The research also examined the challenges: political, constitutional, security and social challenges that challenge the effective functioning of the federal model of governance. The study also discussed the domestic and external drivers of decentralization in Somalia and prop up the 'federalism and conflict management nexus'. This examines the connection and relationship between governance and conflict, in this case federalism and
reconciliation and conflict prevention, thus demonstrating the importance of federalism as a system of governance in preventing and managing the persistent conflict in Somalia. In a bid to study these aspects, the study reviews existing data in academia, policy making and other relevant fields to explain and answer the research questions and objectives to the study. The emerging issues were also highlighted and recommendations made that will assist future policy
making and research in relevant studies. In order to explore these key concepts, the study's objectives were to examine the federal system of governance as a solution to the reconstruction of the state of Somalia; analyze the challenges in the implementation of the federal system of governance as a solution to the Somali conflict; and to determine how effective federalism can be achieved for attaining peace and reconstruction outcome in Somalia To achieve these objectives the study employed both analyze the theories of federalism and the critiques testing and applying it to the African context of Somalia. Secondary and primary data was used to analyze past present and predictably future situations as emerging issues of the role of international and regional actors in the full realization of federalism arose.


AIM
To investigate treatment outcome of Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)-negative low-grade gastric mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue (MALT) lymphoma.

METHODS
In this study, we retrospectively reviewed the clinical outcome and clinicopathologic factors of stage IE H. pylori-negative low-grade gastric MALT lymphoma cases from August 1998 to June 2009.

RESULTS
A total of eleven patients with H. pylori-negative low-grade gastric MALT lymphoma were enrolled in the study and received anti-H. pylori eradication treatment and/or radiotherapy or excisional therapy. Complete remission (CR) of gastric MALT lymphoma was achieved in all patients. The time to CR was 1-66 mo (median, 1 mo).

CONCLUSION
Eradication therapy may be offered as an initial treatment option even in cases of localized H. pylori-negative gastric MALT lymphoma.


This study was designed to assess the efficacy of a new antimelanoma therapeutic strategy that relies on the use of a c-myc antisense 15-mer phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotide ([S]ODN), in combination with cisplatin (cis-diamminedichloroplatinum; DDP), which is currently used in the clinical management of melanoma patients. Proliferation and colony formation of melanoma cells were both inhibited by the DDP/c-myc antisense [S]ODN combination to a greater extent than that observed with either agent alone. Inhibition was most effective when DDP was followed by c-myc antisense [S]ODNs. Cell cycle flow cytometric analysis of cells exposed to the two agents either alone or in combination demonstrated that (a) c-myc antisense [S]ODNs induced an accumulation of cells in S phase and apoptosis in a fraction of the cells, detectable at day 5 after the beginning of treatment; (b) DDP induced a block in G2-M phase detectable at day 1, which was partially recovered, and apoptosis similar in extent to that induced by c-myc antisense [S]ODNs; and (c) DDP and c-myc antisense [S]ODNs together induced arrest in G2-M phase, which was maximum at day 3, i.e., delayed as compared to the block induced by DDP. The combination induced a higher percentage of apoptosis, evident at day 3 from the start of treatment, that correlated with a marked reduction in Bcl-2 expression. Mice bearing human melanoma xenografts and treated sequentially with DDP and c-myc antisense [S]ODNs showed a higher inhibition of tumor growth, reduction in the number of lung metastases, and increase in life span compared with those treated with either agent alone. Together, these data lend support to the development of anticancer therapies involving oncogene-targeted antisense ODNs and conventional antineoplastic drugs.


Background: GSTP1 is a gene that helps detoxify foreign substances in the body. Functional polymorphisms of GSTP1 have been studied as risk factors for lung cancer. Past studies have compared the effect of the "at risk" polymorphism in two strata of smoking pack-years (usually defined by the median among controls). We examined the interaction between GSTP1 polymorphisms and cumulative exposure to smoking and their association with lung cancer risk. Methods: Data are from a large hospital-based case–control study of persons treated for primary lung cancer at the Massachusetts General Hospital since 1992. Controls were drawn from friends and nonrelated family members. We genotyped 1,042 cases and 1,161 controls for GSTP1 using polymerase chain reaction–restriction fragment length polymorphism techniques. Findings: The GSTP1 GG genotype approximately doubled the lung cancer risk associated with pack-years. This interaction was stronger among current smokers. At 26 pack-years (median among controls with a smoking history), the adjusted odds ratio for the association between pack-years and lung cancer risk was 13 (95% confidence interval = 6.5–25) among current smokers with the GSTP1 GG genotype compared with 6.1 (95% confidence interval = 4.9–7.5) among those with the GSTP1 AA genotype Conclusions: GSTP1 GG increases the lung cancer risk associated with pack-years of smoking.


Using a large dataset of U.S. offices we analyze the relationship between investors' distance to their assets and the effective rent of these assets, and study the extent to which property managers can influence this relationship. We construct hedonic rent models to control for other known rent determinants. It turns out that proximity matters: holding everything else constant, investors located closely to their office buildings are able to extract significantly higher effective rents from these assets, especially if these buildings are of low quality. This effect is due to significant differences in occupancy levels. Interestingly, property managers can affect this relationship, mitigating the adverse effects of investor distance on effective office rents. Especially if the owner does not reside in the same state as the building, external property management is of importance, most prominently so for class-B office buildings.


Neurofibromatosis is a disorder which predominantly involves cellular elements of peripheral neural sheaths. Little is known about the regulation of differentiation and proliferation of cells comprising neurofibromas. Because nerve growth factor-like ac tivity may be present in neurofibromas and the cells comprising neurofibromas are neural crest derivatives, we have investigated whether nerve growth factor (NGF) receptors are present on cells from dissociated dermal neurofibromas. Using 125I-NGFto measure binding to cultured cells in suspension and for autoradiography, we identified a population of cells having character istics of Schwann cells which exhibited saturable 125I-NGFbind ing. This binding is characteristic of the "fast" (low affinity) NGF receptor, having a Ka of approximately 1 nM and a Bmaxof at least 120 fmol/106 cells. Less than 20% of the bound 125I-NGF (5 ng/ml) is not displaced when transferred to 0°Cby an excess of unlabeled NGF (10 u.g/m\) and is therefore bound to either "slow" (high affinity) sites or is rapidly internalized. NGF receptors with characteristics of fast sites have recently been reported on Schwann-like cells from chick dorsal root ganglia [Zimmerman, A., and Sutler, A. Beta nerve growth factor (beta NGF) receptors on glial cells. Cell-cell interaction between neurones and Schwann cells in culture of chick sensory ganglia. EMBO J., 2: 879-885, 1983]. The identification of NGF receptors on both fetal chick dorsal root ganglia and neurofibroma Schwann-like cells suggests that NGF may have a role in the regulation of Schwann cell function in both normal development and in neu-


Background FIFA 11+ program has been shown to reduce the risk of injury in football players, but it has not been evaluated in adolescent Japanese players. Objective To investigate the effects of FIFA 11+on the risk of injury in adolescent Japanese football players. Design Cohort study. Setting Six male and 4 female Japanese Under-18 (age: 16–18 yr.) and Under-15 (age: 13–15 yr.) football teams were followed for six seasons (from 2010 to 2015). The 2010 season was considered as the control season, with the players practicing their usual warm-up techniques. Throughout the seasons from 2011 to 2015, the players exclusively performed FIFA 11+; these 5 seasons were considered the intervention seasons. Participants A total of 2,344 athletes (1,815 male, 529 female; age: 12–18 yr.). Interventions FIFA 11+program was conducted at least twice per week, throughout the intervention seasons. Main Outcome Measurements For each of the three categories: football [matches+trainings], matches, and trainings, the injury rates were reported as the number of injuries per 1000 player-hours (1000PH). Results In males, the injury rate during football, the matches, and the trainings were 4.0, 8.9, and 3.4 in the control season, and 2.4, 6.9, and 1.8 in intervention seasons (mean values from 2011 to 2015), respectively. In females, the injury rates during football, the matches, and the trainings were 2.7, 2.2, and 7.5 in the control season, and 3.1, 2.6, and 8.9 in intervention seasons (mean values from 2011 to 2015).The injury rates were reduced significantly in the intervention seasons, compared with the control season in males, but not in females. Non-contact injuries were significantly reduced in both genders. Conclusions FIFA 11+program reduced the risk of injury in adolescent Japanese male football players, and reduced non-contact injuries in adolescent Japanese female football players.


The aim of the study is to estimate hospitalization and mortality rates in patients admitted to the University Hospital due to traffic accidents, and to determine the mean cost of the applicants in the hospital due to traffic accident. In this retrospective study data were obtained from the records of a university research and practice hospital. There were 802 patients admitted to emergency and other outpatient clinics of the University Hospital because of traffic accidents throughout the year 2012. Out of these patients, 166 (20.7%) were hospitalized, and the annual mortality rate was 0.87%. The total cost was 322,545.2 euro and 402.2 euro per patient. Road traffic accident detection reports covered only the numbers of fatal injuries and injuries that happened at the scene of accidents. Determination of the number of the dead and wounded with overall mortality rate would be supposed to reveal the magnitude of public health problem caused by traffic accidents.


Research on unemployment started during the 1930's and still attracts the attention of many researchers. It has been found that job loss has serious negative consequences for many aspects of the individual's life. However, the influence of unemployment on the individual is not simple and is moderated by a large number of individual and situational variables, many of which need to be explored. Unemployment is one of the factors which are important also for the health and well-being of adolescents. Relationships between the health of young people and unemployment can be viewed from two perspectives. Firstly, their own unemployment can have serious negative health consequences for them. Secondly, among those living with their parents, unemployment of one or both parents could also cause serious health problems. The main aim of the present study was to explore both perspectives. The first chapter of this thesis provides basic information about unemployment in society and individual joblessness. It also describes some differences in experiences of unemployment between adolescents and adults and shows possibilities of connections between parental unemployment and the health of adolescents. At the end of the chapter five research questions are formulated, focusing on the health of adolescents (chapter 3); the relationship between their employment status and health with mediating effects of financial strain and social support (chapter 4); the effect of parental unemployment with the mediating effect of financial strain (chapter 5); the effect of parental support on adolescents' health in situations of differing employment status of the parents (chapter 6); and finally, the cultural and societal context in the relationship between parental unemployment and adolescents' health is studied (chapter 7).


Pellet coating is traditionally carried out using the Wurster coater. This study investigated the feasibility of pellet coating in a newly developed coater built with a unique airflow system, the Supercell™ coater (GEA Pharma Systems, UK). A full factorial design study was carried out to evaluate the influences of the spray rate of the coating dispersion, batch size of the pellet load, pellet size fraction and plenum pressure of the fluidizing air on the color coating of pellets in the Supercell™ coater. Results showed that pellets could be successfully coated using the Supercell™ coater. Higher plenum pressures and lower spray rates were found to minimize pellet agglomeration during coating. Although coating efficiencies were comparable amongst the different pellet size fractions, larger batch sizes of pellets were coated with higher efficiencies. Process optimization was carried out for each pellet size fraction and a large batch size (120 g) in combination with a high plenum pressure (1,500 mm WC) were deemed optimal. Optimal spray rates differed according to pellet size fraction and a lower spray rate was required for smaller pellets. Pellet flow patterns observed during coating were dependent on the pressure drop across the fluidized load. A 'swirling' pellet flow pattern was generally observed at coating conditions which led to optimal outcomes.


Spontaneous bacterial peritonitis (SBP) is defined as bacterial infections that occur in patients with cirrhosis and ascites without any significant intraperitoneal infection, accounting for approximately 10-30% of bacterial infections in hospitalized patients. SBP develops in patients with liver cirrhosis because bacterial translocations are increased by changes in the intestinal bacteria and mucosal barriers. In addition, the decreased host immune response cannot remove the bacteria and their products. The most common cause of SBP is Gram-negative bacteria, such as Escherichia coli and Klebsiella species, and infections by Gram-positive bacteria are increasing. SBP is diagnosed by the presence of >250 polymorphonuclear leukocyte/mm3 in ascites after paracentesis. If SBP is diagnosed, empirical antibiotic therapy should be started immediately. Empirical antibiotic treatment should distinguish between community acquired infections and nosocomial infections. Cirrhotic patients with gastrointestinal bleeding or low ascitic protein concentrations should consider primary prevention and those who recover from SBP should consider secondary prevention. This review describes the pathophysiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of SBP.


We use high-resolution cosmological hydrodynamical simulations to demonstrate that cold flow gas accretion, particularly along filaments, modifies the standard picture of gas accretion and cooling onto galaxy disks. In the standard picture, all gas is initially heated to the virial temperature of the galaxy as it enters the virial radius. Low-mass galaxies are instead dominated by accretion of gas that stays well below the virial temperature, and even when a hot halo is able to develop in more massive galaxies there exist dense filaments that penetrate inside of the virial radius and deliver cold gas to the central galaxy. For galaxies up to ∼L*, this cold accretion gas is responsible for the star formation (SF) in the disk at all times to the present. Even for galaxies at higher masses, cold flows dominate the growth of the disk at early times. Within this modified picture, galaxies are able to accrete a large mass of cold gas, with lower initial gas temperatures leading to shorter cooling times to reach the disk. Although SF in the disk is mitigated by supernovae feedback, the short cooling times allow for the growth of stellar disks at higher redshifts than predicted by the standard model.


In this paper, a new approach to design micro-psychrometers devoted to measuring relative humidity is presented. Such devices are based on a planar thermopile fitted with an appropriate set of microchannels arranged for monitoring the evaporation process as a Seebeck voltage. They are fabricated out of a glass substrate, sputtered metals, and near vertical side walls made of SU-8, according to standard micro technology processes for MEMs. Considering classical psychrometers, the new design is aimed at reducing both size and response time. Indeed, besides being far less invasive than a standard unit, fast measurements (tau=5 s) are enabled. A straightforward modeling, aimed at deriving the relative humidity, is given with a view to integrating the signal conditioner. A prototype is calibrated and compared to a reference probe, and a brief discussion on its enhancement is also presented


The work is aimed at the study of neurophysiological mechanisms of examination stress in subjects with different levels of cortical activation. Spectral power and typical cortical connections of EEG rhythms were studied in students under conditions of stress before and immediately after examination as well as during usual academic semester. Students with relatively higher and relatively lower baseline alpha rhythm, i.e., with different levels of cortical activation revealed both similar and different EEG reactions. Before examination, in both groups of subjects the spectral power of EEG activity in the delta and thetal bands increased, and the number of connections in the bands of the alpha and beta 1 rhythms decreased as compared to usual baseline conditions. However, the EEG reactions in the theta 2 band in the two groups were oppositely directed. Significant changes in the beta 2 power were observed only in the group of subjects with higher baseline level of cortical activation.


We investigate the environmental effects due to pesticides for two different genetically modified (GM) seeds: insect resistant (IR) cotton and herbicide tolerant (HT) soybeans. Using an agricultural production model of a profit maximizing competitive farm, we derive predictions that IR trait decreases the amount of insecticides used and HT trait increases the amount of less toxic herbicides. While the environmental impact of pesticides for IR seeds is lower, for the HT seeds the testable predictions are ambiguous: scale as substitution effects can lead to higher environmental impacts. We use a dataset on commercial farms use of pesticides and biotechnology in Brazil to document environmental effects of GM traits. We explore within-farm variation for farmers planting conventional and GM seeds to identify the effect of adoption on the environmental impact of pesticides measured as quantity of active ingredients of chemicals and the Environmental Impact Quotient index. The findings show that the IR trait reduces the environmental impact of insecticides and the HT trait increases environmental impact due to weak substitution among herbicides of different toxicity levels.


Increasing interactions of polar bears ( Ursus maritimus ) with human activity, combined with impacts of climate change, are of critical concern for the conservation of the species. Our study quantifies and describes initial reactions and behaviors of polar bears observed from an icebreaker during summer 1991 at two exploratory drilling sites (near sites drilled in 2015) located in the Chukchi Sea 175 km and 312 km west of Barrow, Alaska. Polar bear behavior was described using continuous sampling of six predetermined focal group behavior states (walking, running, swimming, resting, feeding or foraging, unknown) and six behavioral reaction events (no reaction, walking away, running away, approaching, vigilance [i.e., watching], unknown). Forty-six bears in 34 groups were monitored from the Robert LeMeur (an Arctic Class 3 icebreaker) for periods of five minutes to 16.1 hours. Significantly more bear groups reacted to icebreaker presence (79%) than not (21%), but no relationship was found between their reactions and distance to or activity of the icebreaker. Reactions were generally brief; vigilance was the most commonly observed reaction, followed by walking or running away for short (< 5 minutes) periods and distances (< 500 m). Eleven percent of bear groups approached the vessel. No significant difference was found between reactions when cubs were present and those when cubs were absent. Despite the limited sample sizes, these findings are relevant to assessing potential impacts of resource development and shipping activities on polar bears, especially given the sparsity of such information in the face of growing human activity in the Arctic offshore areas. Overall, climate change is leading to longer and more extensive open-water seasons in the Arctic and therefore to increasing marine traffic—more vessels (including icebreakers) for a longer time each year over a wider area.


The selective functionalisation of C-H bonds is a powerful strategy for the construction of organic molecules and the Rh(II)-catalysed C-H insertion reaction is a particularly robust and useful tool for this purpose. This review discusses the insertion of Rh(II) carbenes into C-H bonds that are activated by α-oxygen substituents, focusing on the trends that have been observed in reactivity and selectivity, and the applications of this reaction to the total synthesis of complex natural products.


Ischaemia significantly affects the cellular homeostasis (sodium and calcium overload, intracellular acidosis, swelling, cytoskeleton injuries, mitochondrial hypercalcaemia and others). If reperfusion of an organ in ischaemia is essential for its viability and its functional recovery, the arrival of blood oxygen will cause a series of lesions; this is known as the phenomenon of ischaemia–reperfusion. Vasomotricity and the endothelial functions are significantly affected by it. Endothelium-dependent vasodilatation is more affected by ischaemia–reperfusion injuries than vasoconstriction and endothelial-independent vasodilatation. Reactive oxygen species and tumour necrosis factor-α seem to play a major role in this perturbation. Reperfusion also induces an important inflammatory response, characterized by a massive production of free radicals and by the activation of the complement and leucocyte neutrophils. A narrow interaction between activated endothelium and neutrophils will result in a significant concentration of neutrophils activated in the interstitium, where they release many oxygen radicals and many kinds of proteases, which destroy cells and extracellular matrix. This transfer of neutrophils from the intravascular bed to the intestitium involves several families of proteins such as selectins (P-selectin and L-selectin), integrines (intercellular adhesion molecule-1) and immunoglobulins (platelet–endothelial cell adhesion molecule-1). Last, oxidative stress, the production of cytokines and the secondary mitochondrial lesions that occur with reperfusion will induce apoptosis on the level of the parenchyma and the vascular structures. According to the stage of the vascular system considered (small arteries, capillaries or postcapillary veins), the repercussions of ischaemia–reperfusion are identical, but the clinical pictures differ. The proinflammatory state induced by reperfusion continues for several days and can affect the patient's prognosis.


The American chestnut (Castanea dentata [Marsh.] Borkh.; Fagaceae) was an historically important hardwood species in eastern deciduous forests of the United States and Canada prior to being nearly eradicated by chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica (Murr.) Barr). Several remnant populations have been identified persisting across fragmented parts of the historical range. The identification and characterization of remnant C. dentata populations is important for breeding and conservation efforts, as they may represent potential genetic sources of local adaptation or blight resistance, but much of the historical range remains unsurveyed. Here, I report the locations, blight infection status, and reproductive status of remnant American chestnut in upland forested areas of western New York, finding several reproductive/potentially reproductive trees.


A novel copper-catalyzed intermolecular trifluoromethylazidation of alkenes has been developed under mild reaction conditions. A variety of CF3-containing organoazides were directly synthesized from a wide range of olefins, including activated and unactivated alkenes, and the resulting products can be easily transformed into the corresponding CF3-containing amine derivatives.


Gaussian fields (GF) have recently received considerable attention for dimension reduction and semi-supervised classification. This paper presents two contributions. First, we show how the GF framework can be used for regression tasks on high-dimensional data. We consider an active learning strategy based on entropy minimization and a maximum likelihood model selection method. Second, we show how a recent generalization of the Locally Linear Embedding algorithm for correspondence learning can also be cast into the GF framework, which obviates the need to choose a representation dimensionality.


The issue of creditor's rights in fiducia cum creditore after the debtor's default is one of the central questions concerning the history and development of this form of real security in Roman law. Opposing views and the arguments put forward in the literature during the last decade are keeping the discussion alive. Although it may seem that the idea of the right to final acquisition of unburdened ownership by creditor on default (Verfall theory) is taking sway, there are still opinions in favor of the position acknowledging creditor only the right to hold the object until the debt was eventually paid (Bewahrung theory). In this paper, the problem is reconsidered taking into account the analysis of documents from Roman business practice, as well as the juristic opinions.


Abstract: Acetylcholinesterase (acetylcholine acetylhy‐drolase, EC 18.104.22.168) activity and muscarinic receptor binding of homogenates from several brain structures were inhibited by β‐carbolines. The inhibition was of the noncompetitive type in the case of the enzyme and of the mixed type in the case of the receptor binding. This effect was most strongly manifested by pyridoindoles(harmane, norharmane), i.e., carbolines containing an aromatic C ring than by the corresponding piperidoindoles (tetrahy‐droharmane, tetrahydronorharmane), i.e., those with a reduced C ring. The activity of choline acetyltransferase (acetyl‐CoAxholine O‐acetyltransferase, EC 188.8.131.52) was not altered. These data are further evidence of the interactions between indoleamine derivatives and the cholinergic system. The results are discussed in terms of their possible biological significance.


The diagnosis of cystic fibrosis of the pancreas rests upon characteristic laboratory findings. In the past, the most reliable test was based on a study of the duodenal aspirate for pancreatic enzyme activity. The absence or marked diminution of tryptic activity in the duodenal aspirate in childhood was considered pathognomonic of cystic fibrosis of the pancreas, with rare exception. Conversely, the presence of tryptic activity was considered sufficient evidence to discard this diagnosis. The exact end-point of tryptic activity for this differentiation has always been difficult to define. Most observers drew the line of demarcation at tryptic activity less than 10% of normal. As a result of a large clinical experience coupled with an active and continuous interest in the development of better diagnostic methods, we feel a need for broadening the so-called classical criteria for the diagnosis of cystic fibrosis. As early as 1947 we had evidence that this


Sulfur dioxide, N,N-diallyl-N-carboethoxymethylammonium chloride, and the hydrophobic monomer N,N-diallyl-N-octadecylammonium chloride were cyclocopolymerized in dimethyl sulfoxide using azobisisobutyronitrile (AIBN) as the initiator to afford water-soluble cationic polyelectrolytes (CPE) having a five-membered cyclic structure on the polymeric backbone. The CPE on acidic hydrolysis of the pendent ester groups gave the corresponding cationic acid salts (CAS), which, on treatment with sodium hydroxide, were converted to polybetaines (PB) and anionic polyelectrolytes (APE), as well as polymers PB/APE containing various proportions of zwitterionic (PB) and anionic fractions (APE) in the polymer chain. The solution properties of the CPE, APE, and PB/APE systems containing varying amounts of the hydrophobic monomers in the range 0–4 mol % were investigated by viscometric techniques. Treating the pH-responsive CAS polymers 4 with different equivalents of NaOH varied the zwitterionic and anionic charge densities in the polymer chain. It was found that the PB/APE polymer with a ratio of 33 : 67 for the zwitterionic and anionic fractions in the polymer chain, respectively, gave the highest viscosity value. The polymers showed that concentration (C*HA) of around 1 g/dL was required for the manifestation of significant hydrophobic associations. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 1404–1411, 2005


The article reveals specific features of the translation from Spanish to Bulgarian of some comic word games/ puns in the American television series Silvana sin lana, especially those based on polysemy and paronymy, neologisms and certain proper names. Based on the requirements presented in the audio-visual translation, several translation proposals are analysed, including different options for translation compensations aimed at generating the same comic impact on the Bulgarian public as the original version exerts on Spanish-speaking viewers. The results show that this objective, however complicated it may seem, in many cases is achievable, although with certain inevitable losses. Nevertheless, on other occasions the word games have practically disappeared from the target text both for purely linguistic reasons, and because of the limitations of audio-visual translation caused by the interpenetration of several codes of different kinds.


A systematic approach to radome design is presented. The problem is formulated as a global optimization procedure such that the radome performance is optimized by properly adjusting the thickness of the radome layer over the entire radome surface. In this approach the thickness profile is parameterized via B-splines representation. Simulated annealing technique is applied to finding the best thickness profile so that the maximum boresight error is reduced to as small as possible over the entire range of the antenna look angle. A two-dimensional design example is given. The best possible thickness profile is found and the boresight error is reduced considerably compared to that due to a uniform layer. The method is general and can be applied without difficulty to other realistic three-dimensional radomes of arbitrary shapes. >


Objective: Many women experience health problems when going through menopause, and these health problems may result in a substantial reduction in quality of life. There are some indications that physical activity may play a role in ameliorating menopausal symptoms, but there is conflicting evidence about this. To assess the relationship between changes in physical activity and self-reported vasomotor, somatic, and psychological symptoms. Design: Data from the third (2001) and fourth (2004) surveys of the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health were used. Data from 3,330 middle-aged women were included in the analyses. In linear regression models, the relationships between changes in physical activity of at least moderate intensity and total menopausal, vasomotor, somatic, and psychological symptoms were determined. Results: Physical activity was not associated with total menopausal symptoms, vasomotor or psychological symptoms. A weak association with somatic symptoms (B = −0.003; 95% CI: −0.005 to −0.001) was found. Weight gain was associated with increased total, vasomotor, and somatic symptoms. Weight loss was associated with a reduction in total and vasomotor symptoms. Conclusion: Changes in physical activity were not related to vasomotor or psychological symptoms and only marginally to somatic symptoms. Changes in weight showed a stronger relationship with menopausal symptoms. The relationship between weight change and menopausal symptoms merits further exploration.


We report first evidence for hydrothermal activity from the southern Knipovich Ridge, an ultra‐slow spreading ridge segment in the Norwegian‐Greenland Sea. Evidence comes from optical backscatter anomalies collected during a systematic side‐scan sonar survey of the ridge axis, augmented by the identification of biogeochemical tracers in the overlying water column that are diagnostic of hydrothermal plume discharge (Mn, CH4, ATP). Analysis of coregistered geologic and oceanographic data reveals that the signals we have identified are consistent with a single high‐temperature hydrothermal source, located distant from any of the axial volcanic centers that define second‐order segmentation along this oblique ridge system. Rather, our data indicate a hydrothermal source associated with highly tectonized seafloor that may be indicative of serpentinizing ultramafic outcrops. Consistent with this hypothesis, the hydrothermal plume signals we have detected exhibit a high methane to manganese ratio of 2–3:1. This is higher than that typical of volcanically hosted vent sites and provides further evidence that the source of the plume signals reported here is most probably a high‐temperature hydrothermal field that experiences some ultramafic influence (compare to Rainbow and Logachev sites, Mid‐Atlantic Ridge). While such sites have previously been invoked to be common on the SW Indian Ridge, this may be the first such site to be located along the Arctic ultra‐slow spreading ridge system.


Tomatoes ( Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) are the principal dietary source of Lycopene which is one of carotenoid and is highly beneficial in preventing some diseases such as the cancer and the heart disease. Suppressing the expression of Lcy gene, the main gene regulating the transformation of the lycopene, is a convenient and effective way to enhance the content of lycopene. The primers were designed according to the gene sequence(U46919)and (X86452) in GenBank. The fruit-specific promoter--phytoene desaturase gene(Pds) promoter and the DNA segment of the Lcy gene were isolated from the genome DNA of tomatoes. The 3'end of Lcy DNA segment was connected together by an intron to inform the RNA interferential segment then which was inserted in the expression vector with the Pds promoter to inform the fruit-specific expression vector. The vector was transformed into the tomatoes through the Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Five transformants were obtained. And the PCR proved that the extra-gene was integrated into the tomato genome. The lycopene in the transgenic tomatoes fruit was increased significantly through analysing the contents of lycopene. These results show that regutating biosynthetic enzyme in carotenoid pathway by RNAi can improve the lycopene content of plant-derived products.


ABSTRACT Efforts by governments in developing countries to economically empower rural women rarely focus on farming, an occupation in which the majority have experience. Those that do are typically directed at women within family farms, rather than at creating group-based alternatives outside the familial domain. In this context, two state-level initiatives in India, launched in the early 2000s, stand out, for their innovative experiment in group farming. They encouraged women to collectively cultivate leased land and become farm managers in their own right. Based on the author's detailed quantitative and qualitative surveys in the states of Telangana and Kerala, this paper analyses whether farming in groups empowers women economically as well as socially and politically. Also, given the divergent implementation strategy of the two states, which approach is more effective and why? The lessons learnt can provide pointers for replication elsewhere.


Despite new treatment options, prognosis of many melanoma patients remains poor and new treatment strategies are still needed. Stratification in molecular subclasses may aid therapeutic development. Therefore, we performed consensus clustering of 405 RNA microarray profiles obtained from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) and 469 RNA sequencing profiles obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), all from tumor samples of patients with cutaneous melanoma of any stage. We biologically annotated each cluster based on the enrichment of pre-defined Hallmark gene sets as assessed by Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA). To evaluate the concordance between both datasets Spearman's rank correlations between the Z-transformed P-values of matched genes as obtained by pair-wise class comparison were calculated. Consensus clustering revealed four molecular clusters in the GEO dataset. These clusters were biologically annotated and labeled 'immune' (27% of samples), 'estrogen response/p53-pathway' (estrogen/p53) (34% of samples), 'cell cycle' (15% of samples) and 'oxidative phosphorylation' (24% of samples). In the TCGA database we also identified four clusters and annotated them 'immune' (36% of samples), 'estrogen/p530 (7% of samples), 'cell cycle' (24% of samples) and 'oxidative phosphorylation' (32% of samples) according to the GSEA results. Spearman's rank correlations were 0.61 for the 'immune', 0.47 for the 'estrogen/p53', 0.60 for the 'cell cycle' and 0.68 for the oxidative phosporylation clusters. These data indicate four robust molecular subclasses in cutaneous melanoma that may guide future research and development of treatment strategies. Inhibition of mitochondrial function is of interest as a potential treatment strategy for tumors in the oxidative phosphorylation cluster.


Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger has been identified as the number one priority for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Theoretical work on the effect of the number of children on household well-being suggests a negative effect, since the resources available are divided among more household members. The vast majority of empirical studies find results consistent with this expectation, but some fail to link high fertility to lower well-being of the household. The purpose of this paper is to document the effect of the number of children on the consumption expenditure of Ethiopian households. The study uses data from a household sample survey of rural and urban married women and employs a Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) model. Analysis is made separately for per capita consumption and equivalized consumption. Results suggest that while the relationship is negative and statistically significant for all expenditure scenarios for the rural sub-sample and for the full sample, this is not the case for the urban sub-sample. Our results confirm the theoretical prediction that the effect of a large number of children on consumption expenditure of households is negative for rural households, whereas results for urban households are not as clear.


Previous studies have shown that the presence of nitrate in drinking water can cause several diseases especially in the infants, such as cancer and blue baby. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has since adopted the 50 mg/l standard as the maximum contaminant level (MCL) for nitrate for regulated public water systems. This study aimed to evaluate the concentration of nitrate in the drinking water wells of Birjand, Iran, using inverse distance weighting (IDW) model and also using remote sensing (ENVI software) for studying the vegetation area. In this study, the average annual nitrate level in 2015 was measured from 19 wells around Birjand that were used as rural water supplies. For the zoning of nitrate concentration in the groundwater of Birjand, we used Arc GIS software by using IDW interpolation methods, and for studying the vegetation area and its effect on the groundwater quality we used Landsat Archive image (L4-5 TM sensor) and ENVI 4.7 software. The mean concentration of nitrate was 25.89 ± 12.33 mg/l in the groundwater. Nitrate concentration was more than the standard range (50 mg/l) according to the National Standard of Iran (No. 1053) in one well in the studied zone. Based on the information obtained from remote sensing, agricultural activities were an effective factor in increasing the concentrations of nitrate in the groundwater of the studied area.


In order to be effective, international tribunals should be perceived as legitimate adjudicators. European Consensus and the Legitimacy of the European Court of Human Rights provides in-depth analyses on whether European consensus is capable of enhancing the legitimacy of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). Focusing on the method and value of European consensus, it examines the practicalities of consensus identification and application and discusses whether State-counting is appropriate in human rights adjudication. With over 30 interviews from judges of the ECtHR and qualitative analyses of the case law, this book gives readers access to firsthand and up-to-date information and provides an understanding of how the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg interprets the European Convention on Human Rights.


children and adults younger than age 40 years with severe aplastic anemia who lack a histocompatibility locus antigen-matched related donor. However, as reported for the proband in the Guo article and suggested by numerous cases in the literature, severe aplastic anemia resulting from a constitutional defect in telomere length maintenance is not responsive to immunosuppressive therapy. Thus, the prompt recognition of an underlying telomere biology disorder can spare patients from ineffective and riskassociated immunosuppressive therapy. In addition, if amatched related donor is available, he or she can be screened for the underlying telomere biology disorder, thereby avoiding transplantation with similarly affected hematopoietic stem cells. Telomere length testing at the time of BMF presentation may provide the laboratory-based data needed to arrive at a telomere biology disorder diagnosis. Multiple methods for telomere length testing have been developed, and an assay that combines flow cytometry with fluorescent in situ hybridization (Flow-FISH) is available as a clinical test. When examined using the Flow-FISH assay, individuals with DC have very short telomere length across leukocyte cell types, with "very short" defined as telomere length less than the first percentile for age. Specifically, very short telomere length in 3 or 4 of total lymphocytes, naı̈ve T cells, memory T cells, and B cell subsets, as determined by Flow-FISH, is both highly sensitive and specific for DC. Whereas some patients have profoundly short telomeres, others may have telomere lengths that hover around the first percentile, as did the proband in Guo et al. Additionally, telomere length slightly below the first percentile across lymphocyte populations has been observed, albeit rarely, in patients with inherited bone marrow failure syndromes other than DC, such as Fanconi anemia, Diamond-Blackfan anemia, and Shwachman-Diamond syndrome. Thus, short telomeres and BMF alone may be insufficient to arrive at a diagnosis of an underlying telomere biology disorder. Ultimately, gene mutation data, as obtained by Guo et al, can provide the essential support for an underlying telomere biology disorder. Thus, continuing efforts to arrive at the full repertoire of genes associated with the telomere biology disorders is of particular importance as we strive to accurately diagnose and provide optimal care to patients with BMF. Conflict-of-interest disclosure: The author declares no competing financial interests. n


Analysis by Forrester research revealed that 18% of global exports will flow online in 2004 and that the volume of e-commerce will surpass $400 billion. Digital rights protection is a major issue in the e-commerce of multimedia contents. Watermarking technology has been proposed as a promising enabling technology for the rights protection of multimedia digital contents. A unique watermark is embedded in each piece of multimedia contents before it is distributed to a customer. When unauthorized copies of a piece of contents are found, the customer who owns the contents can be readily identified by means of the embedded watermark. However, the unauthorized copies may also come from the content provider itself. It is therefore a challenging problem to determine whether an unauthorized copy is distributed by an unethical customer or by an unethical content provider. In this paper, we propose a watermarking protocol to address the problem using cryptographic technologies. Our protocol employs a commutative encryption algorithm to protect the privacy of watermarks. Information is doubly locked by two encryption keys kept separately by a customer and a content provider. In the protocol, a customer only gets a piece of watermarked multimedia contents in a transaction and the content provider has no idea how the watermark is formed. This facilitates the authority to determine the unethical party in case of unauthorized distribution of digital contents. We also discuss a couple of common attacks and show that our protocol can defend successfully against them.


In general, most of the consumers in Malaysia would throw away their cooking oil just after one or two times of usage. Waste of the cooking oil is one of the root causes of water pollution as well as the cause of clogged the sink and drainage system in the residential areas. These situations occur due to bad habits of people to simply throw away used cooking oil that would affect and harm the environment. As the world moves forward to a sustainable city and greener environment, the society need to tackle this bad habit from becoming worse. This paper proposes a conceptual idea on how to educate, promote, create awareness as well as encourage the public to be more responsible in managing and disposing used cooking oil. The objective of this study is also aligned and inspired by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals SDG 1: No Poverty and SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production.


That amino acid properties are responsible for the way protein molecules evolve is natural and is also reasonably well supported both by the structure of the genetic code and, to a large extent, by the experimental measures of the amino acid similarity. Nevertheless, there remains a significant gap between observed similarity matrices and their reconstructions from amino acid properties. Therefore, we introduce a simple theoretical model of amino acid similarity matrices, which allows splitting the matrix into two parts – one that depends only on mutabilities of amino acids and another that depends on pairwise similarities between them. Then the new synthetic amino acid properties are derived from the pairwise similarities and used to reconstruct similarity matrices covering a wide range of information entropies. Our model allows us to explain up to 94% of the variability in the BLOSUM family of the amino acids similarity matrices in terms of amino acid properties. The new properties derived from amino acid similarity matrices correlate highly with properties known to be important for molecular evolution such as hydrophobicity, size, shape and charge of amino acids. This result closes the gap in our understanding of the influence of amino acids on evolution at the molecular level. The methods were applied to the single family of similarity matrices used often in general sequence homology searches, but it is general and can be used also for more specific matrices. The new synthetic properties can be used in analyzes of protein sequences in various biological applications.


Epithelioid hemangioendothelioma (EHE) is a rare tumor of the vascular endothelium and the most common involved sites are liver, lung and bone. Approximately one-third are also known to occur in other sites, such as the skin or large vessels. Although a number of treatment modalities have been tried, treatment responses after definitive radiotherapy (RT) have not been well described. Here, we report the case of multiple cutaneous EHE on both feet in an 81-year-old woman successfully treated by definitive RT. She underwent definitive RT of 60 Gy using a volumetric modulated arc therapy and all involved lesions were completely resolved with a small residual discoloration. At 20 months of follow-up after completion of RT, no progressive or recurrent lesions on either foot were observed.


This paper has explored the Buddhist Middle Path doctrine in Rudyard Kipling's novel 'Kim', which was written in the background of colonized India. The Buddha first enunciates The Middle Path in Dhammacakkappavattana-sutta, and teaches people to avoid two extremes: self-indulgence and self-mortification in daily life in order to free themselves from attachment and suffering. This article has observed how this idea is reflected in words and actions in two characters, namely the lama, a Buddhist monk and an orphan English lad in Kim. After briefly talking about what Buddhism has said about Middle path of living, interpretation goes on studying how the lama as a Buddhist monk himself applies the doctrine and whether the boy understands and realizes the significance of its practically in his life or not. The paper has used deductive logical approach on qualitative contents and extracts from authentic literary discourse and draws conclusion from interpretation and analysis on how both characters apply the Middle path of living in words and actions. The finding shows that the lama and Kim do not have any religious conflicts and misunderstanding for they both get simply guided by value and practicality of the Middle Way of living. They show less attachment to the things they perform, explore and accomplish.


The following extract is taken directly from the context and background to the study. University for the Creative Arts (UCA) Rochester previously undertook a couple of small-scale pilots using podcasting to support the student induction process and learning and teaching. Both pilots proved successful however the ad hoc approach left lots of questions unanswered, and raised many others, particularly around the collection of materials, storage and usage of podcasts and the management of the whole process.

This project research question was: "Do disabled and dyslexic students feel that podcasting helps them to engage with learning and teaching in Art and Design? And how?"

There were a number of reasons for the focus on disabled and dyslexic students. Firstly, there have been a growing number of dyslexic and disabled students at the Rochester campus over the past few years, therefore, a growing number of these students were accessing support equipment such as Dictaphones with which they would make their own recordings. Secondly, course tutors were also trying to adapt their teaching in response to this growing number of dyslexic and disabled students and had approached all the team members of this research project to find a way of recording there lectures. While we focused on this group of students, it was anticipated that what helped disabled and dyslexic students would help all students engage with learning and teaching.


Context: Multiple angles of the craniocervical junction (CCJ) are associated with pathological conditions and surgical outcomes, including the clivo-axial angle (CXA), clival slope (CS), and sagittal axis (XS). However, there are varying normative ranges reported and a paucity of data analyzing the effects of imaging modality, age, and gender on these angles. Setting and Design: A retrospective review of computed tomographic (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in fifty adults without CCJ pathology from 2014 to 2019. Methods: Age, gender, indication, and hours between scans were recorded. Two-blinded observers measured all angles. Analysis between angles from the same patient was performed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Multivariable linear regression was used to test for associations between average angles and age or gender. Results: Average age and time between scans were 41.3 and 14.3 h, respectively, with 94% performed due to trauma. On CT, average CXA, CS, and XS were 162.1°, 118.4°, and 81.3°, respectively. On MRI, they were 159.8°, 117.2°, 85.3°, respectively. There were statistically significant differences between CXA and XS (P < 0.01) based on imaging modality. On CT, there was a significant increase in XS by 1.93°° and decrease in CS by 1.88°° and on MRI, there was a significant increase in CXA by 1.93°° and decrease in CS by 2.75°° corresponding with a 10-year advancement of age. Gender did not have an effect. Conclusion: There are significant differences in angular measurements of the CCJ between CT and MRI from the same patient, as well as changes in normative values based on age.


The human care and service field requires an innovative robotic solution to make the daily care of elderly and disabled people in both home and workplace environments easier. The European Union (EU) project MATS (flexible mechatronic assistive technology system) has developed a new concept of a climbing robot for this type of service application. The climbing process is performed by moving the robot between very simple docking stations (DSs) placed in the environment. The MATS climbing robot is a symmetrical, five degrees of freedom (5 DOF), self-containing manipulator that includes all the control and communication systems on board. To fulfil the climbing movements successfully, the developed robot is lightweight, about 11 kg for a 1.3 m reach. This article presents real experiments conducted with the robot during its climbing movements and assistance tasks for disabled persons.


Balanced transverse relationship between maxillary and mandibular dentition is a prerequisite for establishment of normal occlusion regardless of patient's age. In particular, considering the high prevalence among adults, maxillary transverse deficiency does not appear to be diagnosed or treated properly possibly due to the lack of diagnostic measures and treatment modality. A center-of-resistance perspective of the transverse dimension may be helpful for the clinicians to understand the pattern and severity of discrepancy. In terms of treatment, non-surgical expansion of the maxillary basal bone may be facilitated based on the understanding on the complexity of the circummaxillary structure and the stress distribution pattern. According to our experimental outcomes and clinical trials, a combined tooth-and-bone-borne maxillary expander, i.e., miniscrew-assisted rapid palatal expander (MARPE), has been introduced. The rationale of appliance design and clinical outcomes including the stability of the maxillary expansion are to be explained in the present article. Under proper manipulation of the expander, non-extraction and/or non-surgical camouflage of various skeletal discrepancies can be encouraged. Radical transverse correction in surgical cases may also reduce the need for extraction or additional surgery. Overall, it can be concluded that the non-surgical palatal expansion in young adults can be a useful modality exhibiting high success rate of suture separation and clinically acceptable stability following expansion.


This paper develops a new theoretical model with which to examine the interaction between technology and organizations. Early research studies assumed technology to be an objective, external force that would have deterministic impacts on organizational properties such as structure. Later researchers focused on the human aspect of technology, seeing it as the outcome of strategic choice and social action. This paper suggests that either view is incomplete, and proposes a reconceptualization of technology that takes both perspectives into account. A theoretical model-the structurational model of technology--is built on the basis of this new conceptualization, and its workings explored through discussion of a field study of information technology. The paper suggests that the reformulation of the technology concept and the structurational model of technology allow a deeper and more dialectical understanding of the interaction between technology and organizations. This understanding provides insight into the limits and opportunities of human choice, technology development and use, and organizational design. Implications for future research of the new concept of technology and structurational model of technology are discussed.


Using experimental models of candidal vaginitis in leukopenic mice and of stomatitis in neonatal animals, who developed the minimal inflammatory response, the author has defined the rate of invasive growth of C. albicans in mucosal stratified epithelium. Pseudomycelium was found to invade the epithelium at an average rate of 2 microns per hour, penetrating the entire epithelial lining within 24-48 hrs. These data have been extrapolated to a clinical condition. On the basis of measurements of mucosal epithelium thickness (carried out with autopsy and biopsy material), presumable periods of the total epithelium penetration were calculated; such penetration results in vascular invasion, thus making possible a disseminated involvement. These periods ranged from 22 to 59 hrs for different mucous membranes. Our findings demonstrate the significance of cellular and tissue defense reactions, which, if suppressed, may induce the fungi, normally found on epithelial surface as saprophytes, invade the host tissues and cause deep (and in some cases disseminated) mycotic involvement within several days.