Two replication-competent CCR5-tropic HIV-1 reporter constructs were developed that encode either nanoluciferase (nLuc) or a near-infrared fluorescent protein (iRFP) for in vivo imaging of HIV-1 infection in humanized mice. However, the original versions of these reporters had reduced expression after 5 weeks post-infection. We hypothesized that CG dinucleotides present in the reporter genes could lead to reduced expression. Thus, we eliminated all CG dinucleotides with synonymous mutations in the reporter genes. Our objectives were to measure the intensities of HIV-1 p24 and reporter expression in the spleens of humanized mice that were infected with the original or codon-optimized (CO) reporter viruses. We hypothesized that CO reporter viruses would have improved reporter expression and would correlate better with HIV-1 p24 staining. Spleens were collected from humanized mice that had been infected for 7-15 weeks with one of the original reporter viruses or one of the CO reporter viruses. Thin sections of spleen were stained with antibodies against HIV-1 p24 and nLuc. Immunofluorescence of p24, nLuc, and iRFP was measured by confocal microscopy and analyzed for fluorescence intensity and co-localization. The intensity of p24 expression was similar in the spleens of mice infected with original or the CO HIV-1 reporter viruses. This was consistent with plasma viremia levels remaining high for animals infected with either virus. contrast, the intensity of reporter expression was greater in the spleens of humanized mice infected with CO HIV-1 reporter viruses compared to mice infected with original HIV-1 reporter viruses. The difference was greater for iRFP virus, which originally had 138 CG dinucleotides in the reporter gene, than for nLuc virus, which had 38 CG dinucleotides in the reporter gene. These results correlated with whole animal reporter imaging. These findings suggest that CG dinucleotide codon removal improves the expression of the reporter genes in HIV-infected spleen cells in humanized mice. The fluorescence imaging analysis successfully quantified the HIV-1 p24 and reporter gene expression in HIV-1 infected mice spleens that can be applicable in other studies. Future in vivo imaging studies will be performed using CO reporter viruses.


This paper proposes a dual variational autoencoder (DualVAE), a framework for generating images corresponding to multiclass labels. Recent research on conditional generative models, such as the Conditional VAE, exhibit image transfer by changing labels. However, when the dimension of multiclass labels is large, these models cannot change images corresponding to labels, because learning multiple distributions of the corresponding class is necessary to transfer an image. This leads to the lack of training data. Therefore, instead of conditioning with labels, we condition with latent vectors that include label information. DualVAE divides one distribution of the latent space by linear decision boundaries using labels. Consequently, DualVAE can easily transfer an image by moving a latent vector toward a decision boundary and is robust to the missing values of multiclass labels. To evaluate our proposed method, we introduce a conditional inception score (CIS) for measuring how much an image changes to the target class. We evaluate the images transferred by DualVAE using the CIS in CelebA datasets and demonstrate state-of-the-art performance in a multiclass setting.


To support real-time multimedia services in UMTS all-IP network, Third-Generation Partnership Project TR 25.936 proposed two approaches to support real-time serving radio network controller (SRNC) switching, which require packet duplication during SRNC relocation. These approaches significantly consume extra system resources. This paper proposes the fast SRNC relocation (FSR) approach that does not duplicate packets. In FSR, a packet buffering mechanism is implemented to avoid packet loss at the target RNC. We propose an analytic model to investigate the performance of FSR. The numerical results show that packet loss at the source RNC can be ignored. Furthermore, the expected number of packets buffered at the target RNC is small, which does not prolong packet delay.


Pedestrian behavior modeling and analysis is important for crowd scene understanding and has various applications in video surveillance. Stationary crowd groups are a key factor influencing pedestrian walking patterns but was mostly ignored in the literature. It plays different roles for different pedestrians in a crowded scene and can change over time. In this paper, a novel model is proposed to model pedestrian behaviors by incorporating stationary crowd groups as a key component. Through inference on the interactions between stationary crowd groups and pedestrians, our model can be used to investigate pedestrian behaviors. The effectiveness of the proposed model is demonstrated through multiple applications, including walking path prediction, destination prediction, personality attribute classification, and abnormal event detection. To evaluate our model, two large pedestrian walking route datasets are built. The walking routes of around 15 000 pedestrians from two crowd surveillance videos are manually annotated. The datasets will be released to the public and benefit future research on pedestrian behavior analysis and crowd scene understanding.


Wireless technologies in industrial automation increase flexibility, but pose challenges to the design of security strategies. The typical requirements regarding integrity protection, authentication, and availability need to be transferred from the traditional wired network domain to wireless networks without impairing the benefits of wireless communication. This article presents results of the security concept for flexible wireless automation in real-time environments devised in the flexWARE project. It includes the results of the security requirement analysis, a description of the procedural design approach towards security, and describes innovative communication protection mechanisms for wireless domains including seamless handover and novel location-based security services.


The earthquake hazard has been evaluated for a 150-square-kilometer area around Evansville, Indiana. GIS-QUAKE, a system that combines liquefaction and ground motion analysis routines with site-specific geological, geotechnical, and seismological information, was used for the analysis. The hazard potential was determined by using 586 SPT borings, 27 CPT sounding, 39 shear-wave velocity profiles and synthesized acceleration records for body-wave magnitude 6.5 and 7.3 mid-continental earthquakes, occurring at distances of 50 km and 250 km, respectively.

The results of the GIS-QUAKE hazard analyses for Evansville identify areas with a high hazard potential that had not previously been identified in earthquake zonation studies. The Pigeon Creek area specifically is identified as having significant potential for liquefaction-induced damage. Damage as a result of ground motion amplification is determined to be a moderate concern throughout the area. Differences in the findings of this zonation study and previous work are attributed to the size and range of the database, the hazard evaluation methodologies, and the geostatistical interpolation techniques used to estimate the hazard potential. Further, assumptions regarding the groundwater elevations made in previous studies are also considered to have had a significant effect on the results.


In this article, some aspects of traditional political and juridically correct thinking in Colombia are analyzed in a critical perspective. Aspects that tend to overlap and disperse as loose pieces, considered innocuous, of the local constitutional history. Here the communicating vessels are established between the prejudices and topics usually exhibited in university law studies, and in the press, and the commonplaces repeated without shame in essays such as the recent and successful one. Why does Colombia fail? by Enrique Serrano (2016). The ideas that are developed are the following: a) The fallacy of the opposition between Bolivar and Santander, awarding to him the weapons and to this the laws as something more «natural» of the Colombian national being; b) The falsity of the Colombian democratic exemplary because it has not had military dictatorships like other Latin American countries; c) The forgetting of what has been and is the Law, which is so invoked, for the Colombian oligarchy. d) The always problematic Colombian social reality to which the Law can not and should not be alien.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21017/Rev.Repub.2018.v25.a48


We present new packet-error rate (PER) analysis for both slotted and unslotted direct-sequence spread-spectrum packet communication systems in a slow Rayleigh fading environment. Based on the accurate improved Gaussian approximation, we derive closed-form expressions for the cumulative probability distribution function of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio in binary phase-shift keying (PSK), quadratic PSK, and differential PSK-based code-division multiple-access (CDMA) systems having different types of chip waveforms including bandwidth-efficient waveforms. This leads to new accurate unified expressions for the PERs that account for bit-to-bit error dependence, which are valid for packets with unequal power levels. These new results facilitate accurate computation of the throughput performance of CDMA-based ALOHA local radio networks


Due to the ever increasing need for enhanced productivity in electronic system design new methods and tools in the area of Electronic System Level (ESL) design are becoming more important. Regrettably, the introduction of new methods and tools come at a certain cost, and after its introduction it might be hard to assess the real improvements in the development process. In this paper we present a methodology to model the design process and linked cause-effects based on experience and statistical data. In our case-study we create two models of the same design flow: 1st traditional design flow and 2nd ESL design flow using high-level synthesis. By means of Monte Carlo simulations we automatically process 10.000 probabilistically varied benchmark runs so that the causalities in the modeled development process become clear and the impact of changes to the flow can be predicted prior to their implementation.


The main objective of the project was to investigate the influence of the selected priority rules of technological operations on chosen production goals. The paper presents the results of the project. The dynamic scheduling process of operations was simulated on the model of production system. The effect of each priority rule has been studied for different production goals in different stressful situations. The synthesis and the evaluation of results were performed by using mathematical and statistical methods. The multi-objective evaluations scoring method have been chosen by authors.


Abstract. Improving the ability of regional climate models (RCMs) and ice sheet models (ISMs) to simulate spatiotemporal variations in the mass of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) is crucial for prediction of future sea level rise. While several studies have examined recent trends in GrIS mass loss, studies focusing on mass variations at sub-annual and sub-basin-wide scales are still lacking. At these scales, processes responsible for mass change are less well understood and modeled, and could potentially play an important role in future GrIS mass change. Here, we examine spatiotemporal variations in mass over the GrIS derived from the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites for the January 2003–December 2012 period using a "mascon" approach, with a nominal spatial resolution of 100 km, and a temporal resolution of 10 days. We compare GRACE-estimated mass variations against those simulated by the Modele Atmospherique Regionale (MAR) RCM and the Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM). In order to properly compare spatial and temporal variations in GrIS mass from GRACE with model outputs, we find it necessary to spatially and temporally filter model results to reproduce leakage of mass inherent in the GRACE solution. Both modeled and satellite-derived results point to a decline (of −178.9 ± 4.4 and −239.4 ± 7.7 Gt yr−1 respectively) in GrIS mass over the period examined, but the models appear to underestimate the rate of mass loss, especially in areas below 2000 m in elevation, where the majority of recent GrIS mass loss is occurring. On an ice-sheet-wide scale, the timing of the modeled seasonal cycle of cumulative mass (driven by summer mass loss) agrees with the GRACE-derived seasonal cycle, within limits of uncertainty from the GRACE solution. However, on sub-ice-sheet-wide scales, some areas exhibit significant differences in the timing of peaks in the annual cycle of mass change. At these scales, model biases, or processes not accounted for by models related to ice dynamics or hydrology, may lead to the observed differences. This highlights the need for further evaluation of modeled processes at regional and seasonal scales, and further study of ice sheet processes not accounted for, such as the role of subglacial hydrology in variations in glacial flow.


Context. The first Gaia data release (DR1) delivered a catalogue of astrometry and photometry for over a billion astronomical sources. Within the panoply of methods used for data exploration, visualisation is often the starting point and even the guiding reference for scientific thought. However, this is a volume of data that cannot be e ciently explored using traditional tools, techniques, and habits. Aims. We aim to provide a global visual exploration service for the Gaia archive, something that is not possible out of the box for most people. The service has two main goals. The first is to provide a software platform for interactive visual exploration of the archive contents, using common personal computers and mobile devices available to most users. The second aim is to produce intelligible and appealing visual representations of the enormous information content of the archive. Methods. The interactive exploration service follows a client-server design. The server runs close to the data, at the archive, and is responsible for hiding as far as possible the complexity and volume of the Gaia data from the client. This is achieved by serving visual detail on demand. Levels of detail are pre-computed using data aggregation and subsampling techniques. For DR1, the client is a web application that provides an interactive multi-panel visualisation workspace as well as a graphical user interface. Results. The Gaia archive Visualisation Service o ers a web-based multi-panel interactive visualisation desktop in a browser tab. It currently provides highly configurable 1D histograms and 2D scatter plots of Gaia DR1 and the Tycho-Gaia Astrometric Solution (TGAS) with linked views. An innovative feature is the creation of ADQL queries from visually defined regions in plots. These visual queries are ready for use in the Gaia Archive Search/data retrieval service. In addition, regions around user-selected objects can be further examined with automatically generated SIMBAD searches. Integration of the Aladin Lite and JS9 applications add support to the visualisation of HiPS and FITS maps. The production of the all-sky source density map that became the iconic image of Gaia DR1 is described in detail. Conclusions. On the day of DR1, over seven thousand users accessed the Gaia Archive visualisation portal. The system, running on a single machine, proved robust and did not fail while enabling thousands of users to visualise and explore the over one billion sources in DR1. There are still several limitations, most noticeably that users may only choose from a list of pre-computed visualisations. Thus, other visualisation applications that can complement the archive service are examined. Finally, development plans for Data Release 2 are presented.


Background: Exercising and education strategies appear to be effective at reducing pain and enhancing life in adults with persistent low back pain, in particular in fitness care populations. Aim: This work aims to determine the effect of preventive strategies e.g. exercises and education on low back pain patients. Materials and Methods: A systematic search was performed over different medical databases to identify Internal medicine studies, which studied the outcome of the intervention group versus the Control group of low back pain patients. Using the meta-analysis process, either with fixed or random-effects models, we conducted a meta-analysis on the incidence of low back pain as a primary outcome, and on the number of patients on sick leave as a secondary outcome. Results: Six studies were identified involving 8632 patients, 2980 patients in the intervention group, and 5652 patients in the Control group. The metaanalysis process revealed a highly significant decrease in the incidence of low back pain, in the Intervention group compared to the Control group (p=0.007). The metaanalysis process also revealed a highly significant decrease in the incidence of sick leave, in the Intervention group compared to the Control group (p<0.01). Conclusion: To conclude, the addition of a short education program on active management to usual care in primary care leads to small but consistent improvements in disability, pain, and quality of life. The addition of a short physiotherapy program composed of education on postural hygiene and exercise intended to be continued at home, increases those improvements, although the magnitude of that increase is clinically irrelevant.


Studies indicate an inverse association between moderate alcohol consumption and chronic inflammatory diseases; however, the association between alcohol consumption and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) incidence has not been widely studied. We investigated the associations of total alcohol consumption and intake of specific alcoholic beverages with risk of COPD in a population-based prospective cohort study, the Cohort of Swedish Men (n = 44,254). Alcohol consumption was assessed with a self-administered questionnaire in 1997. During follow-up (1998-2014), 2,177 COPD cases were ascertained. Moderate alcohol consumption was associated with the lowest risk of COPD. A J-shaped association was observed for ethanol consumption (P for nonlinearity = 0.003) and beer consumption (P for nonlinearity < 0.001); for wine consumption, a U-shaped association was observed (P for nonlinearity < 0.001). Defining a "standard drink" as 12 g of ethanol, the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios were 0.77 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.66, 0.90) and 0.92 (95% CI: 0.81, 1.05) for beer consumption of 4.1-6.0 and >6.0 standard drinks/week (SDW) versus <1.0 SDW, respectively; 0.80 (95% CI: 0.69, 0.93) and 1.00 (95% CI: 0.83, 1.21) for wine consumption of 2.0-4.0 and >4.0 SDW versus <1.0 SDW, respectively; and 1.10 (95% CI: 0.98, 1.24) and 1.20 (95% CI: 0.99, 1.44) for liquor consumption of 2.0-4.0 and >4.0 SDW versus <1.0 SDW, respectively. In conclusion, our findings suggest that moderate beer and wine consumption, but not liquor consumption, may decrease risk of COPD. Additional studies are needed to confirm these associations.


Fatty acid modifying enzyme (FAME) is an extracellular enzyme that inactivates bactericidal fatty acids by esterifying them to cholesterol. Inactivation of these fatty acids may allow Staphylococcus epidermidis to live for long periods of time on the skin. This study describes the identification and partial characterisation of an extracellular activator of FAME production. Addition of FAME-free concentrated culture filtrate (activator) to S. epidermidis cultures (OD600 = 0.05) caused a 3-5-fold increase in FAME activity. Addition of the activator did not increase the amount of exopolysaccharide produced by S. epidermidis. The mol. wt of this activator was <3000 kDa and it was quite resistant to boiling. Treatment of the activator with proteinase K did not destroy its ability to induce FAME expression. Addition of S. aureus activator to S. epidermidis cultures also increased FAME expression. However, when S. epidermidis activator was added to S. aureus cultures no increase or inhibition in FAME production was observed.


Evidence based medicine depends on sensitive, precise and informative searches for references to controlled clinical trials. Five databases: Medline, Centralised Information Service for Complementary Medicine (CISCOM), Science Citation Index (SCI), British Library and Embase, were compared for their effectiveness as literature search tools by conducting test searches for acupuncture trials in a single sample year, 1992. CISCOM showed the greatest sensitivity, followed by Medline and SCI; all three usually provided abstracts, but CISCOM did not provide authors' addresses. Other databases had features that might make them useful for particular purposes. SCI, British Library and Embase covered a different range of journals from Medline, including acupuncture specialist journals, but of these three only SCI contained an additional relevant reference; it also had the advantages of secondary references and associated correspondence. Indexing of Medline appeared to be more effective for acupuncture than for some other complementary and orthodox medical subjects. It was concluded that the CISCOM search was the most sensitive, and that Medline and SCI had other benefits which were significant.


Biodiversity loss is a widely debated world problem, with huge economic, social, and environmentally negative consequences. Despite the relevance of this issue, the psychological determinants of committed action towards nature and biodiversity have rarely been investigated. This study aims at identifying a comprehensive social-psychological profile of activists committed to biodiversity protection and at understanding what determinants best predict their activism. A questionnaire investigating relevant social-psychological constructs identified in the literature on environmental activism was administered to 183 outstanding leaders (vs. non-leaders) in biodiversity protection across seven EU countries. Leaders (vs. non-leaders) in biodiversity protection showed, among other constructs, higher scores on environmental values, attitudes, identity, perceived control, a feeling of union and spirituality with nature, and willingness to sacrifice for their cause. Results are discussed within the theoretical framework of a motivation model of committed action for nature and biodiversity protection. Applications of the results are also proposed.


SUMMARY AND PREAMBLE TO THE SERIESAlthough this is essentially a review, it has not been written in the passive, third-person style normally associated with scientific writing, as it is intended to be thought-provoking and, hopefully, educational. It has therefore been written in more of a conversational style, and is aimed at students, dentists and dental technicians who are receptive to a slightly different view of occlusion and articulation, based on evidence. Occlusion is a topic that has become a kind of archaic minefield of conflicting ideas, propositions, and above all, solutions, most of which are based on a complete lack of understanding of the evolution and development of teeth, and by extension, of clinically objective evidence. That in itself is a statement of conflict (and perhaps even heretical), but it is by way of warning that this guide is not going to be much like anything you will find in standard text-books of dentistry or dental technology. It is, rather, an attempt to help you navigate through what you will read elsewhere, in the hope that eventually you will find an understanding that you can live with. It will appear as a sequential series in 7 Parts.


Trends in population growth, development and global climate change are increasing the risks of water scarcity around the world. One step towards greater conservation of this resource is reducing the discretionary use of water in the cultivated landscape. This study examined the role of public gardens in promoting water-wise landscaping through a mixed methods research approach. Two surveys were conducted to compare the alignment of public gardens' educational outreach about water-wise landscaping with the preferences of garden visitors. In addition, several exemplary cases were investigated and interviews were conducted with public garden staff and their external allies in water-wise landscaping campaigns. Public gardens are well positioned to facilitate the adoption of water-wise landscaping by engaging their communities about the importance of conserving water, demonstrating best practices and providing information to help people change their behavior. The data informed a suite of recommendations about how gardens can partner more strategically with other stakeholders and tailor their own educational outreach to be more effective. Specific themes included enhancing collaboration through formal relationships and financial incentives, tactics for improving marketing and communication, providing relevant demonstration gardens and more actionable information and resources, and program evaluation. While the promotion of waterwise landscaping is the central theme of this study, selected recommendations may have transferability to public garden advocacy on other environmental issues as well.


We realize and characterize a quantum-limited, directional Josephson amplifier suitable for qubit readout. The device consists of two nondegenerate, three-wave-mixing amplifiers that are coupled together in an interferometric scheme, embedded in a printed circuit board. Nonreciprocity is generated by applying a phase gradient between the same-frequency pumps feeding the device, which plays the role of the magnetic field in a Faraday medium. Directional amplification and reflection-gain elimination are induced via wave interference between multiple paths in the system. We measure and discuss the main figures of merit of the device and show that the experimental results are in good agreement with theory. An improved version of this directional amplifier is expected to eliminate the need for bulky, off-chip isolation stages that generally separate quantum systems and preamplifiers in high-fidelity, quantum-nondemolition measurement setups.


Aperture Coupled Microstrip Antenna Design and Analysis A linearly-polarized aperture coupled patch antenna design is characterized and optimized using HFSS antenna simulation software [1]. This thesis focuses on the aperture coupled patch antenna due to the lack of fabrication and tuning documentation for the design of this antenna and its usefulness in arrays and orthogonally polarized communications. The goal of this thesis is to explore dimension effects on aperture coupled antenna performance, to develop a design and tuning procedure, and to describe performance effects through electromagnetic principles. Antenna parameters examined in this study include the dimensions and locations of the substrates, feed line, ground plane coupling slot, and patch. The operating frequency, input VSWR, percent bandwidth, polarization ratio, and broadside gain are determined for each antenna configuration. The substrate material is changed from RT Duroid (material in nominal HFSS design [1]) to FR4 due to lower cost and availability. The operating frequency is changed from 2.3GHz (specified in nominal HFSS design) to 2.4GHz for wireless communication applications. Required dimensional adjustments when changing substrate materials and operating frequencies for this antenna are non-trivial and the new design procedure is used to tune the antenna. The antenna is fabricated using 59mil thick double and single sided FR4 boards joined together with double sided 45mil thick acrylic tape. The antenna is characterized in an anechoic chamber and experimental results are compared to theoretical predictions. v The results show that the new design procedure can be successfully applied to aperture coupled antenna design. vi Acknowledgements


A computational study is presented of the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of U3O8 and Np2O5, which are actinide oxides in a higher oxidation state than the tetravalent state of the common dioxide phases, UO2 and NpO2. The calculations are based on the density functional theory +U approach, in which additional Coulomb correlations on the actinide atom are taken into account. The calculated properties of these two higher oxidized actinide oxides are analyzed and compared to those of their tetravalent analogs. The optimized structural parameters of these noncubic oxides are found to be in reasonable agreement with available experimental data. U3O8 is predicted to be a magnetic insulator, having one U atom in a hexavalent oxidation state and two U atoms in a pentavalent oxidation state. For Np2O5, which is also predicted to be an insulator, a complicated noncollinear magnetic structure is computed, leading to a nonzero overall magnetization with a slight antiferromagnetic canting. The calculated electronic structures are presented and the variation of the U 5f or Np 5f-O 2p hybridization with the oxidation state is analyzed. With increasing oxygen content, the nearly localized 5f electrons of the actinide elements are more positioned near the Fermi level and the hybridization between 5f and 2p states is markedly increased.


Abstract Today, many organizations experience problems with high levels of sick leave. This has negative implications on the organizations' ability to compete on the market, but also means suffering for the individual employees. The leadership of the organization is considered by several researchers to impact on employee health and competitive advantage. However, it is argued that the larger an organization gets, the harder it is to apply good leadership. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to describe how management in a large Swedish bank, awarded as 'Sweden's best workplace', has successfully worked to transform increasing levels of sick leave into co-worker health and profitability. The paper also includes suggestions that managers in other organizations might consider adopting. Through interviews, with managers at different organizational levels of the bank, management methodologies and success factors have been identified. The commitment of the bank's managers seems to have been central to achieve a healthy and efficient organization. Executive managers have had a conspicuous strategic focus on health issues and set objectives thereafter. These objectives have been deliberately supported by the managers' methodologies and successfully passed on throughout the organizational hierarchy to the bank offices. Dialogues, delegation and clear goal setting seem to have been important methodologies. Middle managers in addition have been lucid coaches to office managers, who in turn have put focus on building relationships and encouraging employees.


Trillions of microorganisms that inhabit the intestinal tract form a diverse and intricate ecosystem with a deeply embedded symbiotic relationship with their hosts. As more detailed information on gut microbiota complexity and functional diversity accumulates, we are learning more about how diet-microbiota interactions can influence the immune system within and outside the gut and host health in general. Heat shock proteins are a set of highly conserved proteins that are present in all types of cells, from microbes to mammals. These proteins carry out crucial intracellular housekeeping functions and unexpected extracellular immuno-regulatory features in order to maintain the mucosal barrier integrity and gut homeostasis. It is becoming evident that the enteric microbiota is one of the major determinants of heat shock protein production in intestinal epithelial cells. This review will focus on the interactions between diet, gut microbiota and their role for regulating heat shock protein production and, furthermore, how these interactions influence the immune system and the integrity of the mucosal barrier.


In stance classification, the target on which the stance is made defines the boundary of the task, and a classifier is usually trained for prediction on the same target. In this work, we explore the potential for generalizing classifiers between different targets, and propose a neural model that can apply what has been learned from a source target to a destination target. We show that our model can find useful information shared between relevant targets which improves generalization in certain scenarios.


. The combinatorics of walks on a graph is a key topic in network science. Here we study a special class of walks on directed graphs. We combine two features that have previously been considered in isolation. We consider alternating walks , which form the basis of algorithms for hub/authority detection and for discovering directed bipartite substructure. Within this class, we restrict to non-backtracking walks , since this constraint has been seen to offer advantages in related contexts. We derive a recursive formula for counting the total number of non-backtracking alternating walks of a given length, leading to an expression for any associated power series expansion. We discuss computational issues for the widely used cases of resolvent and exponential series, showing that non-backtracking can be incorporated at very little extra cost. We also derive an appropriate asymptotic limit which gives a parameter-free, spectral analogue. We perform tests on an artificial data set in order to quantify the advantages of the new methodology. We also show that the removal of backtracking allows us to identify larger bipartite subgraphs within an anatomical connectivity network from neuroscience.


This article measures for the first time the scope of poverty in Inuit Nunangat, the four regions of the Canadian Arctic where Inuit people live. On the basis of a monetary definition of poverty, we propose and apply a method adapted to key characteristics of the Inuit condition. For each region, we developed a low income measure (LIM) that takes household composition and consumer prices into account, using data from the master file of the 2006 Census of Canada and surveys by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada on the Revised Northern Food Basket. For Inuit Nunangat as a whole, the low income measure was $22 216 and the low income rate (LIR) was 44%. Values vary among regions: in Nunavik, for example, the low income rate is 37.5%. However, throughout Inuit Nunangat, poverty rates are significantly higher than those observed in Canada. We recommend further statistical exploration to better identify not only the factors correlated with households living in poverty, but also a qualitative approach to produce an Inuit emic perspective. Both tools are necessary for informed policy to fight against poverty.


The structures, energetic, and vibrational properties of MDyX(4) (M = Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs; X = F, Cl, Br, I) mixed alkali halide/dysprosium halide complexes have been investigated by a joint computational and experimental, matrix-isolation Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopic (MI-IR), study. According to our DFT computations for the complexes with heavier halides and alkali metals the ground-state structure is the tridentate isomer; while at high temperatures the bidentate structural isomer dominates. The survey of various dissociation processes revealed the preference of the dissociation to neutral MX and DyX(3) fragments over ionic and radical dissociation products. Cationic complexes are considerably less stable at 1000 K than the neutral complexes, and they prefer to dissociate to M(+) + DyX(4)(•) fragments. The vapor species of selected mixtures of NaBr and CsBr with DyBr(3) and of CsI with DyI(3) in the temperature range 900-1000 K have been isolated in krypton and xenon matrices and investigated by infrared spectroscopy. Besides the characteristic vibrational frequencies of the monomeric and dimeric alkali halide species and of the dysprosium trihalide molecules, certain signals indicated the formation of MDyX(4) (M = Na, Cs; X = Br, I) mixed complexes. Comparison with the computed vibrational and thermodynamic characteristics of the relevant species lead to the conclusion that these complexes appear in the vapor predominantly as the C(2v)-symmetry bidentate isomer. This is the first time that this structure was identified in an experimental vibrational spectroscopic study. The signals appearing upon performing a thermal anneal cycle were tentatively assigned to the double complex M(2)DyX(5) (M = Na, Cs; X = Br, I). A structure in which one alkali atom is bound to dysprosium by three and the other by two bridges is proposed for these double complexes.


In this paper, I analyze optimal monetary policy in developing countries whose labor markets are characterized by the presence of a large informal sector. I develop a closed economy model with nominal price and wage rigidities, search and matching frictions, and a dual labor market: a formal one characterized by matching frictions and nominal wage rigidities, and an informal one where wages are fully flexible. Under this framework, a trade-off between price and wage inflation emerges. I find that informality increases the response of price and wage inflation to aggregate productivity shocks. As a result, the presence of an informal sector increases the inefficient fluctuations of labor market variables, such as unemployment, labor market tightness, and formal hiring rate. I find that optimal policy with informality features significant deviations from price stability in response to aggregate productivity shocks. JEL classification: E26, E52, E12, E61.


Abstract: This essay analyses one of the most common yet stagnated concepts of European politics—the common security and defense prospects of Europe. The analysis shows that although a common security and defense cooperation scheme has been a mainstay of European political discourse since the end of World War II, discussion never resulted in a concrete or realistic plan. The reasons for this emphatic failure can be found in the political complexities of the European structure and in the difficulties of implementing such a challenging plan.


In this study I make an estimation of the Solow model for the Romanian economy. Starting from the estimates of the parameters from other studies, I simulate the model both for the 1990-2004 period and in the long run. The study shows that the Solow model provides a good approximation of the dynamics of the Romanian economy for the 1990-2004 period, with respect to the dynamics of the aggregate GDP and to the ratios of the main macroeconomic variables, like production per worker, capital-output ratio or capital per worker. The simulation for the 2030 time horizon indicates a potential of growth of over 3%.


Background : Quantifying the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors in cancer incidence informs etiology and opportunities for prevention. Studies based on large twin cohorts afford a unique opportunity to directly estimate the relative contribution of these factors. We are updating an analysis within the Nordic Twin Registry of Cancer (NorTwinCan), with the expansion of the original cohort, addition of a national twin registry for Norway, and on average 10 additional years of follow-up for cancer incidence. Methods : NorTwinCan includes 105,306 monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs (N=210,612 total) from population-based registries in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. The twins were followed prospectively for cancer incidence and mortality by linkage with national cancer registries through 2008, with up to six decades of follow-up. We calculated zygosity- and sex-specific proband concordance rates for 20 unique cancer sites, and estimated the relative risk (RR) of a cancer in an individual given his/her co-twin had cancer compared to individuals where the co-twin did not have cancer. Results : During follow-up, 29,599 cancers were diagnosed. The co-twin of a twin with cancer had an increased risk of having the same cancer for most malignancies. For prostate cancer, the proband concordance rates were 0.298 among MZ twins and 0.138 among DZ twins. These estimates translate to a 29.8 percent probability that the MZ genetically identical twin of a man with prostate cancer will also be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and a 13.8 percent probability for DZ twins who are genetically alike as siblings. For MZ twins, the relative risk of prostate cancer was 19.8 if the co-twin had cancer, four-fold greater than the relative risk estimate for DZ pairs. For breast cancer among women, proband concordance rates were 0.173 for MZ and 0.110 for DZ twins. The relative risk of breast cancer if the co-twin had breast cancer was higher in MZ (RR=7.3) than DZ (RR=3.3) twins. The relative risk estimates were similarly higher in MZ compared to DZ twin pairs for cancers of the lung (e.g. RR MZ =23.5 versus RR DZ =8.2 for women), stomach (RR MZ =24.8 versus RR DZ =9.1 for women), testes (RR MZ =33.8 versus RR DZ =16.0), bladder (RR MZ =11.3 versus RR DZ =4.2 for men), corpus uteri (RR MZ =10.1 versus RR DZ =3.1), and ovary (RR MZ =10.3 versus RR DZ =2.6). Quantitative genetic modeling to estimate heritability of each cancer site is ongoing, and will account for censoring and competing causes of death. Discussion : These preliminary analyses indicate a strong genetic component in the etiology of most malignancies, based on the greater relative risk and concordances in MZ versus DZ twin pairs. NorTwinCan is the largest twin study of cancer, and quantitative genetic modeling will quantify the relative contributions of genetic and environmental factors to variation in cancer incidence with greater precision than previously estimated, including for the more rare cancers. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2011;4(10 Suppl):A63.


Crude β-glucans were prepared from hull-less barley roller-milled fractions by aqueous sodium carbonate ( pH10). β-Glucan preparations from hull-less barley roller-milled fractions had high purity (90.88-95.04%). The Mw of β-glucan preparations from roller-milled fractions was ranging from 117,600 to 852,400 g/mol, For the same hull-less barley cultivar, β-glucan from flour had higher Mw than shorts and bran, and β-glucan preparations from bran had the lowest Mw.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the genome-wide promoter methylation and gene expression for the identification of methylation markers in obesity.

METHODS
Using a high-fat, diet-induced obese mouse model, we performed comprehensive DNA methylation profiling of gene promoters to determine the differentially methylated genes using methylated DNA immunoprecipitation followed by hybridization to the NimbleGen MM8 CpG plus Promoter Microarray. We further integrated epigenomics data with gene expression profiling to identify promoters exhibiting an association between methylation status and the expression of downstream genes.

RESULTS
A total of 24 hypermethylated promoters and 42 hypomethylated promoters in epididymal fat were selected as methylation markers, which were associated with downregulated and upregulated gene expression, respectively. The promoter methylation and differential gene expression of three markers (Mmp2, Foxj3 and Ube2q2) in the fat were validated by sequencing bisulfitemodified DNA and real-time reverse transcriptase PCR. The genes with these differentially methylated promoters and the associated transcriptional expression in the fat were primarily involved in biological activities in lipid metabolism and storage, cellular differentiation, immunity and the pathogenesis of obesity-related complications.

CONCLUSIONS
This study represents the first effort to determine methylation markers in obese mice that may regulate gene transcription in obesity. Our approach has potential relevance for clinical applications by identifying markers useful in elucidating the mechanisms of obesity pathogenesis and its complications.


A topical issue in current ocular motor research is the extent to which saccadic and smooth pursuit (SP) eye movements are influenced by the same attentional mechanisms. The basal ganglia (BG) form a critical node within saccade and SP circuitry, and are strongly implicated in resolving conflict between competing response alternatives, a key component of attentional control. Albeit a simplistic account, the BG are thought to achieve this by modulating the balance of facilitatory and inhibitory activity relayed to interconnecting areas. Parkinson's disease (PD) and Huntington's disease (HD) are neurodegenerative disorders, which are primarily associated with preferential degradation of BG pathways early in the disease process. Over a range of behavioural tasks, including saccades, PD and HD patients exhibit reliably distinct deficit profiles that correspond with specific sites of BG dysfunction. Individuals with PD typically demonstrate significant difficulty initiating and facilitating desired behaviour as well as gating competing responses. This is thought to reflect enhanced BG inhibitory output. Conversely, HD is associated with difficulty suppressing neural activity and perseverative behaviour, consistent with reduced BG inhibitory modulation. To further explore the functional overlap between saccades and SP, and to more fully characterise the behavioural deficits associated with PD and HD, the present thesis explored a range of attentional phenomena in the context of SP eye movements. In keeping with the role of the BG in conflict resolution, all tasks were designed to elicit competing facilitatory and inhibitory processes. The first experimental study explored the ability to inhibit a prepotent, automatic response to a distractor stimulus while actively tracking a moving target. While PD patients experienced considerable difficulty gating inappropriate responses to distractor stimuli, HD patients were able to withhold an erroneous response, contrary to previous reports of distractibility in HD. The second experiment evaluated control of automatic attentional processes using an exogenous cueing task. Unlike the PD group, the HD group were proficient at suppressing erroneous responses to the salient cue. Further, while HD patients showed no response facilitation following valid cues, PD patients exhibited comparable cueing effects to controls. There was no evidence of inhibition of return for any group. The final experiment examined the influence of goal-directed attention on SP behaviour using a directionally informative endogenous cue. This task revealed a similar group dissociation in the ability to withhold an erroneous response corresponding with cue directives. PD patients exhibited significant difficulty facilitating SP over time, while HD patients demonstrated reduced response facilitation following valid cues. The observed profile of deficits is compatible with the respective sites of BG dysfunction associated with PD and HD. Compromised BG function affects not only basic motor activity, but also the higher order cognitive mechanisms that underlie behavioural control more generally. Collectively, these results were broadly consistent with the range of difficulties previously reported in saccades and general motor control in PD and HD, with differences likely attributable to disparities in the decision thresholds for executing a response between the various movement types. Thus, using a disease model, the current investigation has advanced our understanding of the SP system and how it relates to the saccadic system, as well as furthering our conceptual understanding of how the brain controls movement more generally.


Teaching an upper-level undergraduate robotics course at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) is challenging. The lack of suitable teaching materials is one of the biggest challenges, although there are many great masterpieces in developing robotics course materials, which are, however, generally developed for teaching students at elite Research I universities. This paper presents ideas and details in adopting and revising these course materials and creating upper-level undergraduate robotics course materials that are suitable for underrepresented students.


Genes specificaliy induced during somatic embryogenesis may play key roles in plant embryo develop- ment. An antiserum against an extract of carrot somatic embryos revealed a few rare antigens induced at the onset of embryogenesis. Through differential immunoadsorption tech- niques, we purified antibodies against the embryo-specific antigens and probed a phage K gtll library of cDNA from carrot somatic embryos. This paper describes three distinct cDNA clones that hybridize to embryo-specific RNAs. Mono- specific antibodies, purified by affinity to the recombinant phage fusion proteins, confirm that the cloned cDNAs encode unique embryo-specific peptide antigens. One 50-kDa protein correlates with embryogenic ability in cultures of other plant species, including cereals.


Quantum fluctuations in vacuum can exert a dissipative force on moving objects, which is known as Casimir friction. Especially, a rotating particle in the vacuum will eventually slow down due to the dissipative Casimir friction. Here, we identify a dissipationless force by examining a rotating particle near a bi-isotropic media that generally breaks parity symmetry or/and time-reversal symmetry. The direction of the dissipationless vacuum force is always parallel with the rotating axis of the particle. We therefore call this dissipationless vacuum force the axial Casimir force.


Milk being a highly nutritious food in its natural form provides energy. There are various factors influencing the composition of milk: breed, stage of lactation, nutritional status, health, and milking intervals. A number of indigenous enzymes present in milk are being affected by stages of lactation period. Their concentration varies during early, mid and late lactation periods. This varied behavior ultimately affects the quality of dairy products. In this chapter, the level of milk enzymes: lipases and esterases, plasmin (PL), plasminogen (PLG) phosphatases (alkaline phosphatase ALP; acid phosphatase (ACP), lysozyme (LZ), lactoperoxidase (LP), xanthine oxidoreductase (XOR), and catalase (CAT) will be reviewed with respect to the stages of lactation periods.


The most important plant species employed in reforestation programs depend on ectomycorrhizal fungi for their establishment and growth. The exploitation of this symbiosis to improve forest productivity requires fungal inoculants in a large scale level. To develop such a technology it is necessary to define the optimal composition of the culture medium for each fungus. With these objectives in mind, the effect of the composition of the culture medium on biomass production of the ectomycorrhizal fungus Pisolithus microcarpus (isolate UFSC-Pt116) was studied. The original composition of two culture media, already employed for cultivation of ectomycorrhizal fungi, was submitted to several variations with the C/N ratio as the main variable. A variation of the Pridham-Gottlieb medium was the most efficient for the production of biomass. Therefore, it was submitted to a factorial assay where glucose, peptone and yeast extract components were the factors analyzed. Results showed that the glucose concentration may be increased up to 40 % in order to promote higher biomass production. Peptone had a positive effect on this variable, whereas yeast extract promoted a deleterious effect. These results indicate that it is advisable to eliminate yeast extract from the medium and replace it with peptone prior to use.


The goal of this monograph is a comprehensive analysis of understatements and other forms of non-direct speech (hedges) in modern English. It is based on a multi-level approach, including philosophical, cultural, and socio-psychological arguments. The main part consists of an investigation of the linguistic restrictions for understatements and hedges to be formed by means of the following grammatical categories: negation of predicates, gradation of predicates, modalization of affirmative sentences by means of parenthetical verbs, modal adverbs, modal verbs, and questions.


BACKGROUND
Stress hyperglycemia (SH) is a common finding in patients in pediatric emergency departments (PED) and has been related to increased morbidity and mortality.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the incidence of SH among children visiting the PED. To identify which diseases predispose patients to SH and whether they indicate a worse outcome.

METHODS
Data were collected retrospectively from the medical records of all children aged 0-18 years who visited the PED during the years 2010-2014 and who had a glucose level of ≥ 150 mg/dl. Data collected included age, gender, weight, blood glucose level, presence or absence of a pre-existing or a new diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, and previous treatment with medications affecting blood glucose levels or with intravenous fluids containing dextrose. Data were collected regarding hospitalization, duration of hospitalization, discharge diagnosis, and survival status.

RESULTS
The study population included 1245 children with SH, which comprised 2.6% of all patients whose blood glucose level was measured in the PED during the study period. The mean age of children with SH was 49 months; 709 (56.9%) were male. The mean blood glucose level was 184 mg/dl. The rate of hospitalization was 57.8%. The mean duration of hospital stay was 5.6 days and mortality rate was 0.96%. The majority were diagnosed with a respiratory illness.

CONCLUSIONS
SH is a common phenomenon among children evaluated in the PED and is associated with a high incidence of hospitalization. It may serve as an additional clinical indicator of disease severity.


Tooth formation is widely used to assess dental maturity and predict the age of growing children. Skeletal age assessment by hand-wrist radiographs has been found to correlate significantly with the growth status of an individual, but has a known drawback in the form of extra radiograph and high dose of radiation exposure in comparison to periapical X-rays used commonly in dentistry. The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of dental age and to find its comparison with chronological age. Dental maturity was studied from the intraoral periapical radiographs of 90 children aged 9-13 years in Lucknow population with 45 males (age range 10-13 years) and 45 females (age range 9-12 years), and the reliability of dental age estimation using Nolla's method was investigated. The children were radiographed for intraoral periapical X-ray of right permanent maxillary and mandibular canines. Chronological age was obtained from the date of birth of the children. Correlation between the dental age and chronological age was analyzed using the paired t-test. Slightly higher mean was recorded in the estimated age (dental age) compared to actual age (chronological age). Females were more advanced in dental maturation than males. Chronological age showed inconsistent correlation with dental age. It was concluded that canine calcification stages can also be used for assessing skeletal maturity.


In the field of sinology, a widespread truism is that mind-body holism is a defining characteristic of early Chinese conception of human life. In this dissertation, we wish to demonstrate that contesting notions of life and death co-exist in early China, against the presumption that mind-body dualism never arises in early China. First, through examining elite burials from Western Zhou through the Han, we demonstrate how the diametrically opposed visions of the dead (that of an ancestral spirit who lacks eternal existence and that of an immortal with a transcended physical form) were seamlessly combined in the burial practices from Eastern Zhou to the Han. Second, through studying the visions of life and self-cultivation practices as portrayed in several early Chinese texts, we demonstrate that mind-body holism and mind-body dualism co-exist in early China, with the former prominent in "Neiye," Mencius and parts of Huainanzi, and the latter prominent in Zhuangzi and the other parts of Huainanzi. Although "Neiye" and Mencius endorse different kinds of selfcultivation, their strands of self-cultivation both involve a transformation of the mental-spiritual as well as physical-physiological aspects of life. In contrast, Zhuangzi has a prominent body-mind dualism, holding that the body disintegrates upon death and joins in the cosmic transformation, but the spiritual entity, if properly attended to, can transcend the physical form and gain an eternal existence through merging with the cosmic ancestor. Self-cultivation in Zhuangzi, therefore, primarily involves the attendance to the spiritual aspect of life. Huainanzi portrays two diametrically opposed views of human life, each of which fits a special type of human exemplar. Parts of it follow the Zhuangzian dualism and hold that the spirit may remain eternally unchanged despite corporeal decay. Parts of it follow the "Neiye" tradition and hold that life is sustained by the union of the spirit and body, both of which are depletable or destructible. With the distinction between the two types of human exemplars predestined in the cosmogonic process, they diverge fundamentally in their impact on the cosmic order, and the boundaries between them can never be crossed through self-cultivation. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group East Asian Languages & Civilizations First Advisor Paul R. Goldin


Coal ash from coal burning is a stationary source of air pollution in industrial countries. More than one-third of US electricity is generated from coal burning. Even though about 50% of coal combustion residuals (CCR) can be reused with current technology, the disposal of coal ash is still inevitable, potentially causing adverse health effects in both adults and children. About 12 in every 100 people experience a thyroid disorder during their lifetime. In the current US population, 20 million people are estimated to have thyroid disorders of some kind, and fewer than half are aware of their condition. Some thyroid diseases are hard to diagnose, and most require regular monitoring for life. Although thyroid medication is not as expensive as cancer treatments, thyroid disorders can still cause great economic difficulty. This essay provides an introduction to coal ash and thyroid problems for interested members of the public. It is a literature review with a brief discussion of whether possible correlations exist between coal ash and thyroid disorders. It is of significant public health benefits to conduct further research in this subject.


It is thought that stem cells hold promise for use in future therapeutics. One such application is tissue engineering (TE) which aims to repair or replace diseased or damaged organs in vitro. Successful applications of TE, where the tissue is replaced and is functional, could improve a patients' quality of life. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are a form of adult stem cell that are a precursor for fat, cartilage and bone cells. Bone is the second most transplanted tissue after blood therefore, enabling TE strategies through provision of high quality bone cells to facilitate bone repair would be beneficial. As MSCs are a precursor to bone, their use is attractive. Additionally, their proliferative potential and immunoregulatory properties make MSCs an ideal candidate cell for TE. MSCs require behavioural cues in vitro that direct phenotype in a targeted way. One method to direct stem cell behaviour is to utilise materials engineering. Static materials (examples include topography, chemistry and stiffness) have been employed but research has now moved towards stimuli responsive technologies to provide dual functionalities for culture and that emulate the properties of the stem cell niche.
It is the intention of the work described in this thesis to utilise an enzyme responsive technology to promote MSC self-renewal and stimulate MSC differentiation to bone. Using solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) a biomimetic enzyme responsive material was made with the sequence PEG-GPAG↓LRGD tethered to a glass coverslip. Due to enzyme action on the sequence, the PEG cap is removed to create on demand adhesion to the peptide RGD. Further, the surface is designed to be under the control of cell secreted enzymes, rather than in response to enzymes added in by the user.

The cell secreted enzymes that were investigated for this thesis were the matrix metalloproteases (MMPs). Here we confirm that the primary MMP secreted by MSCs was the gelatinase MMP-2 and a peptide sequence was designed to be cleaved by this MMP. It is known that redundancy can occur in MMP families and the role of MMP-9 was also investigated. The results show that MMP-9 is as efficient for surface cleavage, although cell supernatant concentration was 100-fold lower. MMP-2 concentration increased at week 3 specifically in response to peptides and so formed the original hypothesis that cleavage occurred at that time point. However, due to the potency of MMP-9 this may not be the case. Due to the limitations of manual synthesis and availability of materials, there was not enough evidence of MSC self-renewal. Further there was some indication of osteogenesis, specifically in response to the sequence at 4-6 weeks, however this is too long in culture to be therapeutically relevant. It may be better in the future to employ an enzyme responsive surface that can guarantee 100% efficiency of cleavage to ensure a synchronised population of end terminal cells.


Nowadays, the forecasting time series task is relevant in solution of a wide range of problems in various spheres of human activities. One of the possible variants to provide prediction is to construct a forecasting model. The main criterion for the forecasting model quality is its accuracy. Researchers have resorted to different approaches to achieve the necessary accuracy of the forecasting model, including feature engineering. This paper presents an automated feature engineering method based on Bayesian optimization for time series data. The process of selection an optimal set of features in order to minimize the objective function is described. The developed method has an ability to create new features based on existing ones by using diverse algebraic operations. The proposed method considers any machine learning model as a black box, that allows applying different algorithms: linear regression, decision trees, neural networks, etc. The experiments demonstrated the high efficiency of the proposed approach. A comparative analysis showed that the developed algorithm in most cases was superior to human-made custom feature engineering. The accuracy of machine learning models is greatly improved with high-quality feature engineering. Mean squared error and coefficient of determination were applied to calculate quality metrics of machine learning models. Testing the developed method took place on open time series data from different subject areas (energy, manufacturing, air pollution), which provided reliable verification.


Objective: This study aimed to identify patient's and primary caregiver's factors that may affect family burden of primary caregivers targeting patients with schizophrenia and their primary caregivers and furthermore to investigate the influence of primary caregiver's quality of life. Methods:72 schizophrenia patients and their 72 primary caregivers were investigated and sociodemographic data were collected. Additionally, for patients, as clinical scales, drug attitude, stigma, insight into disease were assessed, and for primary caregivers, family burden, quality of life were assessed. Result:The subjective drug attitude of patients with schizophrenia appeared to be 3.56 ± 5.21 points, which was generally positive. In multiple regression analysis on quality of life, primary caregiver's monthly income, primary caregiver's education level, patient's gender, patient's treatment duration, the degree of disorganized speech among patient's clinical symptoms, patient's subjective negative drug attitude, and the degree of stigma resistance significantly explained the total mean QOL score. In the dimensions of quality of life, the physical health dimension was correlated with primary caregiver's education level, primary caregiver's gender, patient's gender, patient's treatment duration, patient's subjective negative drug attitude, and the degree of patient stigma resistance. The psychological dimension was correlated only with primary caregiver's monthly income. Lastly, the environmental dimension was correlated with primary caregiver's education level, patient's treatment duration, and the degree of patient's insight into disease on positive symptoms. Conclusion:In various factors determining caregiver's level of quality of life, a clinical symptom such as disorganized speech and clinically correctable factors such as negative drug attitude, stigma resistance to their mental illness and insight into disease on positive symptoms were included. Therefore, provision of education regarding drug and disease will be helpful to reduce family burden and improve the quality of life of primary caregivers. PM408 LONG-TERM ANTIPSYCHOTICS IN "HYSTERICAL PSYCHOSIS": A CASE REPORT F. Ramon Martinez Luna, Pedro De Bernardo, Elias Garcia Martin De La Fuente, Laura Mella Dominguez, Carlos Rodriguez Gomez Carreño HGUCR, Spain Abstract INTRODUCTION: Once known as hysterical psychosis, K. Jaspers described the concept of a Reactive Psychosis in 1913, including presence of an identifiable traumatic stressor. Psychotic symptoms (delusion, speech disorders and hallucinations) can be triggered by stressful life events. The condition usually resolves spontaneously within a time span of weeks and if it is controlled well enough that symptoms do not return. This case report illustrates the effectiveness of long-term Aripiprazole in treatment of a "Hysterical Psychosis" METHODS: CASE REPORT: Male patient, 24 years old, referred for psychiatric follow-up after discharge from the psychiatry ward. Paranoid delusion was detected 2 weeks before admission. He was reported as Acute Psychosis with good response to Aripiprazole orally (15 mg per day) and Lorazepam, with total remission of positive psychotic symptoms. Sexual identity stressor was identified during admission and no history of mental disease had been reported. After a 6 weeks follow-up, the patient decided to quit medication and two weeks later, psychotic symptoms returned as well as sexual identity problems. Aripiprazole orally was prescribed again. RESULTS: After reintroducing Aripiprazole orally with good response and, given the patient personality (cluster B), we decided to use long-term Aripiprazole (300 mg per month) to ensure compliance. The patient made a rapid recovery and kept asymptomatic for 3  months. Treatment included psychodynamic psychotherapy. Antipsychotic was retired after this time and no relapse was informed. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Classical psychiatric conditions lack the necessary support in current diagnostic classifications to fulfil criteria for using antipsychotic drugs according to approved indications. Papers showing drugs effectiveness for classical terms are difficult to find. This poster is made with the aim to open investigation to those conditions not fitting current diagnostic criteria.INTRODUCTION: Once known as hysterical psychosis, K. Jaspers described the concept of a Reactive Psychosis in 1913, including presence of an identifiable traumatic stressor. Psychotic symptoms (delusion, speech disorders and hallucinations) can be triggered by stressful life events. The condition usually resolves spontaneously within a time span of weeks and if it is controlled well enough that symptoms do not return. This case report illustrates the effectiveness of long-term Aripiprazole in treatment of a "Hysterical Psychosis" METHODS: CASE REPORT: Male patient, 24 years old, referred for psychiatric follow-up after discharge from the psychiatry ward. Paranoid delusion was detected 2 weeks before admission. He was reported as Acute Psychosis with good response to Aripiprazole orally (15 mg per day) and Lorazepam, with total remission of positive psychotic symptoms. Sexual identity stressor was identified during admission and no history of mental disease had been reported. After a 6 weeks follow-up, the patient decided to quit medication and two weeks later, psychotic symptoms returned as well as sexual identity problems. Aripiprazole orally was prescribed again. RESULTS: After reintroducing Aripiprazole orally with good response and, given the patient personality (cluster B), we decided to use long-term Aripiprazole (300 mg per month) to ensure compliance. The patient made a rapid recovery and kept asymptomatic for 3  months. Treatment included psychodynamic psychotherapy. Antipsychotic was retired after this time and no relapse was informed. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Classical psychiatric conditions lack the necessary support in current diagnostic classifications to fulfil criteria for using antipsychotic drugs according to approved indications. Papers showing drugs effectiveness for classical terms are difficult to find. This poster is made with the aim to open investigation to those conditions not fitting current diagnostic criteria. PM409 Paliperidone Palmitate 3-Monthly vs. 1-Monthly Injectable in Schizophrenia Patients with or without Prior Exposure to Oral Risperidone or Paliperidone Maju Mathews1*, Huiling Pei1, Adam Savitz1, Isaac Nuamah1, Erica Elefant1, David Hough1, Larry Alphs1, Srihari Gopal1 1Janssen Research & Development, New Jersey, USA *Presenting author Abstract Objective: A  post-hoc subgroup analysis was pemathewsMrformed to compare outcomes following administration of paliperidone palmitate 3-monthly (PP3M) versus 1-monthly (PP1M) injectable in patients with schizophrenia previously treated/ not treated with oral risperidone/paliperidone (RIS/PALI) before study entry. Methods: Patients received PP1M (50, 75, 100, or 150 mg eq.) during 17-week open-label (OL) phase, randomized (1:1) to PP3M (175, 263, 350, or 525 mg eq.) or PP1M (50, 75, 100, or 150 mg eq.) during 48-week double-blind (DB) phase. Based on prior RIS/ PALI exposure, outcomes were compared between two subgroups: recent=at least 28 days of RIS/PALI exposure with last dose within 14 days before study entry; no=no RIS/PALI exposure within 60 days before study entry. Results: 452 patients had received recent RIS/PALI (n=323 [71%] randomized to PP3M=166; PP1M=157), and 709 did not receive RIS/PALI (n=506 [71%] randomized to PP3M=254; PP1M=252).Objective: A  post-hoc subgroup analysis was pemathewsMrformed to compare outcomes following administration of paliperidone palmitate 3-monthly (PP3M) versus 1-monthly (PP1M) injectable in patients with schizophrenia previously treated/ not treated with oral risperidone/paliperidone (RIS/PALI) before study entry. Methods: Patients received PP1M (50, 75, 100, or 150 mg eq.) during 17-week open-label (OL) phase, randomized (1:1) to PP3M (175, 263, 350, or 525 mg eq.) or PP1M (50, 75, 100, or 150 mg eq.) during 48-week double-blind (DB) phase. Based on prior RIS/ PALI exposure, outcomes were compared between two subgroups: recent=at least 28 days of RIS/PALI exposure with last dose within 14 days before study entry; no=no RIS/PALI exposure within 60 days before study entry. Results: 452 patients had received recent RIS/PALI (n=323 [71%] randomized to PP3M=166; PP1M=157), and 709 did not receive RIS/PALI (n=506 [71%] randomized to PP3M=254; PP1M=252).


Abstract. The chemotactic activity and random motility of neutrophils, was studied in 38 patients with hypovitaminosis D rickets, and compared with 29 healthy controls of matched age. The chemotactic activity derived from the activated rickets serum as well as the amounts of the complement components C4, C3 and CS was normal, but the cell motility was clearly defective (p<0.001). A possible relationship between defective neutrophil movement and the recurrent infections seen in these patients is suggested. The possible mechanisms responsible for the defect could be the alteration in Ca/P metabolism or a defective action of the vitamin D on the neutrophils.


As large-scale enterprise management system of advanced industrial countries, ERP and MES encountered some difficulties and confusion in the localization process of china. Basing on the characteristics of Chinese process industry and the practical implementation experience of ERP and MES, the new grass-roots production plan model and production control model and accounting model and assessment model and site quality retrospective model and virtual instrument model and etc. is built. And the management system for process-oriented manufacturing industry in China is designed and developed. It is integrated with Chinese manufacturing process of production site characteristics and will be with better reference value.


Objective To determine whether nucleos(t)ide reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTI) contribute to an accelerated loss in telomere length (TL) in HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Design Substudy of randomised controlled trial. Methods Patients with HIV RNA <50 copies/mL on combination ART (n = 256) were randomised to darunavir/ritonavir (DRV/r) 800/100 mg once daily, either as monotherapy (n = 127) or with 2 NRTIs (n = 129) for up to 144 weeks. TL and telomerase activity was quantified on stored peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC; n = 124) using quantitative real time PCR. Results Patients in the sub-study had a mean age of 44 years and had received NRTI for a mean of 6.4 years (range 1–20 years). As expected, older patients have significantly shorter TL (p = 0.006), while women had significantly longer TL (p = 0.026). There was no significant association between TL and either the duration of prior NRTI treatment (p = 0.894) or the use of a PI versus NNRTI (p = 0.107). There was no significant difference between patients who continued or ceased NRTI in the mean change/year of TL or telomerase (p = 0.580 and 0.280 respectively). Conclusion Continuation versus cessation of NRTI treatment was not associated with an accelerated loss in TL or telomerase activity.


Society, business environment and education are changing rapidly. Nowadays there is a national shift in education from transfer of knowledge towards a way of learning based on competencies. This process of change is evolved out of the need to let the results of education fit in with the developments in business society. Active participation in the complex society requires in addition to graduates with knowledge and skills, competent graduates and well-considered actions in the context of their occupation. Education that wants to practise competency-based learning, the quest for an appropriate way of assessment is an actual and essential assignment.
The need for a competency-based assessment in the secretarial course at ROC Drenthe College was the motive for this master thesis. The goal of this project was to put competency-based assessments in practise. The assignment leads to the main research question of this thesis: How can in cooperation with the involved stakeholders an adequate competency-based assessment system be developed which fit in whit the needs of the stakeholders and feasible in practise? To answer this research question, the research consists of three phases: the orientation phase, the analyse phase and the design phase.


This is a biography of Jackson Barnett, who gained unexpected wealth from oil found on his property. It explores how control of his fortune was violently contested by his guardian, the state of Oklahoma, the Baptist Church, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and an adventuress who kidnapped and married him. Coming into national prominence as a case of Bureau of Indian Affairs mismanagement of Indian property, the litigation over Barnett's wealth lasted two decades and stimulated Congress to make long-overdue reforms in its policies towards Indians.


Active power filters (APFs) have been used to compensate harmonics, reactive current, and negative sequence fundamental frequency current drawn by nonlinear loads. The control of APF is the core issue for their proper operation. The flexibility of selective compensation embedded in the control scheme makes APF versatile for compensation of reactive power, harmonic currents, and unbalance in source currents and their combinations, depending upon the limited rating of voltage source inverter employed as APF. The proposed scheme utilizes neural network-based decomposition of the load current into positive and negative sequence fundamental frequency component, reactive component and harmonic components. The adaline-based current decomposer estimates the reference currents through tracking of unit vectors together with tuning of the weights. The implementation of the control scheme facilitates selective compensation which respects the limited rating of the APF. The simulated results using developed MATLAB model are presented and are validated by experimental results to depict the effectiveness of the proposed control method of APF


Steel and composite structures are traditionally designed through strength based calculations. An alternative approach is to consider deformation capacity. Deformation based design enables a more accurate allowance to be made for the spread of plasticity and allows strain hardening to be considered in a systematic manner. Importantly, the level of deformation required by the structure at ultimate limit state to reach the required design capacity can also be assessed. In composite construction, deformation based design enables a more rigorous assessment to be made of the development of strength in the structural system taking due account of the compatibility between the constituent materials. In this paper, recent developments to the deformation based continuous strength method for steel and composite design are described. Comparisons of capacities obtained from experiments and numerical simulations with those predicted using the continuous strength method are presented and discussed. Recommendations for future work on this topic are also set out.


Three new Ln4 clusters based on a bidentate Schiff base ligand having formulae [Ln4(μ3-OH)2L6(acac)4]·xCH3CN (Ln(III) = Eu(1), Gd(2) and Dy(3), x = 1 for 1, x = 2 for 2, and x = 0 for 3, HL = 5-(4-o-hydroxybenzylidene)-8-hydroxylquinoline and acac = acetylacetone) have been successfully synthesized and completely characterized. The structures of 1–3 are similar to each other except for the nature of the central ion and the number of free acetonitrile molecules. The four LnIII ions are coplanar and clusters 1–3 have a butterfly-shaped arrangement. Magnetic studies show that cluster 2 displays a weak antiferromagnetic exchange interaction between nearby GdIII centers and exhibits magnetic refrigeration with maximum −ΔSm = 18.85 J kg−1 K−1 (ΔH = 7.0 T at 2.5 K). Alternating current (ac) magnetic susceptibility measurement of 3 indicates that 3 demonstrates SMMs behavior under a zero direct-current (dc) field, with an effective energy barrier (ΔE/kB) of 79.15 K and a pre-exponential factor τ0 = 5.82 × 10−8 s.


An increasing diversity of highly specialized pollination systems are being discovered, many of which are likely to be vulnerable to anthropogenic landscape modification. Here, we investigate if a specialized pollination system limits the persistence of Caladenia huegelii (Orchidaceae), an endangered species pollinated by sexual deception of thynnine wasps. Once locally common in part of its geographical range, C. huegelii is now largely restricted to small habitat remnants in urban areas. Pollinator surveys coupled with DNA barcoding detected a single pollinator taxon, a small form of Macrothynnus insignis. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that small M. insignis from within the range of C. huegelii are strongly divergent from other wasp populations, suggesting that some reproductive isolation may exist. Although common in intact landscapes outside the range of C. huegelli, small M. insignis individuals were recorded at only 4% of sites in suitable C. huegelii habitat. Accordingly, reproductive success in C. huegelii was low compared with related Caladenia spp., with 33–60% of populations failing to set fruit in any given year. As such, populations are likely to now persist primarily through individual plant longevity rather than reproduction. Due to the low reproductive success of C. huegelii, ongoing human intervention will almost certainly be needed to sustain the species. Future research will need to focus on optimizing hand pollination to maintain reproduction and high seed fitness.


A comparative study of the Bacillus anthracoides culture and its variant has shown that the latter differs drastically from the parent culture in the shape and consistence of colonies, the size of spores and vegetative cells, the rate of spore germination in MPB, and the resistence to steam treatment and chloroactive disinfectants.


The population of the world has been increasing, road traffic has also been getting more and more congested, as a higher population and increased business activities result in greater demand for cars and vehicles for transportation. With fuel price soaring and potential threats of fuel shortage, we are now faced with greater challenges in the field of transportation systems. Inadequacy in transportation infrastructures can cripple a nations progress, social well-being, and economy. Previously, focused was given on how to build efficient highways and roads. Over time, the focus shifted to mechanical and automotive engineering, in the pursuit of building faster cars to surmount greater distances. Later on, electronics technology impacted the construction of cars, embedding them with sensors and advanced electronics, making cars more intelligent, sensitive and safe to drive on. Now, innovations made so far in wireless mobile communications and networking technologies are starting to impact cars, roads, and highways. This impact will drastically change the way we view transportation systems of the next generation and the way we drive in the future. It will create major economic, social, and global impact through the transformation. In this project, we will implement a system which will enhance efficiency and safety of transportation. Intelligent Transportation uses numerous technologies to assist and manage transportation. The basis is a collaborative approach, with each vehicle and RSU contributing relevant information, based on their own sensing and on information received from nearby peers and RSUs, vehicles can detect, and avoid dangerous or unwanted situations. For example, timely notifications about lane changes , and unsafely approaching vehicles, accident notifications can be highly beneficial. The same is true for notifications about dangerous or heavy traffic conditions disseminated by RSUs, locally or within a larger region with the help of other vehicles.


Cases where animals use controlled illumination to improve vision are rare and thus far limited to chemiluminescence, which only functions in darkness. This constraint was recently relaxed by studies on Tripterygion delaisi, a small triplefin that redirects sunlight instead. By reflecting light sideways with its iris, it has been suggested to induce and detect eyeshine in nearby micro-prey. Here, we test whether 'diurnal active photolocation' also improves T. delaisi's ability to detect the cryptobenthic sit-and-wait predator Scorpaena porcus, a scorpionfish with strong daytime retroreflective eyeshine. Three independent experiments revealed that triplefins in which light redirection was artificially suppressed approached scorpionfish significantly closer than two control treatments before moving away to a safer distance. Visual modelling confirmed that ocular light redirection by a triplefin is sufficiently strong to generate a luminance increase in scorpionfish eyeshine that can be perceived by the triplefin over 6–8 cm under average conditions. These distances coincide well with the closest approaches observed. We conclude that light redirection by small, diurnal fish significantly contributes to their ability to visually detect cryptic predators, strongly widening the conditions under which active sensing with light is feasible. We discuss the consequences for fish eye evolution.


By considering the coupling effect between the healthy lower-limb and the passive prosthesis, this paper builds a heterogeneous dynamic model for gait analysis, where the motions of the healthy limb and the prosthesis are driven by the central pattern generator (CPG) and the hip joint swing, respectively. The foot-ground contact is modelled as the process of unilateral force reaction rather than the constraint to get a refined representation of the gait motion. The response of the heterogeneous model, solved by numerical calculation, is then analyzed by comparison with a real gait test. Preliminary results show that the heterogeneous model not only describes the amputee's gait well but also reveals a new gait feature of period-doubling. Parameter analysis further indicates that the period-doubling gait will return to the single-period pattern by amplifying the vertical motion of the hip joint at the amputated side. This dynamic bifurcation, which mimics the process of hip swing adaption, provides new insight into the compensatory mechanism for lamely walking.


Abstract In the Ordovician bryozoan genus, Peronopora, stratigraphic occurrences and cladistic branching order are significantly correlated, indicating sequential development of both patterns in geological time. Five species have stratigraphic first appearances in the exact order predicted by cladistics, but eleven species require downward-range extensions to match cladistic order. Reduced major-axis regression-based corrections and ghost range extensions represent two alternative modifications of first appearance data, with the latter more strongly supported by stratigraphic congruence indices. Tests of the robustness of observed first appearances, based on the density of sampled horizons and magnitudes of stratigraphic gaps, support the probabilistic appearance of descendant species stratigraphically above their putative ancestors in eight of fifteen ancestor-descendant pairs. A 24 m sampling gap occurs below the base of the Brannon Member of the Lexington Limestone, a unit marking the first appearances, or extended ranges, of nine species of Peronopora. A test for the presence of a uniform distribution of occurrence probabilities indicates that seven of the nine species could have originated during the time interval represented by the gap. The early branching rate within Peronopora, during the time span encompassing all first appearances of species, is 1.05 cladogram nodes per meter of strata. The rate of clade production within that interval is 0.73 (baseline) clades per meter of strata. Extrapolating downward using both rates indicates that the median position of the root of the generic clade is approximately 1.08 myr earlier than sampled. The estimated speciation rate in Peronopora is 5.73 species per myr, while the average time between speciation events is 186 kyr. Intraspecific clades, possibly including cryptic species, formed at a rate of 19.35 clades per myr, with an average waiting time per clade of 48.107 kyr. These metrics indicate very short origin times for species within the genus compared to their total stratigraphic ranges, a pattern consistent with punctuated speciation.


A common approach to solving prediction tasks on large networks, such as node classification or link prediction, begins by learning a Euclidean embedding of the nodes of the network, from which traditional machine learning methods can then be applied. This includes methods such as DeepWalk and node2vec, which learn embeddings by optimizing stochastic losses formed over subsamples of the graph at each iteration of stochastic gradient descent. In this paper, we study the effects of adding an (cid:96) 2 penalty of the embedding vectors to the training loss of these types of methods. We prove that, under some exchangeability assumptions on the graph, this asymptotically leads to learning a graphon with a nuclear-norm-type penalty, and give guarantees for the asymptotic distribution of the learned embedding vectors. In particular, the exact form of the penalty depends on the choice of subsampling method used as part of stochastic gradient descent. We also illustrate empirically that concatenating node covariates to (cid:96) 2 regularized node2vec embeddings leads to comparable, when not superior, performance to methods which incorporate node covariates and the network structure in a non-linear manner.


The purpose of this project was to create a group treatment manual for adolescent girls diagnosed with an eating disorder, who were concurrently displaying characteristics of perfectionistic thinking. In order to create the manual, an extensive literature review was conducted in the areas of eating disorders, perfectionism, and group therapy with adolescents. Further, an examination of the literature available on the relationship between the prevalence of eating disorders and perfectionism was carried out. The result is a manual consisting of 10 detailed sessions, including pre/post group sessions, complete with handouts and facilitator guidelines for working with this population.


This paper presents an efficient method for the formation of voltage control areas. The proposed method considers the effect of P–V and Q–δ coupling and changes in network topology. The full Newton Raphson load flow (NRLF) Jacobian sensitivities and voltage variations under contingencies have been used for the formation of the voltage control areas. These areas have been reduced to equivalent nodes using the REI reduction technique, and the reduced network has been validated for the voltage stability analysis. The effectiveness of the method has been established on the IEEE 14-bus system and a practical 75-bus Indian system.


Background: Leiomyomatosis peritonealis disseminata (LPD) is a rare disease characterised by the subperitoneal proliferation of smooth muscle cells that form benign nodules. A few studies have aimed to reveal the pathogenesis of LPD without reaching a clear explanation. Methods: Karyotype analysis and array-comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) of a human LPD case were performed to evaluate the role of chromosomal abnormalities in LPD pathogenesis. Results: The LPD nodules showed a 45, XX, del(7p), t(11; 17) (q23;q25),-22 de novo karyotype, and the aCGH analysis confirmed these deletions at 7p22.3-p12.1 (1,862,362-52,766,911 bp) and 22q11.23-q13.33 (21,973,915-49,265,116 bp) with lengths of 50.9 Mb and 27.3 Mb, respectively. Conclusion: In this study, we described two large novel aberrations - deletions in chromosome 7 and 22 - that might play an important role in LPD disease. These findings might contribute to new insights to unravel the pathogenesis of LPD and develop further clinical treatments.


Scent research has focused primarily on the effects of ambient scent on consumer evaluations. We focus instead on the effects of product scent on consumer memories. For instance, if a pencil or a facial tissue is imbued with scent (vs. not), recall for the brand's other attributes increases significantly—with the effects lasting as much as 2 weeks after exposure. We also find that product scent is more effective than ambient scent at enhancing memory for product information. We suggest that this may be because, with product (ambient) scent, scent-related associations are focused on a single object (are diffused across multiple objects) in the environment. In support, we find that the memory effects are driven by the number of product/scent-related associations stored in long-term memory. The results suggest that, although ambient scent has received the bulk of attention from researchers and managers in recent years, greater focus on product scent is warranted.


Introduction: Today, SARS-COV-2 infection represents a global threat. Dealing with this viral infection necessitates a comprehensive understanding of pathophysiology of the disease to reach to the suitable treatment. Treatment of this disease should not be restricted to the usual antiviral treatments, which suffered from several limitations including low effectiveness, development of virusresistant mutations and the unwanted side effects. Knowing that SARS-CoV-2 attack the machinery unit of production of surfactant in the lung, the alveolar type II cells, manifested the importance of this review article on the role of pulmonary surfactant in this disease and the possible role of pulmonary surfactant that can play in treating of COVID-19 patients. Objective: This work tried to clarify the important role of pulmonary surfactant in lung physiology and possible immune-modulatory effect. In addition, the constituents of pulmonary surfactant and their roles against COVID-19 complications is highlighted. This article suggested that surfactant therapy may have a role in COVID-19 therapy and this can be in a form of exogenous (synthetic) surfactant administrated through endotracheal tube or through aerosolization. The pros and cons of these methods of administration have been discussed. Moreover, a possible way of stimulation of endogenous surfactant by administrating a drug that stimulates the synthesis of surfactant has been suggested.


This paper presents the evaluation of the dynamic loads for the qualification of a robotic arm, to be installed on-board the USV3-PRIDE spacecraft. CIRA is developing a fully reusable unmanned space vehicle, code named USV3-PRIDE, to be launched by VEGA. The system is capable of orbiting, de-orbiting and gliding back to Earth with high manoeuvrability and controllability throughout all flight regimes (i.e. hypersonic re-entry, supersonic, transonic, subsonic) and performing a safe ground landing on a conventional runway by a landing gear system. Such aerospace systems could lead to the new technological frontier to master both new and innovative orbital robotic systems in the near Earth environment, as well as to explore the hypersonic flight regimes necessary to re-enter the earth from above 300 Km altitude to the ground, which represent the same flight levels of the future aerospace transportation systems. The spacecraft is equipped with a robotic arm which provides the capability to ship a payload and interface with a space tug towards the International Space Station. During ground operation and flight the spacecraft is subject to different kinds of loads, both static and dynamic. These excitations are from different origins such as operational, aerodynamics or propulsion. In particular, for the mechanical qualification of the robotic arm and the other subsystems, the dynamic environment provides for the most severe conditions in terms of local accelerations. The dynamic environment taken under consideration includes two types of dynamic analyses: Shock Response Spectrum (SRS) analysis, and Sine equivalent dynamics. SRS analysis is necessary to calculate the structural local response to shocks and to estimate the maximum dynamic response of a structure. The spacecraft is subject to shock primarily during stage separations, fairing jettisoning and actual spacecraft separation. Sine equivalent dynamics accounts for sinusoidal excitations affecting the launch vehicle during its powered flight (mainly the atmospheric flight), as well as during some of the transient phases. In the case of VEGA launcher the sine vibration is applied to the USV3-PRIDE base exciting all the sub-systems, including the robotic arm. Results give guidelines for both the robotic arm design and the mechanical interface to the USV3-PRIDE airframe.


The effects of the H‐ras oncogene on fibroblast cell tumorigenicity and immunogenicity was studied in transfectants of the BALB/c 3T3 clone A31 fibroblastoid cell‐line. Cells that were transfected with MC29‐LTR‐H‐ras (98/6) or MC29‐LTR‐v‐myc + H‐ras (98/4v) and were inoculated into syngeneic BALB/c mice were tumorigenic in 100% and 60% of animals respectively. By contrast, transfectants containing the pSV2neo plasmid alone (98/1) displayed normal characteristics both in vitro and in vivo. Inoculation of mice with mitomycin‐C‐treated 98/1 or 98/4v cells induced an effective protective immunity to a challenge of live 98/4v cells, and a partial immunity against 98/6 cells. Mitomycin‐C‐treated 98/6 cells failed to render immunity against a challenge of either 98/6 or 98/4v cells. To correlate immunogenicity and tumorigenicity of the different cell types with cell‐surface‐antigen expression, we prepared MAbs against 98/4v cells in syngeneic mice. Immunohistochemical and immunoblot analysis revealed that MAbs 102 and 104 recognized 2 protein bands of 70 and 45 kDa respectively, which were expressed predominantly in 98/1 and 98/4v cells. A third immunoreactive protein band of 44 kDa that reacted with MAb 6 was expressed at a similar cell‐surface density on all cell types. Cell‐differentiation‐inducing agents, such as DMSO, retinoic acid or sodium butyrate, were all found to induce 98/6 cell flattening and morphological changes toward a normal phenotype that were followed by up‐regulation of the 70‐ and 45‐kDa antigens. The results suggest that regulation of expression of the 70‐ and 45‐kDa molecules is affected by H‐ras, and that expression of these cell‐surface molecules may be relevant to tumor cell immunogenicity. © 1992 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.