This research project was undertaken with the main objective of preparing and
characterising a wave absorbing material by utilising a magnetic material with polymer
as the base material to provide the carrier template. Polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) was
chosen as the polymer due to the well-established physical properties. Yttrium iron
garnet (YIG) was chosen as the magnetic filler due to its well known microwave
absorbing properties.
Preparation of YIG particles was carried out via a sol-gel method from nitrates raw
material with a citrate route. It was found that with this method employed, the sintering
temperature of YIG was minimised to 800oC compared to 1300oC for a normal solid
state reaction method. PVDF powder was supplied by manufacturer and its film was
prepared by dissolving it in cyclopentanone. This method was chosen to reduce the
heating cost of preparation as a normal preparation would require hot melting of the PVDF powder. It was found that up to 30 weight percent (wt%) of PVDF could be
dissolved in cyclopentanone successfully. Higher wt% hindered total dissolution of
PVDF. Dissolution of PVDF powder in cyclopentanone was carried out by magnetic
stirring at about 200 RPM for half an hour followed by another half an hour of stirring
and heating (200 RPM and 90oC). The whole process was carried out under reflux
condition and the gel formed after the stirring was left to cool down for a few minutes.
The gel was cast onto a petri dish to form film. PVDF-YIG composite was prepared by
the same PVDF preparation method with additional YIG particles prepared as a raw
material component. The composition of YIG is limited to 20 wt%.
It was found that YIG particles prepared had an average crystallite size of about 51 nm
and YIG single phase was formed at sintering temperature as low as 600oC. Temperature
of 800oC was chosen as the sintering temperature for preparation of YIG filler particles
for the composite due to a better garnet phase formed as observed by XRD. PVDF with
10 wt% of PVDF dissolved in cyclopentanone was chosen for the composite
preparation. The PVDF film prepared was found to be highly crystalline with a major
XRD peak observed at 77.7o (2θ). This peak was never reported before for PVDF. The
PVDF film had leaf-like morphology with observable fibrils. FT-IR results confirmed
the YIG and PVDF prepared conformed to reported results. EDX analysis showed that
all elements were traceable although with some deviation from theoretical values. Magnetic analysis of YIG, PVDF and PVDF-YIG composites showed that all the
samples prepared were wave absorbing. It was found that the PVDF film without any
filler was a magnetic material and had a better wave absorbing property than the YIG
itself. It was also found that imaginary permeability of composite samples showed a
capacitive instead of inductive character. However, the best wave absorber was found to
be the composite with 1 wt% of YIG filled which can operate at a frequency range of 2
MHz – 1 GHz with a real permeability of about 200.


We investigate how to address the shortcomings of the popular One-Class Collaborative Filtering (OCCF) methods in handling challenging "sparse" dataset in one-class setting (e.g., clicked or bookmarked), and propose a novel graph-theoretic OCCF approach, named as gOCCF, by exploiting both positive preferences (derived from rated items) as well as negative preferences (derived from unrated items). In capturing both positive and negative preferences as a bipartite graph, further, we apply the graph shattering theory to determine the right amount of negative preferences to use. Then, we develop a suite of novel graph-based OCCF methods based on the random walk with restart and belief propagation methods. Through extensive experiments using 3 real-life datasets, we show that our gOCCF effectively addresses the sparsity challenge and significantly outperforms all of 8 competing methods in accuracy on very sparse datasets while providing comparable accuracy to the best performing OCCF methods on less sparse datasets. The datasets and implementations used in the empirical validation are available for access: https://goo.gl/sfiawn.


AIMS
Interleukin-34 (IL-34) and macrophage colony-stimulating factor (CSF-1) have similar functions, such as promoting the formation of liver fibrosis. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the diagnostic value of serum IL-34 and CSF-1 for significant liver fibrosis in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB).

METHODS
A total of 369 CHB patients, consisting of 208 HBeAg-negative patients and 161 HBeAg-positive patients, were enrolled in this study. Additionally, 72 healthy individuals served as healthy controls (HCs). Serum levels of IL-34 and CSF-1 were measured using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. Liver fibrosis grades were assessed using the modified Scheuer scoring system.

RESULTS
Serum IL-34 and CSF-1 levels exhibited significant elevation in both HBeAg-negative and HBeAg-positive patients in comparison to HCs (p < 0.001). IL-34 emerged as an independent factor linked to significant liver fibrosis, whereas CSF-1 did not exhibit such an association. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis indicated higher areas under the curves (AUCs) for IL-34 (0.814, p < 0.001 and 0.673, p < 0.001) when diagnosing significant liver fibrosis in HBeAg-negative and HBeAg-positive patients, respectively, as opposed to CSF-1 (0.602, p < 0.001; 0.619, p = 0.385). Within the HBeAg-negative patient subgroup, the AUC for IL-34 surpassed that of FIB-4 (p = 0.009) and APRI (p = 0.045).

CONCLUSION
Serum IL-34 has the potential to be a straightforward and practical biomarker that demonstrates superior performance to serum CSF-1 in the diagnosis of significant liver fibrosis in CHB patients, especially within the HBeAg-negative patients.


A series of breast carcinomas of known steroid receptor status have been examined for evidence of binding of the lectins peanut agglutinin, soy bean agglutinin and wheat germ agglutinin. Correlations were found between oestrogen receptor status and reactivity of carcinomas to peanut agglutinin and soy bean agglutinin but these were not absolute. Wheat germ agglutinin binding was unrelated to the presence of oestrogen receptors. No relationship was evident between progestogen receptors and the binding of any lectin. It therefore seems unlikely that lectin histochemistry can replace steroid receptors as markers of hormone dependence in breast carcinomas.


Haemoglobin and transferrin types were investigated in Cine type sheep. Separation of transferrin (Tf) and haemoglobin (Hb) types was carried out using horizontal starch-gel and polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, respectively. Three Hb A and 59 Hb B types, and 5 transferrin alleles (A, B, M, D, E) were isolated from Cine type sheep. Eight Tf phenotypes consisting of 3 homozygote types (Tf AA, Tf MM, Tf DD) and 5 hetorozygote types (Tf AM, Tf AD, Tf AE, Tf BD, Tf MD) were detected.


Estimation of the classification error and of the coefficient of determination (CoD) is a fundamental issue in discrete prediction problems. Analytical expressions for exact performance metrics of non-randomized error estimators and CoD estimators have been derived in previous publications by the authors. However, computation of these expressions becomes problematic as the sample size or predictor complexity increases, particularly in the case of second moments. Thus, fast and accurate approximations are desirable. In this paper, we make approximations to the variances of resubstitution and leave-one-out error estimators and CoD estimators. Our results show that these approximations not only are quite accurate but also reduce computation time tremendously.


We show how to automatically verify that complex XScale-like pipelined machine models satisfy the same safety and liveness properties as their corresponding instruction set architecture models, by using the notion of well-founded equivalence bisimulation (WEB) refinement. Automation is achieved by reducing the WEB-refinement proof obligation to a formula in the logic of counter arithmetic with lambda expressions and uninterpreted functions (CLU). We use the tool UCLID to transform the resulting CLU formula into a Boolean formula, which is then checked with a SAT solver. The models we verify include features such as out of order completion, precise exceptions, branch prediction, and interrupts. We use two types of refinement maps. In one, flushing is used to map pipelined machine states to instruction set architecture states; in the other, we use the commitment approach, which is the dual of flushing, since partially completed instructions are invalidated. We present experimental results for all the machines modelled, including verification times. For our application, we found that the time spent proving liveness accounts for about 5% of the over-all verification time.


In this paper we propose a method to calculate the average blocking probability in all-optical networks using limited-range wavelength conversion. Previous works have shown that there is a remarkable improvement in blocking probability while using limited-range wavelength conversion, but these analytical models were either for a path or for a mesh-torus network. Using a graph-theoretical approach, we extend Birman's (1996) model for no wavelength conversion and derive an analytical expression to compute the blocking probabilities in networks for fixed routing. The proposed model is applicable to any network topology. We consider the case where an incoming wavelength can be converted to d adjacent outgoing wavelengths on either side of the input wavelength, in addition to the input wavelength itself, where d is the degree of conversion. When d=0 and d=((C-1)/2), where C is the capacity of a link, the proposed model reduces to the model previously given for no wavelength conversion and the model previously given for full wavelength conversion respectively. Using this model we demonstrate that the performance improvement obtained by full wavelength conversion over no wavelength conversion can almost be achieved by using limited-range wavelength conversion with the degree of conversion, d, being only 1 or 2. In the example networks we considered, for blocking probabilities up to a few percent, the carried traffic with limited conversion degree d=2 was almost equal to the carried traffic for full wavelength conversion. Comparisons to simulations show that our analytical model is accurate for a variety of networks, for various values of the conversion degree (d=1,2,3), and hop length (1-4), and over a wide range of blocking probabilities (>0.0001). The method is also accurate in estimating the blocking probabilities on individual paths (and not just the average blocking probability in the network).


Summary
To manage populations of threatened fish species in modified habitats and regulated rivers requires an understanding of their reproductive biology and spawning cues. In particular, accurate information about early life stages in these species can be used to facilitate programmes that maximise recruitment and breeding success. This study aimed to develop methods to accurately age early juvenile freshwater native fish, Two-spined Blackfish, (Gadopsis bispinosus), to allow the determination of spawning date. This was accomplished through the examination of otolith microstructure in early juveniles. The age at which the first ring was deposited and the relationship between days and number of rings were determined using both field and aquarium trials. Field trials of marked juvenile otoliths revealed daily deposition of rings (1.02 ± 0.02 rings per day for fish sacrificed six days postmarking). The strength of this relationship lessened slightly as juveniles aged (0.92 ± 0.02 rings per day for fish sacrificed 13 days postmarking). The first otolith ring was deposited 7.50 ± 1.09 days after spawning. The enumeration of daily rings combined with knowledge of the commencement of ring deposition enabled accurate estimation of spawning date. The current study is the first to examine otolith microstructure in juvenile Two-spined Blackfish allowing accurate determination of spawning date. While more research is required to accurately age older juveniles, this technique has the potential to precisely correlate spawning with environmental cues, facilitating better management of temperature and flow during breeding periods, potentially increasing spawning and recruitment of this endangered species.


Quality of life is a multidimensional, sophisticated, comprehensive and abstract concept that reflects life conditions, health and social welfare status, perception of life and psychology of individuals. It is affected by health problem and disease existence as well as individual, demographic, economic and social characteristics such as gender, education, marital status and income level. The objective of this study is to determine the more likely predictors of the quality of life in Turkey. 2016 Turkey Health Survey that is a large and nationally representative survey was used to reach study objective. The results indicated that individual and demographic characteristic as well as self-rated health status and disease existence were the main predictors of quality of life. Based on the findings, it can be recommended that appropriate interventions might improve quality of life which is tend to be lower among aged, female, less educated and widow/separated individuals. It is also recommended in improving health status of individuals and improving accessibility, and quality of the health services for people with a disease will increase the quality of life of individuals.


From the Publisher:
A robot manipulator is a movable chain of links interconnected by joints. One end is fixed to the ground, and a hand or end effector that can move freely in space is attached at the other end. This book begins with an introduction to the subject of robot manipulators. Next, it describes in detail a forward and reverse analysis for serial robot arms. Most of the text focuses on closed-form solution techniques applied to a broad range of manipulator geometries, from typical industrial robot designs (relatively simple geometries) to the most complicated case of seven general links serially connected by six revolute joints. A unique feature of this text is its detailed analysis of 6R-P and 7R mechanisms. Case studies show how the techniques described in the book are used in real engineering applications. The book meets the need for a thorough, up-to-date analysis of the structure and mobility of serial manipulators and will be useful to both graduate students and engineers working in the field of robotics.


ABSTRACT Here, we report the complete genome sequence of the triclosan- and multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain B10W, obtained from municipal wastewater in Hawaii. The bacterium has a 6.7-Mb genome, contains 6,391 coding sequences and 78 RNAs, with an average G+C content of 66.2 mol%.


2, 4-Dinitrophenol (2, 4-DNP) is widely used in industry, but recently, poisoning through consumption for weight control has been frequently reported. We report the cases of two patients whose deaths were attributed to occupational and non-oral exposure of 2, 4-DNP. They were all poisoned through skin absorption and respiratory tract inhalation; common features were excessive sweating, hyperthermia, tachycardia, clouded consciousness and asystole. Because of the lack of specific early symptoms, effective antidotes and the means of washing the contamination from the skin, their arrival in hospital was delayed and the supportive therapy was ineffectual. Cardiac arrest occurred quickly and unexpected after admission.


Abstract Willmann, Gabriel, Kai Schommer, Maximilian Schultheiss, M. Dominik Fischer, Karl-Ulrich Bartz-Schmidt, Florian Gekeler, and Andreas Schatz. Effect of high altitude exposure on intraocular pressure using Goldmann applanation tonometry. High Alt Med Biol. 18:114–120, 2017. Aims: The aim of the study was to quantify changes of intraocular pressure (IOP) during exposure to 4559 m using the state-of-the-art method of Goldmann applanation tonometry for IOP measurement and to detect correlations between IOP and acute mountain sickness (AMS) in a prospective manner. Methods: IOP was measured using a Goldmann applanation tonometer AT 900® (Haag-Streit, Switzerland) and central corneal thickness (CCT) with the anterior segment module of a Spectralis™ HRA+OCT® device (Heidelberg Engineering, Germany) at baseline and high altitude. Assessment of AMS was performed using the Lake Louise and AMS-C questionnaires, and Pearson's correlation coefficient was calculated for association between IOP and AMS. Results:...


ABSTRACT The objectives of research were to study influence of biogass compost from cow manure for improvement some physical properties of Ultisol and Soy bean yield. The research was conducted from Janary 2011 untill April 2011. Design of experiment was randomized completely block design with 6 treatment (dossage of biogass compost from cow manure) and 4 replication. The treatment were SB0 : without treatment, SB1 = 5 ton ha-1, SB2 = 10 tone ha-1, SB3 = 15 tone ha-1, SB4 = 20 tone ha-1, SB5 = 25 tone ha-1. Data was analyzed by varians analysis and Duncan New Multiple Range Test on α = 0,05. The results of research was show that biogass compost from cow manure was not affect significantly on soil organic matter, porosity total, and penetration, but it was affect significantly on soil water content increasing. Dossage 20 tone ha-1 of Biogass compost from cow manure can increase soy bean yield until 1,083 tone ha-1 and the best dossage for Ultisol.


ABSTRACT Background: Tooth wear is an irreversible dental problem resulting in damage of teeth. It is one of oral health problems that is related with attitude and awareness of an individual. The aim of this study was to identify the importance of attitude and awareness in relation to tooth wear among adults in Pulau Pinang. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 390 adults randomly selected from three educational institutions. A self-administered, validated questionnaire to assess attitude and practice of tooth wear were used. Samples were recruited using simple random sampling method. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential analysis. Result: Approximately three hundred and forty-nine subjects participated in this study. 64.5% of subjects revealed they never heard about tooth wear. Majority agreed on using soft bristle toothbrush, lesser consumption of carbonated drinks and avoidance of tooth grinding habits to reduce tooth wear occurrence. Seeking dental treatment immediately after having tooth sensitivity was considered a positive attitude. However, 62.2% of adults reported using medium type of toothbrush bristle and also 78.5% of adults brushed their teeth before going to bed. Nevertheless, 57.3% of adults had never used mouthwash as part of their oral hygiene care. Related practices to tooth wear awareness include smoking and swimming in chlorinated swimming pools. Conclusion: The modification of attitude and practice related to tooth wear occurrence must consider the patient's background history. Thus, focus on awareness for modification of behavioural habits is able to provide positive implication by reducing modifiable risk towards better oral health. Keywords: Attitude, Awareness, Tooth wear, Adults, Practice


This paper addresses the problem of optimizing logistic processes that can be modeled as a birth-and-death process. A fuzzy decision making algorithm is proposed to assign components to orders, which is a common task in a large number of logistic processes. The dynamic assignment of components to orders is the key issue in optimizing logistic processes. This paper proposes several criteria for this optimization. These criteria are combined using weighted fuzzy aggregation in a fuzzy decision making environment. First, a simple but illustrative example shows that the proposed techniques can be applied with good results to this type of processes. Then, the proposed method is applied to a real-world logistic process at Fujitsu-Siemens Computers.


Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is highly safe in treatments based on internationally accepted treatment tables. However, in some long-term treatments, the internal adjuvant and the patient are exposed to some toxic effects. In the presence of compressed air environment, nitrogen can lead to drunkenness. Another cause of poisoning is oxygen. Oxygen shows toxic effects when inhaled in the high-pressure environment for long periods or above partial pressures on 3 ATA. The excess oxygen has a toxic effect on the lung and central nervous system (CNS). Oxygen poisoning can be seen in long-term oxygen therapy in intensive care, in closed or semi-closed circuit diving, in saturation dives, on decompressions on the surface, in recompression and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The first goal during convulsion is to prevent trauma prevent the patient from biting his tongue during the seizure. However, in nitrogen narcosis, the first intervention should be to prevent the diver from diving deeper to reduce the effect of anesthesia. The lifeguard must prevent the unconscious movements of the diver, such as removing the regulator from his mouth and holding his breath. He must think that the dive is like a dream.


This article explicates Robert Bean and Barbara Lounder's 2017 collaborative artwork and public pedagogy project, Breathing-in-the-Breathable: An annotated walk. The authors contextualize the artwork in relation to its site, the ruins of a nineteenth-century tuberculosis sanatorium in the small Polish town of Sokołowsko. This site is a place historically associated with disease, healing and deadly conflict. The participatory project utilized an event score, objects, sound and embodied movement in exploring how the atmosphere and environment became explicit and weaponized by the use of gas warfare during the First and Second World Wars. Along with the site itself, the concept of 'Being-in-the-Breathable' (Sloterdijk, 2009) provided Bean and Lounder with a framework for this collaborative public artwork. The artists adopted walking as a creative method that disturbs histories, ideologies and habits, while simultaneously creating new networks of meaning spanning temporal frames, spaces, disciplinary boundaries, and embodied sensorial modalities (Ingold & Vergunst, 2008). The authors illustrate key points in the 90-minute artwork with colour images documenting the event.


In this paper, we propose an analysis method for examining yarn cross-sectional structure. After obtaing yarn cross section photos, annular equal area yarn model and binary operation were used for image analysis and treatment. Then, statistic method was applied to analyze the distribution of fiber area in equal areas. The centroid position of the fiber and yarn were calculated, and the percentage values of the fiber area in each equal division against its circle (ring) area were obtained by using an ImageJ software. Finally a yarn sample was examined, and results show that this method is useful.


ABSTRACT From a practical theological perspective, this article reflects on the socially constructed nature of attention deficit, hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Although ADHD as diagnostic label is relatively recent, children and young people so described have been written about in medical and psychological literature since the beginning of the 20th century. Drawing attention to current medical criteria used to diagnose ADHD as a disability, the article points to the normative influence and practice of powerful professional groups in determining whose behavior is considered acceptable or otherwise. To illustrate that ADHD is not incompatible with faithful discipleship, the article compares the medical and psychological criteria with descriptions of Apostle Peter's behavior as recorded in Scripture. Heuristically understood, Peter's behavior highlights that what is considered disruptive in one context may not necessarily be considered disruptive in another. Indeed, such disruption can be re-interpreted as a hopeful sign of God's grace. From a Christian perspective, existing practices that build on assumptions that ADHD is a problem to be solved are examined. Demonstrating that such practices tend to exclude children, young people, and their families from schools and from churches with significant adverse consequences, the article considers how Christians might build more hospitable communities capable of welcoming people whose behavior may at first sight, challenge accepted norms within and beyond the Christian community.


Differences in rare earth element (REE) relative fractionations and total abundances in marine cherts and shales reflect the depositional location of the sediments. Based on cerium anomaly (Ce/Ce*) and total REE abundance (ΣREE) variations preserved in interbedded chert and shale sequences of the Franciscan assemblage, the Claremont Formation, and the Monterey Formation of coastal California, we can resolve three depositional regimes: spreading ridge proximal, ocean-basin floor, and continental margin. This resolution of depositional environment, previously unattainable in otherwise physically indistinct marine sedimentary rocks, provides a potentially powerful new tool for tectonic and stratigraphic reconstructions. Chert and shale deposited near the spreading ridge (within ∼400 km) under the influence of metalliferous activity are characterized by extremely low Ce anomalies (Ce/Ce* ∼0.29), those from an ocean-basin floor setting by well-developed yet less extreme Ce anomalies (Ce/Ce* ∼0.55), and those from continental margin regimes by no or slight anomalies (Ce/Ce* ∼0.90 to 1.30). ΣREE in chert and shale are extremely low in regimes greatly influenced by continental input, owing to the high sedimentation rate, which minimizes exposure time to seawater and, thus, the adsorption of REE. Preliminary results indicate that the effect of diagenesis does not mask the primary REE depositional signature.


Abstract. Owing to the complex nature and dynamic behaviors of secondary organic aerosol (SOA), its ability to cause oxidative stress (known as oxidative potential, or OP) and adverse health outcomes remains poorly understood. In this work, we probed the linkages between the chemical composition of SOA and its OP, and investigated impacts from various SOA evolution pathways, including atmospheric oligomerization, heterogeneous oxidation, and mixing with metal. SOA formed from photooxidation of the two most common polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (naphthalene and phenanthrene) were studied as model systems. OP was evaluated using the dithiothreitol (DTT) assay. The oligomer-rich fraction separated by liquid chromatography dominates DTT activity in both SOA systems (52 ± 10 % for naphthalene SOA (NSOA), and 56 ± 5 % for phenanthrene SOA (PSOA)). Heterogeneous ozonolysis of NSOA was found to enhance its OP, which is consistent with the trend observed in selected individual oxidation products. DTT activities from redox-active organic compounds and metals were found to be not additive. When mixing with highly redox-active metal (Cu), OP of the mixture decreased significantly for 1,2-naphthoquinone (42 ± 7 %), 2,3-dihydroxynaphthalene (35 ± 1 %), NSOA (50 ± 6 %), and PSOA (43 ± 4 %). Evidence from proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy illustrates that such OP reduction upon mixing can be ascribed to metal–organic binding interactions. Our results highlight the role of aerosol chemical composition under atmospheric aging processes in determining the OP of SOA, which is needed for more accurate and explicit prediction of the toxicological impacts from particulate matter.


A structural map of Oscar II Land compiled using black and white, stereo-pair air photos and other available information sources suggests the existence of three structural zones within the deformed platform cover strata. The western zone consists of basement involved overthrusts of complex geometry in the north large-scale folds of platform cover strata with a stepped, down to the east profile in the south. The central zone consists primarily of folds within Kapp Starostin Fm. and overlying Triassic strata that likely formed above a subhorizontal decollement within Gipshuken Fm. strata. Farther to the east thrusts emplace Permian Kapp Starostin Fm. strata over Triassic strata. This zone probably represents stratigraphic climb of the basal decollement. Conservative estimates of shortening for the central and eastern zones are in the 15-25% range. The contribution of the western zone structures to overall Tertiary shortening depends on the geometry of faults underlying the stepped folds and is uncertain at present. Changes along strike are in part due to differential levels of erosion and changes in transport direction, but also probably important was variable thickness of the platform cover strata involved (less to the north) and the availability of incompetent horizons along which thrust-fiats could form. Two areas with anomalous structural trends may represent oblique ramps.


With recent trend of wearable devices and Internet of Things (IoTs), it becomes attractive to develop hardware-based deep convolutional neural networks (DCNNs) for embedded applications, which require low power/energy consumptions and small hardware footprints. Recent works demonstrated that the Stochastic Computing (SC) technique can radically simplify the hardware implementation of arithmetic units and has the potential to satisfy the stringent power requirements in embedded devices. However, in these works, the memory design optimization is neglected for weight storage, which will inevitably result in large hardware cost. Moreover, if conventional volatile SRAM or DRAM cells are utilized for weight storage, the weights need to be re-initialized whenever the DCNN platform is re-started. In order to overcome these limitations, in this work we adopt an emerging non-volatile Domain-Wall Memory (DWM), which can achieve ultra-high density, to replace SRAM for weight storage in SC-based DCNNs. We propose DW-CNN, the first comprehensive design optimization framework of DWM-based weight storage method. We derive the optimal memory type, precision, and organization, as well as whether to store binary or stochastic numbers. We present effective resource sharing scheme for DWM-based weight storage in the convolutional and fully-connected layers of SC-based DCNNs to achieve a desirable balance among area, power (energy) consumption, and application-level accuracy.


The issue of software patents is widely discussed in Europe today. The standard economic rationale for patents is to protect potential innovators from imitation, which ultimately provides the incentive to incur the costs of innovation. This incentive topic is strongly discussed in network effect markets such as the software market. We identified five characteristics of software which are crucial for the question of patenting and its consequences: Sequentiality, complementarity, the utilization and availability of open code and the necessity to ensure interoperability as well as the digital character of the goods. Based on seven assumptions affiliated from the literature, we developed a bipartite central probability model comparing a deregulated market without patents to a market using the patent system. The main objectives were to evaluate the frequency of innovations in the software market and on the other hand to investigate monopolistic tendencies. We simulated our model under two different parameter constellations (optimistic and pessimistic environment from a patent owner's view). Selected snapshots of exemplary simulations showed that strong patent protection circumvented technical progress from a macroeconomic perspective. Moreover, in the long run only one actor (monopolist) dominated the market. Reducing the protection strength (pessimistic environment) resulted in partially contrary effects. N. Hoppen, D. Beimborn, W. Konig The Impact of Software Patents


This paper proposes an innovative methodology to design a DSP (Digital Signal Processing) system using FPGA (Field-programmable Gate Array). There are several main components in this system, including A/D sampling unit, FFT processing unit and control unit. A/D sampling and FFT processing units utilize the Nios processor in FPGA as controller. Control unit uses EP1C20 FPGA chip from ALTERA as FFT processing unit so as to manage the FIFO operations. This unit can handle 128 FFT operations. This system design approach is tested on Matlab. The results indicate that the calculation speed is much faster than common DSP manner.


The San Francisco Men's Health Study is a prospective study of the epidemiology and natural history of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in a cohort of 1034 single men, 25 to 54 years of age, recruited by multistage probability sampling. At entry, June 1984 through January 1985, the seropositivity rate for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection among homosexual/bisexual study participants was 48.5%. No heterosexual participants were HIV seropositive. Among homosexual/bisexual men reporting no male sexual partners in the two years before entry into the study, seropositivity was 17.6%. For those reporting more than 50 partners, seropositivity was 70.8%. Only receptive anal/genital contact had a significantly elevated risk of HIV infection. Douching was the only ancillary sexual practice that contributed significantly to risk of infection.


In this paper, I made an attempt to map the decision making structure regarding injured or at risk players within professional team sports. I assumed four main stakeholders to be involved in the process: player, coach, physician and the club or national federation as an economic and social institution. It appeared that every stakeholder has different motives that drive them while making decisions concerning injured or at risk players. Starting from the problem of 'playing hurt', various external factors influence the attitude of the stakeholders in specific cases. These need to be analyzed since a deeper understanding of the reasoning of the stakeholders will learn/teach us to what extent the player is capable of practicing their autonomy, presuming that this principle is important within medical ethics. Furthermore, in order to protect the player's health, they need to get the physical and emotional risks they take covered by their employer. Finally, this paper concludes with defining a sport organization's attitude towards health. It seems that their interest is twofold; it is a matter of instrumental reasons on the one hand – fit players means an increased chance of economic successes - and the carrying of a moral obligation on the other. The latter becomes a question of justice.


This review aimed to synthesise the literature describing interventions to improve resilience among physicians, to evaluate the quality of this research and to outline the type and efficacy of interventions implemented. Searches were conducted in April 2017 using five electronic databases. Reference lists of included studies and existing review papers were screened. English language, peer-reviewed studies evaluating interventions to improve physician resilience were included. Data were extracted on setting, design, participant and intervention characteristics and outcomes. Methodological quality was assessed using the Downs and Black checklist. Twenty-two studies were included. Methodological quality was low to moderate. The most frequently employed interventional strategies were psychosocial skills training and mindfulness training. Effect sizes were heterogeneous. Methodologically rigorous research is required to establish best practice in improving resilience among physicians and to better consider how healthcare settings should be considered within interventions.


Retained placenta is one of the complications associated with parturition in dairy cows. A 4- year old Friesian-kedah cross cow weighing 400kg was presented to the large animal unit University Veterinary Hospital, Universiti Putra Malaysia, with the complain of retained placenta 9 days prior to presentation. Clinical findings were pyrexia, congested mucous membranes and serosanguineous discharge with fetid odour from the vulva. Haematology and biochemistry findings showed an increase in packed cell volume, monocytosis, hyperglobulinaemia, hyperproteinemia, hypernatremia, hyperchloridaemia and increased level of creatine kinase. Bacterial culture from the swab samples of the vaginal discharge revealed growth of Escherichia coli. The retained placenta was manually removed by gentle traction and the uterus was lavaged using normal saline (0.9% NaCl) followed by an intrauterine infusion of Oxytetracycline hydrochloride L.A (20mg/kg). Systemic intramuscular injections of Oxytetracycline hydrochloride (20mg/kg Stat), Flunixine meglumine (1.1mg/kg) and multivitamin (10mg/kg) were administered. The prognosis was good after a follow up visit one week later. Retention of placenta following parturition is usually associated with bacterial pathogens. Therefore, prompt intervention in cases exceeding 24 hours post partum is important in order to avert the incidence of uterine infections that will threaten heard fertility.


Purpose This study aims to investigate the prognostic value of the peripheral neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) in patients with chronic internal carotid artery occlusion (CICAO) complicated by cerebral infarction. Patients and Methods The clinical data of 99 CICAO patients complicated by cerebral infarction were retrospectively analyzed. The modified Rankin Scale (mRS) was used to assess their 3-month prognosis, and a multivariate logistic regression model was established to explore risk factors for poor prognosis. Results Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that NLR (OR=2.114; 95% CI: 1.129–3.959) and baseline National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS; OR=1.288, 95% CI: 1.053–1.574) score were risk factors of poor prognosis. The area under the receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curve of NLR in predicting the 3-month outcome after onset was 0.717 (95% CI: 0.606–0.828, P<0.000). The optimal cut-off value was 3.22, with a sensitivity of 0.743 and a specificity of 0.791. Conclusion NLR is an independent risk factor for the poor prognosis of CICAO patients complicated by cerebral infarction and can serve as an indicator for clinical prognosis.


This study was carried out to investigate the effect of water limit through the control of water content within rhizosphere on the leaf temperature changes of hydroponically grown tomato plant as a water stress index. As water contents treated were 30, 35, 40, 45, 50±5%, the leaf temperature was lower 0.5 to 1.1 (cid:59282) , but pericarp temperature was higher 1.8 (cid:59282)(cid:71) than air temperature in August. On second day of water limit, leaf temperature was highest at 3 pm and higher 2.8 (cid:59282)(cid:71) than air temperature. After about 60 days of water limit, leaf temperature as affected by below 40% water content was similar with or higher than air temperature. Therefore these results could be used as a water stress index, however, it would be considered that more investigation and analysis on leaf temperature changes by time passes were needed.


Abstract Temperature is an important factor that may affect the performance of anaerobic digestion. Therefore, biogas plants without heating system work only in warmer regions for the whole year. In regions with extreme temperature variations, for instance in Turkey, the biogas plant should be built with heating system. One of the methods is to use solar energy to increase the reactor temperature. In this study, solar heated biogas plants were reviewed. Furthermore, the optimization of insulation thicknesses and solar energy systems for 5 m3 biogas reactor were carried out for two different cities for three different climatic zones in Turkey. Based on the obtained results, the ratio of annually produced biogas used for reactor heating was calculated for each city, with and without solar heating system. Obtained results indicate that the biogas consumption for reactor heating is decreased by approximately 19% for average of six cities when solar heating system is used. This means that available biogas potential would be increased.


Rough set theory (RST) was proposed as a mathematical tool to deal with the analysis of imprecise, uncertain or incomplete information or knowledge. It is of fundamental importance to artificial intelligence particularly in the areas of knowledge discovery, machine learning, decision support systems, and inductive reasoning. At the heart of RST is the idea of only employing the information contained within the data, thus unlike many other methods, probability distribution information or assignments are not required. RST relies on the concept of indiscernibility to group equivalent elements and generate knowledge granules. These granules are then used to build a structure to approximate a given concept. This framework has unsurprisingly proven successful for the application to the task of feature selection. Feature selection (FS) is a term given to the problem of selecting input attributes which are most predictive of a given outcome. Unlike other dimensionality reduction methods, feature selection algorithms preserve the original semantics of the features following reduction. This has been applied to tasks which involve datasets that contain huge numbers of features (in the order of tens of thousands), which would be impossible to process otherwise. Recent examples of such problems include text processing and web content classification. FS techniques have also been applied to small and medium-sized datasets in order to discover the most information-rich features. The application of rough sets for FS has resulted in many efficient algorithms. However, due to the granularity of the approximations generated by the rough set approach there is often a resulting level of uncertainty. This uncertainty in information is usually ignored for FS (by nature of the very fact that it is 'uncertain'). In this thesis, a number of methods are proposed which attempt to use the uncertain information to improve the performance of rough sets and extensions thereof for the task of FS. These approaches are applied to two application domain problems where the reduction of features is of high importance; mammographic image analysis and complex systems monitoring. The utility of the approaches is demonstrated and compared empirically with several other dimensionality reduction techniques. In several experimental evaluation sections, the approaches are shown to equal or improve classification accuracy when compared to results obtained from unreduced data. Based on the new fuzzy-rough approaches, further developments and techniques are also presented in this thesis. The first of these is the application of a nearest neighbour classifier for the classification of real-valued data. This technique is evaluated within the mammographic imaging application. Also, a novel unsupervised feature selection approach is proposed which reduces features by eliminating those which are considered redundant. Both the fuzzy-rough classifier mentioned above, and UFRFS are employed and evaluated for the complex systems monitoring application.


For 2009 the bibliography continues its customary coverage of secondary writings published since 1900 in western European languages on slavery or the slave trade anywhere in the world: monographs, notes and articles in scholarly periodicals, substantial reviews and review essays, conference papers, and chapters in edited volumes and Festschriften focused primarily on slavery or slave trading. Scholarly materials in electronic media, as well as some audio and visual, are also mentioned. Readers unfamiliar with other technical aspects of the presentation may refer to the notes introducing previous supplements in this journal. The bibliography does not include materials on slavery found in writings focused on other subjects, e.g. Spanish administrative practice, the history of sugar, urban or agricultural history, race relations, or the Roman family. Specialists in every field will therefore not find recognized contributions to knowledge of the subject presented in the context of the broader scholarship in their areas – perhaps, and precisely for that reason often among the more significant works in their fields. It is on such specialists, and the references to such related studies that they provide in their own works, that the bibliography ultimately depends. We aim here to cover the literature at a level that gives readers full access to all scholarly literature on slavery within a single additional research step. We have made a minor change to the organization of the bibliography. For some time the "Modern" sub-heading, under the section "Other," has been used as a catch-all for a variety of different entries. To better organize these burgeoning fields of inquiry, we have created a new sub-heading, "Representations and Legacies," which includes entries concerning memory and commemoration, the artistic and literary representation of slavery in contemporary works, and the legacies of slavery, including scholarly work regarding restitution. The "Modern" sub-heading will now deal solely with contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking. Slavery & Abolition Vol. 31, No. 4, December 2010, pp. 565–637


Background: The modes of presentation of abdominal tuberculosis can be vague resulting in diagnostic dilemma.Objective: To report a case of abdominal tuberculosis diagnosed by FNAC of a mesenteric lymphnode.Case: A 17-year-old boy presented in General out Patient department complaining of abdominal pain, abdominal distension, and low grade fever, anorexia and weight loss for 2 months. The examination revealed pallor, low body weight, doughing of abdomen and multiple palpable painless, slightly mobile abdominal lymph nodes. The ultrasonography (USG) guided fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) of a mesenteric lymphnode showed caseating necrosis suggestive of tuberculosis. The erythrocytes sedimentation rate (ESR) was raised.Conclusion: The abdominal tuberculosis can present with abdominal pain and abdominal distension associated with low grade fever, anorexia and weight loss. The diagnosis of abdominal tuberculosis can be confirmed by FNAC of the lymphnodes. Health Renaissance 2015;13(3): 177-180


Based on theorems of Picard and Borel, R. Nevanlinna published his paper [25] and evolved a theory that carries his name. The development of the theory into complex analysis in several variables was quite fast and a number of papers such as A. Bloch [26b], H. Cartan [33], and H. Weyl–J. Weyl [38] were published. Following H. Weyl–J. Weyl [38], the paper of A.L. Ahlfors [41] was published, and this work was succeeded by W. Stoll [53b], [54], being developed into the theory of meromorphic mappings from parabolic spaces into complex projective spaces. S.-S. Chern studied the value distribution of holomorphic curves from the viewpoint of differential geometry, and published a number of papers; one of them was a joint paper, Bott–Chern [65], where they introduced a "connection" to the study of the value distribution theory and found a relation with characteristic classes. S.-S. Chern introduced with Osserman the Nevanlinna theoretic method into the study of Gauss' maps of minimal surfaces in Euclidean spaces. This approach was advanced much, especially by H. Fujimoto, and finally reached the solution of Gauss' map conjecture (H. Fujimoto [88a]). From the late 1960s to the early 1970s the theory of Kobayashi hyperbolic manifolds and the value distribution theory of equidimensional holomorphic mappings were initiated (Kobayashi [67], [70]; Carlson–Griffiths [72]; Griffiths–King [73]), and the value distribution theory in several complex variables advanced considerably and was enlarged, so that it has broadened the border with more related subjects. T. Ochiai [77] revived Bloch's paper (Bloch [26b]) and proved a lemma on holomorphic differentials, which is a counterpart to the lemma on logarithmic derivatives in Nevanlinna theory, and obtained the so-called the Bloch–Ochiai Theorem. In the study of the extension of the Bloch–Ochiai Theorem to the non-compact case, the relation with P. Deligne's logarithmic forms (Deligne [71], [74]) was found and the initial step to deal with varieties other than complex projective space began for the value distribution theory of holomorphic curves (Noguchi [77b]). As a result, the Bloch–Ochiai Theorem and the classical theorem of Borel were unified. On the other hand, S. Lang formulated a conjecture of a higher dimensional version of Mordell's conjecture on rational points such that a Kobayashi hyperbolic


Revisiting the now de facto standard Stanford dependency representation, we propose an improved taxonomy to capture grammatical relations across languages, including morphologically rich ones. We suggest a two-layered taxonomy: a set of broadly attested universal grammatical relations, to which language-specific relations can be added. We emphasize the lexicalist stance of the Stanford Dependencies, which leads to a particular, partially new treatment of compounding, prepositions, and morphology. We show how existing dependency schemes for several languages map onto the universal taxonomy proposed here and close with consideration of practical implications of dependency representation choices for NLP applications, in particular parsing.


The study sought to establish from business education students in tertiary institutions in Anambra state Nigeria, their usage of social networking sites, educational activities they use it for and problems they face using social networking sites. Population of the study was made up of 577 penultimate and final year business education students of four tertiary institutions in Anambra state. Proportionate sampling technique was used to select 236 students for the study. Three research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. A structured questionnaire was used to gather information for the study. The data collection instrument was subjected to a reliability test which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.70, 0.63 and 0.80 using Cronbach alpha. Mean, frequency count and percentages were used to analyze data in order to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that business education students spend two to three hours on social networking sites daily; they rarely used social networking sites for educational activities and faced the problem of poor network service. The respondents did not differ significantly in their responses regarding academic usage of social networking sites as a result of gender. Consequently, it was recommended, among others, that business education students should be taught to harness the educational potentials of social networking sites as to effectively use these sites for educational purposes.


This work presents a numerical investigation on thermal performance of a tube fitted with regularly spaced twisted tape elements in turbulent flow regime. Two different twisted tape widths of 46 mm and 44 mm which are lower than the tube inside diameter of 50 mm are used, in order to reduce excessive pressure drops associated with full width twisted tape elements. The numerical analyses were performed with various free space ratios (S = 0.0, 1.0, and 2.0) at a constant twist ratio (TR) of 5. Uniform heat flux was applied to the external surface of the tube and Reynolds numbers varied from 5918 to 46875 in the numerical calculations. The numerical results obtained from a plain tube were compared with those from the studies in literature for validation of numerical technique. The use of twisted tape elements leads to a considerable increase in heat transfer and pressure drop over the plain tube. Consequently, the numerical results reveal that the best operating regime of all twisted tape elements was found at low Reynolds number, leading to more compact heat exchanger.© 2012 ASME


BACKGROUND
Encephalitis is an inflammatory condition of the brain associated with long-term neurologic sequelae and even death in children. Although viruses are often implicated, an etiology is not identified in the majority of cases. Metagenomics-based next-generation sequencing (mNGS) is a high-throughput sequencing technique that can enhance the detection of novel or low-frequency pathogens.

METHODS
Hospitalized immunocompetent children aged 6 months to 18 years with encephalitis of unidentified etiology were eligible for enrollment. Demographic, historical, and clinical information was obtained, and residual blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples were subjected to mNGS. Pathogens were identified by querying the sequence data against the NCBI GenBank database.

RESULTS
Twenty children were enrolled prospectively between 2013 and 2017. mNGS of CSF identified 7 nonhuman nucleic acid sequences of significant frequency in 6 patients, including that of Mycoplasma bovis, parvovirus B19, Neisseria meningitidis, and Balamuthia mandrillaris. mNGS also detected Cladophialophora species, tobacco mosaic virus, and human bocavirus, which were presumed to be contaminants or nonpathogenic organisms. One patient was found to have positive serology results for California encephalitis virus, but mNGS did not detect it. Patients for whom mNGS identified a diagnosis had a significantly higher CSF white blood cell count, a higher CSF protein concentration, and a lower CSF glucose level than patients for whom mNGS did not identify a diagnosis.

CONCLUSION
We describe here the results of a prospective cohort analysis to evaluate mNGS as a diagnostic tool for children with unexplained encephalitis. Although mNGS detected multiple nonpathogenic organisms, it also identified multiple pathogens successfully and was most useful in patients with a CSF abnormality.


Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major infectious disease worldwide. TB treatment displays a bi-phasic bacterial clearance, in which the majority of bacteria clear within the first month of treatment, but residual bacteria remains non-responsive to treatment and eventually may become resistant. Here, we have shown that Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb) is taken up by mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), where it established dormancy and became highly non-responsive to isoniazid, a major constituent of Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS). Dormant M.tb induced quiescence in MSCs and promoted their long-term survival. Unlike macrophages, where M.tb resides in early-phagosomal compartments, in MSCs the majority of bacilli were found in the cytosol, where they promoted rapid lipid-synthesis, hiding within lipid-droplets. Inhibition of lipid-synthesis prevented dormancy and sensitized the organisms to isoniazid. Thus, we have established that M.tb gains dormancy in MSCs, which thus serve as a long-term natural-reservoir of dormant M.tb. Interestingly, in the murine-model of TB, induction of autophagy eliminated M.tb from MSCs and consequently, the addition of rapamycin to an isoniazid treatment regimen successfully attained sterile clearance and prevented disease reactivation.


Why do the poor spend more on lottery tickets than their wealthier and better educated peers? While social scientists generally agree that there is an inverse relationship between socioeconomic position and patterns of lottery play, there is debate on what factors cause lottery gambling. Using survey data from a nationwide probability sample, we test three sociological approaches – socio-structural, cultural and social network accounts – to explain why the poor play the lottery. While controlling for cognitive bias theory, we find that peer play, educational attainment and self-perceived social deprivation have strong effects on lottery play. Culture, the study finds, plays a much lesser role. Although lottery players demonstrate fatalistic value orientations, it is not a lack of a 'Protestant' work ethic that makes the poor spend proportionally more on lottery tickets. The findings of this study generally point to the importance of social structures in explaining lottery gambling.


Plasma cell mucositis (PCM) is a rare non-neoplastic plasma cell proliferative disorder of the mucous membranes, which typically presents as soft tissue lesions involving oral, upper airway or genital mucosa. Laryngeal involvement resulting in stridor has been reported in four other cases previously, with three requiring tracheostomy. We present a case of supraglottic stenosis in a 53-year-old woman presenting with dysphonia and stridor, requiring surgical resection on three occasions accompanied by tracheostomy on two occasions; biopsy was consistent with PCM. Due to relapsing disease activity, high-dose prednisolone and mycophenolate mofetil were commenced with prednisolone eventually being ceased. After 2 years of mycophenolate mofetil therapy, the patient's disease has been controlled without need for further surgical intervention. This is the first reported case of prolonged symptomatic improvement with the use of systemic immunosuppressive therapy with mycophenolate mofetil in PCM.


The neural mechanisms that produce hallucinations and other psychotic symptoms remain unclear. Previous research suggests that deficits in predictive signals for learning, such as prediction error signals, may underlie psychotic symptoms, but the mechanism by which such deficits produce psychotic symptoms remains to be established. We used model-based fMRI to study sensory prediction errors in human patients with schizophrenia who report daily auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) and sociodemographically matched healthy control subjects. We manipulated participants' expectations for hearing speech at different periods within a speech decision-making task. Patients activated a voice-sensitive region of the auditory cortex while they experienced AVHs in the scanner and displayed a concomitant deficit in prediction error signals in a similar portion of auditory cortex. This prediction error deficit correlated strongly with increased activity during silence and with reduced volumes of the auditory cortex, two established neural phenotypes of AVHs. Furthermore, patients with more severe AVHs had more deficient prediction error signals and greater activity during silence within the region of auditory cortex where groups differed, regardless of the severity of psychotic symptoms other than AVHs. Our findings suggest that deficient predictive coding accounts for the resting hyperactivity in sensory cortex that leads to hallucinations.


The election of the treatment in the pyloric-duodenal perforations pursues a double objective: to reduce the operative mortality and to reduce the risk of ulcerous relapse in the long run. The authors carry out a retrospective study of 100 pyloric-duodenal perforations treated in 12 years. Three risk factors of immediate mortality are demonstrated: the age, 70 years or older; elapsed time, equal or superior to 24 hours and the existence of a situation of preoperative hemodynamic shock. The global mortality of the series was of 12% and the index of relapses of 12%. The authors outline a therapeutic management in which the election of the treatment was modulated for the factors of mortality risk. Thus, the presence of one of these factors must lead to the accomplishment of single treatment in treating only the perforation. The absence of risk factors must lead to accomplish a definitive treatment through the resection or the suture of the perforation followed by any type of vagotomy and eventually a drainage operation. The results obtained with Taylor's vagotomy, as well as with laparoscopic methods have not yet been validated although, probably, in a near future they will be integrated in the first management of pyloric-duodenal perforations.


The human immune system relies on the capability of CD8+ T cells to patrol body cells, spot infected cells and eliminate them. This cytotoxic response is supposed to be limited to infected cells to avoid killing of healthy cells. To enable this, CD8+ T cells have T Cell Receptors (TCRs) which should discriminate between self and non-self through the recognition of antigenic peptides bound to Human Leukocyte Antigen class I (HLA-I) complexes—i.e., HLA-I immunopeptidomes—of patrolled cells. The majority of these antigenic peptides are produced by proteasomes through either peptide hydrolysis or peptide splicing. Proteasome-generated cis-spliced peptides derive from a given antigen, are immunogenic and frequently presented by HLA-I complexes. Theoretically, they also have a very large sequence variability, which might impinge upon our model of self/non-self discrimination and central and peripheral CD8+ T cell tolerance. Indeed, a large variety of cis-spliced epitopes might enlarge the pool of viral-human zwitter epitopes, i.e., peptides that may be generated with the exact same sequence from both self (human) and non-self (viral) antigens. Antigenic viral-human zwitter peptides may be recognized by CD8+ thymocytes and T cells, induce clonal deletion or other tolerance processes, thereby restraining CD8+ T cell response against viruses. To test this hypothesis, we computed in silico the theoretical frequency of zwitter non-spliced and cis-spliced epitope candidates derived from human proteome (self) and from the proteomes of a large pool of viruses (non-self). We considered their binding affinity to the representative HLA-A*02:01 complex, self-antigen expression in Medullary Thymic Epithelial cells (mTECs) and the relative frequency of non-spliced and cis-spliced peptides in HLA-I immunopeptidomes. Based on the present knowledge of proteasome-catalyzed peptide splicing and neglecting CD8+ TCR degeneracy, our study suggests that, despite their frequency, the portion of the cis-spliced peptides we investigated could only marginally impinge upon the variety of functional CD8+ cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) involved in anti-viral response.


Adenomatoid odontogenic tumor (AOT) is an uncommon benign odontogenic lesion that affects young patients, with female predominance, mainly in second decade, showing a radiolucent unilocular image associated with an unerupted tooth, usually a canine. In spite of previous and confusing denominations, such as adenoameloblastoma or adenomatoid ameloblastic tumor, AOT is a benign tumor with a very low rate of recurrence, that show a peculiar morphological picture (basaloid appearance with glandular-like structures, calcifying areas, and amiloid-like material) that allow its histopathological recognition. We present a clinicopathological analysis of a case of follicular AOT affecting the mandible in a 9 years-old female patient associated with unerupted lower left canine. Immunohistochemical study showed some data previously unrecog- nised. All cellular types that composed AOT showed nuclear positivity for p63 indicating a basal characterization in the different cellular components. According to its benign character and low potential for recurrence, AOT revealed a scant proliferative activity (2-3% nuclei showed Ki-67 positivity) limited to some epithelial nodules (AE1-3 +) of fusiform appearance. Absence of reactivity for hormonal receptors (RE and RPg) excluded a possible hormonodependence in AOT that could explain the observed female predominance.


There is a growing concern amongst protected area professionals that many protected areas around the world are not achieving the objectives for which they were established. One response to this concern has been an emphasis on the need to increase the effectiveness of protected area management, and to help this process a number of assessment tools have been developed to assess management practices. It is clear that the existence of a wide range of situations and needs requires different methods of assessment. The World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) has therefore developed a 'framework' for assessment. The WCPA framework aims both to provide some overall guidance in the development of assessment systems and to encourage standards for assessment and reporting.


Answer selection, ranking high-quality answers first, is a significant problem for the community question answering sites. Existing approaches usually consider it as a text matching task, and then calculate the quality of answers via their semantic relevance to the given question. However, they thoroughly ignore the influence of other multiple factors in the community, such as the user expertise. In this paper, we propose an answer selection model based on the user expertise modeling, which simultaneously considers the social influence and the personal interest that affect the user expertise from different views. Specifically, we propose an inductive strategy to aggregate the social influence of neighbors. Besides, we introduce the explicit topic interest of users and capture the context-based personal interest by weighing the activation of each topic. Moreover, we construct two real-world datasets containing rich user information. Extensive experiments on two datasets demonstrate that our model outperforms several state-of-the-art models.


Abstract Since its first release over a decade ago, the MetaboAnalyst web-based platform has become widely used for comprehensive metabolomics data analysis and interpretation. Here we introduce MetaboAnalyst version 5.0, aiming to narrow the gap from raw data to functional insights for global metabolomics based on high-resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). Three modules have been developed to help achieve this goal, including: (i) a LC–MS Spectra Processing module which offers an easy-to-use pipeline that can perform automated parameter optimization and resumable analysis to significantly lower the barriers to LC-MS1 spectra processing; (ii) a Functional Analysis module which expands the previous MS Peaks to Pathways module to allow users to intuitively select any peak groups of interest and evaluate their enrichment of potential functions as defined by metabolic pathways and metabolite sets; (iii) a Functional Meta-Analysis module to combine multiple global metabolomics datasets obtained under complementary conditions or from similar studies to arrive at comprehensive functional insights. There are many other new functions including weighted joint-pathway analysis, data-driven network analysis, batch effect correction, merging technical replicates, improved compound name matching, etc. The web interface, graphics and underlying codebase have also been refactored to improve performance and user experience. At the end of an analysis session, users can now easily switch to other compatible modules for a more streamlined data analysis. MetaboAnalyst 5.0 is freely available at https://www.metaboanalyst.ca.


CAPRINE arthritis-encephalitis (CAE) is an important infectious disease that contributes to low productivity of goat herds in developing countries. Many factors, such as breed and production system, have been reported to interfere in its occurrence. Nevertheless, the effect of farmer association (cooperatives) in its control has never been investigated. Therefore, the goal of this study was to report a difference of caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV) seroreactivity by agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGID) in associated versus non-associated farmers in the same region in Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. A total of 562 blood samples were sampled from 28 goat herds. Animals were randomly selected from each herd. A total 79 of 562 (14.0 per cent) serum samples were reactive for CAEV. According to the serology, 80 per cent of the herds belonging to independent farmers presented at least one seroreactive animal, with a herd level average among those of 25.7 per cent (11.1 to 62.5 per cent; median 19.9 per cent) of seroreactivity. In contrast, 23.1 per cent of herds belonging to associated farmers presented seroreactivity, with a herd-level average of 31.5 per cent (23.5 to 43.8 per cent; median 27.3 per cent). Farms gathered in cooperatives generally have better technical resources, what may facilitate the control of infectious diseases as CAE. The authors suggest that there is an association between farmers belonging to cooperatives and CAEV infection.

Dairy goat breeding is an important economic activity worldwide, mainly in developing countries (Peterhans and others 2004, Bandeira and others 2009). Despite the large animal population, the productivity in developing countries remains low, and infectious diseases such as CAE are important contributors to this scenario (Lilenbaum and others 2007). CAE is a debilitating and progressive infection determined by a lentivirus belonging to …


Recent findings show that students attending charter schools in the United States achieve at comparable or lower levels to those enrolled in regular public schools, perhaps due to uneven quality and disparities in the levels of resources acquired by charter schools. But little is known as to what state and local factors contribute to disparate levels of resources in the charter school sector. This article examines how local context, the charter school's organizational form, and state policies may influence material and human resources obtained by charter schools and their capacity to innovate. We find marked differences among charter schools situated in different US states in terms of teacher qualities, student–staff ratios, length of the school day, and the propensity to unionize, drawing on data from the US Schools and Staffing Survey for the 1999/2000 school year. Charter schools rely less on uncredentialed teachers in states that more tightly regulate the sector, and state spending is associated with more equal teacher salaries among charter schools within states. But the lion's share of variance in charter school resources is attributable to highly variable local contexts, not to state‐level factors, especially the kinds of students served and the school's organizational form. Charter schools serving predominately black students rely on less experienced teachers who are more likely to be uncredentialed; their teachers also report more demanding working conditions and lower levels of efficacy, compared with charter teachers working in white schools. Conversion charter schools pay staff over $5100 more annually and rely much less on uncredentialed and part‐time teachers than do start‐up schools. We examine implications for the reproduction of unequal student achievement within the charter school sector.


Context: We sought to clarify the impact of adenomyosis on the clinical and pathological prognosis of endometrial cancer to aid the selection of appropriate surgical intervention based on the diagnosis of adenomyosis. Aims: Our study aimed to report the frequency of adenomyosis in patients with endometrioid cancer and correlate its incidence rate with the survival and prognostic factors. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study included 357 patients. Patients with endometrioid adenocarcinoma were divided into two groups based on the presence of adenomyosis. The groups were compared in terms of tumor diameter, lymphovascular space invasion (LVSI), low-high risk pathologic status, stage of the disease, and survival outcome. Statistical Analysis Used: Continuous variables were analyzed using the Student's t or Mann–Whitney U-test. Survival data were analyzed using the Kaplan–Meier test. Results: The average age was similar between the two groups. In total, 47 (13.2%) of 357 patients had adenomyosis. A total of 43 (91.4%) cases with adenomyosis and 258 (83.2%) cases without adenomyosis had Stage I endometrioid adenocarcinoma (n = 301, 84.3%). Moreover, 32 (68.1%) cases with adenomyosis and 187 (60.3%) cases without adenomyosis were in the low-risk group. There was no statistically significant correlation between the risk groups (P = 0.309) and overall survival between the two groups (P = 0.416). Conclusion: No correlation was seen between the characteristics of endometrioid type endometrial cancer and survival rates in patients with or without adenomyosis. The impact of adenomyosis as a factor in evaluating the perioperative prognosis and planning postoperative adjuvant therapy for endometrial cancer should be assessed by further studies.


This paper provides an overview of specifications and standards for metadata relating to learning materials. It is structured to present first the currently established metadata schemas in use today (specifically the IEEE LOM and Dublin Core metadata), then to examine current developments and activities before looking at what might be the future challenges. The examination of current developments and activities highlights the increasingly recognized importance of metadata schema that describe what have in the past been thought of as secondary aspects of learning materials (for example who uses them and what for), and the importance of alternative approaches to structured metadata for resource description.


5-hydroxymethyl-2-furfural is selectively converted into 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (99 mol % yield) in water, under mild conditions (65-130 degrees C, 10 bar air) with gold nanoparticles supported on nanoparticulate ceria (Au-CeO(2)) and on titania (Au-TiO(2)); the former being more active and selective. A reaction mechanism is established and the rate-limiting step of the reaction is the alcohol oxidation of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid into 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid. The effects of pressure, temperature, substrate-to-catalyst ratio, and amount of base are studied to find the most suitable reaction conditions. The absence of metal leaching is verified by chemical analysis of the reaction solution and by confirming that the reaction does not occur after catalyst removal by filtration in hot water. Substrate degradation is strongly diminished and the catalyst life increased by performing the reaction in two temperature steps.


Two cases of a syndrome of hemihypertrophy, shortness of stature, and elevated levels of urinary gonadotropins are reported. One of the children was a male, the other a female.
 The hemihypertrophy and shortness of stature had been present since birth and the elevated gonadotropins were found at 5½ and 6 years, respectively.
 The possible relationship to other conditions in childhood including those which also have increased gonadotropins is discussed.


The main aim of the present study has been to investigate the electrochemical behavior of, and oxide film formation on, the bulk amorphous Zr55Cu30Ni5Al10 alloy and the crystalline counterpart in simulated body fluid. Different analytical methods, e.g., polarization and electrochemical impedance measurements, were used to compare the results of the samples when exposed to, phosphate buffered saline (PBS), with or without the addition of protein (albumin). Moreover, the influence of pH on the corrosion behavior of the materials was also investigated. Pitting corrosion was observed to exist on both amorphous and crystalline samples after exposure to the PBS solution, but the passivity region was much smaller for the crystalline material. The addition of protein to the PBS solution improved passive behavior and led to higher pitting potential in the case of the crystalline samples, while the pitting corrosion potential decreased slightly in the case of the amorphous samples. Furthermore, a decrease in the pH level accelerates the dissolution rate of both materials when exposed to the PBS environment, however, in the presence of albumin the pitting corrosion potential increased in the case of both materials.


Controlled experiments, also called randomized experiments and A/B tests, have had a profound influence on multiple fields, including medicine, agriculture, manufacturing, and advertising. While the theoretical aspects of offline controlled experiments have been well studied and documented, the practical aspects of running them in online settings, such as web sites and services, are still being developed. As the usage of controlled experiments grows in these online settings, it is becoming more important to understand the opportunities and pitfalls one might face when using them in practice. A survey of online controlled experiments and lessons learned were previously documented in Controlled Experiments on the Web: Survey and Practical Guide (Kohavi, et al., 2009). In this follow-on paper, we focus on pitfalls we have seen after running numerous experiments at Microsoft. The pitfalls include a wide range of topics, such as assuming that common statistical formulas used to calculate standard deviation and statistical power can be applied and ignoring robots in analysis (a problem unique to online settings). Online experiments allow for techniques like gradual ramp-up of treatments to avoid the possibility of exposing many customers to a bad (e.g., buggy) Treatment. With that ability, we discovered that it's easy to incorrectly identify the winning Treatment because of Simpson's paradox.


Conventional overnight polysomnography (PSG) used to determine the respiratory behaviour during sleep can be a complex and expensive procedure. Pulse transit time analysis (PTT) has shown potential to detect obstructive apnoeic and hypopnoeic events in adults. This study was undertaken to determine the potential of PTT to differentiate responses to upper airway obstruction. 103 obstructive respiratory events occurred in PSG studies performed on 11 children (10 male and 1 female, mean age 7.5years). PTT measurements were evaluated against the corresponding PSG results pre-scored by 2 blinded observers. Broadly, there were 2 types of responses. They can be either short period of rapid PTT decreases (Type 1) or prolonged but gradual PTT decreases (Type 2). Type 1 obstructive events showed a mean change of 51.77% (p<0.05), with 8.48ms standard deviation (SD) (p<0.05) and maximal change of 54.80% (p<0.05) from baseline PTT value during tidal breathing. Type 2 events showed a mean 12.01% (p<0.05) change, with 5.28ms SD (p<0.05) and maximal change of 13.32% (p<0.05). PTT was able to categorise different responses during obstructive respiratory events. The results attained here can suggest that PTT can have greater potentials for use in childhood respiratory sleep studies.


Electronic Human Resource Management (e-HRM) is assumed to be a driving force behind HRM value creation. However, the issue remains of whether empirical evidence supports this assumption. Moreover, is the relationship straightforward and direct or is it conditional, and do contextual factors intervene? This paper presents a study on this issue. Data was collected through a survey conducted in three international firms using e-HRM applications. The findings suggest that e-HRM usage in line with the system's intended purpose and the contextual factors facilitating e-HRM usage are positively related to HRM value creation. Facilitating contextual factors are positively related to HRM value creation as well, but they also moderate the relationship between e-HRM usage and HRM value creation. However, this moderation is the opposite to what was hypothesized: if the facilitating contextual factors are high, then the relationship between e-HRM usage and HRM value creation is weaker. This finding needs further investigation to clarify the intervening role of contextual factors.


The Japanese Road Traffic Law states that a vehicle horn should be used only in an emergency or in dangerous locations where a horn sign has been installed. However, drivers frequently use their vehicle horn as a signal when passing each other. Furthermore, pedestrians and cyclists are also honked at by drivers. There may be a negative effect of vehicle horn use on people outside the vehicle. Therefore, a questionnaire survey was carried out to ascertain the current circumstances of vehicle horn use. Respondents were asked about the latest or last-remembered instance of horn use in various situations, both when they were driving and when they were pedestrians. With regard to experiences of being honked at by another driver, the questionnaire included questions concerning place, traffic volume, the aim of horn use, the timing pattern of horn use, and the respondent's psychological reaction when honked at by another driver. It was found that drivers briefly honked their horn to express gratitude, or to gain another's attention, in various places. Long honks such as one long honk or two long honks mostly evoked negative psychological reactions in drivers, such as a feeling that the sound of the horn was startling, noisy, or irritating. Furthermore, pedestrians frequently had negative psychological reactions to horns used to gain their attention or to alert them to danger. More than 40% of nondrivers were displeased with the volume and sound quality of horns.


The study involved measurement of medical, biological and antioxidant importance of toxoplasmosis and the effect of the causative agent, Toxoplasma gondii ,on the level of the biochemical parameters in the serum of 225 pregnant women infected with toxoplasmosis compared with225serum of women infected as control group. The criteria taken into consideration are: Glutathione (GSH) , Albumine (Alb) , Uric acid (UA) , Malondialdehyde (MDA) , Peroxinitrate (No).The Results showed: A significant increase (p≤0.01) in level of GSH, MDA and NO whereas Alb and U.A decreased, compared to control group. Interference between infection and pregnancy periods showed an significant increase (p≤0.01) in level of GSH during 1-3 months pregnancy period and MDA and nonsignificant increase in level of NO during 6-9 months pregnancy period. Alb and UA levels decreased, as significantly (p≤0.01) in serum of pregnant infected women.


This study develops a method to estimate the probability density function of the Federal Risk Management Agency's (RMA's) net income from reinsuring crop insurance for corn, wheat, and soybeans. When calibrated using 1997 data, results from the advocated method show that in 1997 there was a 5% probability RMA would have had to reimburse at least $1 billion to insurance companies, and the fair value of RMA's insurance services to insurance firms in 1997 was $78.7 million.


It is widely assumed that any unbalance between phase currents in 4-wire distribution circuits will equal the neutral current; that is that the sum of currents is zero. In practice, however, measurements made at distribution substations often show significant inconsistency. Several possible explanations for this are explored, showing that calculations of the voltage drop and losses are more accurate if harmonics are included. More generally, feeder configurations are described in which the currents may not sum to zero.


Introduction: Companies increasingly recognize the effects of socially and environmentally responsible decisions and investment in the sustainability of their businesses. Skilled and well-trained employees (human resources) are like valuable and scares resources and should be managed in sustainable manners. Ergonomics and Human Factors (E/HF) field can help management identify potential problem areas and improve the working conditions to minimize waste such as turnover, injury, absenteeism, etc. The employees' performance can be used as an indicator of sustainability. Objective: To develop a heuristic model to assess the sustainability of human resources by utilizing micro-, meso, and macro-ergonomics factors, which can be used as diagnostic tool for improvement.Method: A survey questionnaire was developed and distributed among two different organization (a hospital and a manufacturing company). Three different indices of E/HF were calculated as well as performance index. The correlation between indices were studied and three-dimensional plots were created to evaluate the validity of the heuristic model.Finding: There were insignificant correlation between the E/HF indices and performance index in both organization, however, the responses from the manufacturing company matched the heuristic model better than hospital. Conclusion: The heuristic model developed in this study appeared to be viable to assess the sustainability of human resources. Additional work or different methods need to be implemented to validate the results. It seems that the survey should be custom designed for different industry since different factors and elements can affect the sustainability of human resources in each industry.


The system described in this paper provides different types of health care professionals with a set of tools for building, using and sharing decision support systems for resource allocation. The system addresses selected areas, namely the choice of diagnostic tests, the therapy planning and the instrumentation purchase. Decision support is based on decision-analytic models, incorporating an explicit knowledge representation of both the medical domain knowledge and the economic evaluation theory. Application models are built on top of metamodels (there is a meta-model for each addressed area), that are used as guidelines for making explicit both the cost and effectiveness components, as well as the responsibility of different decision makers for different decision variables. The proposed approach improves the transparency and rigour of the collaborative decision-making process. In addition, reusing the results of a particular economic evaluation in different settings is facilitated by a standard representation of both the underlying hypotheses and the results themselves. The system is designed as a service accessible through the internet.


We hypothesize that trust plays an important role in affecting the activeness and effectiveness of the global mutual fund industry. Empirically, trust is positively associated with the activeness of domestic funds, whereas for internationals mutual funds conducting cross-border investments activeness is bounded by the trust of low-trust countries. In both cases, trust-related active share delivers superior performance, whereas the economic magnitude is larger for cross-border investments (around 2% per year). Our results suggest that trust, including both trust in managers and trust in the market, may significantly affect the development of financial intermediaries and the efficiency of global investment.


This paper presents a method to use Kohonen neural network based classifier in Bangla Optical Character Recognition (OCR) system, providing much higher performance than the traditional neural network based ones. It describes how Bangla characters are processed, trained and then recognized with the use of a Kohonen network. While there have been significant efforts in using the various types of Artificial ,eural ,etworks (A,,) in optical character recognition, this is the first published account of using a segmentation-free optical character recognition system for Bangla using a Kohonen network. The methodology presented here assumes that the OCR pre-processor has minimally segmented the input words into easily segmentable chunks, and presenting each of these as images to the classification engine described here. The size and the font face used to render the characters are also significant in both training and classification. The images are first converted into grayscale and then to binary images; these images are then scaled to a fit a pre-determined area with a fixed but significant number of pixels. The feature vectors are then extracted from the rectangular pixel map, which in this case is simply a series of 0s and 1s of fixed length. Finally, a Kohonen neural network is chosen for the training and classification process. Although the steps are simple, and the simplest network is chosen for the training and recognition process, the resulting classifier is accurate to better than 98%, depending on the quality of the input images.


Cognitive communications has attracted a large interest during the last decade due to spectrum scarcity. In comb ination with multiantenna techniques, cognitive communications have the ability to increase spectral efficiency by enabling the coexistence of a primary and secondary systems. In this paper, we focus in two specific cognitive approaches: a) Multiantenna Interference Alignment (IA) and b) Multiantenna Spectrum Sensing (SS). In the first case, we investigate how IA over multiple spatial dimensions can be exploited in order to lower harmful interference towards the primary system into acceptable levels. I n the second case, we compare the sensing performance of differe nt eigenvalue-based blind SS techniques. This paper concludes by presenting some interesting open problems in this area.


The paper describes the design methodology that ONDRAF/NIRAS, the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials, has developed and applied in the framework of the surface disposal facility for category A waste, i.e. solid conditioned low level radioactive waste that contains a limited amount of long lived radionuclides, at Dessel. The proposed disposal facility supporting the submitted construction and operation license application [1, 2] is also presented.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Objective: Despite viral suppression, HIV-associated cognitive impairment persists and may be partially due to persistent immune signalling by cells of the myeloid-lineage. Here, we aimed to understand the contribution of activated microglia located in vulnerable brain regions (e.g. frontal, subcortical) of HIV-infected, virally suppressed (HIV+VS) individuals in relation to cognitive and motor function. Design: Twenty-one HIV+VS individuals underwent PET with [11C]DPA-713 to image the translocator protein 18 kDa (TSPO), a marker of microglial activation, and completed a comprehensive neuropsychological test battery. Methods: Multivariable linear regressions were used to examine the contribution of [11C]DPA-713 binding to cognitive performance. Results: Higher [11C]DPA-713 binding was associated with lower cognition among HIV+VS individuals. [11C]DPA-713 binding in middle frontal gyrus/frontal cortex, hippocampus/temporal cortex and occipital cortex was inversely associated with performance on a number of cognitive domains, including verbal memory, processing speed/attention/concentration, executive function, working memory and motor function. [11C]DPA-713 binding in parietal cortex, cerebellum and thalamus was associated with only specific cognitive domains including visual construction and verbal memory. Binding was not associated with global cognitive performance. Conclusion: The findings add to the growing body of evidence that immune-mediated brain injury may contribute to domain specific, HIV-associated, cognitive vulnerabilities despite viral suppression.


Many mammalian and avian species have been used as models to study fracture healing. The individual animals, based on their size and other characteristics, are used to show the effects of different interventions on healing bone. The models may have fractures created by closed or open means or osteotomies. Fracture healing can be evaluated through histologic, mechanical, chemical, or biological studies. Internal fixation, external skeletal fixation, or no fixation may be used in the experiments. Results of fracture healing studies among animal species may conflict even when the same model is used in each species. These differences may be explained by anatomic, biochemical, and gene expression differences. Evaluation of the animal model is an important consideration when applying the results of any particular study to humans. Consensus regarding fracture healing develops from agreement between results of animal models and human clinical studies.


Construction of tunable and robust two-dimensional (2D) molecular arrays with desirable lattices and functionalities over a macroscopic scale relies on spontaneous and reversible noncovalent interactions between suitable molecules as building blocks. Halogen bonding, with active tunability of direction, strength, and length, is ideal for tailoring supramolecular structures. Herein, by combining low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and systematic first-principles calculations, we demonstrate novel halogen bonding involving single halogen atoms and phase engineering in 2D molecular self-assembly. On the Au(111) surface, we observed catalyzed dehalogenation of hexabromobenzene (HBB) molecules, during which negatively charged bromine adatoms (Brδ-) were generated and participated in assembly via unique C-Brδ+···Brδ- interaction, drastically different from HBB assembly on a chemically inert graphene substrate. We successfully mapped out different phases of the assembled superstructure, including densely packed hexagonal, tetragonal, dimer chain, and expanded hexagonal lattices at room temperature, 60 °C, 90 °C, and 110 °C, respectively, and the critical role of Brδ- in regulating lattice characteristics was highlighted. Our results show promise for manipulating the interplay between noncovalent interactions and catalytic reactions for future development of molecular nanoelectronics and 2D crystal engineering.


This paper presents the first side channel analysis from electromagnetic emissions on VERIFY PIN algorithms.

To enter a PIN code, a user has a limited number of trials. Therefore the main difficulty of the attack is to

succeed with very few traces. More precisely, this work implements a template attack and experimentally

verifies its success rate. It becomes a new real threat, and it is feasible on a low cost and portable platform.

Moreover, this paper shows that some protections for VERIFY PIN algorithms against fault attacks introduce

new vulnerabilities with respect to side channel analysis.


Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a highly radiosensitive tumor (especially non-keratinizing carcinoma) and radiotherapy (RT) is the mainstay of treatment for newly diagnosed tumors. For early stage NPC, RT alone is the standard treatment while for locally advanced (LA) NPC concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) with or without sequential chemotherapy [induction chemotherapy (IC) or adjuvant chemotherapy] is the standard treatment modality according to current guidelines, while the benefit of adjuvant or induction chemotherapy alone in addition to RT is limited (1,2). Indeed, the benefit of a combined modality approach has been demonstrated by several randomized trials and individual patient data meta-analysis (3). Moreover, in the Meta-Analysis of Chemotherapy in Nasopharynx Carcinoma (MAC-NPC) that included data on 4,806 patients in nineteen trials, with a median follow-up of 7.7 years, the addition of chemotherapy to RT significantly improved overall survival with an absolute benefit at 5 years of 6.3% (95% CI, 3.5–9.1%).


This paper presents a method and concepts of a supporting tool for rapid prototyping of large-scale business information systems. Our method is based on the following guidelines: (1) small team of highly skilled members with combined skills, (2) prototype-based development of subsystems and the system as a whole, (3) brainstorming sessions always involving system analysts database and application designers, and user representatives (if needed), and (4) application generator providing for efficient prototype development by maximum automation of all design phases. The also presented application generator (AppGen) is based on standardization of functional and visual characteristics of an application, a library of high-level, coarse grained components, and a set of rules for model-to-application mapping enabling automatic application reconfiguration in case of changes in the data model.


The effect of the hypoglycemic biguanide, phenformin, on the binding of insulin to MCF-7 cells, an in vitro line derived from a human breast cancer, has been investigated. Cells incubated for 24 h in the presence of 1.0 μg/ml of phenformin bound 62.2 ± 8.1% (mean ± SE) more 125I-insulin than did controls. The phenformin effect was dose-dependent over the concentration range of 0.1 μgsol;ml to 10.0 μg/ml. The increased binding was due to an increase in receptor number without a change in binding affinity. This demonstration of increased receptor number in response to phenformin exposure provides support for the hypothesis that one action of phenformin is to enhance tissue sensitivity to insulin.


Acute appendicitis is one of the most common causes of acute abdominal diseases seen between the ages of 10 and 19, mostly seen in males. The lifetime risk of developing acute appendicitis is 8.6% for males and 6.7% for females. We aimed to investigate the efficacy of the complete blood count parameters, C-reactive protein, and Lymphocyte-C-reactive Protein Ratio laboratory tests in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis, as well as their relationship with appendix diameter. We retrospectively examined all patients who underwent appendectomy between 1 January 2012 and 30 June 2019 in the General Surgery Clinic of Gaziosmanpasa University Faculty of Medicine. Laboratory tests, imaging findings, age, and gender were recorded. Lymphoid hyperplasia is considered as normal appendix—in other words, as negative appendicitis. The distribution of Lymphoid hyperplasia and appendicitis rates were statistically different in the groups formed according to appendix diameter (≤6 and >6 mm) (p < 0.001). We found a significant correlation between appendix diameter and WBC (White blood count), Lymphocyte, Neutrophil, RDW(Red blood cell distribution width), NLR(Neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio), and PLT/L (Platelet to lymphocyte ratio), MPV (Mean platelet volume) and RDW were significantly different in patients with an appendix diameter of ≤6 mm (p = 0.007, p = 0.006, respectively). WBC, Neutrophil, PDW, and NLR values were significantly different between appendicitis and hyperplasia groups in patients with an appendix diameter of >6 mm. The sensitivity of the NLR score (cutoff = 2.6057) in the diagnosis of appendicitis was 86.1% and selectivity was 50% in these patients. Complete blood count parameters evaluation with the clinical findings revealed that NLR is an important parameter that may help the diagnosis of acute appendicitis with an appendix diameter of >6 mm. In patients whose pathological results indicated acute appendicitis but who had a diameter of ≤6 mm, we found an elevated MPV and low RDW values.