Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has shown benefits in patients with severe heart failure. The traditional criteria to select patients for CRT (New York Heart Association [NYHA] class III or IV, depressed left ventricular [LV] ejection fraction, and prolonged QRS duration) result in at least 30% of the selected patients with no response to CRT. Recent studies with echocardiography have shown that the presence of LV dyssynchrony is an important predictor for response to CRT. However, the recent report from the predictors of response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (PROSPECT) trial suggested that under ''real-world'' conditions the current available echocardiographic techniques including tissue Doppler imaging (TDI) and myocardial strain-rate imaging are not ready for routine clinical practice to assess LV dyssynchrony. Phase analysis is a recently developed technique that allows measuring LV dyssynchrony from electrocardiogram (ECG)-gated single photon emission computed tomography (GSPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI). This technique uses Fourier harmonic functions to approximate regional wall thickening over the cardiac cycle and to calculate regional onset of mechanical contraction (OMC) phases. These OMC phases are obtained three-dimensionally over the entire left ventricle to quantitatively assess the degree of LV dyssynchrony. This technique has been compared to TDI and shown promising results in clinical validations. The advantages of this technique over echocardiography in measuring LV dyssynchrony are its automation, its high repeatability and reproducibility. It can be applied to any conventional GSPECT MPI study with no additional procedure. In this review the phase analysis methodology is described and its up-to-date clinical validations are summarized.


In urban multifamily houses, decentralized DHW systems using gas or electric boilers are still widely used. Their replacement with renewable energy sources is difficult and generally needs centralized DHW systems with a circulation system that ensures comfort and hygiene at the price of elevated heat losses. A consortium of three academic and one industry partner developed a decentralized DHW system, which uses the residual heat from the exhaust air of a controlled ventilation unit as energy source for a micro heat pump. The entire system, including ventilation unit, heat pump, and storage tank fits into the bathroom prewall and produces hot water for one apartment. This contribution gives an overview of the system and focusses on the development of the flat storage tank that fits into the prewall space of less than 30 cm width.


Holoprosencephaly (HPE) is a common developmental defect of the human forebrain and midface. Pathological studies have identified different categories of severity of the brain and craniofacial malformations observed in HPE, although the variable clinical spectrum of HPE extends in unbroken sequence from alobar HPE and cyclopia to clinically unaffected carriers in familial HPE. The etiology of HPE is extremely heterogeneous including both environmental and genetic causes. Here we focus on molecular aspects of HPE in light of the recent identification of some of the genes causing human HPE and other candidate genes involved in forebrain development, through different approaches, such as positional cloning and functional cloning, based on animal models. These approaches will aid in the identification of additional genes involved in HPE and in a better understanding of the molecular genetics of brain development.


The scheduling problem of LED chip sorting workstation is a multiprocessor open shop scheduling problem. In practice, this problem is usually solved with finding a dispatching rule to achieve certain performance indexes. Experimental design was applied to find a proper rule, and dispatching rule, wafer quantity, wafer mix type, and bottleneck location were chosen as independent variables. Maximum make-span and average queuing time were selected as dependent variables. Five dispatching rules were considered in the dispatching rule factor. Experimental results showed that all independent variables are significant on all dependent variables. While make-span as the performance index, three dispatching rules common in applying LPT in bottleneck machines obtained better results. A dispatching rule with applying SPT in non-bottleneck machines has least average queuing time among those three, and this rule is recommended for practical application.


BACKGROUND
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most common cause of uncorrectable severe vision loss in people aged 55 years and older in the developed world. Choroidal neovascularization (CNV) secondary to neovascular AMD accounts for most AMD-related severe vision loss. Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) agents, injected intravitreally, aim to block the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the eye to prevent vision loss and, in some instances, improve vision.

OBJECTIVES
To investigate: (1) the ocular and systemic effects of, and quality of life associated with, intravitreally injected anti-VEGF agents (pegaptanib, ranibizumab, and bevacizumab) for the treatment of neovascular AMD compared with no anti-VEGF treatment; and (2) the relative effects of one anti-VEGF agent compared with another when administered in comparable dosages and regimens.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (which contains the Cochrane Eyes and Vision Group Trials Register) (2014, Issue 3), Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid MEDLINE In-Process and Other Non-Indexed Citations, Ovid MEDLINE Daily, Ovid OLDMEDLINE (January 1946 to March 2014), EMBASE (January 1980 to March 2014), Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature Database (LILACS) (January 1982 to March 2014), the metaRegister of Controlled Trials (mRCT) (www.controlled-trials.com), ClinicalTrials.gov (www.clinicaltrials.gov) and the World Health Organization (WHO) International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) (www.who.int/ictrp/search/en). We used no date or language restrictions in the electronic searches for trials. We last searched the electronic databases on 27 March 2014.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that evaluated pegaptanib, ranibizumab, or bevacizumab versus each other or a control treatment (e.g., sham treatment or photodynamic therapy). All trials followed participants for at least one year.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors independently screened records, extracted data, and assessed risks of bias. We contacted trial authors for additional data. We analyzed outcomes as risk ratios (RRs) or mean differences (MDs). We used the standard methodological procedures expected by The Cochrane Collaboration.

MAIN RESULTS
We included 12 RCTs including a total of 5496 participants with neovascular AMD (the number of participants per trial ranged from 28 to 1208). One trial compared pegaptanib, three trials ranibizumab, and two trials bevacizumab versus controls; six trials compared bevacizumab with ranibizumab. Four trials were conducted by pharmaceutical companies; none of the eight studies which evaluated bevacizumab were funded by pharmaceutical companies. The trials were conducted at various centers across five continents (North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia). The overall quality of the evidence was very good, with most trials having an overall low risk of bias.When compared with control treatments, participants who received any of the three anti-VEGF agents were more likely to have gained 15 letters or more of visual acuity, lost fewer than 15 letters of visual acuity, and had vision 20/200 or better after one year of follow up. Visual acuity outcomes after bevacizumab and ranibizumab were similar when the same regimens were compared in the same RCTs, despite the substantially lower cost for bevacizumab compared with ranibizumab. No trial directly compared pegaptanib with other anti-VEGF agents; however, when compared with controls, ranibizumab or bevacizumab yielded larger improvements in visual acuity outcomes than pegaptanib.Participants treated with anti-VEGFs showed improvements in morphologic outcomes (e.g., size of CNV or central retinal thickness) compared with participants not treated with anti-VEGF agents. There was less reduction in central retinal thickness among bevacizumab-treated participants than among ranibizumab-treated participants after one year (MD -13.97 μm; 95% confidence interval (CI) -26.52 to -1.41); however, this difference is within the range of measurement error and we did not interpret it as being clinically meaningful.Ocular inflammation and increased intraocular pressure after intravitreal injection were the most frequently reported serious ocular adverse events. Endophthalmitis was reported in fewer than 1% of anti-VEGF treated participants; no cases were reported in control groups. The occurrence of serious systemic adverse events was comparable across anti-VEGF-treated groups and control groups; however, the numbers of events and trial participants may have been insufficient to detect a meaningful difference between groups. Data for visual function, quality of life, and economic outcomes were sparsely measured and reported.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
The results of this review indicate the effectiveness of anti-VEGF agents (pegaptanib, ranibizumab, and bevacizumab) in terms of maintaining visual acuity; ranibizumab and bevacizumab were also shown to improve visual acuity. The information available on the adverse effects of each medication do not suggest a higher incidence of potentially vision-threatening complications with intravitreal injection compared with control interventions; however, clinical trial sample sizes may not have been sufficient to detect rare safety outcomes. Research evaluating variable dosing regimens with anti-VEGF agents, effects of long-term use, combination therapies (e.g., anti-VEGF treatment plus photodynamic therapy), and other methods of delivering the agents should be incorporated into future Cochrane reviews.


Numerous microbes are antagonistic to plant-parasitic nematodes and soilborne plant-pathogenic fungi, but few of these organisms are commercially available for management of these pathogens. Inconsistent performance of applied biocontrol agents has proven to be a primary obstacle to the development of successful commercial products. One of the strategies for overcoming inconsistent performance is to combine the disease-suppressive activity of two (or more) beneficial microbes in a biocontrol preparation. Such combinations have potential for more extensive colonization of the rhizosphere, more consistent expression of beneficial traits under a broad range of soil conditions, and antagonism to a larger number of plant pests or pathogens than strains applied individually. Conversely, microbes applied in combination also may have antagonistic interactions with each other. Increased, decreased, and unaltered suppression of the target pathogen or pest has been observed when biocontrol microbes have been applied in combination. Unfortunately, the ecological basis for increased or decreased suppression has not been determined in many cases and needs further consideration. The complexity of interactions involved in the application of multiple organisms for biological control has slowed progress toward development of successful formulations. However, this approach has potential for overcoming some of the efficacy problems that occur with application of individual biocontrol agents.


This study is an attempt to understand manifestations of psychological residues in the non-verbal discourse appertaining to Syrians who witnessed the period of warfare in Syria. It seeks to mull over the propositional content communicated in an assemblage of Syrian child refugees' drawings and Syrian citizens' graffiti. It also aims to convey the extent to which such pictorial genres reflect their traumatic experience along with their dilemma of agony and resilience. Essential to such an investigation is a social semiotic framework set out by Kress and Van Leeuwen (1996, 2006) in their pioneering study on the grammar of visual design. This theory is applied to the corpus so as to reveal eminent and thorny themes through unveiling the interaction among several semiotic resources. A descriptive-analytic approach is adopted to enquire the significance of interactive and represented participants in an image. The choice of Syrians' creative expressions as simulacra of reality is motivated by the assumption that they are pregnant with profound meanings that echo wartime repercussions left in their psyches.


Cervical cancer is a preventable disease and the dysplasia it causes can be scanned by using a pap smear test. It can be beneficial to develop a computer-assisted diagnosis system to make the pap smear test robust and widespread. The most fundamental part of such a system is the segmentation of nuclei and cytoplasm in cervical cell images. The aim of this study is to segment the nuclei in such images. First, markers on the nuclei are found by using mathematical morphology operations. Based on the obtained markers, marker-based watershed segmentation and balloon snake model are applied to find the nuclei contours in a data set consisting of cervical cell images. The data set is composed of six classes ranging according to the dysplasia degree of the cells. The results are evaluated according to the relative distance error measure, and the strengths and weakness of the methods are discussed.


Several studies for the F-region ionosphere associated with volcano eruptions based on GPS-TEC data have been reported so far (e.g., Heki, 2006; Dautermann et al., 2009; Heki et al., 2010). These studies reported that acoustic waves excited by volcano eruptions reach up to the F-region ionosphere, and caused F-region perturbations. After eruption of the Kelud Volcano, Indonesia, in February 2014, acoustic resonance between the Earth's surface and lower thermosphere was reported based on TEC data and the seismic wave data (Nakashima et al., 2015). However, little studies on the D-region ionosphere associated with volcano eruptions have been reported. In this study, we investigate the D-region effects of eruptions of Sakurajima volcano (31.59N, 130.66E), Japan, at 04:11 UT on June 6, 2014, using intensity perturbation of VLF/LF transmitter signals. The VLF/LF propagation paths use in this study are JJY (JJY 60 kHz) Tainan (TNN, Taiwan), and JJI (22.2 kHz) TNN. Based on wavelet spectra, the perturbation of both transmitter signals had a frequency of 2-6 mHz during 04:12-04:30 UT after the eruptions (04:11 UT).We compared the perturbations with atmospheric pressure data obtained by an infrasonic meter observed by Sakurajima Volcano Research Center, Kyoto University, and seismic waves in the NIED F-net data (FUK, STM, and SBR) located close to the JJY-TNN path. The atmospheric pressure and vertical velocity of the seismic waves had the similar frequencies of 2-10 mHz during 04:12-04:47 UT. These similar frequencies suggest that the perturbations would be caused by acoustic resonance between the Earth's surface and lower thermosphere, or by acoustic and atmospheric gravity waves generated by volcanic eruptions. In the presentation, we will discuss the cause of the VLF/LF perturbations in more detail. PEM09-P10 Japan Geoscience Union Meeting 2019


Stability of cotton flow velocity determines the accuracy of foreign fiber detection system. There are many factors affecting fiber flow flux. In the process of operational control, recent research has been directed towards synthetically and effectively adjusting the relative parameters, and thus achieving a stable and economic foreign fiber detection system in textile sector. In the foreign fiber detection system, the parameters of flow velocity are affected by the temperature, pressure, density, which are also interrelated and redundant information. Based on Clustering Fusion, the design of the flow velocity used in the detection device is provided in this paper. Using captured parameter characteristic information, clustering fusion control, conducts the second fusion for ART-2 and BP neural network, and sends to fusion center, then fusion center process the data using neural network method. Linking with synthesis repository and global data base, different control strategies can be utilized to adjust velocity of flow parameter. The cluster control strategy that keeps output velocity of flow stable are proposed to improve the fiber measure precision in foreign fiber detection system. This system can be used in indigenous foreign fiber detection system, and significantly improve the performance of the entire system.


Parallel testing of cores can reduce SOC test times, but the finite number of chip I/Os limits such parallelism. Space and time compaction can maximize the required test bandwidth at the core outputs. Our proposed space and time compaction methodology guarantees a single-bit bandwidth, enabling the test of cores through the allocation of fewer chip pin-outs. In this way, our scheme maximizes parallelism among core tests.


Your librarian and instructor created this guide to help you do research for your team's semester-long innovation project, developing a plan to solve a "wicked problem."


Due to changes in forest management in various European countries, hardwood forest areas and amounts will increase. Sustainable and individual utilization concepts have to be developed for the upcoming available resource. Studies conclude that there is low potential for hardwoods in the traditional appearance market thus the application areas have to be extended to new structural innovative products. This paper examines the extension to a future laminated beech wood supply network which would be a combination of already existing and new production facilities. For a better future use of hardwood raw materials it is necessary to consider the entire supply chain. This also better shows a total hardwood value chain. Therefore, this paper provides data to the solid hardwood business and develops a mixed integer linear programming to design a laminated beech wood supply network. The model is applied to Austria as the sample region. It covers the important strategic decisions where to locate a downstream facility within the existing production network with the lowest supply network cost. Fourteen scenarios are developed to examine various future network configurations. Results about optimal material flows and used sawmills as well as downstream production facilities are presented in form of material and financial performances. Two optimal laminated beech production locations are determined by the calculated scenarios results, and the impact of a new sawmill is analyzed which is focused on beech.


We present mid-infrared (IR) images of HD 161796 (IRAS 17436+5003), taken with the OSCIR imager on the Gemini North Telescope, that resolve for the first time the thermal emission structure of the dust shell around this post-asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star. As well as a basic axisymmetric structure, the observations show deviations from axisymmetry in the dust density and a twist in the symmetry axis. Modelling of the mid-IR images and of the spectral energy distribution from ultraviolet to submillimetre wavelengths reproduces all of the axisymmetric features with an equator-to-pole density contrast of 6: 1 and an inclination of the symmetry axis of 10° to the plane of the sky. We find that a model incorporating small (0.01μm) grains and a steep (α a - 6 ) power-law size distribution can successfully account for the thermal emission and for the observed degrees of near-IR polarization. Assuming a distance of 1.2 kpc to HD 161796, the stellar luminosity is 3.4 x 10 3 L O . and the mass of the shell is ∼0.7 M O .. This is consistent with a star of initial mass between 1 and 2 M O . that has undergone an intensive (2.2 x 10 - 4 M O . yr - 1 ) phase of mass loss lasting about 3000 yr at the end of the AGB. A current stellar mass of 0.56 M O ., as indicated by the luminosity, suggests that HD 161796 is a few hundred years into its post-AGB evolution and will take about 5000 yr to evolve from its present temperature of 7500 K to become the central star of an extended elliptical planetary nebula.


ABSTRACT About 200 years ago (in 1672), Sir Thomas Browne, the author of that famous book, the Religio Medici—which every physician ought to read—wrote his almost equally famous "Letter to a Friend upon Occasion of the Death of his Intimate Friend." In this letter there is much curious and interesting writing in regard to consumption, to which disease the subject of it fell a victim. Of him Sir Thomas Browne says that he is "by this time no Puny among the mighty Nations of the Dead; for tho he left this World not very many days past, yet every hour, you know, largely addeth unto that dark Society; and considering the incessant Mortality of Mankind, you cannot conceive there dieth in the whole Earth so few as a thousand an hour."He describes, in like quaint terms, the symptoms of consumption and the signs of approaching death, and reflects the common


The comparative analysis of the infectious process and immunological parameters in (CBA x C57BL/6)F1 mice infected with S. typhimurium isogenic strains differing by the presence of plasmid pR50 determining protease activity, was carried out. A growth in the expression level of antilactoferrin, anticomplementary and anti-immunoglobulin activity in bacteria isolated from the spleen in the course of the infectious process was detected. In mice infected with S. typhimurium having plasmid pR50, in contrast to nonplasmid recipients, a higher level of contamination of organs, the suppression of spontaneous, stimulated production of interferon-gamma and the bactericidal properties of peritoneal macrophages were noted. The data obtained in this investigation suggested that the acquisition of R-plasmid of 50 MD, controlling protease activity and multiple medicinal resistance, contributed to the persistence of intracellular bacteria.


Summary Due to the recent trends in Internet, for exchange of information in the form of pure data traffic and multimedia traffic, High-speed network is necessary. As there is a growing demand for high-speed networks, data transfer must take place without any congestion. In data networking and queueing theory, Network congestion occurs when a link or node is carrying so much data that its quality of service deteriorates. Typical effects include queueing delay, packet loss or the blocking of new connections. A consequence of these latter two is that incremental increases in offered load lead either only to small increase in network throughput, or to an actual reduction in network throughput. The Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) is one of the core protocols of the Internet Protocol Suite. TCP has not performed well on high-speed network because the standard TCP's algorithm for congestion control may cause thousands of packet drops in one Round Trip Time (RTT) and the window size is halved at the time of congestion. So the utilization of the bandwidth and throughput is minimized. The researchers developed different TCP variants to improve the performance of the congestion control algorithms in high-speed network. In this paper we propose a sequence of algorithms based on window adjustment, feedback mechanism and buffer management to overcome the limitations for high-speed network. The congestion control mechanism that we adopt starts with Queue Management, which enables to modify and control the transmission queue. The Window Adjustment Mechanism alters the Congestion window size based on the Input load. The Feedback mechanism renders the optimum load that can be serviced currently when congestion had taken place. Also the feedback information is notified to the sender. This solution to control the congestion in the network achieves maximum throughput and bandwidth utilization, with minimum delay and drop probability. The performance of the congestion window, throughput, utilization of the bandwidth, delay are analyzed and presented.


REDUCING INTRINSIC COGNITIVE LOAD IN COMPLEX LEARNING SUCH AS FLIGHT TRAINING THAT INVOLVES BOTH COGNITIVE AND PSYCHOMOTOR TASKS Adil Aslan Old Dominion University, 2014 Director: Dr. Gary R. Morrison Flying an aircraft requires processing or considering great number of inputs and an ability to link these data to a massive amount of information in order to interpret them. As a result, flight training imposes a high intrinsic cognitive load. The focus of this research was to investigate the effect of decreasing intrinsic cognitive load for complex tasks such as flight training that involves both cognitive and psychomotor tasks. Participants (n = 38) completed an instruction unit on how to conduct a simulated Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) and were asked to report perceived cognitive load in addition to tests on achievement of simulator performance flight and procedural knowledge. Depending on the treatment, participants studied instruction either (a) by separating cognitive and psychomotor elements via telling-and-doing method or (b) by isolating interactions between task elements via isolated elements method. The findings of this study demonstrated that separating cognitive task elements from psychomotor task elements did not yield lower cognitive load than learning task elements in isolation, but more important, the separation of cognitive and psychomotor task elements did not overwhelm the learners' working memory. In addition, the findings of this study supported previous research stating that there was a challenge in integrating task elements as they studied far from their original context. However, despite the higher cognitive load, participants in telling-and-doing method outperformed the isolated elements group in terms of learning procedural knowledge. The telling-and-doing method was more effective in learning complex flying skills as it allowed the learner to keep the task as close as to whole task without exceeding working memory capacity. Furthermore, the telling-and-doing method was found better in supporting learners to develop optimal flying strategies.


Problem statement: Two cancer patients were treated with Vernonia amygdalina (V. amygdalina) leaf extract and leaf powder. The leaf extract of V amygdalina was administered orally for 9 months to the first patient in response to his reception of a medical diagnosis of having traces of prostate cancer. Approach: This patient was also over weight by 40 kg. The V. amygdalina treatment eliminated the traces of prostate cancer tissue and caused the patient to lose 25 Kg excess body fat. Results: During the treatment, the excess fat elimination by V. amygdalina leaf extract usually occurred within 2 sec, 2 min of V. amygdalina extract intake. Cancer diagnostic screening tests conducted on the patient at the end of the 9 months V. amygdalina treatment showed no traces of prostate cancer tissues in the patient for 5 years. The prostate cancerous tissues re-emerged and restablished themselves after 4 years of the V. amygdalina treatment. The patient took hospital-based orthodox treatment for one year and found that the cancer was slowly progressing. The V. amygdalina leaf extract treatment was repeated by the patient for 6 months to arrest and eliminate the re-established cancer tissues. This sec V. amygdalina treatment slowed the speed of progression of the cancer but was ineffective in eliminating the re-established cancer tissues. The V. amygdalina treatment was terminated by the patient to continue with hospital-based treatment. The prostate cancer metastasized quickly after the termination of the V. amygdalina treatment despite the orthodox medicine treatment and killed the patient a year and one month after the termination of the V. amygdalina treatment. In the second case, oral Vernonia amygdalina leaf extract and topically applied Vernonia amygdalina leaf powder were administered to a skin cancer patient who was also diabetic. The treatment was given for three months. During the treatment V. amygdalina leaf-powder applied topically to the cancer tumor remained unceasingly firmly bound to the tumor surface but produced only a 10-15% reduction in the size of the cancer tumor in three months. The V. amygdalina treatment brought the patient's blood glucose level down from 395/100 dL to a steady 33/100 dL, in one month. The blood glucose lowering effects of V. amygdalina leaf extract were usually exerted in 2 sec, 2 min of extract intake by the patient. Conclusion/Recommendations: The action of V. amygdalina leaf extract and powder in these cancer treatments show that they inhibit, scavenge and destroy cancer treatments during their early formative stages. The results also show that V. amygdalina leaf extract can slow down but cannot effectively eliminate well-established cancer tissues or completely stop them from metastasizing.


The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel technique for acquiring and reconstructing planar or tomographic images obtained using a gamma camera. The aim is to overcome the sensitivity-spatial resolution tradeoff for conventional Anger gamma cameras. The future generation of solid state gamma cameras will benefit from the recent advances in CdZnTe (CZT) detector performances. Previous studies have shown that pixellated CZT detectors have a high energy resolution, good detection efficiency and a high intrinsic spatial resolution. Moreover, these detectors provide important additional information: the depth of interaction (DOI). In this paper, we introduce the HiSens (High Sensitivity) architecture: an original collimator architecture associated with a CZT pixellated detector that takes advantage of such performances, particularly in terms of DOI information and an adapted method of iterative reconstruction. We explain about the ability of our CZT detector, associated with specific electronic processing, to obtain accurate DOI information on a 5 mm-thick CZT detector. We have used SINDBAD simulation tool to evaluate the performance of the HiSens architecture. We describe an adapted iterative reconstruction using the CZT DOI information in order to improve image quality. Then we show preliminary simulation results of the HiSens architecture performances.


The vessels of rabbits undergoing a long irritation of the negative emotional zones of the hypothalamus have shown a tendency to increase a constrictive reaction in response to the quantitatively dozed electrostimulation of the vessel walls. This is expressed in the decrease of the range of the stimulation parametres which cause the weakening reaction during 10 days of emotional stress, and in showing only a constrictory reaction to all the parameters of stimulation during a 4-month stress.


Genome-wide association studies are identifying novel Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk factors. Elucidating the mechanism underlying these polymorphisms is critical to the validation process and, by identifying rate-limiting steps in AD risk, may yield novel therapeutic targets. Here, we elucidate the mechanism of action of the AD-associated polymorphism rs3865444 in the promoter of CD33, a member of the sialic acid-binding Ig-superfamily of lectins (SIGLECs). Immunostaining established that CD33 is expressed in microglia in human brain. Consistent with this finding, CD33 mRNA expression correlated well with expression of the microglial genes CD11b and AIF-1 and was modestly increased with AD status and the rs3865444C AD-risk allele. Analysis of CD33 isoforms identified a common isoform lacking exon 2 (D2-CD33). The proportion of CD33 expressed as D2-CD33 correlated robustly with rs3865444 genotype. Because rs3865444 is in the CD33 promoter region, we sought the functional polymorphism by sequencing CD33 from the promoter through exon 4. We identified a single polymorphism that is coinherited with rs3865444, i.e., rs12459419 in exon 2. Minigene RNA splicing studies in BV2 microglial cells established that rs12459419 is a functional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that modulates exon 2 splicing efficiency. Thus, our primary findings are that CD33 is a microglial mRNA and that rs3865444 is a proxy SNP for rs12459419 that modulates CD33 exon 2 splicing. Exon 2 encodes the CD33 IgV domain that typically mediates sialic acid binding in SIGLEC family members. In summary, these results suggest a novel model wherein SNP-modulated RNA splicing modulates CD33 function and, thereby, AD risk.


Abstract Disarticulated skeletal remains of an eudimorphodontid pterosaur from the Late Triassic of the Karwendel Mountains in Tyrol, Austria, are described and figured. It is the second record of Triassic pterosaurs from the Northern Calcareous Alps, after previous discoveries in the Southern Calcareous Alps of northern Italy. The fossil material — isolated jaws, bones and fragmentary skeletal parts of one individual — was collected from the Norian Seefeld Beds (also called 'Bitumenmergel' or 'Seefelder Fischschiefer') near Seefeld in Tyrol. The fossiliferous formation of largely bituminous and calcareous layers originated on top of an extended marine carbonate platform, an equivalent to the nearly contemporaneous limestones and dolomites in the Southern Calcareous Alps, as exposed in Lombardy and Friuli in Italy, that has produced pterosaur fossils since 1973. Based on the biostratigraphic significance of conodont index fossils, the Seefeld Beds can be dated as Late Norian, most likely Sevatian. Sufficiently well-preserved skeletal elements include a jugal, isolated teeth, both mandibular rami with a dentition of uni-, tri- and pentacuspid teeth, cervical, dorsal and caudal vertebrae, ribs, sternum, scapulocoracoids, humerus, first wing phalanx, pelvis and tibia/fibula. There are morphological characters that support a subadult stage of the individual with an estimated wing span of 70–80 cm. The dentition is comparable to Eudimorphodon ranzii Zambelli from the Norian Calcare di Zorzino of Cene near Bergamo, northern Italy. However, some skeletal proportions and osteological features are distinctive from this taxon, as well as from a second species, Eudimorphodon rosenfeldi Dalla Vecchia from the Norian Dolomia di Forni of Friuli, northern Italy. The meaning of these differences in the Seefeld specimen, in particular the relatively long tibia and short wing phalanx 1, is discussed. The caudal zygapophyses and haemal arches are not elongated into the rod-like bony extensions significant for other known rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs. It appears, however, that all speciments of Eudimorphodon lack elongated caudal zygapophyses. This might be evaluated as a primitive trait for these basal pterosaurs. The typical dentition permits the assignment of the Seefeld pterosaur to the genus Eudimorphodon. The fragmentary state of the skeleton and somewhat different skeletal proportions allow the author only to refer the specimen to Eudimorphodon cf. ranzii Zambelli 1973.


A great deal of literature exists that documents the nature and development of relations between Native and Newcomer groups in what is today the Eastern and Maritime regions of Canada . By comparison, however, studies which examine interaction between these two groups in Canada's prairie region are considerably lacking. Although a sufficient amount has been written about prairie Indian peoples and their experiences with government officials and policy, relatively little is known about relations between Indian reserve communities and neighbouring immigrant communities, particularly during the early years of settlement. A survey of existing sources suggests that during this time Indian people were simply settled on reserves and immigrant towns grew up around them, each, it seems, operating in complete isolation from the other . This thesis aims to fill this gap in the historical literature by attempting to draw out the essence of the integrated and intertwined elements of the history shared by two prairie communities . The basic aim of this study is to trace the nature and development of relations between Fishing Lake First Nation and Wadena, located in the east central portion of Saskatchewan, from the 1880s to the present. Exploring a Shared History seeks to provide a more thorough understanding of and broader perspective on an important, yet much-neglected, facet of the region's history .


Background: Patellofemoral Pain Syndrome (PFPS) represents anterior knees' diseases. The PFPS is a multifactorial disease, with high prevalence. It presents a direct relationship of deterioration through the act of squatting, descending and climbing stairs, interfering both in working and daily activities. The main purpose of the study will be to find evidence of the direct relationship between the variations of squatting during muscular daily physical exercises and the patellofemoral disease. Methodology: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols (PRISMA-P) Statement was used to elaborate the adequate research guidelines to address the research objective. Seven databases will be accessed (Academic Search Complete, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, PubMed, Informaworld by Taylor & Francis, and Medline via PMC) and, at least, 10 keywords will be combined. Study appraisal and synthesis methods: One author will independently screen titles and abstracts against the eligibility criteria at first, and full-texts of potentially eligible records at a second phase, followed by extraction of data from qualifying studies. Two review authors will also assess the risk of bias and the quality of evidence, using the Cochrane Collaboration's Tool, Rob 2.0. This protocol is registered in PROSPERO under the code CRD42019128711.


Background Drug shortages are very frequent in recent years. Hospital pharmacy staff lost many hours on research about reasons for shortages or how to purchase drugs from another wholesaler or find therapeutic alternative to avoid consequences for patients. Purpose To present drug shortages because it is increasing problem which can compromise patient care. Materials and methods Summary of drug product shortages in period January 2008–August 2011 in which the authors have been collecting data about shortages. The authors define drug shortage as every delay in monthly drug supply. For this presentation medications which were in shortage less then one month and drug which are not registered in Serbia were omitted. Results Number of drug in shortages were 17, 18, 26 and 42 from January 2008 to August 2011. Unresolved drug shortages were 12, 9, 10, 14 in that period. Therapeutic groups which were mostly involved in drug shortages were antibiotics and cytotoxic drugs. Patients most affected are from haemato-oncology units and ICU. Reasons for shortages were manufacturing and importation problems, but in most cases The authors did not know details about reasons or expected termination of shortages. As number of shortages is increasing, it is more difficult to find alternative drugs. Number of drugs which had alternative were in percents: 100, 83, 77, 74% from 2008 to 2011. Use of alternative drugs resulted in changes in therapeutic plans and higher costs but without adverse outcomes for patients. Consequences of drug shortages without alternative were delays of therapy. Drugs without alternative were most often cytotoxic drugs. Number of injectable drugs in shortages is increasing and were 6, 8, 15, 17, and it is very troublesome because it is more difficult to find alternative intravenous medication than drug for another routes. Conclusions Drug shortages is huge and increasing problem. Number of drugs shortages is in increase and in 2011 is twice higher than in 2008. Hospital pharmacist is in position to first know about shortages and to start many actions to diminish damages of patients. Most of interventions were suggestions of similar drugs. Drug shortage is opportunity for hospital pharmacist to be more involved in patient care and hospital drug management.


The rise of the importance of non-State actors in global politics challenges existing theories of international relations, and this article presents a new approach to the non-State actor phenomenon by developing a "theory of open-source anarchy." The article reviews the anarchy problem in the study of international relations and how leading theories explain this problem. This analysis questions whether these leading theories can explain the nature of non-State actor participation in contemporary global affairs. The article then develops a theoretical framework that addresses the non-State actor challenge. The framework argues that the nature of anarchy has shifted from a condition monopolized by States to one in which anarchy has become "open source" and accessible to non-State actors in unprecedented ways. The article explores the relationship between material power and ideas in open-source anarchy to explain the manner in which international relations operate in the early twenty-first century.


Vulnerability patch management remains one of the most complex issues facing modern enterprises; companies struggle to test and deploy new patches across their networks, often leaving myriad attack vectors vulnerable to exploits. This problem is exacerbated by enterprise server applications, which expose tremendous amounts of information about their security postures, greatly expediting attackers' reconnaissance incursions (e.g., knowledge gathering attacks). Unfortunately, current patching processes offer no insights into attacker activities, and prompt attack remediation is hindered by patch compatibility considerations and deployment cycles. To reverse this asymmetry, a patch management model is proposed to facilitate the rapid injection of software patches into live, commodity applications without disruption of production workflows, and the transparent sandboxing of suspicious processes for counterreconnaissance and threat information gathering. Our techniques improve workload visibility and vulnerability management, and overcome perennial shortcomings of traditional patching methodologies, such as proneness to attacker fingerprinting, and the high cost of deployment. The approach enables a large variety of novel defense scenarios, including rapid security patch testing with prompt recovery from defective patches and the placement of exploit sensors inlined into production workloads. An implementation for six enterprise-grade server programs demonstrates that our approach is practical and incurs minimal runtime overheads. Moreover, four use cases are discussed, including a practical deployment on two public cloud environments.


Background Mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) is suggested as being a valid measure in detecting overweight/obesity in children and adolescents, due to the strong relation with weight. We examined this relation and compared MUAC to body mass index (BMI) according to the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF) in children. Methods Anthropometric data including MUAC were collected in 2009 by trained healthcare professionals in the context of the fifth Dutch Nationwide Growth Study, in a sample of 6167 children (2891 boys and 3276 girls) aged 2–18 years of Dutch origin. We propose MUAC SDS cut-off values for overweight and obesity, and compared MUAC with BMI IOTF in sex-specific and age-specific categories (2–5, 6–11, 12–18 years). Results The area under the curve is used as a measure of diagnostic accuracy; the explained variance (R²) is good to excellent (0.88–0.94). Sensitivity ranges from 51.8% to 95.3% and specificity from 71.4% to 93.8%. Across age and gender groups, 65.1% to 89.0% participants are classified by both MUAC and BMI as normal weight, overweight or obese. We constructed three equations to predict weight using MUAC, with small differences between observed and predicted weight with an explained variance ranging from 0.88 to 0.94. Conclusions Compared with BMI, MUAC is a valid measure for detecting overweight and obesity and thus a good alternative for BMI. When weight has to be estimated, it can be accurately predicted using MUAC. Based on our observations, we recommend developing diagrams with international (IOTF) cut-offs for MUAC SDS similar to BMI.


Using a pulse chase 13CO2 plant labeling experiment we compared the flow of plant carbon into macromolecular fractions of rhizosphere soil microorganisms. Time dependent 13C dilution patterns in microbial cellular fractions were used to calculate their turnover time. The turnover times of microbial biomolecules were found to vary: microbial RNA (19 h) and DNA (30 h) turned over fastest followed by chloroform fumigation extraction-derived soluble cell lysis products (14 days), while phospholipid fatty acids (PLFAs) had the slowest turnover (42 days). PLFA/NLFA 13C analyses suggest that both mutualistic arbuscular mycorrhizal and saprophytic fungi are dominant in initial plant carbon uptake. In contrast, high initial 13C enrichment in RNA hints at bacterial importance in initial C uptake due to the dominance of bacterial derived RNA in total extracts of soil RNA. To explain this discrepancy, we observed low renewal rate of bacterial lipids, which may therefore bias lipid fatty acid based interpretations of the role of bacteria in soil microbial food webs. Based on our findings, we question current assumptions regarding plant-microbe carbon flux and suggest that the rhizosphere bacterial contribution to plant assimilate uptake could be higher. This highlights the need for more detailed quantitative investigations with nucleic acid biomarkers to further validate these findings.


Precise segmentation of polyps from colonoscopic images is extremely significant for the early diagnosis and treatment of colorectal cancer. However, it is still a challenging task due to: (1)the boundary between the polyp and the background is blurred makes delineation difficult; (2)the various size and shapes causes feature representation of polyps difficult. In this paper, we propose an integration context-based reverse-contour guidance network (ICGNet) to solve these challenges. The ICGNet firstly utilizes a reverse-contour guidance module to aggregate low-level edge detail information and meanwhile constraint reverse region. Then, the newly designed adaptive context module is used to adaptively extract local-global information of the current layer and complementary information of the previous layer to get larger and denser features. Lastly, an innovative hybrid pyramid pooling fusion module fuses the multi-level features generated from the decoder in the case of considering salient features and less background. Our proposed approach is evaluated on the EndoScene, Kvasir-SEG and CVC-ColonDB datasets with eight evaluation metrics, and gives competitive results compared with other state-of-the-art methods in both learning ability and generalization capability.


This article examines practices of (re-)claiming in Bishkek through the prism of "multitemporal fieldwork." Focusing on the young male residents of a Soviet-era neighborhood, I trace their ways of performing belonging in a rapidly changing urban environment. Most significantly, these men's coming of age has been accompanied by a gradual detachment from their exclusive focus on a neighborhood community that locally used to be known as Shanghai. Already during our first encounter in 2007, the primary territorial orientation for these residents' social identification and integration had shifted: it then addressed the larger unit of the whole city, where the claim of "being an urbanite" was made by referring to the neighborhood's administrative name, Iug-2. My most recent observations document not only how "married life" further disconnected these young men from the 2013 neighborhood realities, but also that a multitemporal perspective allows to (re-)contextualize various claims on Bishkek diachronically.


Crowd-based computing is an increasingly popular paradigm for building Web applications, which uses the collective strength of human actors for performing tasks that are more suited to humans than computers. Interaction with the crowds was originally confined to specifically designed crowdsourcing platforms, such as Amazon Mechanical Turk. More recently, crowd-based computing has been reconsidered and extended, targeting social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, or including basic and direct interaction mechanisms, such as routing personal emails or tweets. Crowdsearcher, the system presented here, fosters interoperability and adaptation in crowd-based applications -- for example, the ability of supporting multiplatform applications and adapting them in reaction to events. This approach specifically supports dynamic interoperability (that is, the ability to modify the execution platforms while the application is ongoing) as a reaction to crowd behavior, which is hardly predictable. The authors show how to specify interoperability control at a high, declarative level and then implement it using active rules, thereby obtaining answers from crowds engaged in different communities. They also show the approach's effect on precision, delay, and cost.


Although numerous women have contributed essays and research on servant-leadership there is still a considerable gap in literature addressing feminist perspectives and issues of gender in servant-leadership. This theoretical paper attempts to fill that gap by presenting a discussion of servant-leadership that is informed through feminist scholarship. The intent is to build a theoretical foundation for conceiving servant-leadership as a gender-integrative approach to leadership. A further purpose is to propose gender-integrative discernment in leadership education programs and suggest using servant-leadership as a framework for discussing gender in leadership and organizations. Examples of implications for leadership education programs are discussed in terms of outcomes and assessment. Suggestions for course content are made.


A series of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) with or without a bathocuproine (BCP) layer inserted in the control device indium-tin-oxide (ITO)\ N,N'-bis-(1-naphthl)-diphenyl-1,1'- biphenyl-4,4'-diamine (NPB)\ tris(8-quinolinolato) aluminum (Alq)\LiF\Al have been fabricated and measured. Different influences of the BCP layer on electroluminescence (EL) of the OLEDs have been investigated. It is found that the highest efficiency of the OLED with a 1-nm BCP layer inserted between NPB and Alq increases to 3.99 cd/A, ~48% higher than that of the control device, while the EL efficiencies of the devices with other structures are similar to the latter. This phenomenon is ascribed to the hole-blocking effect of the BCP layer and the resulting higher density of carriers in the emission zone of the OLED. The EL performances of the OLEDs with different thicknesses of BCP layer are also discussed in details.


The virtual instrument (VI) based power metering manifold (PMM), monitoring multiple branch circuits on a common distribution panel, is enhanced by the client-server interactive network architecture. The Intranet controlled power monitoring system integrates control, measurement and communication, while it still maintains economy by eliminating the extra network construction and hardware investment. Moreover, the multicast web application enables the power metering results to be accessed by multiple-user for variety applications in a real-time manner.


Abstract The activity of geomorphic processes in the current periglacial belt of Sierra Nevada during the Holocene has been strongly controlled by climate variability. We examined two sedimentary records showing several cycles with varying intensity of slope processes in the massif. Chronostratigraphic studies of solifluction landforms have revealed seven cycles of enhanced slope activity in Sierra Nevada during the last 7 ka. Lake sediments show eight periods with increased slope activity over the last 6 ka. Depending on temperature and moisture regime, erosion or conditions of slope stability prevailed. Cold and wet periods triggered slope processes and favoured deposition of coarse-grained sediments into the lakes, whereas warm phases were prone to soil development and fine-grained sedimentation in the lakes. The lake sediments also show evidence for an increasing aridity trend since the Holocene Optimum Warm Period in Sierra Nevada, which induced a shift of solifluction processes to higher elevations accompanying late-lying snow patches.


SUMMARY
Simulated rain (mean drop diameter c. 1 or 3 mm) was allowed to fall for 10 – 15 min on to barley leaves or straw infected by Rhynchosporium secalis (leaf blotch). The leaves were supported on a mesh through which run-off water drained and the straw was supported on a rigid surface on which run-off water collected. The numbers of R. secalis conidia and spore-carrying splash droplets collected by horizontal samplers (microscope slides and pieces of photographic film) decreased rapidly with increasing distance from and increasing height above the sources, with half-distances of 2 – 10 cm. Less than 10% of the spores or droplets reached heights of more than 30 cm. Incident drops 3 mm in diameter produced more spore-carrying droplets and dispersed more conidia than did 1 mm drops. The size category of splash droplets with the greatest proportion of the spore-carrying droplets dispersed by 3 mm drops was 200 – 400 μm, whether the source was infected barley leaves or barley straw. For leaves or straw the greatest proportions of spores were carried in droplets > 1000 μm in diameter. The mean diameter of spore-carrying droplets (478 μm) dispersed from free-draining leaves was less than that of droplets from straw plus run-off water (563 μm). However, the leaf source had more spores cm-2 and the mean number of spores per droplet was greater (113 as opposed to 6·8) than for the straw source.


Background: Today, traditional medicine is developed globally as an important source for health care of the world's population. The current study describes the antibacterial activity of thymus commercial products against both Gram-positive including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes and Gram-negative bacteria including Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Methods: Two commercial products of thymus with standard expiration date (and in three different batch numbers) including anti-aphthous spray and oral drop were purchased from the pharmacies of Tabriz city. Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) and disk diffusion are used to investigate the antibacterial efficiency of the mentioned products. Results: The results of disk diffusion method showed zones of growth inhibition against S. aureus and S. pyogenes for the investigated products. Based on MICs, thymus oral drop had inhibitory effects against S. aureus, S. pyogenes while anti-aphthous spray showed inhibitory effects against S. aureus, S. pyogenes and P. aeruginosa. The findings also indicated that the thymus anti-aphthous spray had more inhibitory effects than thymus oral drop. Conclusion: This study showed that thymus can be used as an optimistic antibacterial agent against the selected microorganisms.


The performance evaluation of routing protocols for ad hoc networks is a difficult task. However, a graph theoretic model - the evolving graphs - was recently proposed to help capture the behavior of dynamic networks with fixed-schedule behavior. Our recent experiments showed that evolving graphs have all the potentials to be an effective and powerful tool in the development of routing protocols for dynamic networks. In this paper, we design a new con- gestion avoidance mechanism and a modified end-to-end delay metric in order to improve the evolving graph based routing protocol proposed previously. We use the NS2 network simulator to compare this new version to the three proto- cols provided by NS2, namely AODV, DSR and DSDV, and to OLSR, which is included in the experiments for the first time.


Daqing oilfield; oil-contaminated soil; alkaline soil; multi-plant system; phytoremediation Abstract: Daqing oil-contaminated alkaline soil and high concentrations oil-pollutant samples were mixed at the ratio of 4:1, 2:1, 1:1 and 1:2 (vsoil/voil), respectively. Then the oil content of the mixed samples were detected and analyzed after phytoremediation experiment with multi-plant systems. The research results showed that Salsola collina Pall-Chinese wildrye-Thistle Herb-Medicago-Artemisia ordosica multi-plant system had a good degradation effect on oily-pollutants. During the 105-day experiment, the degradation rate of oil-pollutants could be up to 80.5% in the mixed soil (4:1, vsoil/voil). During the whole experiment, removal rate of total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPHs) could raise up 65.5% in the Coronilla varia-Lolium perenne-Amaranthus hypochondriacus multi-plant system mixed soil (2:1, vsoil/voil). Experimental results proved that the degradation effect on TPHs could be improved by the multi-plant systems and they could be reasonably matched to cure and restore the ecological environment of oil-contaminated soils.


In vivo membrane fusion primarily occurs between highly curved vesicles and planar membranes. A better understanding of fusion entails an accurate in vitro reproduction of the process. To date, supported bilayers have been commonly used to mimic the planar membranes. Soluble N-ethylmaleimide-sensitive factor attachment protein receptor (SNARE) proteins that induce membrane fusion usually have limited fluidity when embedded in supported bilayers. This alters the kinetics and prevents correct reconstitution of the overall fusion process. Also, observing content release across the membrane is hindered by the lack of a second aqueous compartment. Recently, a step toward resolving these issues was achieved by using membranes spread on holey substrates. The mobility of proteins was preserved but vesicles were prone to bind to the substrate when reaching the edge of the hole, preventing the observation of many fusion events over the suspended membrane. Building on this recent advance, we designed a method for the formation of pore-spanning lipid bilayers containing t-SNARE proteins on Si/SiO2 holey chips, allowing the observation of many individual vesicle fusion events by both lipid mixing and content release. With this setup, proteins embedded in the suspended membrane bounced back when they reached the edge of the hole which ensured vesicles did not bind to the substrate. We observed SNARE-dependent membrane fusion with the freestanding bilayer of about 500 vesicles. The time between vesicle docking and fusion is ∼1 s. We also present a new multimodal open-source software, Fusion Analyzer Software, which is required for fast data analysis.


Images require substantial storage & resources now days, hence in this paper we are going to present the direct solution. We have developed the application which consist of features like image Compression, Image Cropping, Scaling & Encryption & Decryption. Image Compression is a technique of compressing an image while Image Scaling is a technique of resizing or reshaping image whereas Encryption is a technique of enhancing the security of a image or file by scrambling its contents. We have used JPEG standard algorithm for Compression technique, Interpolation technique for Scaling & Advance Encryption Standard used for Encryption/Decryption.


Chlamydia pneumoniae (C. pneumoniae) is an obligate intracellular bacterial pathogen, which has long been investigated as a potential developmental or exacerbating factor in various pathologies. C. pneumoniae infects mainly the respiratory tract, but also has been associated with extrarespiratory manifestations. We report on an uncommon case of young patient with acute acalculous cholecystitis (AAC) and acute pericarditis during the chlamydia pneumoniae infection with hematogenous / lymphogenous routes of systemic dissemination of Chlamydia pneumoniae infection.


This guide is a compilation of resources discussed by the Open Educational Resources (OER) committee at Southeast Campus. OERs are free or low cost educational materials that could supplement or be used in place of a traditional textbook.


In Tehran, the capital of Iran, billboards bear two parallel responsibilities with, of course, di erent directions. Some of them have commercial functions, while others transmit moral messages and religious and political slogans. In the spring of 2015, billboards in Tehran suddenly transmitted a new message. A new urban project, called "A City-wide Art Gallery", converted Tehran into a gallery using billboards. For many people, this was "a city-wide coincidence". This was the rst time that the municipality of Tehran allocated billboards to a topic that followed neither a commercial nor an ideological purpose. The change that the project brought about in the city's landscape has sparked debates among citizens and experts. The present study investigates the relationship of citizens with the images displayed in this project and compares this urban-scaled movement to people's reference to art galleries and museums. Data for this study are collected using questionnaires and interviews. According to the results, the respondents were generally satis ed with the selection of artworks and their layouts. However, the size of the artworks and the size of the subtitle letters of the images were criticized. Data analysis also shows that this program has been able to partially create a discursive space among citizens and encourage people to visit museums and art galleries.


Low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes form an important subclass of error correcting coding techniques, and its implementation has been hot spot of domains such as signal process, magnetic recording or next generation communication for years. This paper proposes a configurable FPGA implementation of Partition-and-Shift LDPC decoder based on Min-Sum algorithm. An MPEG algorithm is introduced to reduce the complexity of searching for closed paths in shift matrix. And a routing paths switch concept is proposed to realize the expected configurability. Benefits of the proposed technique are demonstrated with FPGA design for differently configured PS-LDPC decoders which all achieve a Gbps throughput, low hardware cost and excellent BER performance at 16 iterations.


Interruptible pure exploration in multi-armed bandits (MABs) is a key component of Monte-Carlo tree search algorithms for sequential decision problems. We introduce Discriminative Bucketing (DB), a novel family of strategies for pure exploration in MABs, which allows for adapting recent advances in non-interruptible strategies to the interruptible setting, while guaranteeing exponential-rate performance improvement over time. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that the corresponding instances of DB favorably compete both with the currently popular strategies UCB1 and Epsilon-Greedy, as well as with the conservative uniform sampling.


Problem statement: Several studies were carried out to develop and validate a simple, rapid and accurate spectrophotometric method for the analysis of tetracycline (TC) and oxytetracycline (OTC) in the pure form and in pharmaceutical dosage forms, despite the varieties of these analytical techniques, the literature revealed that no spectrophotometric method for determination of tetracycline and oxytetracycline using charge transfer complexation with chloranilic acid has been reported. Approach: In the present study, a new and simple spectrophotometric method is described for the determinations of tetracycline (TC) and oxytetracycline (OTC), the method is based on the molecular interaction between the tetracyclines and Chloranilic Acid (CA), to form a charge-transfer complex in which the drugs acts as n-donor and chloranilic acid as �-acceptor in acetonitrile. The spectra, various experimental parameters for the reaction, the stability of the complex and the validty of the method were investigated. Results: The formed complex was found to absorb maximally at 540nm, Beer's law is obeyed in the concentration ranges 2.5-30 μg mL -1 and 5.0-40 μg mL -1 for TC and OTC, respectively. The limits of detection (S/N = 3) were 0.40 μg mL -1 for tetracycline and 0.50 μg mL -1 for oxytetracycline. The molar ratio was found to be approximately 1:1, confirming that one molecule of tetracycline or oxytetracycline combines with one molecule of chloranilic acid. Conclusions and Recommendations: The proposed method was found to be rapid, accurate and sensitive and may be applied for estimation of named drugs in pharmaceutical dosage forms without interferences from the common additives encountered. Percentage recoveries ranged from 99.17%±0.95-100.38%±0.82. From the statistical analysis of the obtained results one can conclude that no significant difference between the proposed method and other official methods as evident from the t-test and variance ratio. These findings recommend the utility of the proposed method in the quality control analysis of TC and OTC in the pure form and pharmaceutical dosage forms.


PURPOSE
To investigate beneficial effect of the readily available colchicine through its intravesical application on protamine/lipopolysaccharide induced interstitial cystitis model in rat and to compare its efficacy to the chondroitin sulphate available for clinical use.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Twenty-four Wistar female rats were assigned to control (C), interstitial cystitis (IC), chondroitin sulphate (CS) and colchicine (Col) groups. IC, CS and Col groups received protamine sulphate and lipopolysaccharide (PS/LPS) instillation. Testing agents CS and Col were administered a day after PS/LPS inoculation into the bladders. Rats in Group C received saline solution. CS and Col groups received 1 mL CS (0.2%) and 1 mL Col (0.05 mg/mL). The treatment agents were left in bladders for one hour's duration. Animals were sacrificed 5 days after the inoculation and the bladder tissues were examined histologically to evaluate the amount of extravasated leucocytes, mast cell concentration (by counting total number of cells per 10 high power field (hpf; 1 hpf = ×400 magnification) as well as interstitial tissue edema for each bladder.

RESULTS
Intravesical application of CS reduced significantly the leucocyte and mast cell infiltration as well as interstitial edema compared to group C . The level of reduction in leucocyte and mast cell infiltration in Col group was comparable to that of CS, although the interstitial edema was not resolved.

CONCLUSION
Intravesical administration of Col decreased leucocyte and mast cell infiltration to the same extent of CS in PS/LPS induced bladder inflammation in rat. Col may be an alternative to other treatment modalities for painful bladder conditions such as IC.


Abstract Over the last decade, feature tracking and recognition in infrared (IR) video has become an important strategy used in many applications. To achieve such a capability, we developed a method based on the top-hat transform, hybridized with refinement by thresholding. Our algorithm uses two different but correlated background subtraction approaches to clean the image. A mathematical-morphology-based method was then applied to enhance the contrast between particles and background. The algorithm was tested using images acquired during a controlled experiment and was compared with another particle tracking velocimetry method. We demonstrate that our algorithm can detect dim IR targets and enables computation of a local velocity field that can be used for the tracking step. Using this method, we were able to obtain both the distribution of particle sizes, volumes (or masses), and velocities. We also apply our algorithm to images recorded during ballistic emitting explosive events at Stromboli volcano (Italy) and favorably compare our results with other volcanologic data sets. Experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm achieves a high recognition accuracy with a low-computational cost.


The insertion of ablation needles towards pancreatic tumors demands excellent anatomical knowledge and interdisciplinary skills from the medical professional. While the placement of a single needle next to the structures at risk surrounding the pancreas is considered a challenging task, irreversible electroporation requires multiple needles to be placed in parallel at a specific location. Minimally invasive procedures complicate the already ambitious procedure, yet the ablation method bears potential to increase the overall survival for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer. Current studies require more clinical evidence regarding the efficacy of irreversible electroporation in pancreatic cancer by means of randomized controlled, multicenter trials. However, the ablation treatment is currently applied in expert centers only, which is due to the complex task of the needle placement. Computer-assisted surgery has shown its potential in different fields of applications to improve the targeting of diseased tissue and the confidence of the medical professional. The application of computer-assisted needle navigation for pancreatic cancer ablation holds the prospect to make the procedure more reproducible and safer.


The world of spatial data is split into individual data source islands that have different thematic or spatial focuses. When attempting to integrate those data sources, severe challenges arise, since for most GIS application domains a spatial integration schema does not exist. This is also true for the newly emerging domain of mobile, context-aware applications. Since the users of these systems are mobile, transborder access to spatial data or context models is crucial for global deployment. The basis for this work is the Nexus Augmented World Schema, a conceptual schema that serves as an integration standard for autonomous spatial context servers. This paper analyzes some major spatial data standards, especially with respect to the requirements of a spatial integration schema for context-aware applications and illustrates the Nexus approach.


Most Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) predict the labels of unseen graphs by learning the correlation between the input graphs and labels. However, by presenting a graph classification investigation on the training graphs with severe bias, surprisingly, we discover that GNNs always tend to explore the spurious correlations to make decision, even if the causal correlation always exists. This implies that existing GNNs trained on such biased datasets will suffer from poor generalization capability. By analyzing this problem in a causal view, we find that disentangling and decorrelating the causal and bias latent variables from the biased graphs are both crucial for debiasing. Inspiring by this, we propose a general disentangled GNN framework to learn the causal substructure and bias substructure, respectively. Particularly, we design a parameterized edge mask generator to explicitly split the input graph into causal and bias subgraphs. Then two GNN modules supervised by causal/bias-aware loss functions respectively are trained to encode causal and bias subgraphs into their corresponding representations. With the disentangled representations, we synthesize the counterfactual unbiased training samples to further decorrelate causal and bias variables. Moreover, to better benchmark the severe bias problem, we construct three new graph datasets, which have controllable bias degrees and are easier to visualize and explain. Experimental results well demonstrate that our approach achieves superior generalization performance over existing baselines. Furthermore, owing to the learned edge mask, the proposed model has appealing interpretability and transferability. Code and data are available at: https://github.com/googlebaba/DisC.


A gamma spectrum of a Pu-C source is measured using a p-type HPGe detector, whose three peaks (full energy, single-escape and double-escape peak) can be used as a calibration source for the beam energy measurement system of BEPCII. The effect of fast neutron damage on the energy resolution of the HPGe detector is studied, which indicates that the energy resolution begins to deteriorate when the detector is subject to 2×107 n/cm2 fast neutrons. The neutron damage mechanism and detector repair methods are reviewed. The Monte Carlo simulation technique is utilized to study the shielding of the HPGe detector from the fast neutron radiation damage, which is of great significance for the future commissioning of the beam energy measurement system.


ABSTRACT It is well established that respiratory organisms use proton motive force to produce ATP via F-type ATP synthase aerobically and that this process may reverse during anaerobiosis to produce proton motive force. Here, we show that Shewanella oneidensis strain MR-1, a nonfermentative, facultative anaerobe known to respire exogenous electron acceptors, generates ATP primarily from substrate-level phosphorylation under anaerobic conditions. Mutant strains lacking ackA (SO2915) and pta (SO2916), genes required for acetate production and a significant portion of substrate-level ATP produced anaerobically, were tested for growth. These mutant strains were unable to grow anaerobically with lactate and fumarate as the electron acceptor, consistent with substrate-level phosphorylation yielding a significant amount of ATP. Mutant strains lacking ackA and pta were also shown to grow slowly using N-acetylglucosamine as the carbon source and fumarate as the electron acceptor, consistent with some ATP generation deriving from the Entner-Doudoroff pathway with this substrate. A deletion strain lacking the sole F-type ATP synthase (SO4746 to SO4754) demonstrated enhanced growth on N-acetylglucosamine and a minor defect with lactate under anaerobic conditions. ATP synthase mutants grown anaerobically on lactate while expressing proteorhodopsin, a light-dependent proton pump, exhibited restored growth when exposed to light, consistent with a proton-pumping role for ATP synthase under anaerobic conditions. Although S. oneidensis requires external electron acceptors to balance redox reactions and is not fermentative, we find that substrate-level phosphorylation is its primary anaerobic energy conservation strategy. Phenotypic characterization of an ackA deletion in Shewanella sp. strain MR-4 and genomic analysis of other sequenced strains suggest that this strategy is a common feature of Shewanella.


The mRNA for rat muscle myosin heavy chain (MHC) was isolated from L6E9 myotubes by two rounds of sucrose density gradient centrifugation followed by fractionation on an agarose/polyacrylamide gel. The purity of the mRNA isolated was determined by translation in vitro, peptide analysis of the in vitro product and comparison with authentic MHC, analysis of the kinetics of hybridization with cDNA prepared with this RNA, and titration analysis of total cytoplasmic RNA from muscle and nonmuscle sources. By using the MHC cDNA as probe of myogenic differentiation, it was observed that the level of cytoplasmic MHC mRNA increased approximately 200-fold as the dividing myoblast differentiated into the fused myotube. Titration analysis of RNAs fractionated by oligo(dT)-cellulose chromatography indicated that the majority of the increase occurred in that RNA population that failed to bind to an oligo(dT)-cellulose column.


The purpose of this review is to identify quality measures and to highlight some of the tensions surrounding notions of quality, as well as the need for new ways of thinking about and approaching quality in MOOCs. It draws on the literature on both MOOCs and quality in education more generally in order to provide a framework for thinking about quality and the different variables and questions that must be considered when conceptualising quality in MOOCs. The review adopts a relativist approach, positioning quality as a measure for a specific purpose. The review draws upon Biggs's (1993) 3P model to explore notions and dimensions of quality in relation to MOOCs — presage, process and product variables — which correspond to an input–environment–output model. The review brings together literature examining how quality should be interpreted and assessed in MOOCs at a more general and theoretical level, as well as empirical research studies that explore how these ideas about quality can be operationalised, including the measures and instruments that can be employed. What emerges from the literature are the complexities involved in interpreting and measuring quality in MOOCs and the importance of both context and perspective to discussions of quality.


An ever present, common sense idea in language modelling research is that, for a word to be a valid phrase, it should comply with multiple constraints at once. A new language definition model is studied, based on agreement or consensus between similar strings. Considering a regular set of strings over a bipartite alphabet made by pairs of unmarked/marked symbols, a match relation is introduced, in order to specify when such strings agree. Then a regular set over the bipartite alphabet can be interpreted as specifying another language over the unmarked alphabet, called the consensual language. A word is in the consensual language if a set of corresponding matching strings is in the original language. The family thus defined includes the regular languages and also interesting non-semilinear ones. The word problem can be solved in NLOGSPACE, hence in P time. The emptiness problem is undecidable. Closure properties are proved for intersection with regular sets and inverse alphabetical homomorphism. Several conditions for a consensual definition to yield a regular language are presented, and it is shown that the size of a consensual specification of regular languages can be in a logarithmic ratio with respect to a DFA. The family is incomparable with context-free and tree-adjoining grammar families.


The objective of the study was to identify the effects of King‐Kopetzky syndrome on emotional well‐being and the effects of emotional well‐being on the condition itself. The study was designed as a qualitative study using semi‐structured interviews, using six patients with long‐standing hearing problems and exposure to a range of interventions. Participants were recruited from Audiology and Hearing Therapy Services, Bath and the Welsh Hearing Institute, Cardiff. Interviews were conducted in participants' homes and work places. King‐Kopetzky syndrome was perceived to result in a change in level of anxiety, distress and depression. The determining factor in whether the change was positive (e.g. reduction in anxiety, distress or depression) or negative (e.g. increase in anxiety, distress or depression) was the person's interpretation of the experience of not hearing. This process of interpretation was based on feeling different towards other people, the relationship with the communicant person, and the confidence to employ strategies and the types of strategies chosen. Participants associated an increase in distress, anxiety or depression with an increase in mishearing or not hearing, and a reduction in hearing difficulties with a reduction in anxiety, distress and depression. It is hypothesised that emotional response to King‐Kopetzky syndrome affects the degree of hearing difficulty experienced. Interventions aimed at the process of interpretation may be a means of empowering individuals in managing their own hearing difficulties.


Introduction Physical exercise is a lifestyle intervention that can positively impact aspects of physical and psychological health. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that physical exercise, sleep, and PTSD are interrelated. This study investigated possible relationships. Three research questions were posed: (1) Did randomization to an aerobic exercise intervention reduce insomnia more than being randomized to an intervention without exercise, (2) Did change in sleep predict change in PTSD symptoms, and (3) Did change in sleep impact the relationship between exercise and PTSD symptom reductions? Methods Data were collected from 69 treatment-seeking active duty service members with PTSD symptoms randomized into one of four conditions; two conditions included aerobic exercise, and two conditions did not include exercise. Participants in the exercise groups exercised five times per week keeping their heart rate > 60% of their heart rate reserve for 20–25 min. Results At baseline, 58% of participants reported moderate or severe insomnia. PTSD symptom severity decreased following treatment for all groups (p < 0.001). Participants randomized to exercise reported greater reductions in insomnia compared to those in the no exercise group (p = 0.47). However, change in insomnia did not predict change in PTSD symptoms nor did it significantly impact the relationship between exercise and PTSD symptom reductions. Discussion Adding exercise to evidence-based treatments for PTSD could reduce sleep disturbance, a characteristic of PTSD not directly addressed with behavioral therapies. A better understanding of exercise as a lifestyle intervention that can reduce PTSD symptoms and insomnia is warranted.


Research on self-employment has increased during recent years and particular attention has been paid to self-employment dynamics and the factors influencing entry and exit rates from self-employment. Using a large panel data set for Sweden, this paper investigates variations in recruitment to self-employment and in self-employment performance by gender and by employment status prior to entering self-employment. As performance measures we use income from self-employment, number of employees, exit rates and destination after self-employment. We find that the probability of becoming self-employed is highest among men who are economically inactive and lowest among women who are wage-earners. Analysing self-employment performance, we find that men have higher incomes than women. Self-employed women more often than self-employed men have employees. For both men and women those who enter from unemployment or inactivity are less successful in terms of income and the probability of having employees than those who enter from paid employment. When exits are divided into paid employment and other employment status, we find that those who entered from unemployment or inactivity face a higher risk of returning to one of these states.


The classification, texture and distribution of the estuarine intertidal sediments in the microtidal Dyfi Estuary, West Wales, were studied. Evaluation of 72 surficial sediment samples shows that the estuarine intertidal sediments are mostly fine-grained silt and fine-grained sand. By testing Pejrup's triangle diagram for the classification of estuarine sediments, five sub-facies were distinguished from the estuarine intertidal sediments of the estuary. Proceeding seaward, these are saltmarsh, high mud zone, low mud zone and sand flat. Cutting them is an extensive tidal creek network. Textural patterns within the study area show an upward-fining sequence typical of intertidal environments described elsewhere. Most of the investigated sediments fall within the field of deposition controlled by unidirectional currents, which are mainly represented by tidal currents.


Background Between 2013 and 2015, the UK Biobank collected accelerometer traces from 103,712 volunteers aged between 40 and 69 years using wrist-worn triaxial accelerometers for 1 week. This data set has been used in the past to verify that individuals with chronic diseases exhibit reduced activity levels compared with healthy populations. However, the data set is likely to be noisy, as the devices were allocated to participants without a set of inclusion criteria, and the traces reflect free-living conditions. Objective This study aims to determine the extent to which accelerometer traces can be used to distinguish individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2D) from normoglycemic controls and to quantify their limitations. Methods Machine learning classifiers were trained using different feature sets to segregate individuals with T2D from normoglycemic individuals. Multiple criteria, based on a combination of self-assessment UK Biobank variables and primary care health records linked to UK Biobank participants, were used to identify 3103 individuals with T2D in this population. The remaining nondiabetic 19,852 participants were further scored on their physical activity impairment severity based on other conditions found in their primary care data, and those deemed likely physically impaired at the time were excluded. Physical activity features were first extracted from the raw accelerometer traces data set for each participant using an algorithm that extends the previously developed Biobank Accelerometry Analysis toolkit from Oxford University. These features were complemented by a selected collection of sociodemographic and lifestyle features available from UK Biobank. Results We tested 3 types of classifiers, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) close to 0.86 (95% CI 0.85-0.87) for all 3 classifiers and F1 scores in the range of 0.80-0.82 for T2D-positive individuals and 0.73-0.74 for T2D-negative controls. Results obtained using nonphysically impaired controls were compared with highly physically impaired controls to test the hypothesis that nondiabetic conditions reduce classifier performance. Models built using a training set that included highly impaired controls with other conditions had worse performance (AUC 0.75-0.77; 95% CI 0.74-0.78; F1 scores in the range of 0.76-0.77 for T2D positives and 0.63-0.65 for controls). Conclusions Granular measures of free-living physical activity can be used to successfully train machine learning models that are able to discriminate between individuals with T2D and normoglycemic controls, although with limitations because of the intrinsic noise in the data sets. From a broader clinical perspective, these findings motivate further research into the use of physical activity traces as a means of screening individuals at risk of diabetes and for early detection, in conjunction with routinely used risk scores, provided that appropriate quality control is enforced on the data collection protocol.


A genetic analysis of a 12-kb DNA fragment containing Pseudomonas denitrificans cob genes was performed by transposon-mediated insertional mutagenesis. The nucleotide sequence and genetic analysis have shown that a 4.8-kb DNA subfragment carried two cob genes (cobS and cobT). Biochemical data concerning the complemented cobS and cobT mutants suggested that the cobS product was involved in cobalt insertion-mediating reactions and that the cobT product was involved in the transformation of precorrin-3 into cobyrinic acid.


Reliable and reproducible protocols to get healthy and well formed plants from nodal explants of the pomegranate ( Punica granatum L) cv 'Bhagava' has been developed. Nodal segments were cultured on two different media at full strength Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Woody Plant Medium (WPM). The media was prepared as a basal medium supplemented with 0.2 to 2 mg/L 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP), 0.1 to 1 mg/L 1-naphthalacetic acid (NAA), 0.5 to 2.5 mg/L silver nitrate (AgNO3) and 10 to 50 mg/L adenine sulphate for establishment stage. For proliferation stage, 0.1 to 0.5 mg/L BAP and NAA was tested. For rooting stage 0.0, 0.25 and 0.5 mg/L 3-Indolebutyric acid (IBA) and NAA on MS and WPM medium were tested. The nodal explants grown on MS medium containing 1.8 mg/L BAP, 0.9 mg/L NAA, 1 mg/L silver nitrate and 30 mg/L adenine sulphate had the highest proliferation rate (10 to 15 shoots/explants) in establishment stage. The same trend was found concerning the maximum leaves numbers (15 to 20 leaves/explants) on proliferation medium containing 0.4 mg/L BAP and 0.3 mg/L NAA. The plantlets grown on MS medium were found to have better survival compared to WPM medium. 0.5 mg/L NAA and 0.5 mg/L IBA showed equal rooting response in both the medium, whereas thick root formation was observed in the medium containing IBA. Key words : Micropropagation, proliferation, rooting, Punica granatum .


Allergic asthma and atopic dermatitis are diseases mainly resulting from the activation of Th2 cells, that produce cytokines favouring IgE production and eosinophilia but also of Th1 cells, that contribute to inflammation chronicity. Lymphocyte recruitment and retention of Th cells in target organs are 2 key events for asthma and atopic dermatitis pathogenesis. While lymphocyte migration is regulated by chemokines and lipid mediators such as leukotrienes and prostaglandins, factors involved in lymphocyte retention and survival within inflammatory tissues remain poorly understood. Recent works show that, in allergic diseases, there is an increased expression of fractalkine/CX3CL1 and its unique receptor CX3CR1 and that this chemokine does not act as chemoattractant. In allergic asthma, CX3CR1 expression regulates Th2 and Th1 cell survival in the inflammatory lung, while, in atopic dermatitis, it regulate Th2 and Th1 cell retention into the inflammatory site. Use of peptides blocking fractalkine binding to its receptor is currently tested in the treatment of asthma and atopic dermatitis.


Purpose – The paper examines one of Scotland's major pork supply chains and seeks to identify the key risks and challenges involved in developing a resilient agri‐food supply system, particularly with regard to primary product supply, and to show how risk management and collaboration amongst stakeholders can increase chain resilience.Design/methodology/approach – The case study involved in‐depth interviews with seven people involved in the chain and its management.Findings – Reduced supply chain vulnerability to risks arose through horizontal collaboration amongst producers, and vertical collaboration with the processor and retailer. Producers improved market and price security, and pig performance. For the processor and retailer the collaboration generated greater security of supply of an assured quality, improved communication with suppliers, and reduced demand risk as they could assure consumers on quality, animal welfare and product provenance.Research limitations/implications – The study's findings a...


This paper recommends the iterative enhancement' technique as a practical means of using a top-down, stepwise refinement approach to software development. This technique begins with a simple initial implementation of a property chosen (skeletal) subproject which is followed by the gradual enhancement of successive implementations in order to build the full implementation. The development and quantitative analysis of a production compiler for the language SIMPL-T is used to demonstrate that the application of iterative enhancement to software development is practical and efficient, encourages the generation of an easily modifiable product, and facilities reliability.


OBJECTIVES
Traditionally, patients with pulmonary embolism (PE) are admitted from the emergency department and treated with low-molecular-weight heparin followed by warfarin. Several studies now demonstrate that it is possible to identify low-risk PE patients that can safely be treated as outpatients. The advent of the direct-acting oral anticoagulants such as rivaroxaban has made it easier than ever to manage patients outside of the hospital. This article describes the design of a randomized controlled trial aimed at testing the hypothesis that low-risk PE patients can be safely and effectively managed at home using rivaroxaban, resulting in fewer days of hospitalization than standard-of-care treatment.

METHODS
We have initiated a multicenter, open-label, randomized clinical trial in which low-risk adult PE patients (identified by the Hestia criteria) are randomized to outpatient management with oral rivaroxaban 15 mg twice daily for 21 days followed by 20 mg once daily for 90 days versus standard care, determined by the treating physician and based on local practices. The primary clinical endpoint will be the total number of inpatient hospital days (including the index admission) for venous thromboembolic or bleeding-related events during the first 30 days after randomization. A total of 150 subjects per group will provide 82% power to detect a difference of 1 day or greater in the primary outcome.

RESULTS
Patient enrollment is ongoing at present in 45 of 60 planned sites. No interim analysis is planned and the study is being monitored by a data safety management board.

CONCLUSIONS
The MERCURY PE study is designed to test the hypothesis that outpatient management of low-risk PE patients with rivaroxaban reduces the number of hospitalization days from venous thromboembolism and bleeding compared with standard care. This article describes the rationale and methodology for this study.


Nitric oxide (NO) has been known for many years to bind to cytochrome C oxidase, the terminal acceptor in the mitochondrial electron transport chain, in competition with oxygen. This interaction may be significant in vivo and explain some of the biological actions of NO. In this article we review the evidence showing that binding of NO to cytochrome C oxidase elicits intracellular signaling events, including the diversion of oxygen to nonrespiratory substrates and the generation of reactive oxygen species. We discuss findings indicating that these NO-elicited events act as triggers by which mitochondria modulate signal transduction cascades involved in the induction of cellular defense mechanisms and adaptive responses. We also discuss instances in which the effects of NO on the electron transport chain might lead to mitochondrial dysfunction and pathology.


Abstract Background Electronic health record (EHR) systems contain large volumes of novel heterogeneous data that can be linked to trauma registry data to enable innovative research not possible with either data source alone. Objective This article describes an approach for linking electronically extracted EHR data to trauma registry data at the institutional level and assesses the value of probabilistic linkage. Methods Encounter data were independently obtained from the EHR data warehouse (n = 1,632) and the pediatric trauma registry (n = 1,829) at a Level I pediatric trauma center. Deterministic linkage was attempted using nine different combinations of medical record number (MRN), encounter identity (ID) (visit ID), age, gender, and emergency department (ED) arrival date. True matches from the best performing variable combination were used to create a gold standard, which was used to evaluate the performance of each variable combination, and to train a probabilistic algorithm that was separately used to link records unmatched by deterministic linkage and the entire cohort. Additional records that matched probabilistically were investigated via chart review and compared against records that matched deterministically. Results Deterministic linkage with exact matching on any three of MRN, encounter ID, age, gender, and ED arrival date gave the best yield of 1,276 true matches while an additional probabilistic linkage step following deterministic linkage yielded 110 true matches. These records contained a significantly higher number of boys compared to records that matched deterministically and etiology was attributable to mismatch between MRNs in the two data sets. Probabilistic linkage of the entire cohort yielded 1,363 true matches. Conclusion The combination of deterministic and an additional probabilistic method represents a robust approach for linking EHR data to trauma registry data. This approach may be generalizable to studies involving other registries and databases.


Today's abundance of personal electronic devices and the growth of communications networks gives rise to a new set of applications. One such application allows clients to access high-bandwidth streaming media at times of their choosing. The focus of this dissertation is on the media-on-demand application for use in high-bandwidth communications networks. A media-on-demand server stores and distributes one or more media files to clients who wish to view/play them. Because server bandwidth can be quickly consumed when delivering the full media file to each client under high loads, protocols for delivering streaming media try to reduce the server bandwidth used to satisfy client requests. Our work focuses on the stream merging technique, where clients can receive two streams simultaneously and buffer data for future parts of the media file. When clients have the same data as other clients in the system, we merge the clients into a single group and eliminate unnecessary streams. This dissertation introduces, analyzes, and empirically compares algorithms for three media-on-demand models. The first model, which we call media-on-demand, assumes the media file requested is of finite length and clients always consume the media file from its beginning. The second model, media-on-demand with time-shifting, supports access to any portion of a live broadcasted stream. Our contributions include devising an algorithm for media-on-demand systems under high client loads, modeling media-on-demand with time-shifting as a rectilinear tree, finding the complexity class for the optimal offline solution to media-on-demand with time-shifting, and introducing an online algorithm for the time-shifting case. Finally, we introduce a network cost model where we try to optimize the network bandwidth instead of the server bandwidth. We describe an algorithm to compute the network cost given a stream merging schedule and introduce an online stream merging algorithm for the network cost model.