We collect major known algorithms in the literature for finding the maxima of multi-dimensional points and provide a simple classification. Several new algorithms are proposed. In particular, we give a new maxima-finding algorithm with expected complexity n+O(√n\log n) when the input is a sequence of points uniformly chosen at random from general planar regions. We also give a sequential algorithm, very efficient for practical purposes.


The role of the examinations for membership of the Royal College of Pathologists (MRCPath) has evolved and matured over the 42 years of their existence. No longer viewed as the sole hurdle or ordeal to be overcome at the boundary between training and consultant practice, they have now taken their place as one of several assessments that enable a judgement that a pathologist possesses the competencies required for independent professional practice. For the specialty of chemical pathology, these competencies are defined in the Curriculum for Specialist Training in Chemical Pathology1 by the Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath), through its Joint Committee on Pathology Training. This curriculum has undergone extensive revision in the last 5 years to conform to a modern competency-based model of medical education with clearly defined learning outcomes.2 The UK Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) has approved this Curriculum, and has also begun the process of approval of all College assessment processes, including examinations, for all the specialties for which the College has responsibility for training.3 The Chemical Pathology Curriculum divides training into four stages (A–D), and the two parts of the MRCPath examination are integral to progression between stages in that trainees must pass Part 1 before progressing to Stage C, and Part 2 before progressing to Stage D (fig 1). Another important recent development, espoused for all medical specialties by the PMETB, is the process of workplace-based assessment (including directly observed practical skills).4 Workplace-based assessment is developing as a formalised method of competency assessment that will complement summative assessment by examination (fig 1) and provide additional evidence towards certification of completion of training. A final key concept is that of blueprinting, whereby the Curriculum is referenced to General Medical Council principles (Good Medical Practice)5 together with definition of how …


The exploitation of quantum physics and of quantum states superposition and entanglement properties for computing applications has been studied since 1980s [1] [2] for their disrupting potential in the evolution of information theory. Although quantum computing is still in its infancy, experiments have been carried out and proto-types have been developed, showing promising results for future commercial applications [3] [4] [5] [6]. Research in both theoretical and practical areas continues at a frantic pace, and many national governments, research institutions and military funding agencies support quantum computing research to develop quantum computers for both civilian and national security purposes, such as cryptanalysis, genetics, drugs and disease research, materials science and design and so on [2]. Thanks to its computing power, the usage of quantum computing capabilities in orbit would bring priceless benefits to space and enable novel methodologies and technologies to improve both on ground and in space applications. On-board cyber-security, satellite AI, advanced autonomous life support systems for human exploration are only few of the domains which could be dramatically boosted by the availability of this technology. The paper discusses an early study about an experimentation of a quantum computer in orbit as a first step for a future fully qualified flight-ready payload. It discusses the major benefits of a flight experimentation, focusing on the one hand on the objectives and the expected benefits that it will bring to the development of the space borne and on-ground technology, on the other hand on the open questions like the effect of microgravity on the architecture of this technology. It analyses the currently available implementation solutions of quantum computers on ground which are currently prototyped (e.g. IBM Q System One), and provides early results on the identified main technical aspects to be considered to improve the technology readiness level. It highlights the most important challenges to be considered in the design and the added value that the space environment will bring as scientific feedback. Finally, it describes possible scenarios and mission profiles analysed and identified as potential hosting platform candidates, focusing on pros and cons of each of them.


Optical nanostructures have the potential to provide useful new functionalities, using materials and fabrication methods that are compatible with standard silicon-based processes. For example, it has been shown that a nanoscale grating coated with a metal layer produces polarization-selective reflectivity (Paeder, 2011 and Paeder et al., 2009), based on the combined effects of form birefringence and a resonant cavity (Tyan et al., 1997). In this work, we adapt this design approach to develop two devices optimized to operate around 1.55 μm wavelength: a polarizing beam splitter, and a polarization-selective reflector. Such devices are of particular interest as they may provide optical properties such as polarization selectivity or enhanced reflectivity using nanostructures compatible with optical micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS).


The work reported here is a contribution by the authors to the search for reliable metric method for spatial evaluation, related to human perception of 'openness' and to the development of evaluation tools for urban planning and design. A recent innovation, the 'spatial openness index' (SOI), a quantitative index, based on a three-dimensional visual analysis of space is applied here. This approach reflects the hierarchical order found in the urban environment: dwelling unit, building, neighbourhood, etc. This index expresses oppenness to natural light, air, and near and distant views, for each level in the hierarchical order. At the basis of this work is the assumption that the SOI is correlated with the 'perceived density', evaluated by people responding to alternative spatial configurations. A preliminary indication test was carried out in order to justify this assumption. In this test, groups of spatial configurations with equal built masses were ranked both by their calculated SOI and by statistical analysis of perceived density evaluated by participating individuals. Good agreement was found between pairs of results obtained for most of the spatial configurations.


Gold deposits have been mined in the Carolina slate belt from the early 1800s to recent times, with most of the production from large mines in South Carolina. The Russell mine, one of the larger producers in North Carolina, is located in the central Uwharrie Mountains, and produced over 470 kg of gold. Ore grades averaged about 3.4 grams per tonne (g/t), with higher-grade zones reported. The Russell deposit is interpreted to be a sediment-hosted, gold-rich, base-metal poor, volcanogenic massive sulfide deposit in which gold was remobilized, in part, during Ordovician metamorphism. The ore was deposited syngenetically with laminated siltstones of the late Proterozoic Tillery Formation that have been metamorphosed to a lower greenschist facies. The Tillery Formation regionally overlies subaerial to shallow marine rhyolitic volcanic and volcaniclastic rocks of the Uwharrie Formation and underlies the marine volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Cid Formation. Recent mapping has shown that a rhyolitic dome near the Russell mine was extruded during the deposition of the lower part of the Tillery Formation, at about the same time as ore deposition. Relict mafic rock fragments present in the ore zones suggest contemporaneous bimodal (rhyolite-basalt) volcanism. The maximum formation age of the Russell deposit is younger than 558 Ma, which is similar to that of the larger, well known Brewer, Haile, and Ridgeway deposits of South Carolina. Gold was mined from at least six zones that are parallel to the regional metamorphic foliation. These strongly deformed zones consist of northeast-trending folds, high-angle reverse faults, and asymmetric doubly plunging folds overturned to the southeast. The dominant structure at the mine is an asymmetric doubly plunging anticline with the axis trending N 45° E, probably related to late Ordovician (456 ± 2 Ma) regional metamorphism and deformation. Two stages of pyrite growth are recognized. Stage 1, primary, spongy pyrite, is present in thin massive sulfide layers parallel to bedding and intergrown with pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, sphalerite, and sparse arsenopyrite. Stage 2, secondary pyrite, is present as euhedral, idiomorphic rims on spongy pyrite and as veinlets that parallel the regional foliation. Stage 1 pyrite was deposited syngenetically or diagenetically during or soon after sedimentation. Stage 2 pyrite overgrowths and veins resulted from recrystallization or remobilization of stage 1 pyrite, probably during deformation related to Ordovician regional metamorphism. It is proposed that the spongy texture of the stage 1 pyrite represents nucleation and growth of pyrite on organic matter, possibly of bacterial origin. Other textures, such as geometric voids in spongy pyrite, As-rich zones surrounding central voids, 60-µm ring structures composed of spongy pyrite, and layers of spongy pyrite interlayered with bedding laminations, also appear to indicate replacement of organic matter by pyrite. Stage 1 pyrite contains up to 0.06 wt percent gold. The δ34S values of pyrite in and near pyritic ore (3.5‐4.5‰), in the rhyolite dome (5.1‐5.4‰) and in the Tillery Formation (5.9‐6.2‰) are interpreted to reflect mixing of sulfur derived from igneous and seawater sources. Whole-rock δ18O values of nearby unaltered mudstone are about 11 per mil whereas those from altered mudstone at the deposit are 7.4 to 10.6 per mil. The lower δ18O values are interpreted to indicate possible high-temperature exchange between relatively low δ18O hydrothermal fluids and the wall rocks. Gold, As, K, and Mo are enriched relative to the regional background in both the ore zones and in pyrite veins and disseminations in the nearby rhyolite dome, suggesting a possible genetic link between the rhyolitic volcanism and the gold mineralization.


After exposure of rbc to 1 mM artemether, complete lysis of rbc occurred and visible absorption spectrum of the released Hb was unchanged. Similarly, no change was seen of the spectrum of the released Hb from rbc exposed to 0.5 mM SM242. However, slight hemolysis was found in the groups of 1 mM QHS, 1 mM DHQ, and no significant hemolysis in the group of 1 mM CQ. Two shoulder peaks at 502 and 631 nm in the spectrum of the supernatant in 1 mM artesunate group replaced the 2 sharp ones at 541 and 573 nm in the spectrum of normal Hb. NaN3, deferoxamine and superoxide dismutase did not antagonize the hemolytic action by artesunate, artemether or SM242.


It is suggested here that the core of English property law is not concerned with 'assets', and which assets are classed as property and which are not. Nor is it concerned with which 'interests' are proprietary and which are not. Instead, it is exclusively about sharing of assets, and which shared or derivative interests are possible. We could say that any asset that can be shared is 'property', so long as we then recognise that the key 'property' questions are exclusively concerned with the various possible sharing arrangements and shared interests in that asset. Defining these sharing arrangement inevitably requires the imposition of obligations on the parties to the arrangment, with this achieved either by agreement or by operation of law, and with the corresponding acquisition by each party of rights against the other.
One of the clearest examples of this is with debt. In a classificatory system that divides property and obligation, a contract creating a debt is the clearest example of 'obligation'. And yet this asset can be 'shared': it can be held on trust or used as security, and those arrangements can be put in place by agreement or by operation of law.
Thus the most incisive and revolutionary contribution of English property law lies, it is suggested, in this novel idea: that it is English law's greater flexibility and innovation in recognising sharing arrangements, and its concession that all wealth can be shared in some way, that is the true English 'genius'. It is this that has enabled English 'property law' – the English law of sharing assets – to be more flexible, more commercial, more responsive, and therefore more useful and more attuned to modern times than the equivalent laws in civilian jurisdictions.


THE OCCURRENCE of paroxysmal atrial tachycardia or atrial flutter in infancy is well documented and has been reviewed in previous communications.1,2Congestive heart failure secondary to prolonged paroxysmal atrial tachycardia occurred in approximately 50% of cases in one reported series.1Some of these patients had peripheral edema. Whereas the onset of paroxysmal atrial tachycardia during intrauterine life has been reported,3-7our search of the literature has not disclosed the description of massive peripheral edema associated with intrauterine paroxysmal atrial tachycardia. We recently encountered an example of this phenomenon, and the uncertainties which surrounded our patient's obstetric and pediatric management prompted this report and discussion. Report of a Case A white female infant was born at University Hospitals, Iowa City, on Nov 26, 1967 to an 18-year-old girl who was normotensive, Rh factor positive, serologic negative, primigravida, delivered after an estimated 38 weeks of gestation. The mother's past


Summary In vivo and in vitro treatment of Ehrlich cancer cells with diphtheria toxin resulted in loss of oncogenicity and in immunization against these tumor cells in mice. The animals that survived a 1st i.p. transplantation of virulent cancer cells treated with diphtheria toxin failed to develop an ascites tumor after a 2nd transplantation up to 200 days later. Ehrlich cancer cells lost oncogenicity also by prolonged incubation in phosphate-buffered saline in the presence of diphtheria toxin. This loss of oncogenicity was time dependent and influenced by the pH. Cells incubated for 8 hr with diphtheria toxin failed to induce an ascites tumor in both normal and immunosuppressed mice. Incubations performed at 5 pH9s ranging from 6.5 to 7.5 demonstrated that the lower values were more effective in inhibiting oncogenicity than were the higher ones. Eighty % of the normal mice that survived an i.p. transplantation of 1 × 10 6 cancer cells incubated with diphtheria toxin became resistant to a challenge with 1 × 10 6 virulent cancer cells. Only 50% of the immunized mice survived a challenge with 2 × 10 6 cancer cells, while the survival rate fell to nearly 0% after a challenge with 5 × 10 6 cells. In Swiss albino mice immunized with Ehrlich cancer cells, a cross-resistance against ascites Sarcoma 180 was observed, while all Ehrlich tumor-immunized DBA/2 mice died within 10 days after a challenge with L1210 tumor.


The subject matter of any case contains many facts proved by anyone of the parties to have a decision in his favour from a court of law. The primary objective of the law of evidence is to prescribe the rules to prove the facts of the case assisting the court of law in any case. The Law of Evidence forms a foundation for administration of justice in every legal system. This is considered a system of rules for disputed questions of fact in judicial inquiries. This law determines and helps to enforce the liability or grant aright on the basis of facts presented in the court of law. Islamic Law of Evidence is manifest due to the Islamic System of administration of justice and it rules are framed by the Law giver on the basis of primary sources of Islamic Law whereas the rules of other evidence law are made by the people. The current paper discusses the process of Islamization in Islamic Republic of Pakistan. It focuses on the Law of Evidence that how it is Islamized. It also highlights the specific legal provisions of Pakistani Law of Evidence were Islamized and indicates the role of some other constitutional institutions of Pakistan in Islamization of Law of Evidence.


Paleogene records of birds in the Eastern margin of the Pacific Ocean have increased in recent years, being almost exclusively restricted to fossil Sphenisciformes (penguins). New avian remains (Ornithurae, Neornithes) from Middle-to-Late Eocene levels of the Estratos de Algarrobo unit, in Algarrobo, central Chile, are disclosed in the present work. These new finds are significant in representing the first non-spheniscid bird remains of Middle to Late Eocene age, recovered in mid-latitudes of the eastern Pacific and probably belonging to a procelarid. It complements the regional record of Eocene birds, previously known only at high-latitudes such as Seymour Island (Antarctica) and Magallanes (Chile), and low-latitude locations in Peru.


To the Editor.— Successful removal of pigment from tattoos following superficial dermabrasion and salabrasion seems to follow a secondary inflammatory response leading to phagocytosed pigment being lost in the overlying crust. 1-3 Ithought the induction of an acute contact dermatitis with subsequent crusting-over of a tattoo might result in pigment being carried to the surface in a similar way. Patients and Methods.— Six patients who requested the removal of their tattoos entered this treatment trial. The tattoos were situated on the arm in five patients and on the dorsa of the fingers in one. Two tattoos had been applied by an amateur and four had been applied professionally. Each subject was sensitized with a single challenge, consisting of 0.1 mL of a 2% solution of dinitrochlorobenzene in acetone placed on the tattoo. 4 Two weeks later, following successful sensitization, the 2% dinitrochlorobenzene solution was carefully applied with a cotton wool-tipped


Neuromesodermal progenitors (NMps) are a population of bipotent progenitors that maintain competence to generate both spinal cord and paraxial mesoderm throughout the elongation of the posterior body axis. Recent studies have generated populations of NMp-like cells in culture and have been shown to differentiate to both neural and mesodermal cell fates when transplanted into either mouse or chick embryos. Here, we aim to compare the potential of mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell-derived progenitor populations to generate NMp behavior against both undifferentiated and differentiated populations. We define NMp behaviour as the ability of cells to i) contribute to a significant proportion of the anterior-posterior body axis, ii) enter into both posterior neural and somitic compartments and, iii) retain a proportion of the progenitor population within the posterior growth zone. We compare previously identified ES cell-derived NMp-like populations to undifferentiated mouse ES cells and find that they all display similar potentials to generate NMp behaviour in vivo. To assess whether this competence is lost upon further differentiation, we generated anterior and posterior embryonic cell types through the generation of 3D gastruloids and show that NMp competence is lost within the anterior (Brachyury negative) portion of the gastruloid. Taken together, this demonstrates that the chick caudo-lateral epiblast is a highly permissive environment for testing NMp competence and is therefore not suitable as a positive test of neuromesodermal progenitor identity (ie. specification). However, it does act as an appropriate system to test for the loss of NMp potential, and therefore offers insight as a functional test for the regulation of NMp competence in vivo.


The Mandate of Heaven was originally given to King Wen in the 11th century BC. King Wen is credited with founding the Zhou dynasty after he received the Mandate from Heaven to attack and overthrow the Shang dynasty. King Wen is also credited with creating the ancient oracle known as the Yijing or Book of Changes. This book validates King Wen's association with the Changes. It uncovers in the Changes a record of a total solar eclipse that was witnessed at King Wen's capital of Feng by his son King Wu, shortly after King Wen had died (before he had a chance to launch the full invasion). The sense of this eclipse as an actual event has been overlooked for three millennia. It provides an account of the events surrounding the conquest of the Shang and founding of the Zhou dynasty that has never been told. It shows how the earliest layer of the Book of Changes (the Zhouyi) has preserved a hidden history of the Conquest.


Natural landscapes are increasingly subjected to impacts associated with urbanization, resulting in loss and degradation of native ecosystems and biodiversity. Traditional classification approaches to the characterization of urbanization may prove inadequate in some human-modified landscapes where complex and unique combinations of conditions can make classification and delineation of patches difficult. We describe a model that depicts existing human development as a fine-grained continuous variable using parcel-based land use data and transportation networks. We derived percent development values across our 88 000-ha study area, the Lake Tahoe basin. Our modeled values were highly correlated with observed levels of development based on high-resolution aerial photographs. We demonstrate how our model of development can be used to address practical conservation questions by evaluating the potential effects of highly interspersed urban land development and wildland conditions on the amount and availability of habitat suitable for the resident California spotted owl (Strix occidentalis occidentalis) at two points in ontane forest rbanization time (current and 40 years in the future). The results indicated that assessments not accounting for the indirect effects of development may overestimate the amount of available habitat by 19–83%. Portraying urbanization as a continuum across entire landscapes captured fine-grained landscape complexity at scales that were relevant to the habitat needs and environmental sensitivities of a species of conservation interest. This relatively simple approach should aid ecologists and landscape planners in evaluating the f urba


Stroke induced disabilities of the upper extremity cause significant dysfunctions at the wrist, reducing an
individual's dexterity while performing activities of daily living. Limited research exists to study abnormal
wrist movement patterns of stroke participants using neuromechanical modeling. Objective: Subject-specific
musculoskeletal modeling of the wrist in stroke patients to help guide neuromechanical modeling strategies
in the future. This study makes use of cumulative spike trains of extension and flexion generated from High
Density EMG (HD-EMG) recordings of stroke patients which were decomposed using Convolution Kernel
Compensation (CKC). Investigations were done to check if HD-EMG could drive the musculoskeletal modeling
pipeline and if this previously tested modeling approach could work with neural and kinematic inputs from
stroke patients. Methods: A subject-specific musculoskeletal model of 6 muscles and one degree of freedom,
wrist flexion-extension was used in this study. The model was driven using decomposed HD-EMG recordings.
Results: The subject-specific HD-EMG driven musculoskeletal model was validated for four stroke subjects
on the basis of torque estimation and transformations estimated by the model, such as activations and muscle
forces. Comparisons were done across all cycles for each trial of a participant, as well as across all trials of
each participants. Conclusion: Results show that for stroke participants, the model estimated torques were
well-correlated with the experimental torques in terms of shape and magnitude.


When using the standard McCormick inequalities twice to convexify trilinear monomials, as is often the practice in modeling and software, there is a choice of which variables to group first. For the important case in which the domain is a nonnegative box, we calculate the volume of the resulting relaxation, as a function of the bounds defining the box. In this manner, we precisely quantify the strength of the different possible relaxations defined by all three groupings, in addition to the trilinear hull itself. As a by-product, we characterize the best double-McCormick relaxation. We wish to emphasize that, in the context of spatial branch and bound for factorable formulations, our results do not only apply to variables in the input formulation. Our results apply to monomials that involve auxiliary variables as well. So, our results apply to the product of any three (possibly complicated) expressions in a formulation.


This paper presents a robotic system that provides telepresence to the visually impaired by combining real-time haptic rendering with multi-modal interaction. A virtual-proxy based haptic rendering process using a RGB-D sensor is developed and integrated into a unified framework for control and feedback for the telepresence robot. We discuss the challenging problem of presenting environmental perception to a user with visual impairments and our solution for multi-modal interaction. We also explain the experimental design and protocols, and results with human subjects with and without visual impairments. Discussion on the performance of our system and our future goals are presented toward the end.


Human Beings are respectable because they are Human Beings; not because they have the same worth or share the same beliefs. A new generation of human rights necessitates a new process of legitimization of political institutions. This is the essence of "Democracy and Bioethics". Life as we know it is under threat and from there emerges the importance of formulating a new table of human rights; ecological and environmental rights; the rights of different groups within society and the rights of future generations. These new rights are global and therefore demand a new type of democracy; it is this call for a global democracy, which must be discussed. Bioethics, in essence is a process of deliberation and discussion and therefore it is fitting that bioethics should provide the arena for discussion. It is important to realize that one day, deliberative democracy could be the reality, and be responsible for establishing a debate which reflects the diversity of ideas within society.


First paragraphs: January 24, 2012, may not go down as a particularly noteworthy day overall, but for the growing sustainable food systems field it marked an important milestone. On this day, the Community Food Security Coalition's venerable COMFOOD listserv (http://www.foodsecurity.org/list.html) announced it was separating job announcements that were routinely posted on the list into a new listserv, COMFOOD JOBS. The emergence of a dedicated vehicle for posting jobs in sustainable food systems is a coming-of-age event for our field. In the few short months since the listserv came online, over 400 jobs and related posts have gone on the list. The diversity of job titles, geographies, and education and experience requirements is extraordinary. Consider that in just June of this year job announcements have been made for positions ranging from a driver for a mobile livestock program in Taos, New Mexico, to a healthy food access expert in California, to a business manager for a New York–based food systems consulting firm. Farms, businesses, and community-based organizations are looking for everything from interns to experienced experts in creating the new food system....


We stand on the cusp of the next great industrial revolution thanks to technological innovations and developments that could significantly enhance the welfare of people across the world. This article will focus on how one of those modern inventions -- 3D printing -- could offer the public significant benefits, but not without some serious economic, social, and legal disruptions along the way. We begin by explaining what 3D printing is and how it works. We also discuss specific applications of this technology and its potential benefits. We then turn to the policy frameworks that could govern 3D printing technologies and itemize a few of the major public policy issues that are either already being discussed, or which could become pertinent in the future. We offer some general guidance for policymakers who might be pondering the governance of 3D printing technologies going forward. Contra to the many other articles and position papers that have already been penned about 3D printing policy, which only selectively defend permissionless innovation in narrow circumstances, we endorse it as the default rule across all categories of 3D printing applications.


ABSTRACT The role of photoperiod sensitivity (PS) of flowering genes have become well recognized in rice, whereas little attention has been drawn to the non-PS component of these genes, especially to their influence on gene-by-gene interactions. Rice populations in which the photoperiod-sensitive allele at Hd1 has become insensitive to photoperiod but continued to affect heading date (HD) were used in this study to fine-map a quantitative trait locus (QTL) for HD and analyze its genetic relationship to Hd1. The QTL was delimitated to a 96.3-kb region on the distal end of the long arm of chromosome 7. Sequence comparison revealed that this QTL is identical to Hd2. In the near-isogenic line (NIL) populations analyzed, Hd1 and Hd2 were shown to be photoperiod insensitive and have pleiotropic effects for HD, plant height and yield traits. The two genes were found to largely act additively in regulating HD and yield traits. The results indicate that non-PS components of flowering genes involved in photoperiod response play an important role in controlling flowering time and grain yield in rice, which should allow breeders to better manipulate pleiotropic genes for balancing adaptability and high-yielding accumulation. Summary: We show that photoperiod-insensitive components of alleles of Hd1 and Hd2 play an important role in balancing ecological adaptability and high-yield accumulation in rice.


This paper presents an H.264/AVC baseline profile decoder based on a SoC platform design methodology. The overall decoding throughput is increased by optimized software and a dedicated hardware accelerator. We minimize the number of bus accesses and use macroblock (MB) level pipeline processing techniques to achieve a real time operation. We implemented and verified a prototype on a SoC platform with a 32-bit RISC CPU core and FPGA module. Our design can process up to 20 frames/sec with QCIF (176/spl times/144). The proposed architecture can be easily applied to many mobile video application areas such as a digital camera and a DMB (digital multimedia broadcasting) phone.


The research in this thesis is focused on new intermolecular additions of diverse nucleophiles to allenic and bisallenic motifs catalysed by transition metals. In the first project we developed a new Au-catalysed azidation of allenes for the synthesis of functionalised allylic azides, which are important precursors to many functional groups. A cationic Au(I)-catalyst was found as a suitable activator for the allenic π-system favouring the attack of challenging azides as nucleophiles and giving access to the desired allylic azides. Deuterium-labelling experiments revealed that the reaction goes via a vinyl gold intermediate, which allowed an orthogonal functionalisation of the allenes, using as electrophile iodine to break the Au-C giving valuable iodo-alkenyl azides. Besides, preliminary mechanistic studies by NMR disclosed a possible inner-sphere mechanism with the formation of Au-N3 complexes with a continuous exchange of counterions involved in the reaction.
The second part of the present thesis was aimed to develop a novel platinum-catalysed carbo- and heterocyclization of 1,5-bisallenes to obtain 6- or 7-membered rings with and extra oxygen functional group incorporated in the skeleton of the molecule. These cyclic compounds are interesting building blocks encountered into the core of several natural products, especially in terpene and sesquiterpene family. Cationic Pt(II)-catalysts with electron-withdrawing ligands were found appropriate to lead the ring closing of these 1,5-bisallenes. The reaction seems to be triggered by the attack of oxygen nucleophiles to the activated terminal π-system of the bisallene showing different coordination modes, which give access to isomeric 6- or 7-membered rings. Deuterium labelling and preliminary mechanistic experiments revealed, that the formation of the products goes via a vinyl platinum intermediate in the different cyclization modes. Besides, the reaction has been monitored by 1H NMR in order to study the decomposition level of the bisallenes under catalytic conditions and the possible interconversion between the isomeric cyclic products.


The performance review cycle is in full swing, meaning it's time to start setting goals and preparing to review employees' accomplishments and challenges. The performance cycle classified staff ends March 31. Prepare for classified staff evaluations by reviewing important deadlines and learning resources below. Mark your calendar for the following deadlines April 1: The performance cycle begins and classified staff must be evaluated before June 30. July 1: All evaluations must be turned into your campus human resources (HR) office. In May, meet with classified staff to discuss goals for the year. June 1: Submit a copy of the performance plan's front page to your campus HR office. Note: Procedures differ by campus. Please reach out to the CU Boulder [3], CU Denver [4], UCCS [5] or System [6] HR offices for campus-specific performance management information. Access resources in LinkedIn Learning By preparing for your appraisal meeting with your employees, you can ensure you both have a clear picture of their performance and goals and foster productive dialogue. Take a look at the new guide Resources for Performance Improvement [7] to see learning options available in LinkedIn Learning that you can take advantage of to address and improve your skills. To log into LinkedIn Learning, click here [8].


Background and Purpose— Since demonstration of the benefit of endovascular treatment (EVT) in acute ischemic stroke patients with proximal arterial occlusion, stroke care systems need to be reorganized to deliver EVT in a timely and equitable way. We analyzed differences in the access to EVT by geographical areas in Catalonia, a territory with a highly decentralized stroke model. Methods— We studied 965 patients treated with EVT from a prospective multicenter population-based registry of stroke patients treated with reperfusion therapies in Catalonia, Spain (SONIIA). Three different areas were defined: (A) health areas primarily covered by Comprehensive Stroke Centers, (B) areas primarily covered by local stroke centers located less than hour away from a Comprehensive Stroke Center, and (C) areas primarily covered by local stroke centers located more than hour away from a Comprehensive Stroke Center. We compared the number of EVT×100 000 inhabitants/year and time from stroke onset to groin puncture between groups. Results— Baseline characteristics were similar between groups. Throughout the study period, there were significant differences in the population rates of EVT across geographical areas. EVT rates by 100 000 in 2015 were 10.5 in A area, 3.7 in B, and 2.7 in C. Time from symptom onset to groin puncture was 82 minutes longer in group B (312 minutes [245–435]) and 120 minutes longer in group C (350 minutes [284–408]) compared with group A (230 minutes [160–407]; P<0.001). Conclusions— Accessibility to EVT from remote areas is hampered by lower rate and longer time to treatment compared with areas covered directly by Comprehensive Stroke Centers.


During the cold rolling of thin strip on the 1220mm five-stand tandem cold mills, scratch marks occur on the surfaces of strip and work roll. The surface quality of strip is degraded and the roll wear increases, which resulting in significant economic loss. In this paper, the mechanics of strip scratch marks was studied by carrying out both field experiments and theoretical analysis. Slippage Factor (SF) and Scratch Mark Factor (SMF) were presented to indicate the conditions of strip scratch marks. Meanwhile, mathematical models and simulation code were developed to optimise the rolling schedules and to improve the scratch marks. The practical application of the developed models to the 1220 mm five-stand tandem cold mills verifies the effectiveness of the developed models. The mathematical models can be applied to other similar tandem cold mills.


"The Invalid" is an autobiographical account of one American novelist's reading Proust over the course of his life. After the initial impact of encountering Remembrance of Things Past as a young soldier in 1968 Germany, he is forced to wonder: Did Proust bring the novel to an end? Could there be an American equivalent to his novel? And why among writers is there a saying, "If you want to write like Proust, don't write like Proust"? Searching for the key to Proust's achievement, the author realizes that over the years he has possibly read more about Proust than he has Proust. And yet, as an invalid himself toward the end of his life, he can only conclude that the novel is inimitable.


Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the nature and extent of internal audit functions' (IAFs) involvement in environmental, social and governance assurance (ESG) and consulting in Australia. To identify emerging priorities, and the profession's capacity to respond to these, the paper also explores internal audit practitioners' perceptions of the current and future importance of these issues and the adequacy of their skills and expertise in meeting the challenges associated with their involvement in these areas. Design/methodology/approach - – Data were collected from 100 Chief Audit Executives and internal audit service provider partners through a survey. Findings - – Governance issues are a key area of focus for respondents' assurance and consulting efforts, followed by social and environmental issues, respectively. While governance issues are perceived to be of greatest current importance to IAFs, environmental issues are most commonly expected to increase in importance over the next five years, and are reported to be in greatest need of further development of IAFs' skills and expertise. Research limitations/implications - – As the corporate landscape and expectations around transparency and accountability increase, the internal audit profession needs to address the current perceived skills gap in their ability to provide assurance and consulting on ESG issues to ensure their continued relevance and ability to meet stakeholders' needs and expectations in providing effective integrated assurance and in contributing to internal improvements. Originality/value - – This paper provides initial empirical evidence of the nature and extent of internal audit's involvement in ESG assurance and consulting.


This paper deals with load control in a multiple-residence setup. The utility company adopts a cost function representing the cost of providing energy to end-users. Each residential end-user has a base load, two types of adjustable loads, and possibly a storage device. The first load type must consume a specified amount of energy over the scheduling horizon, but the consumption can be adjusted across different slots. The second type does not entail a total energy requirement, but operation away from a user-specified level results in user dissatisfaction. The research issue amounts to minimizing the electricity provider cost plus the total user dissatisfaction, subject to the individual constraints of the loads. The problem can be solved by a distributed subgradient method. The utility company and the end-users exchange information through the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI)-a two-way communication network-in order to converge to the optimal amount of electricity production and the optimal power consumption schedule. The algorithm finds near-optimal schedules even when AMI messages are lost, which can happen in the presence of malfunctions or noise in the communications network. The algorithm amounts to a subgradient iteration with outdated Lagrange multipliers, for which convergence results of wide scope are established.


Inertia provision for frequency control is among the ancillary services that different national grid codes will likely require to be provided by future wind turbines. The aim of this paper is analysing how the inertia response support from a variable speed wind turbine (VSWT) to the primary frequency control of a power system can be enhanced. Unlike fixed speed wind turbines, VSWTs do not inherently contribute to system inertia, as they are decoupled from the power system through electronic converters. Emphasis in this paper is on how to emulate VSWTs inertia using control of the power electronic converter and on its impact on the primary frequency response of a power system. An additional control for the power electronics is implemented to give VSWTs a virtual inertia, referring to the kinetic energy stored in the rotating masses, which can be released initially to support the system's inertia. A simple Matlab/Simulink model and control of a VSWT and of a generic power system are developed to analyse the primary frequency response following different generation losses in a system comprising VSWTs provided with virtual inertia. The possibility of substituting a 50% share of conventional power with wind is also assessed and investigated. The intrinsic problems related to the implementation of virtual inertia are illustrated, addressing their origin in the action of pitch and power control. A solution is proposed, which aims at obtaining the same response as for the system with only conventional generation. The range of wind speeds near the power limitation zone seems to be the most critical from a primary response point of view. The theoretical reasons behind this are elucidated in the paper. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Background: Previously we showed that 6-hydroxydopamine lesions of the substantia nigra eliminate corticostriatal LTP and that the neuroimmunolophilin ligand (NIL), GPI-1046, restores LTP. Methods: We used cDNA microarrays to determine what mRNAs may be over- or under-expressed in response to lesioning and/or GPI-1046 treatment. Patch clamp recordings were performed to investigate changes in NMDA channel function before and after treatments. Results: We found that 51 gene products were differentially expressed. Among these we found that GPI-1046 treatment up-regulated presenilin-1 (PS-1) mRNA abundance. This finding was confirmed using QPCR. PS-1 protein was also shown to be over-expressed in the striatum of lesioned/GPI-1046-treated rats. As PS-1 has been implicated in controlling NMDA-receptor function and LTP is reduced by lesioning we assayed NMDA mediated synaptic activity in striatal brain slices. The lesion-induced reduction of dopaminergic innervation was accompanied by the near complete loss of NDMA receptor-mediated synaptic transmission between the cortex and striatum. GPI-1046 treatment of the lesioned rats restored NMDA-mediated synaptic transmission but not the dopaminergic innervation. Restoration of NDMA channel function was apparently specific as the sodium channel current density was also reduced due to lesioning but GPI-1046 did not reverse this effect. We also found that restoration of NMDA receptor function was also not associated with either an increase in NMDA receptor mRNA or protein expression. Conclusion: As it has been previously shown that PS-1 is critical for normal NMDA receptor function, our data suggest that the improvement of excitatory neurotransmission occurs through the GPI-1046-induced up-regulation of PS-1.


Purpose: Tacrolimus (Tac) is a widely used immunosuppressive agent in kidney transplantation. Cytochrome P450 (CYP), especially CYP3A4 enzymes are responsible for the metabolism of drugs. However, the correlation between plasma Tac concentration and CYP3A4*22 gene variants is controversial. This meta-analysis aims to evaluate the association between CYP3A4*22 polymorphism and the dose-adjusted trough concentration (C0/D) of Tac in adult kidney transplant patients. Methods: We conducted a literature review for qualifying studies using the PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase databases until July 2023. For the continuous variables (C0/D and daily dose), mean difference (MD) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated to evaluate the association between the CYP3A4 * 22 and Tac pharmacokinetics. We performed an additional analysis on the relationship of CYP3A5*3 with Tac PKs and analyzed the effects of CYP3A4*22 in CYP3A5 non-expressers. Results: Overall, eight eligible studies with 2,683 renal transplant recipients were included in this meta-analysis. The CYP3A4*22 allele was significantly associated with a higher C0/D (MD 0.57 ng/mL/mg (95% CI: 0.28 to 0.86; p = 0.0001) and lower mean daily dose requirement (MD -2.02 mg/day, 95% CI: −2.55 to −1.50; p < 0.00001). An additional meta-analysis demonstrated that carrying the CYP3A5*3 polymorphism greatly impacted Tac blood concentration. From the result with CYP3A5 non-expressers, CYP3A4*22 showed significant effects on the Tac C0/D and dose requirement even after adjusting the effect of CYP3A5*3. Conclusion: Patients with CYP3A4*22 allele showed significantly higher plasma C0/D of Tac and required lower daily dose to achieve the therapeutic trough level after kidney transplantation. These findings of our meta-analysis may provide further evidence for the effects of genetic polymorphism in CYP3A4 on the PKs of Tac, which will improve individualized treatment in a clinical setting.


Introduction the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated every sector leading to untold hardship, unplanned loss of jobs and drastic reductions in the income of families across the world. This survey assessed the knowledge of COVID-19 among Nigerian parents and its effect on their monthly income. Methods an online cross-sectional survey was conducted from May 9 - June 8, 2020, among parents/guardians with children/wards in the paediatric age-range during the lockdown stage of the outbreak in Nigeria. Snowball sampling technique was used to recruit 260 respondents. The questionnaire was administered on a Google doc form and distributed via the internet. Chi-square was used to test for differences, and statistical significance was set at p-value less than 0.05 and a 95% confidence level. Results the mean age was 39.6 years (SD = 7.3), comprising 105 (40.4%) males, 239 (91.9%) married, and 167 (64.2%) with tertiary education. Only 29 (11.2%) had good knowledge of COVID-19. Interestingly, low-income earners were more likely to have good knowledge of COVID-19 than middle/high-income earners. The monthly incomes of 191 (73.5%) respondents were affected. Females, those with secondary education and below, and low-income earners were more likely to have their incomes affected. Conclusion parents/guardians have poor knowledge of COVID-19. Also, the monthly income of parents/guardians have been affected by the lockdown measures; most affected were females, those with a secondary level of education and below and low-income earners. Their poor knowledge and the impact on their income may further impair their preparedness to combat the spread of COVID-19.


OBJECTIVE:The aim of the study was to compare the recently introduced laboratory markers trypsinogen-2 and trypsin-2-α1antitrypsin complex (trypsin-2-AAT) in serum with lipase and amylase in the diagnostic and prognostic evaluation of patients with acute pancreatitis (AP).METHODS:The analytes were measured on admission in 64 consecutive patients with AP and in 30 controls with acute abdominal disease of extrapancreatic origin. Twenty-one patients had severe and 43 mild AP. As reference methods we used serum amylase and C-reactive protein.RESULTS:In subjects with AP, elevated trypsinogen-2 values (≥90 μg/L) were observed in 63 patients (98%), trypsin-2-AAT values (≥12 μg/L) in 64 patients (100%), lipase values (≥200 U/L) in 64 patients (100%), and amylase values (≥300 IU/L) in 62 patients (97%). The diagnostic accuracy of the markers was evaluated by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. On admission, trypsinogen-2, trypsin-2-AAT, lipase, and amylase differentiated patients with AP from controls with high accuracy and ROC analyses showed similar areas under the ROC curves (AUC) for trypsinogen-2 (AUC 0.960), trypsin-2-AAT (0.948), lipase (AUC 0.947), and amylase (AUC 0.930). For differentiation between severe and mild AP, trypsin-2-AAT (AUC 0.805) was slightly better than trypsinogen-2 (AUC 0.792), and they were both clearly better than lipase (AUC 0.583), C-reactive protein (AUC 0.519), or amylase (AUC 0.632) (p < 0.05).CONCLUSIONS:All the markers studied showed high accuracy for differentiating between AP and extrapancreatic diseases. However, trypsinogen-2 and trypsin-2-AAT displayed the best accuracy for predicting a severe AP already at admission, which makes these markers superior for clinical purposes.


Although there has been enormous progress in the last half-century in the drug discovery targeting obesity and associated co-morbidities, the clinical treatment of obesity remains tremendously challenging. GPR75 is an orphan receptor and is suggested to be a potential novel target for the control of obesity and related metabolic disorders. Inhibition of the GPR75 signaling pathway by small molecules, antibodies, or genetic manipulations may provide a therapeutic strategy for obesity. Here, we report the active-like Cryo-EM structure of human GPR75 with an intracellular nanobody, which reveals the receptor activation mechanism. The extensive interaction network required to achieve the active structure helps explain the allosteric coupling between the orthosteric pocket and the G-protein coupling domain. The well-defined orthosteric ligand binding pocket of human GPR75 provides a structural basis for anti-obesity drug discovery.


The design and implementation of mechanical domestic water meters in current industrial organization and intellectual properties have been registered as an invention to solve the problems of current meters. The device operation includes inquiry of printing, subscription connection and disconnection in an emergency. This system includes a software and hardware parts on the users and the control center connecting with two-way mobile phone. Central control software sends the message through the wireless telecommunication lines to the user's software, requesting the desired information and also provides the commands needed to be sent through the same. The same information can also be submitted to the control center. Through the same way, some of advantages of this method are as follows: installing on existing meters, cheap cost of inquiry call meter, the possibility of declaring illegal manipulation to the control center, the exchange of information using information encoding, and manipulating digital meters applying minor changes.


Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important nosocomial pathogen. The prevalence of MRSA in many countries is increasing and, in some hospitals, more than half of all S. aureus disease isolates are MRSA. MRSA strains are becoming increasingly multiresistant, and have recently developed resistance to vancomycin, which has been used successfully to treat MRSA for more than 30 years. In-vitro determination of resistance patterns of S. aureus is critical in terms of administering suitable antimicrobial treatments. The objective of this study was to identify the frequency of MRSA from various clinical samples and resistance patterns against various antibiotics used broadly for treatments. All isolated S. aureus strains were identified using standard procedures and tested for oxacillin resistance according to methods of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards. A total of 345 coagulase-positive Staphylococci and 187 MRSA were isolated. We found that the incidence of MRSA in intensive care units (ICUs) and burn center was 23.4% (145/620) and 29.6% (32/108), respectively. This rate was 7% (10/143) in the other units. Resistance rates of MRSA were 29.9% for trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, 60.8% for clindamycin, 71.8% for erythromycin, 7.7% for teikoplanin, 90.1% for gentamycin, 88.8% for ofloxacin, 88.1% for norfloxacin and 100% for penicillin. All isolates were found to be sensitive against vancomycin. In our region, although methicillin resistance increased in S. aureus strains, teicoplanin resistance remained low in MRSA, suggesting an effective alternative treatment for Staphylococcus aureus infections. These results indicated that vancomycin seemed to be the only antimicrobial agent effective against MRSA and it could be the choice of medicine in treating multidrug resistant MRSA infection.


The aim of this research is to provide a historical overview of the mathematical theory of epidemics and to study the asymptotic behavior of the final size of a collective Reed-Frost epidemic process with different types of infected people. This model was introduced by Picard and Lefèvre [25] provides an extension of the model of Pettigrew and Weiss [24]. Under certain conditions, we show that when the number of the initial susceptible individuals is large and the number of the initial infected people is finite, the infection process is equivalent to a multitype Galton-Watson process. Our method is simple and based on Bernstein polynomials. © 2022, SCIK Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.


The sequential combination of the facile substitution of organohalides with the nitrile function and the hydroboration of the resultant nitriles enables a straight-forward access to synthetically versatile primary amines via a formal C1 homologation. Several catalysts have been reported for the latter transformation, mostly with transition metal catalysts (Ti, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Ru, Mo). Very few main group metal catalysts have been demonstrated to show equal activity. This work reports an operationally facile hydroboration of nitriles at room temperature that operates under catalysis of the solid, stable, and inexpensive salt lithium hexamethyldisilazide, LiN(SiMe3)2. The reaction displayed good tolerance of functional groups including F, Cl, Br, I, pyridyl, and thiophene substituents. Carbonyl derivatives readily reacted under the same conditions. Mechanistic studies were indicative of the catalytic role of lithium amidinate intermediates, the co-catalytic role of nitrile additives, and a reaction order of zero in borane.


Conflict of Interest Disclosures: The authors have completed and submitted the ICMJE Form for Disclosure of Potential Conflicts of Interest. Dr Bennell reported receiving royalties from an educational DVD on knee osteoarthritis and from a commercially available shoe from ASICS Oceania; being a consultant for Physitrack; and receiving grants from the National Health and Medical Research Council. Dr Abbott reported receiving a grant from the Health Research Council of New Zealand.


The prevalence of brucellosis was investigated in horses in Kars and Ardahan Districts of Turkey between 2008-2010. In order to achieve this, a total of 361 horse serum samples from 23 different villages were examined for Brucella antibodies by Rose Bengal Plate Test and Serum Agglutination Test. Of the 361 sera obtained from horses, 48 (13.29%) were determined positive by RBPT and 52 (14.40%) by SAT. The positive titers varied between 1/40 and 1/320 for brucellosis by SAT. Among the positive samples, the titers were 1/40 in 24, 1/80 in 6, 1/160 in 18 and 1/320 in 4 samples.


Total Life Cycle Systems Management (TLCSM) is a term used in Army Regulation (AR) 70-1 to describe the responsibility of the Army Program Manager (PM). In this acquisition policy, the PM is made responsible for his/her assigned programs from initiation to disposal with no responsibility transitioning away from the PM. However, other Army guidance challenges AR 70-1 when transitioning to the Operations and Support phase of the acquisition life cycle. Furthermore, since the creation of the Life Cycle Management Commands (LCMC), obstacles have arisen as to whether the PM or LCMC is better equipped to manage program sustainment. An evaluation of the roles and responsibilities of the PMs in acquisition sustainment transition was conducted to better assess their authority to carry out TLCSM. This thesis examined sustainment requirements and identified constraints and barriers to the transition process. It also addressed the advantages, disadvantages, and alternatives to having the PM act as TLCSM. Additionally, the flow of fiscal resources was analyzed to identify misalignments and limitations. Lastly, the authors concluded with four recommendations: issue a policy to elaborate PM/LCMC duties, give full funding responsibilities to the PM, identify the LCMC by Milestone B and remove the $250K threshold for investment purchases.


A flexible and extensible mobile application was delivered for evaluation and optimal inclusion of NextGen (Next Generation) data sources into biosurveillance for early detection, situational awareness and prediction. We present trust analysis of NextGen data sources to increase data confidence. One of the trust filters is the Identity filter, which helps us determine the degree of separation between the sender and the subject of a sentence. In this paper, the authors present the definition of Identity. To help us distinguish different degrees of separation, the authors use relation distance along with a family tree to weigh different relationships. Then the authors compare a discriminative algorithm and a generative algorithm to calculate a user's Identity score. In the end, the authors conclude that it is a good choice to apply a binary classification algorithm combined with a Natural Language Processing algorithm because of the trade-off between accuracy and runtime complexity.


There are large differences in income per capita across countries. Growth accounting finds that a large part of the differences comes from the differences in total factor productivity (TFP). This paper explores whether barrier to entry is an important factor for the cross-country differences in TFP. The paper develops a new model to link entry barriers and technology adoption. In the model, higher barriers to entry effectively reduce entry threat, and lower entry threat leads to adoption of less productive technologies. The paper demonstrates that technology adopted in the economy with entry threats is at least as good as the technology adopted in the economy without entry threats. Moreover, the paper presents numerical simulations that suggest entry barriers could be a quantitatively important reason for cross-country differences in TFP and are more harmful to productivity in the countries with monopolists facing inelastic demand.


New regulations mandating firms to share information on security breaches and security practices with authorities are high on the policy agenda around the globe. These initiatives are based on the hope that authorities can effectively advise and warn other firms, thereby strengthening overall defense and response to cyberthreats in an economy. If this mechanism works (as assumed in this paper with varying effectiveness), it has consequences on security investments of rational firms. We devise an economic model that distinguishes between investments in detective and preventive controls, and analyze its Nash equilibria. The model suggests that firms subject to mandatory security information sharing 1) over-invest in security breach detection as well as under-invest in breach prevention, and 2), depending on the enforcement practices, may shift investment priorities from detective to preventive controls. We also identify conditions where the regulation increases welfare.


The main objectives of the project are to investigate the fundamental aspects of particle-liquid interaction in fine coal dewatering, to conduct laboratory and pilot plant studies on the applicability of hyperbaric filter systems and to develop process conditions for dewatering of fine clean coal to less than 20 percent moisture. The program consist of three phases, namely Phase I - Model Development, Phase II - Laboratory Studies, Phase III - Field Testing. The Pennsylvania State University is leading efforts in Phase I, the University of Kentucky in Phase II, and Consol Inc. in Phase III of the program. All three organizations are involved in all the three phases of the program. The Pennsylvania State University is developing a theoretical model for hyperbaric filtration systems, whereas the University of Kentucky is conducting experimental studies to investigate fundamental aspects of particle-liquid interaction and application of high pressure filter in fine coal dewatering. The optimum filtration conditions identified in Phase I and II will be tested in a Consol Inc. coal preparation plant using an Andritz Ruthner portable hyperbaric filtration unit.


The writer believes that the experiments above recorded have demonstrated the following points: 1. As has been previously shown by other workers, complement is fixed by the precipitate formed in the reaction between unformed proteid and its homologous antiserum, and it is the precipitate only which fixes, the supernatant fluid being devoid of fixing power except to a slight degree in tubes very rich in antigen. This latter fixation is probably due to a redissolving of the precipitin-precipitinogen complex which, as Gay has shown, does not lose its fixing power on resolution. The fixation of complement by mixtures in which antigen is so slight in amount that no precipitate is formed may be explained by analogy with colloidal reactions in which combination of colloids takes place without precipitation unless definite quantitative relations are maintained. 2. In contrast to the results above described, precipitating mixtures of bacterial antigen and antiserum show complement fixation both by the precipitate and by the supernatant fluid. 3. The complement fixation by the supernatant fluid of such bacterial precipitin reactions, with the precipitate removed, is, in the presence of washed bacteria, equal to that exerted by the same amount of the original serum. The complement fixation of the precipitates, here, as in serum-antiserum tests, is proportionate to the bulk of the precipitate. 4. The precipitin body is not removed from a bacterial antiserum by treatment with washed whole bacteria, whereas the cell sensitizer or amboceptor is removed by such treatment. The writer believes that the work recorded above justifies Gengou's conclusion that an albuminolytic sensitizer is formed in response to immunization with unformed proteids. This sensitizer, or amboceptor, is, however, distinct and independent of the sensitizer that reacts specifically with either bacterial or other cells. It would appear that immunization with unformed proteids calls forth only the formation of these albuminolysins, while immunization with cells, in our case the typhoid bacillus, calls forth both the cytolytic and the albuminolytic sensitizers. The albuminolytic sensitizers are not carried down mechanically with the precipitates in the precipitin reactions. We see no reason for not considering them identical with the precipitins themselves, bodies which combine with the dissolved antigens and, as in other colloidal reactions, lead to precipitation when definite quantitative relations are observed. The undiminished precipitating value of a bacterial antiserum after considerable amounts of bacterial amboceptor have been absorbed out of it, would point against the identification of agglutinins with precipitins. However, this question must be subjected to further study. It is thus clear that only the cytolytic sensitizer can enter into combination with the washed bacterial cell, while it is probable that both cytolytic and albuminolytic sensitizer may combine with the dissolved ingredients of a bacterial filtrate. Whether or not they combine with the same constituent of such an antigen cannot be decided by our experiments.


Wearable sensors have gained mainstream acceptance for health and fitness monitoring despite the absence of clinically validated analytic models for clinical decision support. Individual sensors measuring, say, EKG signal and heart rate can provide insight on cardiovascular response, but a more complete picture of health and fitness requires a more complete portfolio of sensors and data. This paper outlines the research underway to revisit and reconfigure the 1976 Calvert systems model of the effect of training on physical performance. Specifically, we use wearable sensor data from clinical trials to supplement a hybrid model created by nesting Perl's Performance-Potential model within Calvert's transfer function approach to system simulation. Contemporary simulation tools combined with wearables clinical trial data is the foundation for a more agile platform for simulation of fitness and exploration of causality between training and physical performance. This platform offers the opportunity to strategically integrate data from various wearable sensors in a fashion enabling improved support for post-injury and return to sport decision-making.


Fatigue strength of notched specimen and smooth specimen of Zr-based bulk metallic glass, Zr55Cu30Ni5Al10, were conducted under either plane-bending or axial-loading. Fatigue notch factor, Kf, for axial-loading was almost equal to the elastic stress concentration factor, Kt, and the value of Kf for plane-bending was 5% lower than the value of Kt. It indicates that the effect of stress gradient around notch root is negligible, and the fatigue limit of notched specimen is determined by the stress at the notch root. On the contrary, the fatigue strength and the fatigue limit were lower for axial-loading than plane-bending either for notched or smooth specimen. It is considered that the fatigue strength of BMG depends on the cooling rate in the casting process of the material, which is different along the thickness direction, and the fatigue strength of plane-bending reflects the strength at the specimen surface while that of axial-loading is determined by the weakest strength in the thickness direction.


Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is a crucial mediator of inflammatory pain sensitization. Here, we demonstrate that inhibition of a specific glycine receptor subtype (GlyR α3) by PGE2-induced receptor phosphorylation underlies central inflammatory pain sensitization. We show that GlyR α3 is distinctly expressed in superficial layers of the spinal cord dorsal horn. Mice deficient in GlyR α3 not only lack the inhibition of glycinergic neurotransmission by PGE2 seen in wild-type mice but also show a reduction in pain sensitization induced by spinal PGE2 injection or peripheral inflammation. Thus, GlyR α3 may provide a previously unrecognized molecular target in pain therapy.


The main goal of the paper is to identify the impact of the educational level on the type of the inter-firm workers mobility. The basic assumption is that the level of education strongly influences the labour market segmentation that is why the education should have certain impact on the type of the workers' mobility. The data analysis based on RLMS gives the contradictory results. On the one hand the level of education determines the chances to be unemployed or non-active. On the other hand the level of education has impact on the probability of the inter-firm workers' mobility only for males of 22-45 years old. Moreover upward mobility in terms of wages was true only for man but the level of education was not significant for this.


In this work, detersive power was studied after washing a soiled wool fabric with addition of a non-toxic solvent microemulsion to conventional wash formulations with the aim of improving the performance of the conventional washing. The non-toxic solvent used was dimethyl sulfoxide micro-dispersed with an amphoteric surfactant as emulsifier. The fabric was washed with biodegradable non-ionic surfactants such as an alcohol ethoxylate (AE) with 7 m.E.O and an alkyl polyglucoside with 1.4 glucoside groups (APG). The fabric used was EMPA 107 wool (soiled with standard impurities). The non-ionic surfactants were used separately and in mixture in varying proportions for the washes. Given the large amount of impurities in the wool fabric, sodium carbonate and sodium chloride were used to attain a suitable pH to avoid damaging the wool. The fabric was washed at low temperature with water of different hardness (20ohf, 30ohf and 40ohf). In addition, the sequestering agent DTPMP was used to obtain an improvement of detersive power at the hardness of 40ohf.


The theatre's greatest contemporary director tells the story of his life Peter Brook is the modern stage's greatest inventor. For over fifty years he has held audiences spellbound with his critically acclaimed productions. Now he has finally written an account of his life. Born in 1925 in London, at twenty-one Brook became the enfant terrible of British theatre directing major post-war productions of Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon, opera at Covent Garden and new plays in London's West End. He even made films. In 1964 he produced Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade for the RSC and his whole approach to theatre became radicalised. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Brook began exploring the roots of non-Western theatre which once again changed his view of what theatre could be for actors and audiences. His journey took him to Paris where he founded a company at the Bouffes du Nord theatre where he still works today. Brook's biography charts all the stages of his aesthetic and spiritual journey, and touches on all parts of a career that has been widely reported but never previously talked about from his personal perspective." First there was the master conjurer adept at musicals, farces, opera and Shakespeare. Then there was the philosopher-king...who has devoted his energies to a quest for a theatre that was simple in form and rich in meaning" (Michael Billington)


Calcium phosphate films were prepared by MOCVD using Ca(dpm)2 and (C6H5O)3PO precursors. The phases, composition and morphology of films changed depending on the molar ratio of Ca to P precursors (RCa/P), total pressure (Ptot) and substrate temperature (Tsub). α-tricalcimu phosphate (α-TCP, α-Ca3(PO4)2) films in a single phase were obtained at Tsub = 1073 K, 0.1 < RCa/P < 0.4 and Tsub = 973 K, RCa/P < 0.4. Hydroxyapatite (HAp, Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2) films in a single phase were obtained at Tsub = 1073 K, 0.8 < RCa/P < 1.0 and Tsub = 973 K, 0.5 < RCa/P < 0.6. Ca-P-O films had a dense and smooth surface. HAp formed within 1 day on the α-TCP film and wholly covered the specimens within 2 weeks in a Hanks' solution. The surface of CVD-HAp film was covered by precipitated HAp within 6 hours.


With the advances in technology and smart devices, more and more attention has been paid to model spatial correlations, temporal dynamics, and friendship influence over point-of-interest (POI) checkins. Besides directly capturing general user's checkin behavior, existing works mostly highlight the intrinsic feature of POIs, i.e., spatial and temporal dependency. Among them, the family of methods based on Markov chain can capture the instance-level interaction between a pair of POI checkins, while recurrent neural network (RNN) based approaches (state-of-the-art) can deal with flexible length of checkin sequence. However, the former is not good at capturing high-order POI transition dependency, and the latter cannot distinguish the exact contribution of each POI in a historical checkin sequence. Moreover, in recurrent neural networks, local and global information is propagated along the sequence through one bottleneck i.e., hidden states only.In this work, we design a novel model to enforce contextual constraints on sequential data by designing a spatial and temporal attention mechanisms over recurrent neural network that leverages the importance of POIs visited by users in given time interval and geographical distance in successive checkins. Attention mechanism helps us to learn which POIs bounded by time difference and spatial distance in user checkin history are important for the prediction of next POI. Moreover, we also consider periodicity and friendship influence in our model design. Experimental results on two real location based social networks Gowalla, and BrightKite show that our proposed method outperforms the existing state-of-the-art deep neural network methods for next POI prediction and understanding user transition behavior. We also analyze the sensitivity of parameters including context window for capturing sequential effect, temporal context window for estimating temporal attention and spatial context window for estimating spatial attention respectively.


The Large-grit bronze-bonded diamond grinding wheel was shaped employing a diamond dresser with elliptic ultrasonic vibration assistance, to solve problems such as high cost, low dressing speed and low accuracy. And the truing and conditioning performance of this new method was discussed for its effectiveness. Experimental results showed that the roundness error of elliptic vibration dressed diamond grinding wheel is less, and the bond tail was cut shorter and the chip capacity became larger than that of mechanical dressed one. The SEM observation showed for the present dressing method the material removal mechanism is ductile removal of bond material and micro breakup of gains and this method can perform truing of large-grit diamond grinding wheel as well as conditioning in one step.


Introduction
 Acute myeloid leukemias are a group of malignant hemopathies characterized by a poor prognosis for survival. The discovery of oncogenic mutations in the FLT3 gene (eq FLT3-ITD) has led to the development of new tyrosine kinase inhibitors such as quizartinib. But complete remissions of patients remains difficult because these new TKIs are not able to completely eradicate all leukemia cells. Residual leukemia cells persist during treatment with quizartinib and lead to the rapid emergence of drug-resistant leukemia. Since mitochondrial oxidative metabolism supports the survival of leukemia cells after exposure to several anticancer drugs, we characterized the metabolism of leukemia cells that persisted within quizartinib treatment and developed metabolic strategies to eradicate them.
 Results
 First, we evaluated glycolysis activity in FLT3-ITD leukemia cell lines (MOLM13 / MOLM14 / MV4-11) under quizartinib treatment (5-10nM). Quizartinib reduced extracellular acidification rate ECAR, but this glycolytic activity is not fully inhibited (50% of untreated condition). These results obtained using the XFe24 Seahorse were in agreement with the metabolomic analysis carried out in a medium containing isotopic U-13C6 glucose. Next we evaluated mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation in FLT3-ITD leukemia cell lines. After treatment with quizartinib, the basal and maximal oxygen consumption (OCR) of leukemia cells decreased. Metabolomic analysis using isotopic glucose U-13C6 or glutamine U-13C5 have shown that pyruvate derived from glucose was weakly oxidized in the mitochondria of untreated or quizartinib-treated cells. In contrast, a large amount of glutamine was oxidized by the tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle in untreated FLT3-ITD cells. Quizartinib reduced but did not abolish the complete oxidation of glutamine in leukemia cells. This result showed that even in the presence of quizartinib, FLT3-ITD cells maintained partially oxygen consumption trough glutamine oxidation.
 L-asparaginases (Kidrolase, Erwinase) are enzymes capable of hydrolyzing amino acids such as asparagine and glutamine. These clinical drugs have been approved for the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and pediatric acute myeloid leukemia. We have shown that L-asparaginases weakly induced cell death in FLT3-ITD leukemia cells. Interestingly, our isobologram analysis showed that L-asparaginase acted synergistically with quizartinib to induce apoptosis. To determine whether glutamine metabolism also promoted the persistence of AML under treatment with quizartinib, we treated MOLM13 with quizartinib for several days. After long-term treatment, the percentage of surviving cells (annexin-V negative) was less than 5%. These persistent cells were characterized by an increased mitochondrial membrane potential (Δψm) and mitochondrial ROS. After treatment with the combination of L-asparaginase and quizartinib, the percentage of persistent cells decreased drastically. The combination of L-asparaginase and quizartinib was also more effective than quizartinib alone in reducing the size and number of colonies of MOLM13 in a model based on the formation of leukemia colonies growing in methylcellulose.
 Conclusion
 Persistent leukemia cells that survive after exposure to FLT3 inhibitor quizartinib can be targeted by the clinical drug L-asparaginases. This metabolic strategy could reduce the emergence of leukemic cells resistant to quizartinib.

 Kluza: Daiichi-Sankyo: Research Funding.


BACKGROUND
Tibiotalar arthritis in the young, active patient is a debilitating condition with limited treatment options. Bipolar tibiotalar fresh osteochondral allograft transplantation was conceived as a possible alternative to arthrodesis and arthroplasty. We reported our experience with bipolar ankle osteochondral allografts for the treatment of tibiotalar joint arthritis.

METHODS
Between 1999 and 2008, we performed bipolar ankle allografts in eighty-eight ankles (eighty-four patients). Eighty-six ankles (eighty-two patients) had a minimum follow-up duration of two years. The mean patient age was forty-four years and 52% of the patients were male. Evaluation included frequency and type of reoperations, the Olerud-Molander Ankle Score, pain, function, and patient satisfaction. Radiographs were evaluated for graft healing, joint space narrowing, and graft collapse.

RESULTS
The mean duration of follow-up was 5.3 years (range, two to eleven years). Thirty-six (42%) of the eighty-six ankles that had undergone allograft had further surgery since implantation. Of the eighty-six ankles, twenty-five ankles (29%) had undergone graft-related reoperations and were considered clinical failures (ten underwent revision allografts, seven underwent arthrodeses, six underwent conversions to total ankle arthroplasty, and two underwent below-the-knee amputations) and eleven ankles (13%) had had reoperations that were not necessarily related to the graft (e.g., implant removal, debridement, synovectomy, or distraction). Survivorship of the osteochondral allograft was 76% at five years and 44% at ten years. The mean Olerud-Molander Ankle Score was 61 points at the time of the latest follow-up. The majority of patients reported satisfaction (92%) with osteochondral allograft transplantation and less pain (85%) and improved function (83%) after the procedure.

CONCLUSIONS
Transplantation of a fresh bipolar ankle osteochondral allograft for the treatment of tibiotalar arthritis resulted in acceptable outcomes in this difficult population, with most patients having improved objective and subjective outcome measures. Subjective satisfaction was high in spite of the 29% clinical failure rate. Osteochondral allograft failure did not limit further surgical options. We concluded that transplantation of a bipolar ankle allograft is a useful alternative in carefully selected patients with advanced tibiotalar arthritis.


The powerful parallel computing capability of modern GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) processors has attracted increasing attentions of researchers and engineers who had conducted a large number of GPU-based acceleration research projects. However, current single GPU based solutions are still incapable of fulfilling the real-time computational requirements from the latest big data applications. Thus, the multi-GPU solution has become a trend for many real-time application attempts. In those cases, the computational load balancing over the multiple GPU nodes is often the key bottleneck that needs to be further studied to ensure the best possible performance. The existing load balancing approaches are mainly based on the assumption that all GPUs in the same system provide equal computational performance, and had fallen short to address the situations from heterogeneous multi-GPU systems. This paper presents a novel dynamic load balancing model for heterogeneous multi-GPU systems based on the fuzzy neural network (FNN) framework. The devised model has been implemented and demonstrated in a case study for improving the computational performance of a two dimensional (2D) discrete wavelet transform (DWT). Experiment results show that this dynamic load balancing model has enabled a high computational throughput that can satisfy the real-time and accuracy requirements from many big data processing applications.


[1] Imaging radar measurements at long wavelengths (e.g., >30 cm) allow deep (up to tens of meters) probing of the physical structure and dielectric properties of planetary regoliths. We illustrate a potential application for a Mars orbital synthetic aperture radar (SAR) using new Earth-based 70-cm wavelength radar data for the Moon. The terrae on the northern margin of Mare Imbrium, the Montes Jura region, have diffuse radar backscatter echoes that are 2–4 times weaker at 3.8-cm, 70-cm, and 7.5-m wavelengths than most other lunar nearside terrae. Possible geologic explanations are (1) a pyroclastic deposit associated with sinuous rilles in this region, (2) buried mare basalt or a zone of mixed highland/basaltic debris (cryptomaria), or (3) layers of ejecta associated with the Iridum and Plato impacts that have fewer meter-sized rocks than typical highlands regolith. While radar data at 3.8-cm to 7.5-m wavelengths suggest significant differences between the Montes Jura region and typical highlands, the surface geochemistry and rock abundance inferred from Clementine UV-VIS data and eclipse thermal images are consistent with other lunar terrae. There is no evidence for enhanced iron abundance, expected for basaltic pyroclastic deposits, near the source vents of the sinuous rilles radial to Plato. The regions of low 70-cm radar return are consistent with overlapping concentric "haloes" about Iridum and Plato and do not occur preferentially in topographically low areas, as is observed for radar-mapped cryptomaria. Thus we suggest that the extensive radar-dark area associated with the Montes Jura region is due to overlapping, rock-poor ejecta deposits from Iridum and Plato craters. Comparison of the radial extent of low-radar-return crater haloes with a model for ejecta thickness shows that these rock-poor layers are detected by 70-cm radar where they are on the order of 10 m and thicker. A SAR in orbit about Mars could use similar deep probing to reveal the nature of crater- and basin-related deposits.


High-performance Web sites rely on Web server 'farms', hundreds of computers serving the same content, for scalability, reliability, and low-latency access to Internet content. Deploying these scalable farms typically requires the power of distributed or clustered file systems. Building Web server farms on file systems complements hierarchical proxy caching. Proxy caching replicates Web content throughout the Internet, thereby reducing latency from network delays and off-loading traffic from the primary servers. Web server farms scale resources at a single site, reducing latency from queuing delays. Both technologies are essential when building a high-performance infrastructure for content delivery. The authors present a cache consistency model and locking protocol customized for file systems that are used as scalable infrastructure for Web server farms. The protocol takes advantage of the Web's relaxed consistency semantics to reduce latencies and network overhead. Our hybrid approach preserves strong consistency for concurrent write sharing with time-based consistency and push caching for readers (Web servers). Using simulation, we compare our approach to the Andrew file system and the sequential consistency file system protocols we propose to replace.


The development of FPGAs that can be programmed to implement custom circuits by modifying memory has inspired researchers to investigate how FPGAs can be used as a computational resource in systems designed for high performance applications. When such FPGA–based systems are composed of arrays of chips or chips that can be partially reconfigured, the programmable array space can be partitioned among several concurrently executing tasks. If partition sizes are adapted to the needs of tasks, then array resources become fragmented as tasks with varying requirements are processed. Tasks may end up waiting despite their being sufficient, albeit fragmented resources available. We examine the problem of repartitioning the system (rearranging a subset of the executing tasks) at run–time in order to allow waiting tasks to enter the system sooner. In this paper, we introduce the problems of identifying and scheduling feasible task rearrangements when tasks are moved by reloading. It is shown that both problems are NP–complete. We develop two very different heuristic approaches to finding and scheduling suitable rearrangements. The first method, known as Local Repacking, attempts to minimize the size of the subarray needing rearrangement. Candidate subarrays are repacked using known bin packing algorithms. Task movements are scheduled so as to minimize delays to their execution. The second approach, called Ordered Compaction, constrains the movements of tasks in order to efficiently identify and schedule feasible rearrangements. The heuristics are compared by time complexity and resulting system performance on simulated task sets. The results indicate that considerable scheduling advantages are to be gained for acceptable computational effort. However, the benefits may be jeopardized by delays to moving tasks when the average cost of reloading tasks becomes significant relative to task service periods. We indicate directions for future research to mitigate the cost of moving executing tasks.


The development of the Anacom, an analog computer that was placed in operations the same year as ENIAC and continued to do valuable work for the electric power field until 1990, in spite of competition from digital computers, is discussed. The career of Edwin L. Harder, who designed and developed the Anacom, among other machines, is reviewed. Although Harder characterized the Anacom as his top achievement, during the 20 years prior to building this machine it is shown that he had already distinguished himself as an engineer and inventor in the electric power industry, and his patents and other technical contributions helped to keep Westinghouse Electric Company solvent during the depths of the Depression. A list of engineering problems suited to the electric analog computer is provided in an appendix.<<ETX>>


World airline accident statistics for the period 1960 to 1970 indicate the number of seriously, but nonfatally injured is unlikely to exceed 25% of the occupant capacity of the largest aircraft using an airport. In only 1 accident out of 20 will this number be an underestimate. This estimate may be of value in medical planning for an airport disaster and in the assessment of loads on hospitals. Language: en


ABSTRACT Current dietary trends show that humans consume up to 40% of their energy intake during the night. Those who habitually eat during the night are observed to have an increased risk of metabolic conditions such as type-2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Increasing evidence suggest that a biological consequence of eating during the night is a larger postprandial glucose response, compared to meals eaten earlier in the day. However, findings from individual acute postprandial studies have been inconsistent, due to variations in protocols. Therefore, this review aimed to systematically summarize findings from acute postprandial studies and investigate whether postprandial glucose and insulin response at night differs to during the day in healthy adults. This would indicate a possible physiological mechanism linking habitual nighttime eating and increased risk of metabolic conditions. Seven electronic databases were searched in February 2018. Included studies met the following criteria: had a day-time test between 0700 – 1600h, a nighttime test between 2000 and 0400h, the test meals were identical and consumed by the same participant at both day and night time points, preceded by a 3-h fast (minimum). Primary outcome measures were postprandial glucose and insulin incremental area under the curve (iAUC) or area under the curve (AUC). Studies that reported numerical data were included in the meta-analyses, conducted using Stata statistical software (version 13.0, StataCorp, College Station, TX, USA). For eligible studies that did not report numerical data, their authors' conclusions on the effect of time of day on the primary outcome measures were summarized qualitatively. Full text of 172 articles were assessed for eligibility. Fifteen studies met the eligibility criteria, ten of which were included in the meta-analyses. Meta-analysis for glucose showed a lower postprandial glucose response in the day compared to during the night, after an identical meal (SMD = −1.66; 95% CI, −1.97 to −1.36; p < .001). This was supported by the findings from included studies ineligible for meta-analysis. Meta-analysis also showed a lower postprandial insulin response in the day compared to during the night (SMD = −0.35; 95% CI, −0.63 to −0.06; p = .016). However, findings from included studies ineligible for meta-analysis were inconsistent. Our results suggest poor glucose tolerance at night compared to the day. This may be a contributing factor to the increased risk of metabolic diseases observed in those who habitually eat during the night, such as shift workers.


We study the structure of diffusive layers in solutions of unstable nonlinear diffusion equations. These equations are regularizations of the forward-backward heat equation and have diffusion coefficients that become negative. Such models include the Cahn-Hilliard equation and the pseudoparabolic viscous diffusion equation. Using singular perturbation methods we show that the balance between diffusion and higher-order regularization terms uniquely determines the interface structure in these equations. It is shown that the well-known "equal area" rule for the Cahn-Hilliard equation is a special case of a more general rule for shock construction in the viscous Cahn-Hilliard equation.


The Director General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL),
 Kafatos, discusses its blueprint for the next 5 years. Adapting to rapid changes in biology itself, the plans focus on functional genomics and interdisciplinary initiatives. Outreach activities will be expanded. The budget is in the early stages of preparation, but an additional increase will be needed to make up for loss of European Union support for EMBL9s bioinformatics outstation, a setback in European science policy.


The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) and variability of astrophysical sources can be modeled in many different ways, in particular, the production of X-rays and γ-rays in the SEDs of blazars. High-energy polarimetry can probe the most active jet regions with the most efficient particle accelerations, and thus serve as a powerful tool to distinguish between models. We summarize the scientific potential and model predictions for high-energy polarization of blazar jets. The advantages of using Monte Carlo methods to study high-energy polarization from anisotropic Compton scattering, by thermal and non-thermal particles, will be discussed. This will reinforce the use of measurements of polarization signatures to suggest observational strategies in future projects and to use polarization as a diagnostic to distinguish between leptonic and hadronic highenergy emission from blazars.


Adult safeguarding is the subject of increasing attention in England and internationally. This article draws on research which developed a typology of 'models of safeguarding'. 'Models' refer to different ways local authorities in England organise adult safeguarding (about which there is little evidence) rather than 'model' approaches to be emulated. The four models identified were: Dispersed Generic (safeguarding work undertaken by operational teams); Dispersed Specialist (safeguarding work undertaken partly by specialist social workers located in operational teams); Partially Centralised Specialist (some safeguarding work undertaken by a central specialist safeguarding team; and Fully Centralised Specialist (all safeguarding work undertaken by a specialist safeguarding team). We explored associations between these models and other important variables (numbers of referrals, kinds of alleged abuse and, characteristics of adults at risk) and outcomes The article reports secondary analysis of English local authority safeguarding referral data and on the possible different costs of different models. Dispersed Specialist sites appeared to have a higher rate of substantiating alleged abuse compared with other models. Statistical correlations were found with types of victim profiles, and the perpetrator/victim relationship. It may be that decisions about local organisation of safeguarding are more affected by local organisational contexts than local authority model.


SAP in an ERP system which is a digital system used in Aker Subsea to store, organize and manage information related to the company that all employees in the different functions use daily. Primavera is the time planning tool in Aker Subsea. Today information is copied manually from SAP over to Primavera by the planners to analyze and create schedules. There exists an application that copies information between SAP and Primavera called Inspire. Aker Subsea is interested in implementing this so that the planners will have more time to analyze and forecast potential pitfalls of the future. As the planning department in Aker Subsea has spent several years on building up their procedures, structure and manpower the time has come to implement the integration software. As ERP systems are modular then the integration can be seen as installing a new time planning module to the ERP system and for this there is done a lot of research into. There is a clear need for four specific things in an integration like this to be successful: "Top Management Support", "ERP Teamwork and Composition", "Project Management" and "Change Management Culture and Program". BIM is a similar system to ERP, but with different functions. Research on this can be valuable to ERP implementations. As more research is done to BIM it becomes clear that interoperability between software is needed on many levels and between several disciplines. As time and progress is registered in the ERP system it is highly relevant to have that information in the planning tool.


There is a general belief that nowadays men share household works and there is a change from the tradition. The main objective of the paper is to analyse whether husbands shares the household works in rural areas and the study was conducted with 450 respondents in 26 villages in India. The study reports that the findings are not encouraging as projected or anticipated and suggests NGOs NGOs and SHGs should take role in sensitising men to assist in the household works since sharing of household works by men is considered as an indicator of women empowerment. Keywords : Households-sharing; SHGs; NGOs; HDI; GDI DOI: 10.3126/dsaj.v4i0.4521 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol.4 2010 pp.211-222


Abstract Background Previous studies have demonstrated an association between type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and several types of cancers. However, the role of T2DM in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) has not been systemically studied. Methods A retrospective, follow-up cohort analysis including 299 patients with pNETs was performed. The clinicopathologic characteristics between diabetics and nondiabetic were compared. The overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) separated by diabetics and nondiabetic status were analyzed. The association between metformin use and survival was assessed to confirm whether metformin has an impact on prognosis of pNETs. Results The prevalence of T2DM was 20.7% (n = 62) in the cohort. For both OS and PFS, diabetic status was associated with a dismal outcome in univariate analyses, and the association was not exist when controlled by stage. The proportion of grade 3 tumor, distant metastasis and nerve invasion was higher in pNETs patients with T2DM than that of patients without T2DM. According to the result of logit regression, pNETs patients with T2DM were at high risk of tumor metastasis (OR = 2.81, P = 0.001), nerve invasion (OR = 2.43, P = 0.029) and grade 3 tumor (OR = 4.97, P = 0.010). Multivariate analysis demonstrated that T2DM was not an independent predictor of OS (P = 0.742) and PFS (P = 0.917). In subset analysis, no significant differences were observed for OS and PFS in subgroup according to their metformin usage. Conclusions T2DM is associated with pNETs growth and metastasis, and is not an independent risk factor of poor prognosis in patients with pNETs. No significant association is found between metformin use and survival in pNETs patients. Legal entity responsible for the study Xianjun Yu. Funding Has not received any funding. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


The results of fifty-one Manchester knee arthroplasties in forty-one patients are reviewed and discussed. Excellent and good results were obtained in 85.4 per cent of arthroplasties. Varus and valgus deformity can be corrected and stability preserved or restored. Complications occurred in only twelve patients but resolved in all except one.