Despite the fact that capsules play an important role in many dry powder inhalation (DPI) systems, few studies have been conducted to investigate the capsules' interactions with respirable powders. The effect of four commercially available hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC)inhalation-grade capsule types on the aerosol performance of two model DPI formulations (lactose carrier and a carrier-free formulation) at two different pressure drops was investigated in this study. There were no statistically significant differences in performance between capsules by using the carrier-based formulation. However, there were some differences between the capsules used for the carrier-free rifampicin formulation. At 2-kPa pressure drop conditions, Embocaps® VG capsules had a higher mean emitted fraction (EF) (89.86%) and a lower mean mass median aerodynamic diameter (MMAD) (4.19 µm) than Vcaps® (Capsugel) (85.54%, 5.10 µm) and Quali-V® I (Qualicaps) (85.01%, 5.09 µm), but no significant performance differences between Embocaps® and ACGcaps™ HI. Moreover, Embocaps® VG capsules exhibited a higher mean respirable fraction (RF)/fine particle fraction (FPF) with a 3-µm–sized cutoff (RF/FPF < 3 µm ) (33.05%/35.36%) against Quali-V® I (28.16%/31.75%) ( P  < 0.05), and a higher RF/FPF with a 5-µm–sized cutoff (RF/FPF < 5 µm ) (49.15%/52.57%) versus ACGcaps™ HI (38.88%/41.99%) ( P  < 0.01) at 4-kPa pressure drop condition. Aerosol performance variability, pierced-flap detachment, as well as capsule hardness and stiffness, may all influence capsule type selection in a carrier-based formulation. The capsule type influenced EF, RF, FPF, and MMAD in the carrier-free formulation.


Mesostriatal projections, which arise from dopaminergic and non- dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area, substantia nigra, and retrorubral area, are compartmentally organized in the striatum. Anterograde axonal tract tracing with Phaseolus vulgaris- leucoagglutinin (PHA-L), combined with immunohistochemical localization of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and autoradiographic localization of mu- opiate receptor binding sites, shows that midbrain projections to the striatum are distributed to either the mu-opiate receptor-rich "patch" or the receptor-poor "matrix" striatal compartments. Three morphologically distinct mesostriatal afferent fiber types are labeled. The first type, type A, forms a plexus of relatively thin (0.1–0.4 micron), smooth fibers with small varicosities (0.3–0.6 micron). A second type, type B, is similar to the first in forming a plexus of fibers, but is slightly thicker (0.2–0.6 micron), with more frequent varicosities (0.4–1.0 micron) that give this fiber type a crinkled appearance. The third type, type C, constitutes a minority of striatal afferents and is characterized by its large caliber (0.4–0.7 micron) with large bulbous varicosities (1.2–2.0 micron). Projections of the ventral tegmental area (A10 cell group) are primarily dopaminergic type A fibers directed to the matrix of the ventromedial striatum, including the nucleus accumbens. The retrorubral area (A8 cell group) also provides predominantly dopaminergic type A fibers to the striatal matrix, but these are distributed dorsally. The substantia nigra contains a mixed population of neurons that project to the striatum. Some, located in the dorsal tier of the pars compacta (dorsal A9 cell group), provide dopaminergic type A fibers to the striatal matrix. Others, in the ventral tier of the pars compacta (ventral A9 cell group) and in the ventral tier of the pars reticulata (displaced A9 cells), provide dopaminergic type B fibers to the striatal patches. An additional set of substantia nigra neurons that are non-dopaminergic is the source of type C fibers to the striatal matrix. Thus, distinct dorsal and ventral sets of midbrain dopaminergic neurons project, respectively, to striatal matrix and patches, and there is a non- dopaminergic mesostriatal projection to the matrix.


In this paper, using Fluent computational fluid dynamics program, the condensing water flow rate was numerically estimated calculating the outer surface- heat transfer coefficient  of  the condenser pipe. An user defined function wroten with C++ code was interpreted to Fluent program.  The fluid is water, the flow is single phase, steady state and turbulent. The outer environment is saturated vapour.  This  method; especially, in the experimental studies  thought the  condensing condition, the fact that  the heat transfer coefficient on the pipe's outer surface and condensate flow rate are predicted numerically and  some probable ideas about the experiment can be discussed  previously  is able to be obtained.


The oil film that forms between piston rings and cylinder liners is an essential parameter which influences parasitic loss and emission rates in an internal combustion (IC) engine. Several methods have been used to analyse these thin oil films in the past, however, all these methods have required invasive access to the contact area via a window or a surface mounted sensor in the cylinder wall or liner. This paper introduces a novel approach for the imaging of the piston ring - cylinder contact, non-invasively.

A straight beam ultrasonic contact transducer was coupled to the wet-side of the cylinder wall of a motored diesel engine. Ultrasonic waves were propagated through the cylinder wall and reflections from the ring-liner contact were recorded as the piston rings passed over the sensing area. The proportion of an ultrasonic pulse that is reflected from the layer, known as reflection coefficient, varies with the stiffness of the layer and the acoustic properties of the matching materials and lubricant. The transducer has successfully detected the rings and the reflection coefficient has been generated using the recorded reflection from the contact. Future evaluation of the oil film thickness (OFT) at the ring contact has been proposed using various ultrasonic transducers


Continuous processing of a streaming graph maintains an approximate result of the iterative computation on a recent version of the graph. Upon a user query, the accurate result on the current graph can be quickly computed by feeding the approximate results to the iterative computation --- a form of incremental computation that corrects the (small amount of) error in the approximate result. Despite the effectiveness of this approach in processing growing graphs, it is generally not applicable when edge deletions are present --- existing approximations can lead to either incorrect results (e.g., monotonic computations terminate at an incorrect minima/maxima) or poor performance (e.g., with approximations, convergence takes longer than performing the computation from scratch). This paper presents KickStarter, a runtime technique that can trim the approximate values for a subset of vertices impacted by the deleted edges. The trimmed approximation is both safe and profitable, enabling the computation to produce correct results and converge quickly. KickStarter works for a class of monotonic graph algorithms and can be readily incorporated in any existing streaming graph system. Our experiments with four streaming algorithms on five large graphs demonstrate that trimming not only produces correct results but also accelerates these algorithms by 8.5--23.7x.


An employee's trust in their leadership is an important antecedent to organizational commitment. It is commonly believed that committed employees will work harder to achieve organizational objectives, so organizations often try to foster commitment in their employees to achieve improved organizational performance. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the relationship between trust and organizational commitment. The population consisted of 31 employees from 3 high-technology organizations in the United States. The study consisted of 2 research instruments and 5 demographic questions that were administered to employees of 3 high-technology organizations. The survey instrument used to measure trust was Cummings and Brimley's Organizational Trust Inventory. This instrument separates trust into the 3 dimensions of keeping commitments, negotiating honestly, and not taking advantage. The survey instrument used to measure organizational commitment was Meyer and Allen's Three Component Model. This second instrument separates organizational commitment into the 3 dimensions of affective commitment, normative commitment, and continuance commitment. The study revealed a strong positive correlation (r =.38) between an employees' total trust and their total organizational commitment. The study revealed that 12 of the 16 possible correlations between trust and organizational commitment were positively correlated. The study findings indicate that leadership skills are critical to increasing trust levels that enable organizational commitment. By improving the leadership and organizational antecedents that promote a trustworthy environment, employees become more committed and organizational performance improves.


Audiovisual content transmits feminist messages and the identities of women and girls. There has been a revitalization of feminism, but are we facing a true achievement of critical and intersectional feminism? Or are we witnessing a form of fake feminism, multiplied by social media platforms, market forces, and entertainment? How are women's identities communicated through fictional audiovisual content today? To address these questions, this article examines the image of women projected by Game of Thrones (Season 8) and Stranger Things (Season 3) using the postulates of fourth-wave feminism. The principal conclusions of our study indicate that although the development of female characters in these series contains elements that suggest an approach to the demands of fourth-wave feminism, these prove to be meager and coexist with patriarchal features, and what predominates is the commercialization of messages that contribute to the banalization of feminism.


Summary The human pharmacology of cyclophosphamide was investigated in 26 patients who received cyclophosphamide 14 C in doses of 6 to 80 mg/kg i.v. Levels of the intact drug in plasma and urine and excretion of 14 C label in breath and stools were determined by liquid scintillation counting. Plasma and urine alkylating activity was measured by reaction with 4-(4-nitrobenzyl)pyridine. Protein binding of cyclophosphamide and plasma alkylating metabolites were determined by plasma ultrafiltration. Injected cyclophosphamide distributed rapidly into 64% of body weight, and plasma cyclophosphamide half-life in patients without prior drug exposure was 6.5 hr. Not more than 20% of injected cyclophosphamide was excreted intact in urine at any dose level. Plasma alkylating metabolites were 56% bound to plasma proteins. After a 40-mg/kg dose, peak unbound alkylating activity averaged 13.3 mµmoles/ml, and in most patients at this dose alkylating activity in the plasma was measurable for 24 hr. Sixty-eight % of injected 14 C label was excreted in urine. Breath and fecal excretion were negligible. In a regimen of five consecutive daily cyclophosphamide administrations, cyclophosphamide half-life was shorter and peak alkylating levels were constantly higher on the 5th day than on the 1st day. Prior patient treatment with allopurinol resulted in significantly longer cyclophosphamide half-life, but concomitant prednisolone treatment had no effect. The effect of hepatic metastases on cyclophosphamide metabolism was unclear. Moderate renal failure in one patient resulted in prolonged retention of alkylating materials in plasma and severe toxicity. Although patients with and without prior exposure to microsomal enzyme-inducing drugs demonstrated marked variation in plasma cyclophosphamide half-life and peak alkylating levels, the total concentration × time product remained relatively constant for a given cyclophosphamide dose, suggesting that alterations in the rate of cyclophosphamide metabolism by drugs or liver metastases in the absence of renal failure will not change toxicity or therapeutic effect.


It is an established part of mathematical practice that mathematicians demand deductive proof before accepting a new result as a theorem. However, a wide variety of probabilistic methods of justification are also available. Though such procedures may endorse a false conclusion even if carried out perfectly, their robust structure may mean they are actually more reliable in practice once implementation errors are taken into account. Can mathematicians be rational in continuing to reject these probabilistic methods as a means of establishing a mathematical claim? In this paper, I give reasons in favour of their doing so. Rather than appealing directly to individual epistemological considerations, the discussion offers a normative constraint on what constitutes a good mathematical argument. This I call 'Univocality', the requirement that the underlying concepts all have clear defining conditions.


Bolivia, as the poorest country in South America, can gain a lot from international trade. It is an important factor for a country to build prosperity and gain economic growth and thereby reach a higher standard of living. But for a company to succeed in the international market is a demanding task. Both internal and external factors that influence a company's competence need to be taken into consideration. This Master Thesis deals with two Bolivian wooden door producers' possibilities to export to the Swedish market.The demand of tropical wood products is expected to increase and the Bolivian wood industry has been identified as an export industry of the future. Another thing in favor for the Bolivian export is the fact that the country is number one in the world when it comes to sustainable management of forest resources. This gives the companies the possibility to offer an environmentally friendly and unique product and thereby create competitive advantages. There are though areas that need improvement. One of the most important improvement areas for both of the companies is marketing and understanding what the customers needs. They need to keep the costumer in focus in all of their activities and learn how to promote their products advantages.The facts that both the studied companies have earlier experience in export and a high level of motivation support the possibility to succeed in this matter. But, these factors are not enough for the studied companies to succeed in export. The result of this study also shows that the instable situation in the country results in financial problems and lack of trust. Therefore the companies must focus on building trust to attract new customers andinvestors. This should be done by keeping an even level of quality, fulfilling promises and finding ways to reduce the risk for potential investors.The trend towards more individual and exclusive doors in the Swedish market results in the recommendation to focus on offering a niche product in the middle-price segment. It is also recommended for the Bolivian companies to use some kind of representative to reach the market. A good alternative is to work as a supplier to a door producing partner and help them widen their assortment and in turn get someone present in the market that can work close to the customers.


Leishmaniasis affects 1.5-2 million new cases in the world annually. Two major complications of cutaneous leishamaniasis include diffuse cutaneous leishamaniasis (DCL ) occurring in the setting of deficient cell mediated immunity, typically with HIV infection, and chronic cutaneous leishamaniasis (CCL ) developing in approximately 4% of L. tropica infections in Iran and Afghanistan which also may complicate vaccination with a live strain of leishmania (leishmanization). The Iran – Iraq war took place in a hyper endemic area of Old-World cutaneous leishmaniasis. We report two Iranian soldiers who were both infected in the battle field and presented several years after the war; one was an HIV positive patient with DCL and the other was a previously leishmaniazed patient with CCL. (Iran J Dermatol 2010;13: 99-102)


This article explores post-colonial memories about street traders among individuals who lived in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies. It argues that these narratives romanticize the relationship between Europeans and indigenous peoples. Street vendors are also used to differentiate between periods within colonial and post-colonial history. The nostalgic representation of interracial contact between Europeans and traders is contrasted with representations of other figures such as the Japanese and the nationalist. A recurring feature of these representations is the ability of Europeans to speak with street traders and imagine what they wanted and needed. The traders are remembered as a social type that transgressed politics and represented the neutrality of the economic sphere as a place for shared communication. The article concludes that the figure of the street vendor contributes to the nostalgic reinvention of the colony but is also used in narratives to differentiate between and mark changes across the colonial and post-colonial periods.


ALICE is one of the experiments under installation at CERN Large Hadron Collider, dedicated to the study of heavy- ion collisions. The final ALICE data acquisition system has been installed and is being used for the testing and commissioning of detectors. Data Quality Monitoring (DQM) is an important aspect of the online procedures for a HEP experiment. In this presentation we overview the architecture, implementation and usage experience of ALICE'S AMORE (Automatic MOnitoRing Environment), a distributed application aimed to collect, analyze, visualize and store monitoring data in a large, experiment wide scale. AMORE is interfaced to the DAQ software framework (DATE) and follows the publish-subscribe paradigm where a large number of batch processes execute detector-specific analysis on raw data samples and publish monitoring results on specialized servers. Clients connected to these servers have the ability to correlate, further analyze and visualize the monitoring data. Provision is taken to archive the most important results so that historic plots can be produced.


In this paper we rigorously investigate the emergence of defects on Nematic Shells with genus different from one. This phenomenon is related to a non trivial interplay between the topology of the shell and the alignment of the director field. To this end, we consider a discrete $XY$ system on the shell $M$, described by a tangent vector field with unit norm sitting at the vertices of a triangulation of the shell. Defects emerge when we let the mesh size of the triangulation go to zero, namely in the discrete-to-continuum limit. In this paper we investigate the discrete-to-continuum limit in terms of $\Gamma$-convergence in two different asymptotic regimes. The first scaling promotes the appearance of a finite number of defects whose charges are in accordance with the topology of shell $M$, via the Poincar\'e-Hopf Theorem. The second scaling produces the so called Renormalized Energy that governs the equilibrium of the configurations with defects.


Legumes share a unique association with certain soil-dwelling bacteria known broadly as rhizobia. Through concerted interorganismal communication, a legume allows intracellular infection by its cognate rhizobial species. The plant then forms an organ, the root nodule, dedicated to housing and supplying fixed carbon and nutrients to the bacteria. In return, the engulfed rhizobia, differentiated into bacteroids, fix atmospheric N2 into ammonium for the plant host. This interplay is of great benefit to the cultivation of legumes, such as alfalfa and soybeans, and is initiated by chemotaxis to the host plant. This study on carboxylate chemotaxis contributes to the understanding of rhizobial survival and competition in the rhizosphere and aids the development of commercial inoculants. ABSTRACT Sinorhizobium meliloti is a soil-dwelling endosymbiont of alfalfa that has eight chemoreceptors to sense environmental stimuli during its free-living state. The functions of two receptors have been characterized, with McpU and McpX serving as general amino acid and quaternary ammonium compound sensors, respectively. Both receptors use a dual Cache (calcium channels and chemotaxis receptors) domain for ligand binding. We identified that the ligand-binding periplasmic region (PR) of McpV contains a single Cache domain. Homology modeling revealed that McpVPR is structurally similar to a sensor domain of a chemoreceptor with unknown function from Anaeromyxobacter dehalogenans, which crystallized with acetate in its binding pocket. We therefore assayed McpV for carboxylate binding and S. meliloti for carboxylate sensing. Differential scanning fluorimetry identified 10 potential ligands for McpVPR. Nine of these are monocarboxylates with chain lengths between two and four carbons. We selected seven compounds for capillary assay analysis, which established positive chemotaxis of the S. meliloti wild type, with concentrations of peak attraction at 1 mM for acetate, propionate, pyruvate, and glycolate, and at 100 mM for formate and acetoacetate. Deletion of mcpV or mutation of residues essential for ligand coordination abolished positive chemotaxis to carboxylates. Using microcalorimetry, we determined that dissociation constants of the seven ligands with McpVPR were in the micromolar range. An McpVPR variant with a mutation in the ligand coordination site displayed no binding to isobutyrate or propionate. Of all the carboxylates tested as attractants, only glycolate was detected in alfalfa seed exudates. This work examines the relevance of carboxylates and their sensor to the rhizobium-legume interaction. IMPORTANCE Legumes share a unique association with certain soil-dwelling bacteria known broadly as rhizobia. Through concerted interorganismal communication, a legume allows intracellular infection by its cognate rhizobial species. The plant then forms an organ, the root nodule, dedicated to housing and supplying fixed carbon and nutrients to the bacteria. In return, the engulfed rhizobia, differentiated into bacteroids, fix atmospheric N2 into ammonium for the plant host. This interplay is of great benefit to the cultivation of legumes, such as alfalfa and soybeans, and is initiated by chemotaxis to the host plant. This study on carboxylate chemotaxis contributes to the understanding of rhizobial survival and competition in the rhizosphere and aids the development of commercial inoculants.


To the Editor.— Following the publication of my and Dr Paul W. Kohnen's recent article "Localized Hemosiderosis as a Sequela of Acne" ( Arch Dermatol 114:1695-1697, 1978), I have received reports from clinicians commenting on similar conditions in their patients. One consistent finding is that all of the patients had been receiving long-term minocycline therapy for acne. Our patient had been taking 100 mg of minocycline twice daily for nearly three years when the blue-black macules first appeared on her face. Hemosiderin was demonstrated, by electron microscopy, to be the pigment retained in our patient's lesions and was observed within dermal macrophages as well as in extracellular deposits. No membrane-bound intracellular hemosiderin aggregates could be identified, suggesting that the pigment persisted because of an inability of the macrophages to surround the toxic iron compound with protective lysosomal membranes. It is plausible that this defect may, in some way, have been the


Indonesia has witnessed the emergence of metropolitan areas whose boundaries stretch beyond administratively defined local authorities. This prompts the need of integrated metropolitan transport planning whose attainment relies on inter-local government collaboration, particularly since decentralization policy in Indonesia. Yet, such collaboration remains considerably undeveloped. Therefore, using case study of Greater Yogyakarta, this research discusses the barriers to inter-local government transport planning collaboration. The transaction costs theory was utilized given its analytical power in explaining actors' calculative decision for making inter-local government collaboration as chosen governance mechanism to handle metropolitan transport planning. This decision is influenced by actors' perceived transaction costs. This research found that there are significant aspects that potentially stimulate and heighten actors' perceived transaction costs; thus, served as key barriers to collaboration. Those aspects are: the absence of safeguard mechanism through legal and regulation framework to address non-compliance issues; uncertainty of sustained financial support; uncertainty of longer-term political commitment; the lack of perceived benefits of metropolitan transport planning; the perceived imbalances in losses and gains of collaboration; local governments' fear of losing control over territories; fragmentation in local governments; and the absence of common-shared goals. This research also suggests that informal institution aspects and political driving forces have hindered the collaboration more significantly compared to direct practical-financial aspects.


Religious identities and practices are changing. Religious studies and theological educators are adapting curricula and services to support increasingly diverse student populations. On an institutional level, some religious studies departments and seminaries' priorities are changing, too.
For example, Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) remains one of ten seminaries of the Presbyterian Church (USA), but currently, only 28% of students identify as PCUSA personally and over fifty Christian traditions are represented, reflecting a trend toward ecumenism. ATS-accredited institutions  have faculty and students whose faiths are outside of Judeo-Christian traditions, principal traditions that comprise the ATLA membership. Additionally, there is increased representation from secular institutions (e.g., University of Colorado Boulder) and organizations not affiliated with specific denominations within ATLA membership.
It's time for librarians to share with each other their perceptions of their institutions' relationships with students, administrations, and denominations, and where they fit within ATLA personally.


Nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HA) slurry was synthesized at normal pressure, and (Cu2+, Zn2+)-bearing nano-hydroxyapatite (Cu-Zn-HA) was prepared by ion exchange reaction in water medium. The properties of n-HA and Cu-Zn-HA were characterized by AAS, TEM, XRD and FTIR. The results of XRD analysis indicate that Cu2+ and Zn2+ can occupy Ca2+ sites and enter the crystal lattice of hydroxyapatite. Through the antibacterial experiments, it was found that Cu-Zn-HA had better antibacterial ability on Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus). After heat treatment at 400°C for an hour, the materials still had good antibacterial effect. The accelerated aging method was employed to test antibacterial durability of the material and the results indicated that the durability was good. The results of the security assessment, including skin stimulation test of rabbit, acute toxicity test by stomach filling and the micronucleus test in bone marrow polychromatic erythrocytes of mice, showed that the security of the material was excellent.


In order to reveal the physical mechanism of air hammer drilling process, using the finite element methods (FEM), a three-dimensional (3D) contact model of full-scale bit, full-scale teeth and rock is established by using free meshing method. We use a Mohr-Coulomb type material model to describe when and how rock fails, and a triangular wave to replace the stress wave. Using the finite element analysis software (ANSYS), the 3D contact analysis of the bit, teeth and rock is carried out. The results show that: aggressive tensile failure may be primarily responsible for rock breakage in air hammer drilling, while compressive failure (or shear failure) may only contribute as a minor player; the distribution of the fragmentation dents can be used to verify the rationality of tooth arrangement; the larger tooth-hole stress of the outside rows mainly responses for the bit failure, while the larger tooth stress of the inside rows contributes as a secondary factor. The results are further calibrated with a series of field applications and research results.


Prospective cohort studies show that Down's syndrome (DS) is an independent risk factor for hospitalization for RSV bronchiolitis. It is unknown whether this observation has been translated into specific management for DS children. The primary goal was to assess the knowledge of healthcare providers in the European Union about RSV infection in DS children and to determine whether it influenced the implementation of prophylaxis. DS caregivers were surveyed using a standardized questionnaire, and country-specific guidelines were obtained. Fifty-three caregivers participated. Thirty-nine (86.7%) had knowledge of the increased risk of severe RSV infection in DS children, and 30 (71.4%) graded that it was important to have a statement on the use of RSV prophylaxis in existing guidelines. Twenty-eight participants had a local DS guideline; hard copies of twelve unique guidelines were obtained. Only one (8.3%) contained a statement on RSV prophylaxis for DS, and five considered such a statement for the next version. Conclusion. Most pediatricians had knowledge that DS children have an increased risk of severe RSV infection. Despite the lack of a specific RSV prophylaxis trial in DS, they felt that a statement on RSV prophylaxis in DS guidelines was important, but this was rarely present in current guidelines.


Myeloproliferative disorders (MPD) are diseases characterized by clonal hematopoiesis with overprodution of mature cells from erythroid, megakaryocytic and myeloid lineages. Polycythemia vera (PV), essential thrombocythemia (ET), and primary myelofibrosis (PMF) constitute classic MPDs. Activating somatic JAK2 mutations are frequently found in patients with myeloproliferative disorders. These mutations lead to constitutive activation of the JAK-STAT signaling pathway, which plays essential roles in hematopoiesis. The JAK2-V617F mutation is involved in the pathogenesis of 95% of PV and about 50% of ET and PMF patients. JAK2 exon 12 mutations surrounding amino acids 539-545 are found in the majority of PV patients who are negative for the JAK2V617F mutation. Most of PV patients with JAK2-V617F have homozygous erythroid colonies as a result of mitotic recombination, which is rare in ET patients and PV patients with JAK2 exon 12 mutations. JAK2 exon 16 mutant alleles affecting a highly conserved arginine residue at position 683 (R683) are found in 18%-28% of patients with Down's syndrome-associated acute lymphoblastic leukemia (DS-ALL). In addition to JAK2, MPLW515 mutations are identified in about 5% of PMF patients and 1-9% of ET patients through screening other players in hematopoiesis, which could lead to activation of JAKSTAT signaling. In the first part of my thesis, I compared JAK2-V617F positive PV patients with those carrying JAK2 exon 12 mutations in regard to the lineage distribution of these mutations and the presence of the mutations in erythroid progenitors in these PV patients. JAK2V617F and JAK2 exon 12 mutations represent clonal markers useful for tracking the hematopoietic lineages involved in MPD. The results provided clues about the stage (such as hematopoietic stem cells or committed progenitors) at which the transformation of hematopoietic progenitors occurred, which may cause different phenotypes. I developed a novel and sensitive assay to quantitate the amount of JAK2 exon 12 mutations in purified platelets, granulocytes, monocytes, B lymphocytes, T lymphocytes and natural killer cells (NK cells). The lineage distributions of JAK2 exon 12 mutations and JAK2-V617F were similar in platelets, granulocytes, and monocytes, which always carried the mutations, while the involvement of lymphoid cells showed large interindividual variations and T cells were rarely involved. This similarity does not explain why exon 12 mutations and JAK2-V617F result in divergent phenotypes. Analysis of erythroid progenitors indicated clonal heterogeneity in PV patients. One patient displayed erythroid colonies homozygous for the exon 12 mutation, which is very rare in patients with JAK2 exon 12 mutations, with evidence for mitotic recombination on chromosome 9p. In several patients with exon 12 mutations or JAK2-V617F, a substantial proportion of erythroid endogenous colonies (EECs) were JAK2 wild type. One patient carried two independent clones: one with an exon 12 mutation and another clone carrying JAK2-V617F. The finding of clonal heterogeneity is compatible with the hypothesis that additional clonal events are involved in the pathogenesis of PV. From the first part of my work, we noticed that in some patients the frequency of JAK2V617F mutation in peripheral blood is very low, and can only be detected with very sensitive methods such as allele-specific PCR. It has also been observed that in about half of PV patients with JAK2-V617F, the homozygous erythroid colonies only constituted a small proportion of the total number of BFU-Es, and more than half of patients with JAK2 exon 12 mutations had only a small percentage of BFU-Es carrying the mutation. To answer how such a small proportion of mutant cells can lead to a substantial increase in red cell population, we hypothesized that JAK2-V617F homozygous BFU-Es or JAK2 exon 12 mutant BFU-Es proliferate more efficiently and prevail over wild type BFU-Es during terminal erythroid differentiation. In the second part of my thesis work, I performed a pilot experiment by comparing the amount of JAK2 mutation in BFU-Es with that in reticulocytes from the same patient sample to address this question. Preliminary data showed that in some PV patients who had a higher ratio of mutated JAK2 in reticulocytes than in granulocytes, the frequency of mutant allele increased during terminal differentiation from BFU-Es to reticulocytes, indicating a substantial amplification occurred at this stage. However, this phenomenon cannot be solely attributed to the presence of homozygous JAK2-V617F colonies since some patients who did not have homozygous JAK2-V617F colonies also had the mutation amplified. Future directions including analysis of a larger cohort of samples and examination of the clonal origin of reticulocytes using X-chromosome inactivation assays will further elucidate the impact of JAK2 mutations on erythroid terminal differentiation. To define the pathologic role of various JAK2 mutations, and investigate the functional differences between different JAK2 mutations, the third part of my thesis work was to generate transgenic mouse models with inducible expression of JAK2 exon 12 or exon 16 mutations. The most frequent JAK2 exon 12 mutations (N542-E543del and E543D544del) and JAK2 exon 16 R683G mutation were chosen as our candidates. Using a highly efficient recombination engineering technique with bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs), we generated the JAK2 exon 12 mutant transgene constructs with the exon 12 sequence placed in the inverse orientation and flanked by antiparallel loxP sites. Similarly, the JAK2 transgene construct with R683G was made to have the sequences encoding the kinase domain placed in the inverse orientation and flanked by antiparallel loxP sites. The JAK2 R683G transgene construct is ready for microinjection. The JAK2 exon 12 mutant transgene constructs were microinjected into the pronucleus of zygotes from C57/BL6 mice and transferred to foster mice. Three transgenic founders with JAK2 exon 12 N542-E543del and two transgenic founders with JAK2 exon 12 E543D544del have been obtained. These founders will be crossed with VavCre or MxCre transgenic mice in order to induce expression of mutant human JAK2. Detailed blood counts, pathological abnormality assessment and genotype-phenotype relationship analysis will be performed.


The first volume of the new Yale Library Studies series explores library architecture at Yale University. Featuring architectural drawings, designs, and photographs of libraries by James Gamble Rogers, Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, Paul Rudolph, Gordon Bunshaft, and many other notable architects, as well as essays by Robert A.M. Stern, Charles Gwathmey, and others, it presents a unique record of the buildings that have housed the Yale Library and its collections over the past three hundred years.


Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a major neurodegenerative disorder affecting areas of brain related to learning and memory. AD may be presenile/senile onset of and occurrence of disease before or after the age of 60 years as well as median age of population. Based on the reported anti-AD activity profile of aryl sulphonamide analogs, the series of compounds (13a-f) were designed. The effect of synthesized substituted sulphonamide derivatives (13a-f) on Alzheimer's dementia models was evaluated using behavioral (MWM test) and pathological studies. This series of compounds displayed good to moderate anti-AD activity and need further structure optimization.


Presently web users heavily depend on database- driven web applications for an increasing amount of activities, such as banking, reservation and shopping. When performing such activities, we entrust our personal information to these web applications and their underlying databases. Web applications are often vulnerable to attacks, which can give an attacker complete access to the applications" underlying database. In an SQL Injection Attack, an attacker attempts to exploit vulnerabilities in custom web applications by entering SQL code in an entry field such as a login. If successful, such an attack can give the attacker access to the data on the database used by the application and the ability to run malicious code on the Web site. Attacks occur when developers combine hard-coded strings with user-provided input to create dynamic queries. Intuitively, if user input is not properly validated, attackers may be able to change the developer"s intended SQL command by inserting new SQL keywords or operators through specially crafted input strings. As the SQL Injection Attack passes through all the stages as like a normal request from genuine user the core components of the server may not be able to detect the attack on the Database. Several methods have been proposed to detect and prevent SQL injection attacks. We devise a method that uses defensive coding and secure hash algorithm to prevent SQL injection attacks. This method is illustrated by overview, diagrams and step by step procedure for implementing the technique to protect web application against SQL Injection. We show that this technique can be used effectively to prevent SQL Injection Attacks through bypass authentication in web application without degrading the system"s performance. Finally the method is implemented by using a web application and MySQL database.


Aims Several studies have shown sex differences in acute coronary syndromes (ACS), but their understanding is far from complete. Thus, the study aims to evaluate sex differences in management and outcomes of unselected patients with ACS. Methods and Results From 22 April 2009 to 29 December 2010, 6394 consecutive patients with ACS (44.7% ST-elevation myocardial infarction) were prospectively enrolled and followed for 6 months. Women (N = 1894, 29.6%) were older, had more comorbidities, and worse clinical presentation than men. Fewer women underwent reperfusion [68.0% women vs. 84.1% men, P < 0.0001, adjusted odds ratio (OR): 0.53, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.43–0.66] in ST-elevation myocardial infarction, and coronary angiography during hospitalization (72.2% women vs. 81.1% men, P < 0.0001, adjusted OR: 0.70, 95% CI: 0.57–0.85) in no-ST-elevation ACS. Women had worse outcomes than men during hospitalization, and at 6-month follow-up. At multivariable analysis, female sex was significantly associated with a higher risk of in-hospital Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction major bleedings (OR: 1.80, 95% CI: 1.09–2.96, P = 0.02), but not of 6-month death. Conclusion Women with ACS in clinical practice present a clustering of high-risk features that may contribute to their worse outcomes as compared with men, although female sex is not an independent predictor of death at 6-month follow-up.


The spatial pattern of the classic ('cored') type of beta-amyloid (Abeta) deposit was studied in the upper laminae of the superior temporal gyrus in 9 cases of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (SAD). Abeta stained tissue was counterstained with collagen IV to study the relationships between the spatial distribution of the classic deposits and the blood vessel profiles. Both the classic deposits and blood vessel profiles were distributed in clusters. In all cases, there was a spatial correlation between the clusters of the classic deposits and the larger diameter (>10 micron) blood vessel profiles and especially the vertically penetrating arterioles. In only 1 case, was there a significant spatial correlation between the clusters of the classic deposits and the smaller diameter (<10 micron) capillaries. In 9/11 cases, the clusters of the classic deposits were significantly larger than those of the clusters of the larger blood vessels. In addition, the density of the classic deposits declined as a negative exponential function with distance from the vertically penetrating arterioles. These results suggest that the classic Abeta deposits cluster around the larger blood vessels in the frontal cortex and that diffusion of proteins from these blood vessels could be involved in the pathogenesis of the classic deposits in SAD.


Studies of m. vastus lateralis in Rhesus monkeys exposed to weightlessness on board of the Russian biosatellites showed the profound changes of the muscle structural and metabolic profile. It is known that exposure to head-down tilt berets (BR) induces the similar changes though not so pronounced. It is supposed that the artificial gravity application is one of the promising countermeasure means purposed to prevent from the unfavourable effects of exposure to weightlessness. The present work was aimed to study the effects of the artificial gravity on structural and metabolic characteristics of hind-limb muscle in monkeys exposed to BR. 11 monkeys were subjected to 30 day 6 head down tilt BR.5 animals of them (group BR + Gz) were exposed also to daily rotation on the centrifuge (1.4 G for 5-20 min), the other animals (BR) were under only pure BR during the study. In BR animals the m. vastus lateralis slow-twitch (ST) and fast-twitch (FT) fiber size decreased by 25.4% and 12.7% respectively. In group BR + Gz the ST and FT fiber cross-sectional area was reduced by 18.7% and 8.1% respectively. The area percentage of the connective tissue compartment in BR animals increased from 4.6% to 6.8%. Capillary per fibre ratio was reduced by 9.6% and 8.6% in BR and BR + Gz monkeys respectively. The less pronounced level of capillary reduction as compared to level of fibre size decrease led to the increase of the capillary density by 13% in BR group, and no change in BR + Gz one. No changes in succinate dehydrogenase (SDH) activity were revealed in fibres of BR animals (this phenomenon may be the consequence of the proportional decrease of the oxidative potential and fibre size). In BR + Gz monkeys the SDH activity were found to be significantly elevated by 22.2% and 28.6% in ST and FT fibres respectively. Thus the data obtained show that chronic application of Gz tends to diminish the intensity of structural and metabolic changes in skeletal muscles under simulated microgravity.


One of the major strengths of ODMRP is its unicast routing capability. Not only can ODMRP coexist with any unicast routing protocol, it can function as both multicast and unicast. Thus. ODMRP can run without any underlying unicast protocol. Other ad hoc multicast protocols such as AMRoute, CAMP, RBM, and LAM must be run on top of a unicast routing protocol. CAMP, RBM and LAM in particular only work with certain underlying unicast protocols. In this paper we propose a on demand routing protocol which uses the mobility information obtained from the mobile hosts to predict topological changes. The scheme performs rerouting for a real time flow before a path becomes invalid. This is done using a mechanism we refer to as "multi-hop handover". Our goal is to minimize disruptions of real time sessions due to mobility


Do you know the top seven things that drive women mad? Or the real reason why women cry more than men? Or what men are looking for in a woman, both at first sight and for the long-term relationship? WHY MEN DON'T HAVE A CLUE AND WOMEN ALWAYS NEED MORE SHOES gives the low-down on some of the issues that have confused men and women for centuries. From channel-hopping to toilet seats, communication to shopping, relationship experts Allan and Barbara Pease show how you can make the most out of your relationships - or at least understand where your partner is coming from. Already an international No.1 bestseller, this is the essential - and highly entertaining - must-read guide to the opposite sex.


A novel approach is examined for creating an industrial civilization beyond Earth. The approach would take advantage of the unique configuration of Mars and its moon Phobos to make a transportation system capable of raising mass from the surface of Mars to space at a low cost. Mars would be used as the primary location for support personnel and infrastructure. Phobos would be used as a source of raw materials for space‐based activity, and as an anchor for tethered carbon‐nanotube‐based space‐elevators. One space‐elevator would terminate at the upper edge of Mars' atmosphere. Small craft would be launched from Mars' surface to rendezvous with the moving elevator tip and their payloads detached and raised with solar powered loop elevators to Phobos. Another space‐elevator would be extended outward from Phobos to launch craft toward the Earth/Moon system or the asteroid belt. The outward tip would also be used to catch arriving craft. This approach would allow Mars to be colonized, and allow transportation of people and supplies from Mars to support the space industry. In addition, large quantities of material obtained from Phobos could be used to construct space habitats and also supply propellant and material for space industry in the Earth/Moon system as well as around Mars.


This volume offers a thought-provoking guide to Shakespeare's "King Henry V," surveying the play's rich critical and performance history, with a particular emphasis on its reputation in France as well as Britain and the US. A chapter on non-Anglophone reactions to the play, alongside new essays on British identity, religion, medieval warfare, and the questioning of Henry V's heroism open up ground-breaking perspectives on the play. The volume also includes discussions of King Henry V's rich theatrical and filmic heritage, and a guide to learning and teaching resources and how these might be integrated into effective pedagogic strategies in the classroom.


ABSTRACT Increasing nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) in irrigated corn production is of great importance to overall agricultural sustainability. Studies have shown that crop canopy sensors can aid in this pursuit as they allow for the determination of nitrogen (N) requirements in split applications later in the growing season. Fertigation can also increase NUE as many split applications can be conducted. If crop canopy sensors could be used to direct N fertigation rates, overall NUE may be increased even further. However, in some cases, N differences may need to be determined later in the growing season after corn has tasseled, which can cause issues with crop canopy sensor readings. Therefore, a study was initiated to evaluate the potential of a crop canopy sensor to differentiate between N levels at two corn (Zea mays) growth stages (R1 and R3) after the corn had tasseled. The sensor was placed in three orientations to evaluate which orientation best determined the corn N status across two sensor-calculated indices while avoiding taking measurements involving the corn tassel. These orientations were (1) nadir, between corn rows (above canopy), (2) 45° off nadir within the corn canopy (below corn tassel), and (3) 90° off nadir within the corn canopy (below corn tassel). The results of this study show that N differences in late season corn can be determined by utilizing crop canopy sensors in an inter-row orientation. Results also show that the red edge normalized difference vegetation index (ReNDVI) index is superior to the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) index for late season N determinations in corn. These results suggest that crop canopy sensors could be an effective tool for determining N requirements of corn late in the growing season.


Achieving mask blanks with defectivity less than 0.03 defects/cm2 at 30 nm SiO2 equivalent and above is one of the key goals for accomplishing high volume manufacturing capability for EUV lithography. Defect free blanks for lithography start from defect free substrates. Currently, defects on both LTEM and quartz substrates are dominated by pits, scratches, particles and residues left by the polishing processes used to achieve the roughness and flatness specifications of the substrates. Normally, such defects are extremely difficult to be removed and particles often leave pits as they are removed by cleaning. Standard cleaning processes relying on megasonic cavitations for particle removal are insufficient for removing such defects from substrates. It is well known that hydrofluoric acid is an etchant of fused silica (quartz) and buffered HF in different concentrations has been used in the past for cleaning quartz and silicon substrates. Ideally, an etch clean process should not increase the roughness of the substrate while cleaning. However, in the process of etching and removing the defects, the roughness of the substrates is invariably increased which is undesirable. The rate of roughness change is directly dependent on the concentration and time of exposure, which also affects the etch rate and defect removal rate. In this paper we report that a post polishing etch clean process has been developed for ULE and quartz substrates which meet the defectivity, roughness and flatness specifications for EUV blanks. We also examine the effects of substrate roughness on blank roughness, and inspection capability of substrates and blanks at different roughness levels using a defect inspection tool capable of inspecting defects down to 35 nm SiO2 equivalent size. Defect smoothing using etch clean processes have been proposed and demonstrated in the past using an anisotropic etch mechanism. This study focuses on complete removal of defects from EUV substrates, and therefore smoothing is not an issue. Multilayer blank deposition process is known to decorate defects on substrates. We use this as a technique to identify any defects that might be left on the substrate surface after etch cleaning. In most cases, we find that the substrates have low defectivity and do not affect the EUV requirements. We demonstrate that the etch clean process can be used to increase the yield of high quality ULE substrates to meet the high volume production requirements of euv masks.


Background Chronic Lung Allograft Dysfunction (CLAD) is a major obstacle for long term survival after lung transplantation (LTx). Besides Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome, two other phenotypes of CLAD, restrictive allograft syndrome (RAS) and mixed phenotype, have been described. Trials to test in these conditions are desperately needed and analyzing natural outcome to plan such trials is essential. Methods We performed a retrospective analysis of functional outcome in bilateral LTx recipients with RAS and mixed phenotype, transplanted between 2009 and 2018 in five large European centers with follow- up spirometry up to 12 months after diagnosis. Based on these data, sample size and power calculations for randomized therapeutic trial was estimated using two imputation methods for missing values. Results Seventy patients were included (39 RAS and 31 mixed phenotype), median 3.1 years after LTx when CLAD was diagnosed. Eight, 13 and 25 patients died within 6, 9 and 12 months after diagnosis and a two patients underwent re-transplantation within 12 months leading to a graft survival of 89, 79 and 61% six, nine and 12 months after diagnosis, respectively. Observed FEV1 decline was 451 ml at 6 months and stabilized at 9 and 12 months, while FVC showed continuous decline. Using two methods of imputation, a progressive further decline after 6 months for FEV1 was noted. Conclusion The poor outcome of these two specific CLAD phenotypes suggests the urgent need for future therapeutic randomized trials. The number of missing values in a potential trial seems to be high and most frequently attributed to death. Survival may be used as an endpoint in clinical trials in these distinct phenotypes and imputation techniques are relevant if graft function is used as a surrogate of disease progression in future trials.


The poster is an overview of the research project Open-Access-Hochschulverlag (in english Open Access University Press), that is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, Germany) for 23 months (Start in May 2018). Open Access (OA) book publishing is still in relatively early stages, leading to academic books being much less frequently published OA than research journal articles. This has various effects on the publication landscape, which are described here. Despite established publishers meanwhile also offer the publication of OA monographs, only certain researchers can actually publish, because of high Book Processing Charges (BPCs) up to 10,000 USD and more. In contrast, university presses have started to publish monographs as OA without any or at significantly lower charges; however, university presses often do not have the technical know-how of the state-of-the-art publishing of OA books possessed by academic publishers. This is why, our research project aims to develop an sustainable and easy-to-adopt publication workflow for OA monographs, which is media-neutral as well as both cost-effective and personnel-efficient. Universities shall be enabled to publish their book publications as OA by adopting this workflow. In addition, first results and an outlook ahead to the further steps of the research project are depicted on the poster.


We evaluate the monetary determinants of inflation in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia by using the McCallum rule for money supply. The deviation of actual money growth from the rule is included in the estimation of Phillips curves for the four economies by Bayesian model averaging. We find that money provides information about price developments over a horizon of ten quarters ahead, albeit the estimates are in most cases rather imprecise. Moreover, the effect of excessive monetary growth on inflation is mixed: It is positive for Poland and Slovakia, but negative for the Czech Republic and Hungary. Nevertheless, these results suggest that money does provide information about future inflation and that a McCallum rule could potentially be used in the future as an additional indicator of the monetary policy stance once the precision of the estimation improves with more data available.


Thyroid scintigrams were made after i.v. injection of 197HgCl2 in 24 patients with hypo- or non-functioning thyroid nodules. Twenty-one scintigrams could be evaluated. Of 11 patients submitted to thyroidectomy, 4 were found to have thyroid carcinoma, and 197Hg was accumulated in the tumour in 2 cases and elsewhere in the gland in 1. The same was however the case in 4 and 1, respectively, out of 7 histologically benign lesions. A further study with this technique was therefore not thought to be warranted.


Wings, whose surfaces are developable, have been milled13; on a jig-borer at the National Aeronautical Laboratory, Bangalore, employing tangential milling. In this process, the wing cross section is approximated by a polygon which can be smoothened by hand-finish. The polygonal approximation itself is such that each side of the polygon is a tangent to the aerofoil. The aerofoil is defined by a finite set of points got from experiments or otherwise. These points are joined smoothly by using spline approximation to achieve continuity of first and second derivatives. The splines and the settings of the jig-borer (for tangential milling) were obtained on the NAL Sirius computer. Each setting of the jig-borer consists of the cutter-height and two turnings of the turn-table, one about the latter's axis and the other about a fixed horizontal axis, so that the tangent plane13; coincides with the plane of milling. The two angles of rotation and the cutter height depend upon the wing geometry besides some of the machine parameters.


The effect of electromagnetic field and iron content on the solidification structure of copper-iron alloys had been investigated in this paper. The results show that the addition of iron to copper causes considerable grain refinement, and the refinement increases with the iron content. Applying electromagnetic field during the solidification of Cu-Fe alloys can further refine grain of hepoperitectic alloys, but has no obvious effect on the grain size of heperperitectic alloys. Primary γ-Fe dendrites are gradually broken and scattered uniformly throughout the matrix under the influence of electromagnetic field. When the current intensity is 200A, the primary γ-Fe appears as fine petal shape distributed uniformly over the matrix.


With hyperspectral pushbroom imaging spectrometers on Earth observation satellites it is possible to detect and identify dedicated ground pixels by their spectral signature. Conventional time consuming on-ground processing performs this selection by processing the measured hyperspectral data cube of the image. The Imaging Spectral Signature Instrument (ISSI) concept combines an optical on-board processing of the hyperspectral data cube with a thresholding algorithm, to identify pixels with a pre-defined and programmable spectral signature, such as water, forest and minerals, in the ground swath. The Imaging Spectral Signature Instrument consists of an imaging telescope, which images an object line on the entrance slit of a first imaging spectrometer, which disperses each pixel of the object line into its spectral content and images the hyperspectral image on the spatial light modulator. This spatial light modulator will be programmed with a spatial transmission or reflection behavior, which is constant along the spatial pixels and along the spectral pixels identical to a filter vector that corresponds to the spectral signature of the searched specific feature. A second inverted spectrometer reimages the by the first spectrometer dispersed and by the spatial light modulator transmitted or reflected flux into a line of pixels. In case the spectral content of the ground scene is identical to the searched signature, the flux traversing or reflecting the spatial light modulator will be maximum. The related pixel can be identified in the final image as a high signal by a threshold discriminator. A component test setup consists of an imaging lens, two Imspector™ spectrographs, a spatial light modulator, which is a programmable transmissible liquid crystal display and a CCD sensor as a detector. A mathematical model was developed for the instrument and its performance was evaluated in order to compare different concept variations. All components were measured and characterized individually, and the results were used in the simulations. Performance was then analyzed by means of radiometric throughput and spatial and spectral resolutions. The simulations were performed at wavelengths of 450 nm to 900 nm. The throughput was found to be between 1% and 4.5%.


The configuration and deployment of global production networks, raises questions about the interchange of data and information between varied and different organisations, domains and systems. Standards should be an instrumental part of forming a basis to enable seamless interoperability, yet there is no clear support for global production networks. This paper sets out a reference ontology for global production networks being developed as a basis for interoperability between systems, with the potential for it to be developed as a standard.


This paper examines both the correlates of land conflict and the effects of this conflict on crop yields, farmers' investments in permanent trees and crops. The productivity effects of land conflict are estimated at the town-level considering the endogeneity of conflict. We use data from the Household Income Expenditure Survey (HIES) of Liberia and from the Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) baseline survey for the same year. The main findings reveal that gender, distance from the farm to home or the road, soil quality, slope of the farmland, marital status, soil erosion, government extension services and age of the POLICY BRIEF The Impact of Land Conflict on Land Productivity: Evidence from Liberia Akama Erick Maiko and Genesis Bhenda Kollie August 2021 / No.766 2 Policy Brief No.766 farmers are all significantly correlated with land conflict. We find that land conflict increases investments in permanent trees relative to non-tree crops. Three policy implications of the study stand out. First, farm yields in Liberia can be increased by implementing comprehensive soil erosion reduction strategies that involve building of gabions, terraces, reforestation schemes, as well as mass education of farmers on proper agricultural practices, including, for example, ploughing along the contours or planting cover crops in areas with massive soil erosion or mass wasting of cropland. The second policy revelation of the study is that measures to avoid land conflicts should be designed and implemented as a matter of urgency because there is strong statistical evidence that conflicts drive farm productivity practically to zero. The third policy implication is that government extension services and the opening of remote areas via construction of access roads have large positive effects on agricultural productivity.


The microstructure and interface quality of chemical solution deposited barium titanate thin films on Ni foil were studied. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy shows that a ~200 nm thick barium titanate film annealed in a controlled oxygen partial pressure consists of equiaxed grains with grain size range of 24-75 nm (~ 42 nm average). NiO was detected after re-oxidation by X-ray diffraction, but not by transmission electron microscopy, suggesting that the oxide is not a continuous barrier layer, but is spatially distributed in the films. Oxygen non-stoichiometry and the existence of C in barium titanate films were observed by electron energy loss spectrometry. In addition, it was found that there is a 5-8 nm thick Ni-Ba alloy developed at the interface between the barium titanate film and Ni foil.


Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac arrhythmia, and pathological burden can be influenced by environmental factors. The rural environment may influence the burden of AF, although no systematic review studies have been conducted to address this issue. We performed a systematic review of AF screening studies conducted in rural global populations to determine the burden, risk factors, and screening methods surrounding AF in these settings. Out of the 1792 articles gathered from a keyword search of medical databases and reference lists, 18 publications from 11 countries were included in our analysis. The pooled prevalence of AF across the studies was 2.05% (95% confidence interval, 1.97%–2.13%) and ranged from 0.3% to 10.87%. Only one study utilized a handheld electrocardiogram to screen AF, while the rest used the 12-lead electrocardiogram. AF risk factors reported across studies varied and included increasing age, male gender, hypertension, diabetes, prior myocardial infarction or stroke, obesity, hyperlipidemia/hypercholesterolemia, alcohol consumption, and heart failure. However, none of the studies assessed all risk factors. We suggest that future research on AF in rural communities examine a complete checklist of AF risk factors to better understand their influence on AF burden and development. This will aid in understanding rural prevention strategies and the management of detected AF cases specific to rural areas. At present, the burden of AF in rural communities is poorly understood and has been underreported.


High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC), a recently developed international standard for video compression, offers significantly better video compression efficiency than previous international standards. However, this coding gain comes with an increase in computational complexity. Therefore, in this thesis, we first designed a high performance hardware architecture for deblocking filter algorithm used in HEVC standard. Two parallel datapaths are used in the hardware to increase its performance. The proposed hardware is implemented in Verilog HDL. The Verilog RTL code is mapped to a Xilinx XC6VLX240T FPGA, and it is verified to work correctly on a Xilinx ML605 FPGA board which includes a Xilinx XC6VLX240T FPGA. The FPGA implementation can work at 108 MHz, and it can code 30 full HD (1920x1080) video frames per second. We then proposed an energy reduction technique for Sum of Absolute Transformed Difference (SATD) based HEVC intra mode decision algorithm. We designed an efficient hardware architecture for SATD based HEVC intra mode decision algorithm including the proposed technique. The proposed hardware is implemented in Verilog HDL. The Verilog RTL code is mapped to a Xilinx XC6VLX365T FPGA, and it is verified with post place & route simulations. The FPGA implementation can work at 116 MHz, and it can code 21 HD (1280x720) video frames per second. The proposed technique reduced its energy consumption up to 64.6% on this FPGA without any PSNR loss.


This Note examines the international implications of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). First, it identifies the relevant provisions of SOX and its impact on securities regulation generally. Second, it discusses how SOX impacts foreign companies that list securities on U.S. exchanges. Third, it analyzes how SOX is different from other U.S. securities regulations and discusses the consequences of its extraterritorial application.


A huge number of people, mostly young men, work in the alluvial diamond fields of Africa. In Sierra Leone there may be as many as 120,000. In the Congo, the government estimates 700,000. In Angola, despite the recent expulsions of illicit Congolese diggers, there may still be 150,000. Taken together with diggers in Guinea, Ghana and elsewhere, there are probably a million African artisanal alluvial diamond diggers. There are perhaps another 200,000 in Brazil. The number of artisanal alluvial diamond miners can be placed conservatively at a million; it may actually be half again as high. As in other types of mining, there are more people involved in informal diamond mining than there are in the formal sector.


The extent of temporal variation in the recruitment pool to a fouling community of Tampa Bay, Florida, was determined by monitoring species settlement on glass plates over a number of seasons. Number of species, abundance of species and species composition varied among seasons and between years. Variation among seasons was greater than variation between years and involved both common and rare species. Variation between years was attributed mostly to rare species. Because, the Tampa Bay fouling community undergoes periodic disturbance ("sloughing off" of barnacles), it is likely that temporal variation in recruitment would have an effect on community development.


In young dense clusters repeated collisions between massive stars may lead to the formation of a very massive star (above 100M⊙). In the past the study of the longterm evolution of merger remnants has mostly focussed on collisions between low-mass stars (up to about 2M⊙) in the context of blue-straggler formation. The evolution of collision products of more massive stars has not been as thoroughly investigated. In this paper we study the long-term evolution of a number of stellar mergers formed by the head-on collision of a primary star with a mass of 5–40 M⊙ with a lower mass star at three points in its evolution in order to better understand their evolution. We use smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) calculations to model the collision between the stars. The outcome of this calculation is reduced to one dimension and imported into a stellar evolution code. We follow the subsequent evolution of the collision product through the main sequence at least until the onset of helium burning. We find that little hydrogen is mixed into the core of the collision products, in agreement with previous studies of collisions between low-mass stars. For collisions involving evolved stars we find that during the merger the surface nitrogen abundance can be strongly enhanced. The evolution of most of the collision products proceeds analogously to that of normal stars with the same mass, but with a larger radius and luminosity. However, the evolution of collision products that form with a hydrogen depleted core is markedly different from that of normal stars with the same mass. They undergo a long-lived period of hydrogen shell burning close to the main-sequence band in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram and spend the initial part of core helium burning as compact blue supergiants.


Objectives: The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the effects of flowable resin as an intermediate agent on composite repairs on bond strength. Methods: Thirty truncated cones of Grandio SO (VOCO) were prepared and thermo-cycled for 5000 cycles for artificial aging. Specimen's surface were sandblasted with aluminum oxide, cleaned with air/water spray and conditioned with phosphoric acid for 15s. After that, one coat of Admira Bond Adhesive (VOCO) was applied and light cured for 20s. Specimens were divided into 3 groups according to the repair material used (n= 10): Conventional Resin – Grandio SO (R), A thin layer of Flowable resin – Grandio SO Heavy Flow + conventional Resin (FR) and Flowable resin (F). Over the original specimens, a sectional cone-shape teflon matrix was hold in position , and the cones were built, according the groups described above. Another thirty specimens were built, 10 of each group, simulating a restoration without repair. Specimens were submitted to tensile stress in a universal testing machine. Data were recorded in MPa and evaluated with ANOVA, Tukey´ s and non-paired "t'' tests. Results: ANOVA showed significant differences between groups which were performed repair (p< 0.00). The results of Tukey´ s test for these groups were: R (19.89 5.31)ab, F+R (14.49 5.59)a, F (20.91 3.99)b. The groups followed by the same letter did not show statistical differences. Non-paired "t" test showed that groups R and F repairs were similar of the correspondent groups which simulated a restoration without repair. Conclusions: The repair with conventional or flowable composite produced bond strength values similar to cohesive strength of the same materials. The use of a thin layer of flowable resin as an intermediate agent in composite repair decreased the bond strength when compared the same method for restoration.


Scientific studies have shown that when properly applied, Best Management Practices provide adequate water quality protection. The Georgia Forestty Best Management Practices have been revised based on new science and best available technologies. A select group of experts representing various interests including foresters, landowners, fish and wildlife biologists, soil and water conservationists, environmental advocates, and loggers was convened in February 1997 to revise the original 1981 BMPs and the 1989 wetland BMPs. The revised BMPs are combined into one comprehensive document. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) approved the process. fu December 1998, the manual was completed and went into effect January 1, 1999. Important highlights of the revisions include a pre-planning section that defines "waters of the state" that must be protected. Recommendations for landowners, timber buyers, and other managers to use soil maps and topographic maps to identify these "waters" before the practice begins is emphasized. Widths of streamsidemanagement zones (SMZs) or buffers next to perennial and intermittent streams have increased. Perhaps the most significant revision is that clearcutting is no longer recommended within these buffers. A clarification of various legal and regulatory requirements is also provided. A publication and communications plan is in place to advise the public and other stakeholders of these revisions.


We have previously shown that angiotensin II (Ang II) perfusion of hph-1 mice results in development of severe abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA, 79% within 2 wks) that is associated sudden death and regulation of blood pressure. This phenotype can be completely attenuated by recoupling of eNOS with oral folic acid (FA) administration, which restores eNOS cofactor tetrahydrobiopterin (H4B) bioavailability via restoration of endothelial H4B salvage enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR). In view of the unclear relationship between blood pressure and AAA formation, we investigated the potential effects of L-type calcium channel blocker (CCB) Nifedipine (Nif) on AAA formation using the Ang II infused hph-1 model. Six-month old hph-1 mice were infused with Ang II (0.7 mg/kg/day) for 2 wks using Alzet osmotic pumps. The animals were fed Nif chew (20 mg/kg/day) two days prior to Ang II infusion and throughout the study period of 2 wks. Of note, the incidence rate of AAA dropped from 79% to 21% (2 out of 13). The Ang II induced hypertension (telemetry) and expansion of abdominal aorta (ultrasound) in hph-1 mice were abolished by Nif diet. Increased aortic reactive oxygen species (ROS) production (DHE) was also attenuated by Nif administration. L-NAME sensitive superoxide production, reflective of eNOS uncoupling activity, was measured by electron spin resonance (ESR). Treatment with Nif restored eNOS function completely, resulting in -2.49± 0.71 fold change in L-NAME sensitive superoxide production. Our previous data demonstrated extensive eNOS uncoupling activity (>10 fold) in Ang II-infused hph-1 mice that is attenuated by restoration of endothelial DHFR function (Hypertension 2012). Nif treatment also markedly improved NO bioavailability (ESR) by 2.42± 0.23 fold. These data demonstrate that an oral treatment of Nif is effective in correcting eNOS dysfunction to attenuate AAA formation. Although it does not differentiate the contributions from attenuation of oxidative stress and blood pressure lowering, it once again suggests that eNOS uncoupling can an important mediator of AAA formation.


Although increasing the high school graduation rate is now a national goal, requirements for graduation are not set at the national level. And, although the goal is said to include students in special education programs, what high school graduation means for these students is not clear. We collected documentation from state departments of education to examine high school graduation requirements for students in general, and for students with disabilities. Forty-four states use Carnegie course unit requirements ranging from 10.35 to 24.00 credits. Seventeen states currently have requirements for either a minimum competency test or an exit exam. Local education agencies in several states have the option of establishing more stringent requirements than called for in state guidelines. Exit documents that are awarded to students with disabilities (e.g., standard diplomas, modified diplomas, certificates of attendance) also vary from state to state, with similar requirements sometimes earning different types of exit documents in different states. These inconsistencies in graduation requirements and their implications for students with learning disabilities are discussed.


Thrombocytopenia is frequently associated with dengue virus infection. Host factors such as anti-platelet immunopathogenic processes have been implicated in the origin of dengue-associated thrombocytopenia but the role of dengue virus in directly interacting with platelets and altering their hemostatic property remains incompletely understood. In the present study, we examined the effect of dengue 2 virus on the morphology and physiological activation profile of normal human platelets using atomic force microscopy, electron microscopy and flowcytometry. Platelets obtained from healthy donors were exposed to a cell culture-adapted 10(4) LD(50) dengue 2 virus isolate in vitro and the subsequent effect on morphology and activation biology studied. Our results show that dengue 2 virus exposure at doses comparable to natural viremic states in human infections can activate platelets with an increase in P-selectin expression and fibrinogen-binding property. Atomic force, scanning and transmission electron microscopy also showed typical activation-related morphological changes such as altered platelet membrane architecture, degranulation, presence of filopodia and dilatation of the open canalicular system in the dengue 2 virus-exposed platelets but not in the controls. Importantly, Japanese encephalitis virus exposure at the same dose did not activate platelets or show any morphological changes. Our findings suggest that dengue 2 virus may directly interact with and activate platelets - an event that might be important in the origin of dengue-associated thrombocytopenia. Detailed molecular characterization of this effect might provide key knowledge toward better prophylaxis of the hemostatic complications of dengue disease.


Pulsations from young stars provide a new chronometer for stellar evolution [Also see Report by Zwintz et al.] A star is a ball of gas held together by the compressive force of self-gravity and supported from within by thermal pressure. For most of a star's life, this dynamical balance is stable; perturbing the star does not lead to explosion or collapse, but to oscillation about its equilibrium configuration. Such perturbations arise constantly from small motions within the star itself. Consequently, stars of many evolutionary phases exhibit periodic fluctuations in their luminosity (see the first figure). On page 550 of this issue, Zwintz et al. (1) report on oscillations of stars so young that they are not yet fusing hydrogen into helium. Expanding on earlier studies of such pre–main-sequence stars (2), Zwintz et al. find that the observed frequencies of oscillation of a star vary with its age, and do so in the way that theory predicts. Thus, the oscillations potentially provide a new chronometer—something greatly needed in the field of early stellar evolution.


This article deals with new ways of far-end crosstalk (FEXT) modeling in multi-pair and multi-quad metallic cables. Current standard modeling methods provide only rough estimations of FEXT characteristics based on average values of crosstalk for the whole cable. However, for practical implementation of vector discrete multi-tone modulation (VDMT) is necessary to predict and simulate FEXT characteristics with sufficient accuracy and simulate FEXT transfer functions individually for each combination of symmetrical pairs in a cable. This article contains a theoretical analysis and description of the problem and suggests a new method for modeling of FEXT crosstalk using capacitive and inductive unbalances between pairs in a cable. This proposed model offers more accurate and realistic results of crosstalk. Theoretical simulations and results are also compared with the measured characteristics for specific metallic cable.


Objective: To evaluate the lifestyle factors possibly related with premenstrual syndrome which were body mass index, coffee intake, smoking, regular physical exercise, and alcohol consumption, and investigate the impact of these lifestyle factors and premenstrual syndrome on sleep quality.
Methods and Methods: This cross-sectional study included 265 participants, and all applied Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Premenstrual Syndrome Scale questionnaires.
Results: The prevalence of premenstrual syndrome among the participants was 57% (n:150). Participants with premenstrual syndrome had shorter total sleep time (p:0.001). Also, they needed longer time to fall asleep (p:0.001). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index scores of the participants with premenstrual syndrome were higher than those without premenstrual syndorme (p<0.001), indicating poor sleep quality. It was observed that the participants with premenstrual syndrome had more coffee intake (p:0.040) and more regular physical activity (p:0.009), which were risk factors of premenstrual syndrome. premenstrual syndrome positivity was associated with increased poor sleep quality in both univariate and multivariate analyses (OR:5.93 95% CI: 3.46-10.15, p<0.001; OR:5.61 95% CI: 3.19-9.88, p<0.001, respectively). The remaining variables, which were risk factors of premenstrual syndrome, didn't have any statistically significant association with sleep quality.
Conclusion: The important relation between premenstrual syndrome and sleep quality is highlighted. Relief of premenstrual syndrome complaints may lead to better sleep quality and enhancement of quality of life for a woman.


OBJECTIVE: To determine the neurologic alterations of patients with ejaculatory and orgasmic disorders. METHODS: A study of the neuroandrologic profile was performed in eight patients; 6 presented an ejaculation, one premature ejaculation and one presented an orgasm. The neuroandrologic profile consisted in performing selective electromyography of the bulbocavernosus muscle, recording of the S2-S4 evoked potentials, evoked somatosensory potentials of the pudendal nerve, electromyography of the smooth cavernous muscle (SPACE), sympathetic skin response and cystometry. RESULTS: The sympathetic lesion was more frequent in the cases with an ejaculation (four cases; 66%); a pudendal efferent lesion was demonstrated in one case (17%) and a suprasacral lesion in one case (16%). A pudendal afferent lesion was observed in the two cases with premature ejaculation (100%). Both cases with an orgasm had a pudendal afferent lesion (100%) and one of them also presented a sympathetic lesion (50%). CONCLUSIONS: An ejaculation appears to be caused by sympathetic, motor pudendal or suprasacral lesion. An altered perception of genital sensations due to lesion of the afferent pudendal pathway appears to be present in premature ejaculation. An orgasm could be ascribed to an alteration of the pudendal sensibility or to the absence of ejaculation.


A novel colour-based method to detect road signs directly from videos is presented. A road sign is usually painted with different colours to show its functionalities. To detect it, different detectors should be designed to deal with its colour changes. A statistic linear model of colour change space that makes road sign colours be more compact and thus sufficiently concentrated on a smaller area is presented. On this model, only one detector is needed to detect different road signs even though their colours are different. The model is global and can be used to detect any new road signs. The colour model is invariant to different perspective effects and occlusions. After that, a radial basis function (RBF) network is then used to train a classifier to find all possible road sign candidates from road scenes. Furthermore, a verification process is applied to verify each candidate using its contour feature. After verification, a rectification process is used for rectifying each skewed road sign so that its embedded texts can be well segmented and recognised. Due to the filtering effect of the proposed colour model, different road signs can be very efficiently and effectively detected from videos. Experimental results have proved that the proposed method is robust, accurate and powerful in road sign detection.


OBJECTIVE To demonstrate the inadequacy of fasting plasma glucose for screening for NIDDM, even among groups at high risk for diabetes. RESEARCH PESIGN AND METHODS Representative samples of adults 40–69 years of age in the U. S. (n = 2,035) and Israel (n = 2,316) were selected. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG) was measured and a 2-h oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) was administered. Subjects with undiagnosed NIDDM were identified using internationally accepted diagnostic criteria (FPG ≥7.8 mM or 2-h plasma glucose ≥11.1 mM). RESULTS Only 31–38% of subjects with undiagnosed NIDDM had fasting hyperglycemia (2:7.8 mM), and 36% in the U. S. and 19% in Israel had normoglycemia (<6.1 mM). Postchallenge glucose, diagnostic of diabetes, was associated with all fasting values, including values <5.0 mM. Based on sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value, no FPG level provided a satisfactory cutoff point to use in screening for undiagnosed NIDDM. Sensitivity at each FPG cutoff point varied little among groups classified by age, sex, race, blood pressure status, or body mass index (BMI) levels >23, but sensitivity was lower among those with BMI levels <23. CONCLUSIONS In the clinical setting, FPG is commonly used in screening for NIDDM. However, fasting values ≥7.8 mM are highly insensitive for detecting NIDDM. Lower FPG cutoff points that achieve acceptable sensitivity are accompanied by inadequately low specificity, require a high percentage of patients to be retested, and result in a low yield of diabetes among those screened. Clinicians and researchers who seek detection of undiagnosed NIDDM should use the OGTT, because FPG lacks adequate sensitivity and specificity for this purpose.


This article was a result of an investigation measuring the 'Correlation between Borrower Education and Non-payment Behaviour in Low Income Homeowners in South Africa as the premise of the study and poor relationship between lenders and borrowers as the secondary proposition. The study was motivated by the high level of foreclosures for non-payment of mortgages in the Protea Glen area in Johannesburg, Gauteng, as reported by the Human Rights Commission Inquiry in 2008. In investigating this nonpayment behaviour the researcher employed largely quantitative instruments supplemented by qualitative methods. The study revealed interesting empirical findings that largely invalidated the founding hypotheses, despite existing theoretical frameworks - underpinned by various scholars - that sought to corroborate the hypotheses. The findings have however supported the premise that households reporting poor relationships with lenders were susceptible to non-payment behaviour. The rest of the secondary hypotheses were rejected by the empirical findings, viz. that there was no correlation between the level of formal education and non-payment behaviour; the link between propensity to default and the age of homeowners were also invalidated. From these findings, it can be demonstrated that there is a critical need for mitigating measures to remedy the identified shortcomings in this sector


Abstract:In 1924, the government of Afghanistan wrote to the Jam'iyat 'Ulama-yi Hind looking for legal justifications to support Emir Aman Allah Khan's (r. 1919–29) proposed reforms—particularly those relating to female education. Known for securing Afghanistan's independence from the British, and now recognized as a pioneering modernizer and renegade constitutional monarch, Aman Allah introduced a series of reforms during his reign that Faiz Ahmed has recently characterized as "a burgeoning model of Islamic legal modernism." Yet the story of Afghanistan's experiments with Islamic legal modernism are greater and extend beyond the history of a single state. Taking the above claim about Afghanistan seriously, and in response to Ahmed's Afghanistan Rising this essay offers a close reading of the exchange between Kabul and Delhi to interrogate ideas about Islamic legal reform, Islamic modernity, and inter-Islamic circulations at the time of waning empires and rising nation-states.


Information is inevitable when it comes to national security. The information revolution seems to hold the massive potential to strengthen national security against current and upcoming threats and cyber-attacks. However, advancements in information accessibility possess innumerable complications for retaining stable national security. One of the preeminent information sources is social media which certainly raises information manipulation factors and destabilizes national security. To accomplish better national security plans, information technology can help countries to identify potential threats, share information securely, and protect mechanisms in them. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the smart areas that robustly facilitates secure information handling to avoid threats and cyber-attacks. It intelligently scrutinizes information available to the public through social media and assists in refraining negative effects on national security. This research article widely focuses on four main analytical milestones; 1) Information available to the public 2) Information affecting national security 3) Risks of cyber-attacks 4) AI as paramount to national security for accomplishing competent information role. Our principal objective is to demystify information accessibilities perspectives for readers to understand the fundamentals of information accessibility and inaccessibility corresponding to national security. To support and manifest our milestones and objectives, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) is methodologically adapted to draw suitable conclusions and develop a farsighted frame of reference. This paper concludes with AI tool based categorization and domain-specific analysis with area-based limitations to highlight current needs. Above all, this article is a thought-provoking kick-start for many naive social media users that usually avoid information-bearing elements and are victimized by cyber-attacks followed by national security compromises.


The bioavailability of limiting amino acids (lysine, cystine and methionine), which are formed during the germination of wheat and mung beans, was assessed in nitrogen balance trials on growing rats. In addition, the influence of heat treatment on the protein nutritional value of wheat and mung beans was determined. Compared to ungerminated wheat, net protein utilization (NPU) and biological value (BV) increased from 30% and 36% to 41% and 52%, respectively. Apparent protein digestibility (PD) decreased from 82% to 79% during 4 day germination. Heat treatment improved PD from 82% to 85% in ungerminated wheat, but not during germination. NPU and BV were not changed by heat treatment. Feeding germinated mung beans caused a markedly reduced feed intake by the animals, which made it impossible to evaluate changes in protein nutritional value during germination. Heat treatment of ungerminated mung beans improved PD, NPU and BV from 77%, 38% and 49% to 81%, 48% and 60%, respectively. The results indicate that the amino acids, in particular lysine, which are formed in germinating wheat, are available to the rat. Heat treatment will improve considerably the protein nutritional value of ungerminated mung beans.


Yield variability can be significantly higher at the farm level than at more aggregated levels, including the county. However, due to a dearth of available farm level data, much stochastic analysis involving farm yields utilizes more aggregated yield data as a proxy for the farm level. We empirically evaluate farm-level variability using longitudinal farm level data sets available from the Kansas Farm Management Association and the Illinois Farm Business and Farm Management Association. For corn, soybeans, and wheat, we compare the farm level yield variability obtained from this data to that inferred from Federal crop insurance premiums. The farm management data exhibit lower yield variability than are implied by the crop insurance premiums.


Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) are a popular choice for modeling sequential data. Modern RNN architectures assume constant time-intervals between observations. However, in many datasets (e.g. medical records) observation times are irregular and can carry important information. To address this challenge, we propose continuous recurrent units (CRUs) -- a neural architecture that can naturally handle irregular intervals between observations. The CRU assumes a hidden state, which evolves according to a linear stochastic differential equation and is integrated into an encoder-decoder framework. The recursive computations of the CRU can be derived using the continuous-discrete Kalman filter and are in closed form. The resulting recurrent architecture has temporal continuity between hidden states and a gating mechanism that can optimally integrate noisy observations. We derive an efficient parameterization scheme for the CRU that leads to a fast implementation f-CRU. We empirically study the CRU on a number of challenging datasets and find that it can interpolate irregular time series better than methods based on neural ordinary differential equations.


This paper addresses the problem of human action recognition by introducing a sparse representation of image sequences as a collection of spatiotemporal events that are localized at points that are salient both in space and time. We detect the spatiotemporal salient points by measuring the variations in the information content of pixel neighborhoods not only in space but also in time. We derive a suitable distance measure between the representations, which is based on the Chamfer distance, and we optimize this measure with respect to a number of temporal and scaling parameters. In this way we achieve invariance against scaling, while at the same time, we eliminate the temporal differences between the representations. We use Relevance Vector Machines (RVM) in order to address the classification problem. We propose new kernels for use by the RVM, which are specifically tailored to the proposed spatiotemporal salient point representation. The basis of these kernels is the optimized Chamfer distance of the previous step. We present results on real image sequences from a small database depicting people performing 19 aerobic exercises.


OBJECTIVE
The anatomic anomalies of the inferior cava and its collaterals, even though they do not normally show symptoms, can cause difficulties in different diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, such as the percutaneous treatment by gonadal embolization of the varicocele.

METHODS
We analyzed the incidence of one of these anomalies, specifically the left circumaortic renal vein, in a series of 50 gonadal embolization procedures for symptomatic varicocele.

RESULTS
We found two cases (4%) of left circumaortic renal vein in our series. Gonadal embolization was possible in only one of the cases since the ostium of the gonadal vein could not be localized in the other case. In the first case, the gonadal ostium was in the paraaortic confluence of the venous ring, and could be catheterized and selectively embolized.

CONCLUSIONS
The presence of a circumaortic left renal vein can make it technically impossible to perform embolization of the symptomatic varicocele.


In this article, we present the security, agility, and robustness/survivability of a large-scale power delivery infrastructure that faces new threats and unanticipated conditions. By way of background, we present a brief overview of the past work on the challenges faced in online parameter estimation and real-time adaptive control of a damaged F-15 aircraft. This work, in part, provided the inspiration and laid the foundation in the 1990s for the flight testing of a fast parameter estimation/modeling and reconfigurable aircraft control system that allowed the F-15 to become self-healing in the face of damaged equipment.


Social organisms which construct nests consisting of tunnels and chambers necessarily navigate confined and crowded conditions. Unlike low density collectives like bird flocks and insect swarms in which hydrodynamic and statistical phenomena dominate, the physics of glasses and supercooled fluids is important to understand clogging behaviors in high density collectives. Our previous work revealed that fire ants flowing in confined tunnels utilize diverse behaviors like unequal workload distributions, spontaneous direction reversals and limited interaction times to mitigate clogging and jamming and thus maintain functional flow; implementation of similar rules in a small robophysical swarm led to high performance through spontaneous dissolution of clogs and clusters. However, how the insects learn such behaviors and how we can develop "task capable" active matter in such regimes remains a challenge in part because interaction dynamics are dominated by local, potentially time-consuming collisions and no single agent can survey and guide the entire collective. Here, hypothesizing that effective flow and clog mitigation could be generated purely by collisional learning dynamics, we challenged small groups of robots to transport pellets through a narrow tunnel, and allowed them to modify their excavation probabilities over time. Robots began excavation with equal probabilities to excavate and without probability modification, clogs and clusters were common. Allowing the robots to perform a "reversal" and exit the tunnel when they encountered another robot which prevented forward progress improved performance. When robots were allowed to change their reversal probabilities via both a collision and a self-measured (and noisy) estimate of tunnel length, unequal workload distributions comparable to our previous work emerged and excavation performance improved. Our robophysical study of an excavating swarm shows that despite the seeming complexity and difficulty of the task, simple learning rules can mitigate or leverage unavoidable features in task capable dense active matter, leading to hypotheses for dense biological and robotic swarms.